I gathered them to the river that runs to Ahava, and there we camped three days. As I reviewed the people and the priests, I found there none of the sons of Levi.
Three days out from Babylon, Ezra stopped his company and counted them, finding priests but not one Levite. So what does it mean when the people best fitted to serve God's house are the least willing to go?
The Camp Before the Journey
The stop at Ahava was a review, not a delay.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinEzra gathered them together at the river that runs to Ahava, which was probably a branch of the Euphrates, near Babylon. There they lived in their tents for three days. They were pilgrims and strangers, and had gone out like Abraham, the father of the nation. Ezra reviewed the people and discovered that the Levites were absent.
Who Was Missing, and Why It Mattered
Ezra found two priests in the camp, and no Levites at all. That absence pointed to the state of the whole nation.
Edward DennettThere were two priests, but only two. Well might Ezra have been concerned, for it was a sad sign of the state into which the people had fallen. The priests alone had access to the holy place of the house of their God. The Levites alone were the appointed ministers in everything connected with its service. Yet when the call came that they might return and take up their privileges again, they stayed unmoved and indifferent.
Another writer asks what the Levites preferred instead.
Leslie M. GrantHow sad this shortage was! Their main concern was the temple of God at Jerusalem. Of all people, the Levites should have been the most eager to return there, since they were temple servants by right. Were they content to settle down in Babylon, concerned only for their own comfort in a world at enmity with God?
Comfort in the Place of Exile
Babylon had once been the place where Israel wept over what it had lost. By Ezra's day it was home. That shift, writers say, is how spiritual privileges get traded away.
The Christian's FriendThey had found a home in the very place where their fathers had hung their harps on the willows and wept when they remembered Zion. And it is the same with God's people now. The moment they are tempted by the enemy to "set their minds on earthly things," they become careless of their spiritual privileges.
The same absence was read as a failure of drive rather than of calling — the men existed, the willingness did not.
William KellyThere was a lack in the work, you notice, a lack of energy for the work.
Ezra's Refusal to Go Without Them
He would not travel on with what he had.
The Bible TreasuryHe had the means for the proper service of God's house, but where were the ministers? He found none of the sons of Levi, and he would take no part in disorder in divine things. So in that difficulty he sent for chief men and men of understanding and gave them a charge to a district where there were Levites.
He treated their absence as something that could still change.
Edward DennettHe knew the needs of the Lord's house. It pained this devoted servant to find them caring for their own things rather than for the courts of Jehovah. He therefore took steps to reach their consciences, so that they might still join him in his mission to Jerusalem.
The Shortage That Outlived Ezra
The Nethinim were servants attached to the temple. The numbers that finally came leave a question that outlasts Ezra's day.
H. L. RossierAt last 38 Levites come! There are 220 Nethinim, or about six servants for each Levite! Isn't a situation like this very humiliating, and can we not find instruction in it for ourselves as well? Where are the ministers among the people of God? For the ministers today correspond to the Levites of those days. Where are those who serve the house of God and fill the roles God has assigned them? Why is there this scarcity and poverty?
Ezra still traced the help that came to God's hand.
H. L. RossierDespite everything, we find this expression: "The good hand of our God was upon us" — the only resource Ezra could count on. The help given to them was not enough, and it revealed the great gaps caused by the people's ruin. Even so, there was some help, and the Lord did not abandon His own.
Summary
- Review. Ezra stopped the company and counted. The count found what the excitement had hidden: not one Levite.
- Absence. The missing men were the ones appointed to serve God's house. Their silence showed how far the nation had drifted.
- Comfort. Babylon was once the place of tears over Zion. By Ezra's day it was home. Settle into earthly things, and spiritual privileges stop feeling like privileges.
- Refusal. Ezra would not travel on with the means but no ministers. The state of the Lord's house pained him, so he sent men to reach their consciences.
- Supply. The answer came small: thirty-eight Levites. Yet it came under the good hand of God, who does not abandon His own even in shortage.