End Times Witnessing: Testimony of a Highly Favored Captive Teacher

Ezra The priest, the highly favored teacher of the lawof the God of heaven (Chapters 7-8)

Being a captive in the enemy’s campis not exactly the life anyone could expect to be successful. Yet there are people of God who have been greatly favored and well established in their professions even in such adverse environment.

The person Ezra, a Jewish scribe well versed in the law of Moses lived in Babylon, the captor’s nation. However, the Persian king regarded him highly and gave him everything he asked for. Ezra attributed this unusual favor to his God, “because the gracious hand of His God was on him” (“because he was determined to study and obey and teach the people of Israel God’s laws”). (7:6,9-10)

The Book of Ezra recorded two major historical break-through for Israel: (1) The Restoration of the Temple (destroyed with the city of Jerusalem in 586 BC by the armies of Babylon). Chapters 1-6 describe God stirred the heart of a Persian king, Cyrus, to issue a decree and Zerubbabel led the first group (49,897 exiles) return to Jerusalem in 538 BC to re-build the temple of God (which was delayed and took 22 years to complete 538-516 BC).

(2) The Reformation of the people of God. Chapters 7-10 describe how God empowered Ezra, a priest teacher of the laws of God, to return to Jerusalem (with a small group of 1,754 exiles) to give spiritual guidance and support to re-build the people of God in 458-457 BC (1 Year). The followings reveal the mighty work of the Lord (the gracious hand of the Lord-the Holy Spirit) in this supernatural episode of Ezra’s life.

In matters concerning God: God moved the heart of another Persian king, Artaxerxes, to sponsor Ezra (with legal authority and financial aid) to return to Jerusalem to enhance temple worship. The king commissioned him to take with him appropriate personnel and treasures for the temple worship. The king also decreed that his official treasurers give Ezra whatever he requests and that no personnel related to the temple of God be required to pay taxes.

In matters concerning the people:

The king commissioned Ezra to appoint magistrates and judges to govern all the people in the province west of the Euphrates River. The only requirement is that they must know the Israelite God’s laws! The king also commissioned Ezra to teach the law to anyone who does not know it. “Anyone who refuses to obey the law of your God and law of the king will be punished immediately, either by death, banishment, confiscation of goods or imprisonment.” (Ezra 7:26)

CHAPTER EIGHT describes a physical journey of faith in action: the journey took over four months on foot from Ahava Canal to Jerusalem : Ezra was indeed a man of God with godly wisdom (as commended by the king). He waited upon the Lord before making big decisions and knew how to listen to the Holy Spirit. This is illustrated as follows:

STRATEGY FOR RIGHT RECRUITS

1. He assembled the exiles who volunteered to return with him at the Ahava Canal and camped there three days. He went over the list to identify whether he had all the personnel needed according to the requirement of God. He took immediate action to fill the gap when he found that there was no Levite exile volunteer.

2.  He identified nine appropriate leaders of the people and two men of discernment to be special envoys to invite Levite exiles to join them. He sent them to the right place for the right recruits. Indeed they succeeded.

STRATEGY FOR RIGHT (SAFE) JOURNEY

1. Fast: He gave orders to all to fast and humble themselves before God.

2. Pray: He led others to earnestly pray that God give a safe journey and protect them, their children, and their goods as they traveled.

3. Faith Confession: He gave testimony to the king, “Our God’s hand of protection is on all who worship Him, but His fierce anger rages against those who abandoned Him.” (8:22)

4. Faith in Action: He appointed 12 leaders of the priests to take charge of transporting the treasures to the temple of God: He declared positively, “You and these treasures have been set apart as holy to the Lord”, “guard these treasures well“. (8:24-25,28-29,30)

RESULTS

(1) PHYSICAL SAFETY: “And the gracious hand of our God protected us and saved us from enemies and bandits along the way. So we arrived safely in Jerusalem, where we rested for three days.” (8:31-32)

(2) SPIRITUAL ACCOUNTABILITY: “On the fourth day after our arrival, the silver, gold and other valuables were weighed at the temple of our God..”, “eeverything was accounted for by number and weight, and the total weight was officially recorded.” (8:33, 34)

(Watchman’s Application: The treasures must be verified by both number and weight. Teaching is same. The outcome (fruit) will be judged according to its quality as well as the quantity assigned to the watchman. Be faithful and be alert to the Holy Spirit’s guidance!)