Leader and People Working Together

MEMORY SELECTION: “Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, which bath put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem.” —Ezra 7:27

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Ezra 7:6-16

EZRA was one of the children of Israel who lived in exile in Babylon. He was a scribe and a priest. He also returned to the land of his fathers in Israel and was instrumental in the rebuilding of Jerusalem.

“This Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the Law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given: and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him.” (Ezra 7:6) He took the scroll of the Law with him so that it became a part of the rebuilding of the Jewish nation. The Holy Scriptures were the very center of life in the Jewish community. They had been preserved and taught by such men of God as Ezra.

One of the objectives in the rebuilding process was to make Jerusalem once more the religious center of the nation. And for this reason Ezra took certain people with him. “And there went up some of the children of Israel, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinims, unto Jerusalem in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king.”—7:7

Ezra asked permission from King Artaxerxes to make the trip to Jerusalem. The king not only granted Ezra’s request but provided him with a royal commission, together with money and other gifts to help his people in Israel.

“Now this is the copy of the letter that the king Artaxerxes gave unto Ezra the priest, the scribe, even a scribe of the words of the commandments of the Lord, and of his statutes to Israel. Artaxerxes, king of kings, unto Ezra the priest, a scribe of the Law of the God of heaven, perfect peace, and at such a time. I make a decree, that all they of the people of Israel, and of his priests and Levites, in my realm, which are minded of their own freewill to go up to Jerusalem, go with thee.” (7:11-13) For the entire record of King Artaxerxes’ letter see the succeeding verses.

The king’s generosity may be further noted by his mentioning in his letter to Ezra some of the vessels of the Temple. “The vessels also that are given thee for the service of the house of thy God, those deliver thou before the God of Jerusalem. And whatsoever more shall be needful for the house of thy God, which thou shalt have occasion to bestow, bestow it out of the king’s treasure house.”—7:19,20

God’s hand was surely in the affairs of his people—the children of Israel. We are impressed with the goodwill and generosity of Cyrus, who conquered Babylon and thereby provided opportunity for the Israelites to return to their homeland. We are also impressed by Kings Artaxerxes I and II for their acts of kindness to the Jews. God had never deserted Israel even during the seventy long years of their desolation and captivity in Babylon. They had turned from him and followed their own evil ways. They needed discipline, and God’s wisdom saw good to deliver them into the hands of the Babylonians. Now he was restoring them to favor by providing the means necessary for the rebuilding of their city and its Temple.

The religious element of Jewish life was of utmost importance. The rebuilding of the Temple made it possible for the Jews once again to celebrate their services. Also, as religion and politics were closely related, the rebuilding of the walls by Nehemiah provided a sense of national stability. They were, essentially, a nation under God. Additionally, the Law of Moses was the backbone of their religious instruction. It had been set aside when the Babylonian captivity took place, but now Ezra was instrumental in bringing the scroll of the Law back to Jerusalem.

The Law of Moses needed to be reinstated and accepted by the children of Israel. Ezra took the responsibility to read the Law before the people, who were gathered before the water gate at Jerusalem. (Neh. 8:1-12) The Law was thus reinstated in the life of the nation of Israel from that day forward.

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