Joyful Warfare, Consecrated Feasting Text: Ezra 6:19-22
Introduction: Worship as World-Conquest
We have come to a hinge-point in the book of Ezra. The Temple is rebuilt. The decree of Cyrus, frustrated for a time by the adversaries of God, has been reaffirmed and expanded by Darius the king. The external work, the physical structure, is complete. But a pile of stones, no matter how artfully arranged, is not a temple. A building is not a home until a family moves in. A temple is not a temple until God's people come to worship Him there, and to do so on His terms. What we see in our text is the glorious, joyful, and militant re-inhabitation of the house of God. It is the first Passover in the new Temple.
We must understand that for the people of God, worship is never a trivial matter. It is not a matter of taste, or preference, or what makes us feel good. Worship is warfare. It is the central act by which we declare our allegiance in the great cosmic conflict between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. Every time we gather, we are renewing our covenant with the living God. We are re-enacting the great drama of redemption: we are called out of the world, we confess our sins, we are consecrated by the Word, and we commune with God at His table. This liturgical pattern is not some stuffy tradition; it is the divinely appointed means of grace by which God strengthens His people and advances His kingdom.
The scene here in Ezra is a picture of this very thing. The exiles have returned, but they are a small, beleaguered remnant surrounded by hostile pagans. Their victory was not won by sword or spear, but by the sovereign decree of a pagan king, whose heart God turned. And how do they celebrate this victory? How do they consolidate their position and prepare for the next phase of the conflict? They worship. They celebrate the Passover. They feast with joy. They draw a sharp, bright line between themselves and the filthiness of the surrounding nations. This is how the world is won. Not through political maneuvering, not through cultural accommodation, but through joyful, obedient, and separated worship.
Our age is one of profound liturgical confusion. We have churches that think worship is about entertainment, or emotional experience, or self-help lectures. They have traded the feast of the Passover Lamb for a thin, sentimental gruel. They have blurred the lines, erased the distinctions, and invited the uncleanness of the nations right into the house of God. This passage in Ezra is a bracing corrective. It calls us back to the heart of the matter: God is holy, His people must be holy, and the joy of the Lord is our strength.
The Text
And the exiles celebrated the Passover on the fourteenth of the first month. For the priests and the Levites had cleansed themselves together; all of them were clean. Then they slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the exiles, both for their brothers the priests and for themselves. Then the sons of Israel who returned from exile and all those who had separated themselves from the uncleanness of the nations of the land to join them, to seek Yahweh, the God of Israel, ate the Passover. And they celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with gladness, for Yahweh had caused them to be glad and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them to strengthen them in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.
(Ezra 6:19-22 LSB)
Covenant Remembrance and Corporate Purity (v. 19-20)
The first thing this restored community does is remember who they are by remembering what God has done.
"And the exiles celebrated the Passover on the fourteenth of the first month. For the priests and the Levites had cleansed themselves together; all of them were clean. Then they slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the exiles, both for their brothers the priests and for themselves." (Ezra 6:19-20)
They celebrate the Passover. This is not arbitrary. The Passover was the foundational, defining act of redemption for Israel. It was their national birthday. It commemorated their deliverance from bondage in Egypt, when the angel of death passed over the houses marked with the blood of the lamb. By celebrating this feast, they are declaring, "We are that people. The God who delivered our fathers from Pharaoh is the same God who has delivered us from Babylon." They are stitching their present deliverance into the grand tapestry of God's covenant faithfulness.
But notice the prerequisite. Before the feast, there is cleansing. The priests and Levites, the ministers of the covenant, had to be ritually pure. "All of them were clean." This was not a fussy detail. It goes to the heart of the Creator/creature distinction. A holy God cannot be approached in an unholy manner. Worship on God's terms requires preparation. It requires that we deal with our sin. In the Old Covenant, this was done through ceremonial washings. In the New Covenant, we wipe our feet at the door through the confession of our sins. We cannot waltz into the presence of the Holy One covered in the mud of the previous week and expect Him to be pleased. Purity precedes communion.
The slaughter of the lamb was a corporate act. It was for "all the exiles," for the priests and for the people. This is crucial. Worship is not a private, individualistic affair. It is the public assembly of the covenant people. We are saved as individuals, but we are saved into a body, a people, a holy nation. The modern evangelical emphasis on a "personal relationship with Jesus" that has no necessary connection to the visible, gathered church is a profound distortion. Here, they stand together, cleansed together, and identified together by the blood of the lamb.
The Great Separation (v. 21)
Verse 21 is one of the most important verses in the book, defining the true nature of the people of God.
"Then the sons of Israel who returned from exile and all those who had separated themselves from the uncleanness of the nations of the land to join them, to seek Yahweh, the God of Israel, ate the Passover." (Ezra 6:21)
Who ate the Passover? Two groups, which are really one. First, the "sons of Israel who returned from exile." This is the core, the ethnic, covenant community. But second, "all those who had separated themselves from the uncleanness of the nations of the land to join them." This is astounding. The covenant community is not defined ultimately by bloodline, but by faith and separation. These are Gentile proselytes. These are former pagans who saw the work of Yahweh and threw in their lot with His people.
But what was the price of admission? They had to separate themselves "from the uncleanness of the nations." This is the great antithesis. There is God's way, and there is the way of the world, and they are fundamentally incompatible. The "uncleanness of the nations" refers to their idolatry, their sexual immorality, their entire worldview. To join the people of God, you had to leave that world behind. You could not seek Yahweh and also keep your foot in the door of the pagan temple. You cannot serve two masters.
This is a direct assault on the modern, syncretistic mindset that wants to blend Christianity with every sort of pagan foolishness. We are told to be relevant, to be inclusive, to build bridges. But the Bible commands us to be separate. "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?" (2 Cor. 6:14). This separation is not a physical withdrawal into a monastery. These people were living right next to the pagans. It is a spiritual, moral, and ideological separation. They joined the exiles "to seek Yahweh." That was their new, singular passion. You cannot seek Yahweh with all your heart while simultaneously seeking the approval and adopting the practices of a world that hates Him.
The Cause of All True Joy (v. 22)
The result of this obedient, separated worship is not a grim, joyless legalism. It is explosive, God-given gladness.
"And they celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with gladness, for Yahweh had caused them to be glad and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them to strengthen them in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel." (Ezra 6:22)
They celebrated for seven days "with gladness." The Hebrew word is simcha, a deep, celebratory joy. This is not the superficial happiness that depends on circumstances. This is a profound gladness rooted in the actions of God. The text gives us two reasons for their joy, and they are both theological. They are glad, first, "for Yahweh had caused them to be glad."
This is a foundational truth. True joy is not something we manufacture. It is a gift of God. It is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22). Our secular world seeks happiness in a thousand dead-end streets: possessions, experiences, self-esteem. But lasting joy, bedrock joy, comes from God alone. He is the author of it. And He gives it to His people when they walk in His ways. Obedience and joy are not enemies; they are husband and wife. Sin is what robs us of our joy. Righteousness is the soil in which it grows.
The second reason for their joy is the evidence of God's sovereign power in their circumstances: He "had turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them." This is a reference to Darius, the king of Persia, whose empire now encompassed the old Assyrian territories. The point is that God is the king over all kings. "The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of Yahweh; He turns it wherever He will" (Prov. 21:1). Their deliverance was not a political fluke. It was the direct, supernatural intervention of God moving the most powerful man on earth to accomplish His purposes. Their joy was rooted in the unshakable reality of God's sovereignty. They were glad because they knew that their God was in charge of everything, even the hearts of pagan emperors.
Christ our Passover
As with all Old Testament worship, this entire scene is a magnificent foreshadowing of the person and work of Jesus Christ. The Passover in Ezra points us to the true Passover Lamb. Paul tells us plainly, "For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed" (1 Cor. 5:7).
The blood of the lambs slaughtered in Ezra's day could only cover sin ceremonially. But the blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). He is our deliverance. By His blood, the wrath of God passes over us. We who were exiles in the domain of darkness have been brought near and made citizens in the household of God.
And the call to purity is intensified in the New Covenant. "Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened" (1 Cor. 5:7). We are called to separate ourselves from the uncleanness of the world, not just externally, but in the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. We are to be a holy people, set apart to seek the Lord.
And our joy, like theirs, is a gift from God, rooted in His sovereign work. God has caused us to be glad by turning the heart of the ultimate King, God the Father, toward us. He did this not by moving a mere man, but by sending His only Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Our joy is not in our circumstances, but in the finished work of Christ. It is a joy that no man can take from us.
Therefore, let us come to the Lord's Table, which is our Passover feast, with this same spirit. Let us come with cleansed hearts, having confessed our sins. Let us come as a separated people, rejecting the filth of the world. And let us come with profound and unshakeable gladness, because our God has caused us to be glad. He has built His house, not with stones, but with the living stones of His people, and He has filled it with the joy of His salvation.