You are Holy to the LORD

Ezra 8:24-36

   24 And I separated twelve of the leaders of the priests—Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their brethren with them— 25 and weighed out to them the silver, the gold, and the articles, the offering for the house of our God which the king and his counselors and his princes, and all Israel who were present, had offered. 26 I weighed into their hand six hundred and fifty talents of silver, silver articles weighing one hundred talents, one hundred talents of gold, 27 twenty gold basins worth a thousand drachmas, and two vessels of fine polished bronze, precious as gold. 28 And I said to them, "You are holy to the LORD; the articles are holy also; and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering to the LORD God of your fathers. 29 Watch and keep them until you weigh them before the leaders of the priests and the Levites and heads of the fathers' houses of Israel in Jerusalem, in the chambers of the house of the LORD." 30 So the priests and the Levites received the silver and the gold and the articles by weight, to bring them to Jerusalem to the house of our God.

   31 Then we departed from the river of Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go to Jerusalem. And the hand of our God was upon us, and He delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from ambush along the road. 32 So we came to Jerusalem, and stayed there three days.

    33 Now on the fourth day the silver and the gold and the articles were weighed in the house of our God by the hand of Meremoth the son of Uriah the priest, and with him was Eleazar the son of Phinehas; with them were the Levites, Jozabad the son of Jeshua and Noadiah the son of Binnui, 34 with the number and weight of everything. All the weight was written down at that time.

    35 The children of those who had been carried away captive, who had come from the captivity, offered burnt offerings to the God of Israel: twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, and twelve male goats as a sin offering. All this was a burnt offering to the LORD.  36 And they delivered the king's orders to the king's satraps and the governors in the region beyond the River. So they gave support to the people and the house of God.

Ezra chose twelve leaders of the priests to take the many offerings to Jerusalem given by the Jews of the diaspora returning from Babylon, as well as from the king and other rulers of the Persian kingdom.  They were to bring these into God’s house, and so were set apart as priests with this service, for Ezra told them that they were holy to the LORD, as were the valuable articles to be dedicated to Him and taken to the temple, His house of worship, the house of the Holy of the holies.  They were on their way to Jerusalem with the hand of God on them to deliver them from evil and keep them safe, for they trusted His providential protection along the way, having refused a military escort because of their testimony of faith to king Artaxerxes.  Upon arriving at the house of God, they measured the articles of value they brought there, recorded it, and then the captives set free offered many sacrifices, willingly.  The final act was to hand over the king’s orders for the work which were given to them before they left, that the work would be under the government’s support and protection.  We learn from this event how trusting God leads to accomplishing the work of service given to us, and how in Christ we are all priests, set aside or made holy for His work and worship (Revelation 1:6, 5:10, Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:2).  We are His house of worship (Hebrews 3:6) in which He lives now, and our lives are the living sacrifices and places of worship now, not the buildings we gather in, for we are being built together (Ephesians 2:22, 1 Peter 2:5) to minister as His holy priests; remember that you are Holy to the Lord!  We have been set free, delivered from our captivity to sin and the resulting sentence of death; may we so freely offer our lives as living sacrifices to follow Christ and serve Him with all we have, for that is why we are made holy to our Lord.