by Ian McKee (Northern Ireland)
Paper 5 Personal Privilege and Perplexing Problems
(Ezra ch.2.43-70)
We have already noted how few Jews returned to serve the Lord at Jerusalem. We shall now consider the outstanding example of disadvantaged persons who returned to serve and, in contrast, think about some from privileged backgrounds whose exercise was compromised by earlier carelessness.
Although only 392 individuals returned from these two classifications, over one-fifth of the chapter is devoted to them, indicating the value God puts upon their exercise.
The term "Nethinim" means "given or dedicated ones." These people probably descended from the Gibeonites who were spared from death to serve under perpetual bondage as "hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God," Josh.9.23. Their numbers may also include descendants of other prisoners of war, which would explain why the names recorded in Ezra 2 were of Arabian, Babylonian, Edomite, Egyptian, and Syrian origin. As such their exercise in returning to recommence menial temple service was exemplary. Their actions afforded pleasure to God, particularly as untold thousands of Abraham's descendants preferred Babylon to Zion.
Similar pleasure was brought to God by the return of the children of Solomon's servants. These were possibly the descendants of foreign nationals enlisted by Solomon in the construction of the Temple, 1Kg.5.1. They may be skilled craftsmen.
Both groups valued their association with God's purpose. They recognised that service in the things of God is not by natural right but according to Divinely bestowed privilege. They desire the opportunity to restore, in some little measure, that to which their forebears had made a distinct contribution. And in returning as Nethinims and the children of Solomon's servants, they demonstrate that they have no aspirations for prominence.