Ezra 7:12-26, God’s blessing After the Exile

From the book of Ezra there is one thing that really stands out to me.  Israel is not in the “times of the Gentiles,” when the Gentiles/Nations have governing authority over God’s people.  In terms of the four great world empires of Daniel 2 and 7 (Babylon, Medo/Persia, Greece and Rome), the Jews are under the second.  The Babylonians completed the removal of Israel from “the Land.”  Under Cyrus the king of Persia, they were encouraged to return and build a temple (Ezra 1:1-4).

We said that Cyrus “encouraged” the people.  It’s true!  Once, with the prodding of God’s prophets, Haggai and Zechariah (5:1-2) and they cleared the legal roadblocks, it is amazing how much freedom Israel had to be “Jewish.”  Read Ezra 6:6-12 and 7:12-26.  The cost of building the temple was paid by the king.  The king encouraged restoring the sacrificial system (so they could pray for the king and his sons).  Ezra was instructed by the king’s command to teach the “Law of your God,” the very thing Ezra desired and intended to do.  And he brought a caravan loaded with financial backing from the king. 

Why was there such support?  It was because of “the LORD God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem, and has extended mercy to me before the king and his counselors, and before all the king’s mighty princes. So I was encouraged, as the hand of the LORD my God was upon me; and I gathered leading men of Israel to go up with me” (Ezra 7:27-28). 

This blessing of God in the return of the Jews to the Land is continued in the book of Nehemiah.  In the very first chapter, in answer to Nehemiah’s prayer, the LORD put it on the heart of Artaxerxes (Neh. 2:1) to permit Nehemiah to go to the Land and to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.  You can tell from Nehemiah’s attitude and prayer that this was not automatic.  The kings favor was favor from the LORD.

What kind of man was Nehemiah?

·       He was the king’s cupbearer (1:11).  This was a position of high rank in the government (cf. Gen. 41:9; 2 Ki. 18:17).

·       He became governor of Judah (5:14).  He held the position twelve years.  This verse tells us he and his brothers did not live off the taxes levied on the people, though they had a right to it.  That tells us …

·       He was a true servant-leader (5:14).  We will talk about this in the next post.

·       He was a man of prayer.  Nine prayers of Nehemiah are recorded in the book that bears his name, and the type of prayers they are suggest that this might be a memoir or a diary, chronicling his work as governor.

·       He was a man of great leadership ability.  Again, as we spend some time in this book, this will be very apparent. 

May God use this man of God to encourage us to be true followers of Christ.