Third Sunday after Easter

Father, we come before you as your people together to hear your word.

Lord, this is a very ancient story, over 2,500 years old.

And yet, you are the same God that is in our midst this morning.

So Lord, we ask that you would teach us by your word,

that you would open our eyes and open our hearts.

And Lord, may only the truth be spoken and only the truth be heard.

We pray in Christ's mighty name. Amen.

Amen. If you have a Bible, we'll be in Ezra chapter 7, a little bit in chapter 8 this morning.

Ezra 7 · chapter mention

If you were here last week, you would know that we were in chapter 3.

So we are skipping portions of the text.

We'll have one more week next week at Ezra, and then we'll get into Nehemiah.

A bit of a reminder that Ezra, Nehemiah, originally were one book.

So that's why we're combining both.

And in a real way, we get the full story with the reading of both.

But before we get into a bit of a recap of the section that we're skipping over,

I'll just say a couple words here.

What does it mean to be a blessed person?

What does it mean to be a person who knows divine favor,

or just any favor, that is, to enjoy a bit of a good life?

I mean, it's a bit old now, but hashtag blessed was a thing for a while there.

I think my mom even made an arts and crafts thing that she wanted it to feature fairly prominently in our house.

I'm not sure where it is right now.

But anyways, it was like a thing, hashtag blessed.

But what does it mean to be blessed?

What does it mean to enjoy favor?

It's a really important question to answer.

Not just for the Christian, but for all people.

Because I put forward to you that to be blessed, to enjoy favor,

the richness of whatever situation you are in,

is something that we all long for and we all desire.

In chapters 7 and 8, this comes up quite a bit in the text.

It doesn't necessarily say blessed, or it doesn't necessarily talk about favor,

although, like, explicitly.

But in chapters 7 and 8 of Ezra, we'll read at least six times where it will say,

the hand of the Lord.

And the hand of the Lord is upon this person, or was upon me, or whatever it may be.

But the hand of the Lord features very prominently in our section.

And our attention is drawn to the phrase for a reason, and it has great significance.

And I think, put forward again to you,

that it will help us to understand what it means to live a blessed life,

to, in a sense, have the hand of the Lord upon us.

So what is the hand of the Lord?

Is it just for Ezra?

I mean, Ezra, the hand of the Lord is upon Ezra.

It's unmistakable in these two chapters.

The hand of the Lord, the hand of the Lord is upon Ezra.

Is it just for him?

If not, how can we acquire it?

So, we'll jump into that.

But first, I've got to catch you guys up on the narrative.

We skipped over a number of chapters.

It's very helpful to contextualize where we're at in the story.

So we stopped in chapter 4, verse 6.

And it goes all the way to 6.22, that we've skipped over that section.

And in that section, Israel's enemies look to hinder the work of God in terms of building the temple.

And they're very successful.

20 years go by.

A hammer is not lifted.

A block is not placed upon another.

The temple rebuild.

There was a big pause put on it.

Chapters 5 and 6, the work continues.

Very interestingly.

Even though there are challenges and attempts to thwart the plan.

Especially calling into question the legitimacy of God's people and their task at hand.

So, the work is finally completed in chapter 6.

It's a remarkable section.

There is a dedication and much celebration.

And immediately after the narrative, the Passover is celebrated.

I won't get into the Passover.

We mention it, I mean, somewhat fairly regularly because it features so heavily in the Bible.

But it's significant in the celebration of the temple because the Passover represents God's deliverance from the hand of slavery.

And it really marks the beginning of the people of God becoming their own nation.

And to celebrate the Passover is, in a sense, celebrating that God is restoring them back into the land.

So, at the end of chapter 6, that is what we see.

And it really, in a sense, marks the part 1 of three parts of Ezra and Nehemiah.

And part 1, part 2, part 3, they're each marked with a significant figure.

So, part 1, it's this character called Zerubbabel.

And we haven't really talked about him a whole ton.

But his task was primarily to rebuild the temple.

Now, that section is finished.

And chapter 7, in walks Ezra.

Now, it's interesting that Ezra walks in well over half of the way through the book.

But Ezra here is the next key figure.

And if Zerubbabel came in to rebuild the temple, Ezra came to reestablish God's law in the land.

And we'll talk about what I mean by God's law.

But Ezra, he is a scribe.

He is a Bible teacher.

He is very concerned that the nation of Israel follow God's ways.

And if you remember last week, or if you've read in 1 and 2 Chronicles,

it is precisely the departure from God's word that gets Israel into the mess they're in.

So, Ezra, he's a key figure in all of this.

Sure, they rebuilt the temple.

Things are great.

But the temple means nothing without God's word.

So, that's where we are.

And here is where we are going to pick up the narrative.

Ezra, like I mentioned, is chiefly concerned with restoring the law to Israel,

but specifically to restore Israel to right relationship with God, according to the Holy Scriptures.

Ezra, right off the bat, in verses 1 to 6, his pedigree is laid out.

But Brad, I mean, noble attempt at reading the list of names are very difficult.

What you really need to know with the list of names, I mean, we could, not to say that they don't matter,

but the big key in all of this is that last name.

He's a son of Aaron, the chief priest.

The chief priest.

Now, Aaron was the one whom all the priests came from.

He was the brother of Moses, and Aaron, as the chief priest, was supposed to help the people follow the Lord according to God's word.

If you remember, he did not do that very well.

Moses is up on Mount Sinai getting the law from God.

It's this huge, momentous occasion in the nation's history.

Getting the law isn't just God's do's and don'ts.

It is establishing Israel as a nation.

Before they were sojourners and slaves in Egypt, but now they're their own nation.

And Moses comes down, and what does he see?

The people are impatient.

And Aaron, on their behalf, crafts for them an idol.

And yet, he is a priest that is still God's servant.

Huge, huge blunder.

Ezra here is going to try to, in a sense, be the anti-Aaron in that case.

He's going to cling fast to God's word.

And his chief concern is being used by God to, like I mentioned,

to not just bring the law back to them, but to re-establish the nation.

Because the nation of Israel is established by God's word.

So it's a key aspect in all of this.

So, that's a bit of a background of where we're coming from, who Ezra is.

Now, let's jump into the text.

I'm hoping to draw three main things out of our text for this morning.

We're going to look at, really, scripture.

What is God's word?

Why is this so deeply connected, God's word and scripture?

Why is it so deeply connected to God's favor as well?

So keep all that in the back of your head.

We're going to look at three things.

First, the nature of scripture.

What is scripture?

The second thing is, after the nature of scripture, is the student of scripture.

How does one engage with God's word?

And then the last one we'll take a look at is the joy of walking according to God's word, according to holy scripture.

So, what is scripture?

How do we study it?

And we're going to take a look at the joy that comes with it.

Very simple, very profound.

Let's jump right in.

Okay, the nature of scripture.

I'm drawing a lot of this point out.

In fact, almost the entire point out from the first half of verse 6.

So, look with me.

Verse 6 of chapter 7.

This Ezra, talking about the descendant of Aaron, the chief priest, went up from Babylonia.

That means he is on his way to Jerusalem from Babylon.

And this Ezra was a scribe, skilled in the law of Moses, that the Lord, the God of Israel, had given.

And I'll pause right there.

Seems like an interesting line.

Something we could quickly gloss over.

And yet, it is packed with, in a sense, not an exhaustive understanding of scripture,

but a very deep understanding of scripture.

And like I mentioned about talking a bit about the law, the law of God isn't just the do's and don'ts.

Although there are many do's and don'ts.

There is, within the law of God, lots of laws.

But the word law that we read is a translation of Torah in Hebrew,

which is maybe a better way to say it is like the ways of God.

But even that doesn't quite articulate the fullness of what Torah means.

Because God's law, the first five books of the Old Testament, starting in Genesis and ending in Deuteronomy,

it's more than just about God's ways.

But it's the story of God, the creator God, and how he makes a covenant and promises with the people.

Really, if we're going to talk about the Torah, we need to talk about the story of God,

and how he has created everything, and how he has connected a people together for his own namesake.

In reality, it's a story of God interacting with human beings.

That is what the law is.

And when it talks about the law of Moses, it is talking about this Torah, this law, this way of God,

this story of who God is and what he has done.

So it's very important that we understand that when we talk about God's law,

it's not just don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't lie.

It is an insight into who this God is and how he has invited us to partake in him.

And Ezra would have known all of this.

Why? He was skilled in the law of Moses.

Which means that first and foremost, he knows God and how God has made the world

and how God wants the world to exist.

He is, in a sense, a practitioner of life,

according to God's rules and God's commands and God's, most importantly, his heart.

He would know that God makes covenants and promises that he will not break.

He knows that God has created all things and has deemed it good.

He would know, Ezra would know, that all of life was to be designed to be enjoyed.

Except that, and that he would also know that this enjoyment is always threatened because of sin and evil.

This is what Ezra would know.

So when it says that he is skilled in the law of Moses,

think, Ezra, he knows God.

And it would seem that God would know him.

What else do we see from this sentence?

Well, we also see that Scripture is never a private matter.

It is always given to the Lord's people for their great benefit.

We see this here.

We see, I'll just read the whole verse, the first section.

Ezra was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses that the Lord, the God of Israel, had given.

I've referenced it already that God gave the law to Moses,

but he gave it in the sight of the entire assembly of Israel.

So that when Moses was up by himself, okay, on the mountain,

God descended upon the mountain,

and what the people saw would be supernatural and unmistakable.

There would be lightning and thunder,

and it would be a very frightening, scary sight.

And in a sense, God, by doing so,

revealed to everybody that he truly was there,

and that the law that was given was for them,

for all of them together.

Father, Holy Scripture is always for the community,

because Holy Scripture builds the community

and makes the community out of individuals or groups or families

that might have things in common, oftentimes do not,

but God's Word always makes a people for himself.

And this is what is happening at Mount Sinai,

and this is what is referred to here,

that the God of Israel had given the law of Moses to the people of God.

So, this is where kind of the rubber hits the road,

because we don't live in a Christian nation.

We don't.

We live in a pluralistic nation

of many different religions or no religion.

I would put forward that there really isn't a no religion.

We are religious people.

But people that claim to be atheists

or whatever their faith is.

Two examples.

Mormonism.

And there's a church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

just down the road on Old Richmond here,

and a mosque even farther down in Bell's Corners.

But those two faiths, as an example,

they have built everything on private revelation,

that God has given his Word to a specific person

without witnesses,

without people seeing what has happened.

And then from that person,

they become a prophet,

and they share,

and the religion grows and grows and grows and grows.

That's not what happens with Holy Scripture.

God gives,

He reveals Himself in the midst of a congregation.

That's very important,

because it doesn't matter what I think,

it doesn't matter what Joseph Smith thought,

or Muhammad thought.

What is God saying?

That's the big thing.

Throughout Scripture,

God is revealing Himself constantly,

not just to individuals,

although that definitely does happen,

but always to groups,

always to the nation,

always to the masses.

And even when He reveals Himself to a prophet,

it's either calling people back to God's law,

God's ways,

faithfulness to God,

or warning them about what is going to happen

because of their departure from God's Word.

So important is it that people don't make things up in Scripture

that the prophet who gets God's Word wrong

is liable to death.

So it's kind of a big thing that God reveals Himself

and that He desires us to take that very seriously.

So in the New Testament,

also we see the risen Lord.

He doesn't appear to one or to a couple,

but by the time Jesus ascends,

He will have appeared to multitudes,

hundreds of people.

And again, this is in keeping with God's ways

of how He reveals Himself and His Word

for the sake of the entire community.

The Scriptures are always for the community

because the Scriptures form the community itself.

And this is why we read so much Scripture on Sunday mornings

and why it really, truly doesn't matter

if I crack a joke or not

or if I have an opinion about something or not

or whatever it may be.

What is God saying in His Word?

And I'm not saying I nail it every week

or that everybody is always speaking God's Word

in every corner of this church

before the service, during or after.

But this is our goal

because it is God's Word that forms

and sustains our community.

This is what we are reminded of week after week.

God's community is always formed by God's Word.

So immediately after this,

we see, interestingly,

the first reference to this hand of God,

this connection between God's Word and God's favor.

Look with me at the second part of verse 6 of chapter 7.

Why don't I read the full verse here?

This Ezra went up from Babylonia.

He was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses

that the Lord, the God of Israel, had given.

And the king granted him,

that's the Persian king,

all that he asked, why?

For the hand of the Lord his God was on him.

The connection between Ezra's skills in Scripture,

his reverence for Scripture,

his knowledge of what Scripture is,

is directly connected to the hand of the Lord

being upon him.

It really is unmistakable.

And this leads nicely to our second point.

If Ezra is skilled in Scripture,

and this results in the hand of the Lord being on him,

how do we become students of Scripture?

How do we approach Scripture?

How do we read Scripture?

What are we to do?

Look with me to verse 10 here.

For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord,

and to do it,

and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.

The first thing to notice is that Ezra,

he has a great desire to know the Word of God.

He desires to know it for himself.

His heart is inclined to study what God has revealed.

It wasn't merely a job for him as a scribe,

but a privilege.

He knew the value of Scripture,

for in Scripture, like we mentioned,

he would meet the Lord.

So the studying of Scripture isn't an easy task.

It's not.

It requires diligence and effort.

It involves patience.

That's a hard thing.

A very impatient culture we live in.

Your pastor is an impatient man,

oftentimes.

It also requires meditation,

to chew and to think through

and to dwell upon,

to have a focus to it.

There's also a huge temptation

in studying God's Word,

to think of oneself as superior to others

that might not know how much you know.

And that's a huge danger.

It is a fine line, in a sense,

of being a minister.

I'll speak to myself,

but I share this stuff because who knows

if God will raise up somebody else

from our congregation

to lead another church one day.

Who knows?

But it is a fine line to walk,

to know God,

and to immerse yourself in Scripture,

and to not be puffed up,

to not think of yourself as more worthy.

The great irony in this

is that Scripture,

if read properly,

if engaged with properly,

if knowing that Scripture is about God,

and it is a gift from Him,

it should result in the more we know,

the humbler we become.

Because who are we before Almighty God?

Who are we?

And yet,

the human mind and the human heart,

they can be terribly deceptive things.

Thinking, in a sense,

I know a lot about God,

and all of a sudden,

we kind of make ourselves

to be like God.

Not in terms of His holiness,

but in His stature.

A terrible thing.

Jesus encountered this all the time

in the New Testament.

The people that knew the most

seemed to have cared the least.

There's a great temptation there.

But Ezra here,

it's very clear,

and we'll see a bit later on,

that as he engages in

his study of Scripture,

man, this guy,

he is humble.

And he recognizes his great need

for God.

All the time, it seems.

Later on,

he's maybe not so humble.

He's a human being.

But here,

as he engages in Scripture,

he is very,

he's very humble.

And that is a good sign

for somebody who studies God's Word.

And it's not just for ministers,

but for you and I,

as we dig into Scripture,

as we come to church,

and we're reading it,

and we're pondering it,

when we wake up,

if you do the daily offices,

or if you have your own

Bible reading plan,

your own devotions

in the morning,

or in the evening,

or both,

this is for all of us.

So a sign of a Bible scholar,

and a student of God's Word,

will always be humility.

It will always be humility.

For to truly know God's Word

is to truly know

how unworthy we are

to even know Him,

let alone to have the privilege

of being called a son and daughter.

It is a humbling thing.

And humility isn't to be humiliated.

Right?

To have that humility

is to be in the most sure spot

to be in relationship with God

and to know who we are.

But more importantly,

to know who He is.

That is why it is really important.

The second bit

that we can see here

is as we study Scripture,

we can't really study Scripture

and know Scripture

apart from knowing God.

One story,

another personal story,

I did,

in a weird roundabout way,

I ended up doing my undergrad

in religious studies at Carleton,

and I came across

a professor

for a number of classes,

Zeba Crook,

if anybody has been in Ottawa

for a while

or has taken some classes,

and he was the head

of the biblical criticism

kind of section

in Carleton's

religious studies department.

And this man was immersed

in Scripture,

like day in and day out.

He could read Greek

better than the Greeks.

Like,

he was an incredible mind,

a brilliant guy.

But in the end,

because,

you know,

his words,

he was an atheist,

he did not believe in God,

the conclusions he came to

were not life-giving,

but instead,

in a big way,

I mean,

eroded the foundation

of the faith

of so many,

you know,

19 to 21-year-olds

that don't know,

you know,

up from down.

I mean,

God love undergrad students,

okay?

It's not a time

to come to learn

and be built up,

but in a sense,

it is a time of,

it's like,

if you have students

in your life,

pray for them.

It's a tough time.

to know the scriptures

is to know God,

and you can't divorce the two.

You can't,

this isn't a textbook

that we can read

as if it's history.

It is a story

that God is engaging

with people,

and we get to be a part of it.

It's an invitation

into this wonderful story.

So,

it's a huge aspect

of all of this.

Look with me again

to verse 10.

Ezra set his heart

to study the law

of the Lord,

but then,

what does it say next?

But to also do it.

That to be a student

of God's word

means hypocrisy.

It really needs to be

very far from God's people.

And this is something

the church struggles with.

There's a lot of own goals

in the church

where we're hypocrites.

We don't practice

what we preach.

And I mean,

you could think through

things in your own life

where you've been a hypocrite.

We've all been hypocrites.

But God's word

commands us

to respond

as we study God's word.

It is not

in a lab

like I alluded to

that we study God's word

and we can just

do whatever we want

afterwards.

We ask the question,

how shall I then live?

Ezra here

was careful

to not just study

God's word,

but to do it.

And then the third thing

is to teach it.

Now,

I'm not saying

if you study God's word,

if you engage in scripture,

like next Sunday,

you're up.

I'm not saying that.

But without a doubt,

if you're a parent,

you have a responsibility

to teach your children.

Not perfectly, okay?

I'm not,

not perfectly,

but you have a,

you have a responsibility

to teach,

to,

to pass on the knowledge.

Because again,

we're talking not about

a sterile history,

but about God,

a person

that,

that is deeply,

deeply,

deeply,

deeply involved

in every aspect

of your life,

whether you know it or not.

You,

you get excited.

It's a relationship.

It's a,

it's a connection.

It's a,

degrees of thankfulness

and intrigue

and you want to share it.

I mean,

so there's an aspect

of teaching it

to,

to,

to share with people

what you've learned,

but to also bear witness

to others

about who this God is.

So whether it's

a Christian or not,

we,

as we engage

in God's word,

we have to teach it

in a sense.

So maybe a teach

kind of freaks you out.

Okay,

think of it like sharing.

Maybe that would be

a better way.

So,

there's a study aspect

to it.

There is

a doing aspect

to it

and then there's

a teaching,

sharing aspect

to God's word.

So,

again,

where does God's hand

come in

to play here?

Look with me.

Up one verse

to verse nine.

For on the first day

of the first month

he began to go up

from Babylonia

and on the first day

of the fifth month

he came to Jerusalem.

I mean,

just verse nine there,

Ezra is going

from Babylon

to Jerusalem.

It's a thousand,

something like a thousand

miles.

They gloss over it

in one verse,

okay?

There it is.

Continuing on.

So,

he's going up

from Babylonia

and on the first day

of the fifth month

he came to Jerusalem

for the good hand

of his God

was on him.

There we see it again

and the proximity

to Ezra

and in scripture

it again

is unmistakable.

As God blesses

his name

and blesses his word

so too

will he bless

the right

and humble handling

of scripture.

So,

yet again

we see that

the hand of God

is connected

to scripture

and the right handling

and humble handling

of God's word.

And this

takes us

to the third

section.

Look with me

verse 27

and 28

of chapter 7.

So,

if we know

what scripture is,

if it's very clear

on how we are

to engage

with scripture,

what is the result

of scripture?

If you remember

back in chapter 3

last week,

the people,

a part of

a real genuine faith

was a joyful faith.

We saw that

at the end

of chapter 3

and we see

that same joy

as a result

of knowing God's word

and walking

in God's ways

here.

So,

look with me

at verse 27

and 28.

Blessed be the Lord,

the God of our fathers

who put such a thing

as this

into the heart

of the king

to beautify

the house

of the Lord

that is in Jerusalem.

Background,

again,

Ezra has found

favor with the king

to go back

to Jerusalem.

The king

is going to help him

get there.

He's going to make sure

that everything he needs

he has

and this is all

why?

Because God

has put it

onto the heart

of the king.

So,

let's start again

in verse 27.

Blessed be the Lord,

the God of our fathers

who put such a thing

as this

into the heart

of the king

to beautify

the house

of the Lord

that is in Jerusalem.

Verse 28,

And who extended

to me

his steadfast love

before the king

and his counselors

and before all

the king's mighty officers.

I took courage

for the hand

of the Lord

my God

was on me

and I gathered

leading men

from Israel

to go up

with me.

The right handling

of scripture,

the humble handling

of scripture

will always result

in right theology

and

and that will

always result

in doxology.

Put another way,

as we engage

in God's word

and we know

his will

and know

who he is

and who we are

in light of that,

the result

will be praise.

It will be.

It will be joy

as it pertains

to our culture.

We're not going

to jump

and dance

likely,

but we will have joy

and we will express

it in our own way.

In this section,

Ezra praises God

for showing him

favor before the king

and notice once again

the latter part

of verse 28.

What does it say?

The hand of the Lord

was upon him.

So we praise God

for what he has done.

Ezra has put his mind

to the Lord

and God's word.

His heart is to

reestablish

the reading

and proclamation

of God's word

among his people.

He is diligent

to study it,

to do it,

to teach it.

And what is happening?

God is blessing him

because the hand

of the Lord

is upon him.

There is that connection

once again

with God's word

and God's favor.

So we praise God.

We can gather from this.

We can praise God

for what he has done,

how he is sustaining us

in the here and now,

but also

what he is going to do.

But more important

than all that,

we praise God

for who he is

because he has made promises

that he has kept.

That he has expressed

steadfast love to us

when we do not deserve it.

He has extended mercy to us

when we should have

received judgment.

We praise God

for who he is

and what he has done.

And this is where

I'll just talk about

the hand of the Lord

in a bit more detail

because I worry

that as we've gone

through this section,

what we've heard

is that

as we study

the Bible,

God's hand

will be on us

and we will have

wonderful,

happy lives.

God's hand

but the fact is

in this situation,

okay,

in this situation,

I mean,

Ezra's going to have

some tough things

ahead of him

but he is

experiencing a lot

of favor.

but what happens

when we are diligent

in knowing God's word

and gathering

with God's people

and genuinely

seeking his face

and seeking him

for who he is

and not just

what he does

and we are

engaging in God's word

and studying it

and wrestling with it

and pondering it

and praying it

and meditating upon it

and being really

by God's strength

and his help,

you know,

not being hypocrites

and doing

what it commands us

to do

and trying our best

to share it

and life goes south

because that happens.

So,

what on earth

are we to gather

from something like this?

Is this just a,

you know,

do A,

add B

and you're going

to get C.

I think what's

a better way

to understand

this hand of the Lord

is that

as we seek God's face

to do God's will,

that's the key aspect

in this.

God will show us

favor

just because

we know him

and what he has done

and we would know

right relationship

with him.

That the key aspect

in all of this

is really

what is God's will.

In this case,

rebuild the temple,

reestablish the law.

We'll see in Nehemiah,

rebuild the walls

in the city.

But for Jesus,

he was a perfect

law keeper.

He had perfect favor

from God.

He knew the scriptures

because he was

the word of God

himself.

God's hand

was clearly

on Jesus

and yet

it was God's will

not that he would

find favor

with Herod

or the Sanhedrin

or the temple priests

or Pilate

or the soldiers

but that he would

die.

That was God's

will for his life.

He had perfect favor

but God's will

wasn't that he would be

living the hashtag

blessed life

but that he would die.

And this is where

we can reconcile

these two things.

How can we

on one hand

know that the hand

of the Lord

is upon us

and yet struggle

through life

with very real

lows

and really

long valleys.

How do we

reconcile that?

We look to Christ.

On the cross

Jesus

dies

on our behalf

according to God's will.

He suffers

before that

in a gruesome way

and in the end

he is forsaken

by his father

so that

the result

that we could be

blessed.

Whether or not

we experience

incredible blessings

in this life

or not

but that we will know

blessings for eternity

that we will have

the hand of the Lord

upon us forever

in fact to be

in his very presence.

this is

this is

the real

blessed life.

So for you

and I

as we engage

in God's word

and we

we look to him

for our salvation

and we

we

we trust

that he will

bless us

in the ways

we need

to be blessed

in this life

that ultimately

the blessing

is already given

that we know

that we will be

with him

for eternity

that Christ's

own favor

perfect favor

of God

that God's

own hand

rests

upon us

that was resting

upon Christ.

Jesus

does God's will

perfectly

and we'll see

later on

that

that God's will

is really

again

like I said

that's

that's the real bit

in all of this.

Ezra

in chapter 8

this was a part

of the section

of the reading

but I focused

on chapter 7

in chapter 8

Ezra

he declines

an armored

guard

to go with him

from Babylonia

from Babylon

back to Jerusalem.

He has women

he has children

he has a ton

of gold

all the temple

utensils

and gold

and silver

I mean he was

a sitting duck

900 to 1000 miles

4 plus months

it's something like

10 miles a day

in the desert

and in the wilderness

and he says

I'm actually not

going to take

the armored guard

because

if God's hand

is on me

then it's

it's on me

all the way

okay

very noble thing

and God delivers them

it's a fantastic thing

in Nehemiah

it's a similar situation

and Nehemiah's like

yeah give me that guard

yeah I want that guard

I need that guard

to go with me

and somehow

that was also

God's will

so it's not

simply that

we can

always

take from

scripture

this carbon copy

of what to do

sometimes

scripture

prescribes

what we are to do

other times

it just describes

what's happening here

but the principle

behind it is

this

what is God's will

what is it

he has laid it

open in

holy scripture

and there's a lot

of aspects

to God's will

but the meat

and potatoes

of God's will

is that he desires

us

to be with him

and he has made a way

in Christ Jesus

so friends

let us know

the hand of the Lord

being upon us

let us know

the favor of God

whatever comes

this week

okay

good or bad

whatever comes

this week

let us know

that the favor

of the Lord

is upon us

the favor of the Lord

and that we will

live the blessed life

for eternity

let's pray

Father in heaven

we thank you

that we have

these fantastic examples

of how your people

engaged with you

and your word

throughout the generations

Lord we thank you

for Ezra

we thank you

for his faith

we thank you

for his diligence

for his heart

to reestablish

the

your word

amongst

your people

Lord

may your word

never depart

from us

help us

to be students

of it

in such a

life of distractions

and options

where finding

a quiet

10 minutes here

or 20 minutes there

seems like

an impossibility

Lord

help us

help us

to help ourselves

Lord

give us the strength

we need

to do the things

you called us

to do

but Lord

more than

anything else

open our eyes

to the reality

of what your son

has done

on the cross

of Calvary

for us

that the hand

of favor

for all those

who have put

their faith

in him

it rests

upon us

and Lord

let us live

in that reality

we pray

in Christ's

mighty name

Amen

in heaven