Ezra was the second of three key leaders to leave Babylon for the reconstruction
of Jerusalem. Zerubbabel reconstructed the temple (Ezra 3:8), Nehemiah rebuilt
the walls (Nehemiah chapters 1 and 2), and Ezra restored the worship. Ezra was
a scribe and priest sent with religious and political powers by the Persian King
Artaxerxes to lead a group of Jewish exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem (Ezra
7:8, 12). Ezra condemned mixed marriages and encouraged Jews to divorce and
banish their foreign wives. Ezra renewed the celebration of festivals and
supported the rededication of the temple and the rebuilding of the Jerusalem
wall. Ezra 7:10 describes a shaping of the community in accordance with the
Torah. Ezra’s goal was to implement the Torah, and his impeccable priestly and
scribal credentials allowed him to remain the model leader.
The book of Ezra continues from where 2 Chronicles ends, with Cyrus, king of
Persia, issuing a decree that permitted the Jews of his kingdom to return to
Jerusalem after seventy years of captivity. God is universally sovereign and can
use a polytheistic king of Persia to make possible His people’s release. He used
Artaxerxes, another Persian king, to authorize and finance the trip and Ezra to
teach God’s people His Law. This same king also helped Nehemiah restore some
measure of respectability to God’s holy city.
Ezra’s effective ministry included teaching the Word of God, initiating reforms,
restoring worship, and leading spiritual revival in Jerusalem. These reforms
magnified the need for a genuine concern for reputation and for public image.
What must the world think of God’s people with dilapidated city walls? What
would distinguish God’s people who were guilty of intermarriage with those not
in proper covenant relationship with the one true God? Nehemiah and Ezra were
then, and are now, an encouragement to God’s people to magnify worship as
their top priority, to emphasize the need for and use of God’s Word as the only
authoritative rule for living, and to be concerned about the image God’s people
show to the world.
Ezra came back from captivity in Babylon expecting to find the people serving
the Lord with gladness, but upon his return to Jerusalem, he found the opposite.
He was frustrated and sorrowful. His heart ached, but he still trusted the Lord. He
wanted the Lord to change the situation and blamed himself for not being able to
change the people’s hearts. He wanted the people to know how important and
essential the Word of God was. Nothing must supersede worship of God, and
obedience is not optional. The sovereign God looks over and protects His
children, always keeping His promises and providing encouragement through
those He sends (Ezra 5:1–2). Even when His plan seems to be interrupted, as
with the rebuilding of Jerusalem, God steps in at the appropriate time to continue
His plan.
God is as intimately involved in our lives as He was in Ezra’s life, and like Ezra we
are sometimes enabled to do the impossible. Ezra did the impossible, for the
hand of the Lord his God was on him (Ezra 7:9). Every believer is a living temple
(1 Corinthians 6:19) in which the Holy Spirit dwells. The opposing forces in Ezra’s
day were people with evil in their hearts. The opposing force in our Christian
lives today is evil himself, Satan, who has come to destroy us and in turn destroy
God’s temple (John 10:10). Our goals should be worthy in God’s eyes as well as
our own. Yesterday’s sorrows can be today’s successes if the hand of the Lord is
upon us. Ezra’s goal was worthy in God’s eyes, and he effectively used the
returning Jews’ sorrows for the success of rebuilding God’s city and restoring
worship.
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