“For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the LORD, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel.”
~ Ezra 7:10
Hi James and Ellen,
The time has arrived. The moment is here. Who will lead? Who will go? How about money? How about food? It is April 8, 458 B.C. Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar 128 years earlier had killed King Zedekiah – Judah’s king. The Israelite people group’s guys and gals – God’s specially chosen guys and gals, had been for 128 years living as Babylonian servants. When Persia conquered Babylon, Persia became the ruling power over the region – including Israel’s land area. Artaxerxes is Persia’s king. Ezra is a scribe. The first contingent of Israelite guys and gals – God’s specially chosen guys, and gals, had returned to Jerusalem about 80 years earlier. Cyrus – in his first year of being Persia’s king, had let a group of God’s specially chosen guys and gals return to their homes in Jerusalem and in Judah. This first group of returning Israelite people group’s guys and gals took some of the temple belongings with them back to Jerusalem. Guys would spend the next 80 years putting off rebuilding the temple that was in Jerusalem. Now it was Ezra’s turn to return to Jerusalem. The only way at this time to get from one place to another place was to walk. Ezra and the Israelite people group’s guys, gals and kids who went with him had to walk about 900 miles from where they started in Babylon to where they finally ended up in Jerusalem. Ezra and God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids who went with him arrived in Jerusalem four months later on August 8, 458 B.C. Ezra arrived in Jerusalem with a letter from Artaxerxes. Ezra 7 has the historical record of this trek that took place in Artaxerxes’s seventh year as a Persian king. Ezra’s lineage or family tree went back to Aaron. As an expert on the law of Moses, Ezra had become a well-known teacher scribe. Ezra took with him to Jerusalem priests, singers, temple gatekeepers, temple servants and Levites. Ezra did not lack for food or for money for his journey to Jerusalem; Artaxerxes had given Ezra everything that he had asked for for his travel and for his time in Jerusalem.
The story of Ezra and his going to Jerusalem is a story of God’s graciousness and mercy towards the guys, gals and kids who God calls His specially chosen guys, gals and kids. God blesses guys, gals and kids who do what they need to do to listen for God’s voice and leading. Even though Ezra was a very capable leader, verse 10 say “For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the LORD, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel.” Ezra was a student of God’s Word. Ezra just did not study God’s Word; Ezra taught God’s Word to other guys. Your grandpaa knows that it really pleases God for a guy, gal or kid to study His Word. Your grandpaa knows that it really pleases God when a guy or gal teaches His Word to other guys, gals and kids. Your grandpaa knows that God will bless guys and gals who teach His Word to other guys, gals and kids. God will use a guy who He has decided to use even if the guy is like a guy like Artaxerxes – who did not worship Him, to do and to complete His perfect will on planet Earth. Nothing will ever happen outside of God’s perfect plan – which God designed before He created planet Earth and which God is continuously unfolding every single nanosecond of every single day.
God’s way of doing things totally belies coincidence and practical reasoning. God’s ways of doing things are always perfectly timed. A way that God blesses guys and gals who faithfully seek His perfect will is to give to them what they ask. When your grandmaa and grandpaa began to hear God’s voice – after your grandmaa and grandpaa began to attend regularly the Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) Church in Aberdeen, South Dakota, your grandmaa and grandpaa began to regularly ask God what His perfect will was for their lives. The more that your grandmaa and grandpaa asked God what His perfect will was for their lives, the more opportunities your grandmaa and grandpaa were given to proactively be involved in the ongoing activities in the Aberdeen C&MA Church. Your grandmaa and grandpaa taught Sunday School classes, your grandpaa led and spoke at times during Wednesday night prayer services, your grandmaa and grandpaa with a couple of friends went door to door evangelizing, your grandmaa and grandpaa were the impetus for a couples club that met monthly to fellowship and your grandmaa and grandpaa wanted to be in church every time that the church doors were open. The two years that your grandmaa and grandpaa attended the Aberdeen C&MA Church taught your grandmaa and grandpaa to wait on God – to let God be in control of their lives. Ezra waited on God. God in His perfect timing allowed Ezra to head for Jerusalem with everything that he possibly could have needed or wanted. God knows what your grandmaa and grandpaa need as they serve Him as His servants in Guatemala. Your grandpaa is absolutely convinced that there are no limits to the resources that are available from God for your grandmaa and grandpaa for whatever it is that God has called your grandmaa and grandpaa to do. Your grandpaa also is totally convinced that God – in His perfect timing, will at just the right time release the resources that your grandmaa and grandpaa need for whatever it is that God has called your grandmaa and grandpaa to do. After your dad went to the Santa Cruz Christian Learning Center for a year, your dad met a kid who was going to Tambo – which was the New Tribes Missions missionary kids school in Bolivia, leading your dad to ask if could go to Tambo. Because money was still owed to the missionary kids’ school in Santa Cruz, your grandmaa and grandpaa told your dad to pray for money to pay that debt and then . . . out of the blue a couple of days later a couple who attended the Aberdeen C&MA Church sent in a specially designated gift that was large enough to cancel the debt that your grandmaa and grandpaa had with the Santa Cruz Christian Learning Center.
Ezra 7 (237)