The Mighty Seventy-Four Text: Ezra 2:40
Introduction: The War on Boring Texts
We live in an age that is allergic to substance. Our spiritual diet, for many evangelicals, consists of little more than cotton candy and soda pop. We want the sugar rush of an emotional worship experience, the caffeine jolt of a motivational sermon, but we have no stomach for the tough, sinewy meat of the Word. And so, when we come to a passage like the second chapter of Ezra, with its long lists of names and numbers, our eyes glaze over. We think it is a divine typo, a chapter-length phone book that somehow got bound up with the Psalms. We treat it like the terms and conditions on a software update; we scroll right past it to get to the good stuff.
But this is a profound theological error, and it is a dangerous one. To neglect these portions of Scripture is to tell God that He is a poor editor. It is to say that He does not know how to hold our attention, and that large swaths of His inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word are, frankly, a bit of a bore. But the Holy Spirit does not waste ink. God does not stutter. If He devotes an entire chapter to a list, it is because that list is a weapon. It is a declaration. These genealogies are not just historical records; they are battle standards. They are God's public refutation of all the pagan empires that thought they could swallow up His people and erase their name from the earth. Every name listed here is a nail in the coffin of Babylon's arrogance. Every number is a testament to God's covenant faithfulness.
Our text today is one little line in this great muster roll, a verse that seems utterly unremarkable. But in this one verse, we find the core engine of a national reformation. We see the kind of men God uses to rebuild a nation from the rubble. And in them, we find a sharp and necessary rebuke to the soft, sentimental, and man-centered religion that is so prevalent in our own day.
The Text
The Levites: the sons of Jeshua and Kadmiel, of the sons of Hodaviah, 74.
(Ezra 2:40 LSB)
God's Arithmetic (v. 40a)
Let us begin with the number. After listing thousands of returning Israelites from various families, the text gives us the count for a very specific group of men.
"The Levites... 74." (Ezra 2:40)
Seventy-four. This is not an impressive number. In the census of Numbers, the Levites numbered over twenty-two thousand. Now, after the purifying fire of exile, a paltry seventy-four men are all that muster for the work. The singers, a sub-group of Levites, numbered 128. The gatekeepers, another sub-group, were 139. But the core group, the teachers, the ministers of the Word, numbered just seventy-four. From a human perspective, this is pathetic. This is a sign of catastrophic failure. If this were a church plant report today, the funding would be pulled immediately. Seventy-four men to re-establish the entire liturgical and educational life of a nation? It is a fool's errand.
But this is God's way. He delights in the day of small beginnings. He scoffs at the world's obsession with size, with metrics, with overflowing stadia. God does not need a majority. He needs a faithful remnant. He would rather have seventy-four men who are rock-solid in their convictions than seventy-four thousand who are squishy, pliable, and eager to please the spirit of the age. The entire history of redemption is the story of God accomplishing His global purposes through a tiny, seemingly insignificant minority. He chose one man, Abraham, out of a world of pagans. He chose one tiny nation, Israel, surrounded by superpowers. And He sent His own Son into the world not as a conquering general with legions at His back, but as a helpless baby in a feed trough, with a following of twelve unimpressive men.
This number, seventy-four, is a polemic against our modern church-growth metrics. We think success is a big budget, a big building, and a big crowd. God defines success by faithfulness. These seventy-four men were the spiritual special forces, the theological tip of the spear for the entire rebuilding project. God was not rebuilding His kingdom on the enthusiasm of the masses, but on the doctrinal and doxological fidelity of this small band of brothers. A little leaven leavens the whole lump, and these seventy-four were the potent, godly leaven for the new Israel.
The Men for the Job (v. 40b)
Next, notice who these men were. They were Levites.
"The Levites: the sons of Jeshua and Kadmiel, of the sons of Hodaviah..." (Ezra 2:40)
Why is this significant? The Levites were the tribe set apart by God for the service of the sanctuary and, crucially, for the teaching of the law. They were the guardians of worship and the custodians of truth. Their primary role was not to generate a certain atmosphere or to create an emotional experience. Their job was to teach the people the whole counsel of God, to explain the law, to lead them in biblically regulated worship, and to guard the holiness of God's house from all corruption. They were the theological backbone of the nation.
The fact that the Levites are singled out here tells us what God prioritizes in any work of reformation. Before the walls of the city are rebuilt by Nehemiah, the foundation of the Temple must be laid, and before the foundation is laid, the altar must be built. And before the altar is built, the men who know what the altar is for must be present. Reformation does not begin with political action or social programs. It begins with right worship and right doctrine. It begins with the Levites.
This is a direct assault on the modern evangelical de-emphasis of doctrine. We are told that doctrine divides, that theology is for dusty academics, and that all that really matters is a "personal relationship with Jesus." But what kind of Jesus? A Jesus detached from the Word is a Jesus of our own imagination. These Levites understood that you cannot worship a God you do not know, and you cannot know Him apart from the truth He has revealed in His law. Their return was not driven by a vague spiritual sentimentality. It was driven by a robust, theological conviction that Yahweh must be worshiped in Jerusalem, according to His Word.
Contrast this with the state of much of our worship today. Our worship leaders are often chosen for their musical talent or their ability to generate hype, not their theological depth. Our songs are filled with repetitive, sentimental fluff about our feelings for God, rather than the objective truths of who God is and what He has done. We have traded the Levites for the rock stars. We have swapped out the ministry of the Word for the ministry of the vibe. These seventy-four men would be appalled. They knew that the first act of rebuilding is to restore the authority of God's Word and the purity of His worship.
God Knows Your Name (v. 40c)
Finally, we are given the names of the leaders of this small company.
"...the sons of Jeshua and Kadmiel, of the sons of Hodaviah..." (Ezra 2:40)
These are not just random names. They are a declaration that God's covenant is personal. He is not saving a faceless mob. He is calling His people by name. In a world of massive, impersonal empires like Babylon and Persia, where an individual was just a cog in the state machine, this is a revolutionary statement. The God of the Bible knows Jeshua. He knows Kadmiel. He knows the family of Hodaviah.
And the names themselves are instructive. Jeshua is a form of the name Joshua, which means "Yahweh saves." This is, of course, the Hebrew name of our Lord Jesus. At the head of this Levitical remnant is a man whose very name proclaims the gospel. They are returning to rebuild the temple, led by "Yahweh saves." Kadmiel means "before God," or "in the presence of God." And Hodaviah means "Praise Yahweh."
Put it all together. What is the nature of this faithful remnant, this core group of reformers? They are the men who proclaim that Yahweh saves (Jeshua), who live their lives in the presence of God (Kadmiel), and whose entire existence is devoted to the praise of Yahweh (Hodaviah). This is not a committee for civic renewal. This is a theological task force. Their names define their mission. Their mission is to restore a people who have been saved by God, to live before God, for the praise of God.
This is the essence of true reformation. It is not about making the world a slightly nicer place. It is about the recovery of the gospel. It is about restoring the centrality of God in the lives of His people. It is a profoundly God-centered, Christ-centered, Word-centered enterprise. And it is carried out by men who are known by God, and whose lives are defined by His truth.
Conclusion: Your Place in the Muster Roll
So what does a two-thousand-five-hundred-year-old list of seventy-four Levites have to do with us? Everything. We are also living in the ruins of a once-great Christian civilization. The walls are down. The temple of our public life is in shambles. And the church, in many quarters, has been taken into a Babylonian captivity of worldliness, compromise, and theological amnesia.
The temptation is to despair, or to put our hope in the next election, or to retreat into a private, pietistic foxhole. But Ezra 2:40 shows us the way forward. The way forward is not a mass movement. It is the formation of a faithful remnant. It is the raising up of men and women who, like the Levites, are committed to the Word of God and the worship of God above all else.
God is not looking for a cast of thousands. He is looking for a few good Levites. He is looking for men who will teach their children the law of God. He is looking for families who will regulate their worship by the Word, not by the fads of the culture. He is looking for leaders who are defined not by their charisma, but by their character and their doctrine. He is looking for those who know that Yahweh saves, who walk before Him, and who live for His praise.
This is the task of rebuilding. It is slow, it is difficult, and it will not win you any popularity contests. It is the work of seventy-four men in a world of millions. But it is the work of God. And because it is the work of God, it cannot fail. The question for each of us is this: When the roll is called for this generation's work of reformation, will your name be on it? Are you content to remain in the comforts of Babylon, or will you answer the call to come out and build?
God is still mustering his remnant. He is still keeping His covenant promises. He still knows His people by name. Let us therefore be found faithful, a small but potent company, for the glory of His name and the rebuilding of His house.