Ezra’s Infinitives Part 2
Continuing in the series on Ezra’s infinitives found in Ezra 7:10
. Let us put the text before us,
For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.
Today we are looking at the second infinitive: to do. Last time we looked at “to study the Law of the Lord.” There we saw that to study the Law was to seek Yahweh by studying Scripture. Today we are going to look at the second verb.
The Hebrew verb is wela’asot or ποιεῖν in 2 Esdras 7:10 LXX. Both verbs have the basic meaning of to do or make something. In fact, ποιέω is the verb used in Genesis 1:1 LXX for creation (‘asah is not the verb in Genesis 1:1, rather it is bara’). This verb appears a total of 8 times (including Ezra 7:10) in the book of Ezra. They are Ezra 3:4; 6:19, 22; 10:4, 5, 11, 16. In Ezra 3:4; 6:19, 22, the author uses the verb(s) to speak of keeping the Jewish feasts. In Ezra 10:4-5, 11, the author is speaking of doing God’s will. Ezra 10:16 the author uses the verb to indicate the people gathering together to show who had a “foreign” wife. Thus it seems that the verb in the author’s mind is about obeying God. Whether keeping the prescribed feasts or obeying Yahweh’s will, the verb(s) primary use is to describe a person doing the work that God commands.
Thus the picture that develops is that Ezra studied the law and then did what it said to do. The two infinitives are linked and related in two ways. First is that ποιεῖν flows from ζητῆσαι. Studying leads to obedience if one is truly seeking God. Ezra’s study led to his obedience. The obedience comes after one studies. Notice the order of the text Ezra set his heart to study the law then he is said to practice. Once one has understood the text, the person must put it into practice, he/she must do it. The text that comes to mind, as you might expect, is James 1:22-25,
22 But be sure you live out the message and do not merely listen to it and so deceive yourselves. 23 For if someone merely listens to the message and does not live it out, he is like someone who gazes at his own face in a mirror. 24 For he gazes at himself and then goes out and immediately forgets what sort of person he was. 25 But the one who peers into the perfect law of liberty and fixes his attention there, and does not become a forgetful listener but one who lives it out – he will be blessed in what he does. (James 1:22-25 NET
James exhorts his audience to “live out the message and do not merely listen to it.” We must take the Gospel and live it out and not just intellectually affirm it. Otherwise we do not know who we are! We look into the mirror and immediately forget what kind of person we are. We are people of the Gospel, the good news. In the mirror we look like it but once we step out from seeing the reflection in the mirror, we forget what we look like and live a different lifestyle. But the one who does what he hears, the one who lives out the message of Jesus Christ, he is blessed in what he does. The implication being that the one who forgets is not blessed in what he does. Practice must follow study and hearing the message.
The second way that study relates to practice is that one has not truly understood a text in the Law of God if he or she cannot put it into practice. I used to be a preacher who struggled to figure out how to apply the passage. I would tell myself, “I know the text, I just struggle with applying it to people’s lives. I can’t help people see how to live out the text.” I heard an interview where Tim Keller said something to this effect (I paraphrase), “Anyone who says they get the text but doesn’t know how to apply it hasn’t understood the text.” That hit me hard to make sure I understood how the text impacted the lives of the everyday Christian in the 1st century and to make sure I understand my own context in the 21st century so that I can transpose the text of Scripture from the 1st century or earlier into my own context and the context of my audience. I can honestly say that I understand the text better when I make a point in seeing how one can live it out. This is still a place of concern for my own preaching when I teach the youth at church. I’m only 23, I turn 24 next month. It hasn’t been that long since I graduated from high school, not even a full decade. But I find it hard to put myself in the life of a high schooler or a middle school student. Their world is so different. But I must if I am to help them understand the text correctly.
Exhort those who read this blog and are teachers: make sure that your study of the Scripture changes your life and impacts how you live it out. Put it into practice, do it. The Bible cannot help but be massively life-changing. If one is truly seeking the text and what it means, that person cannot help but see how it is to be lived out. To truly seek God, one must seek not just and intellectual understanding, but the fuller standing that includes the practical living out of the text. Seek God and let his Word radically shape your life so that it conforms to the image of Christ (Romans 8:28-30).
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