Responding to Opportunity

KEY VERSE: “Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.” —Ezra 7:10

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Ezra 7:11-16, 25-28

BY WAY OF introduction, the record reads: “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

With Ezra on this journey to Jerusalem from Babylon were “some of the children of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinims.” (vs. 7) Nethinims were men who assisted the Levites in their more laborious tasks.

We are told that “Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.” (vs. 10) He went to Jerusalem with the authority and full support of King Artaxerxes. The king granted liberty to as many of the Israelites remaining in Babylon as desired to go with Ezra. He also supplied silver and gold to purchase “bullocks, rams, lambs” to be offered upon the altar in the newly constructed Temple in Jerusalem.

But more money was provided by the king and his counselors than would be needed to get the sacrificial services of the Temple established, and Ezra was told that the additional funds could be used in whatever way might seem good to him, and to his brethren. (vss. 16-18) Vessels were also provided for the Temple services, “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,” the king commanded.—vs. 20

Ezra greatly appreciated the cooperation of the king and gave credit to his God for it, saying: “Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king’s heart. … And I was strengthened as the hand of the Lord my God was upon me, and I gathered together out of Israel chief men to go up with me.”—vss. 27,28

Ezra was truly a faithful servant of the Lord, courageous in doing that which he recognized to be right. A problem confronted him in connection with the journey from Babylon to Jerusalem. They were a large company and would attract the attention of unfriendly people in the country through which they passed. They would be easy prey for those who “lay in wait by the way.”—Ezra 8:31

“I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way:” said Ezra, “because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him; but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him.” (vs. 22) Ezra had testified boldly to the king as to the ability of God to care for his own, and now it would seem inconsistent to ask for soldiers to protect them.

Ezra and his company carried much silver and gold with them, and this made the journey even more dangerous. But he arranged a day of fasting and prayer before they started. Then, placing the treasures in the custody of twelve priests and their brethren, he said unto them: “Ye are holy unto the Lord; the vessels are holy also; and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering unto the Lord. … Watch ye, and keep them.”—vss. 28,29

Ezra’s faith and courage were rewarded by the Lord, and the company got through to Jerusalem unharmed, with their treasures intact.—vss. 33-36

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