Scripture Passage
For I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to accompany us and protect us from enemies along the way. After all, we had told the king, “Our God’s hand of protection is on all who worship him, but his fierce anger rages against those who abandon him.” (Ezra 8:22 NLT)
Observation
Ezra has himself in a bit of a pickle—but a self-imposed and wonderful pickle! He’s received from King Artaxerxes permission and provision to return to Jerusalem to continue the task of rebuilding the city (with Ezra’s primary focus on renewing sound instruction in the Law of God).
The distance between Babylon and Jerusalem was about 500 miles as the crow flies, but the available route meandered some 900 miles. The trip was difficult and dangerous under any circumstances, but this travel was complicated by the presence of children. (If you’ve ever traveled with kids, you know what I'm sayin' there.) And perhaps more significant, the group would be traveling with considerable valuables, including…
24 tons of silver,
7,500 pounds of silver articles,
7,500 pounds of gold,
20 gold bowls, equal in value to 1,000 gold coins,
2 fine articles of polished bronze, as precious as gold.
(Ezra 8:26-27)
Obviously, this caravan was at significant risk of being robbed!
But Ezra has already boasted to King Artaxerxes—“Our God’s hand of protection is on all who worship him,” so Artaxerxes was (rightfully) “ashamed to ask the king for [protection] from enemies along the way” (Ezra 8:22 NLT). Ezra’s boast about his God had put him in a tight spot, where risky-but-faith-based action was now required.
I understand the dangers in promoting Ezra’s actions as something grand that everyone should immediately duplicate in some fashion. I’ve seen plenty of folks presume and proclaim what God was going to do while (in my imagination) God looked down from heaven saying, “What?!? I never said any such thing!” (Indeed, it’s my contention that God gets plenty of blame for stuff He’s got nothing to do with and very little credit for so much He’s right in the middle of!)
Still (as I heard someone say recently)—How risk averse we are! How afraid of failure! How unwilling to dare! What might our claims be in the name of God if we trusted that “our God’s hand of protection is on all who worship him”? In Daniel 3, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego take it a step further—
"If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." (Daniel 3:17-18 NIV)
I’m thinking most of us could dare to push the envelope a little bit—maybe even a lot—further than we do now. As the Apostle Paul says twice in his letter to the Corinthians, "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord." (1 Corinthians 1:31, 2 Corinthians 10:17 NIV) So what "in the Lord" boast might you be challenged to make today?
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1 comment:
Pastor, What else could Ezra do? He had just finished theology High. He had been taught all the teachings of Moses. Including the failures of the kings of Isreal and Judah everytime they took things on themselves instead of turning to God. He had just convinced Darius that God was the one true God and more than able to sway kings and kingdoms.
Sooner or later Gods word is Going to sink in. first with Ezra, then Darius, then the returning People. The whole procession was traveling in faith. More faith even than the people of moses who griped all the way to the promise land. 900 miles with 25 tons of gold plus all the other articles of the temple. It may not have taken 40 yrs to get there but I bet the stopped over night in a few places.
Martin
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