God’s Hand Was On Him

God’s Hand Was On Him

Imagine walking nine hundred miles.

EZRA APPARENTLY was the commissioner for Jewish affairs under Artaxerxes I, king of the Persian Empire. In 458 B.C. the king sent Ezra to Judah to investigate the situation there. The first return from the Babylonian captivity had occurred seventy-nine years earlier, under Sheshbezzar, when work to rebuild the altar and the temple began. The temple was finally completed in 516 B.C. Ezra was sent to enforce the Jewish laws and had authority to appoint magistrates and judges in Israel.

As many as five thousand Jewish exiles from the Babylonian captivity accompanied Ezra, and they brought with them valuable gifts for the temple in Jerusalem from King Artaxerxes and from the Jewish exiles who remained in Babylon (Ezra 7:1-26).

Ezra, however, was much more than a Persian government official. He was both a priest and a scribe. As a priest, he could trace his lineage back to Aaron (7:1-5). He also was a scribe, one who studied and interpreted the Scriptures (7:6). He was a teacher of the Jews of Babylon and was coming now to teach the Jews of Judah.

Ezra and his fellow travelers left their homes in Babylon on April 8, 458 B.C., and assembled along the Ahava Canal off the Euphrates (7:9; 8:15).

On April 19 they broke camp and started off for Jerusalem (8:31). The caravan arrived in Jerusalem four months later, on August 4, 458 B.C. (7:8-9). The distance from where the Jews lived in Babylon along the Euphrates River to Jerusalem was approximately five hundred miles if one traveled in a straight line. However, because it was desert all the way, the route traders took from Babylon and Persia went northwest along the Euphrates and then southwest to Jerusalem, making it a nine-hundred-mile trip. The terrain surrounding the Euphrates was very lush, especially in the spring when Ezra and the exiles traveled. They were traversing what we today call the Fertile Crescent. Resting on each Sabbath, they averaged about ten miles a day. Since their entourage included both young children and the elderly, this was a realistic pace everyone could maintain.

Such a trip was by nature dangerous, but God protected them from enemies and bandits along the way. In describing God’s protection, Ezra explains that “the gracious hand of our God protected us” (8:31). This is the same hand of our heavenly Father from which none of his people can be snatched (John 10:29).

God put his gracious hand on Ezra because Ezra had determined to study and obey the law of the Lord and to teach it to the people of Israel (7:9-10). God’s hand was upon Ezra because he put study, conduct, and teaching in their proper order. He taught what he had first lived, and what he lived was based on his study of the Scriptures. God keeps his hand upon such a person.

Reflection

Do you want God’s gracious hand to protect and direct you? God is looking for new Ezras. He may not ask you to teach a nation as he did Ezra, but we can all teach those in our sphere of influence. The first step is to study God’s Word so that we understand it and hear him speaking to us through it. The second step is to apply to our lives what God has revealed. Once we have lived out God’s truths in our lives, we can share them with others and God’s hand will be upon us.

Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth.

2 Timothy 2:15