The Good Hand of God

The Story

Ezra was a scholar and a priest living in Babylon, generations after the Jews had been carried into exile. Some of his people had already gone back to rebuild Jerusalem. But they were struggling, and they needed teaching.

Ezra had “prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach.” So he went to the most powerful man in the world, Artaxerxes, king of Persia, and made his request.

The king gave him everything he asked for. He gave Ezra a letter of permission and silver and gold from his own treasury for the temple. He ordered the officials west of the Euphrates to give Ezra wheat, wine, oil, and salt, and even silver, up to set limits. He declared that the priests serving at the temple wouldn’t have to pay taxes.

Ezra knew this wasn’t his own skill at work. He wrote, “Blessed be the LORD God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king’s heart.”

Before the long, dangerous journey, Ezra was too embarrassed to ask the king for soldiers. He had told the king that God protects those who seek Him. So the people fasted and prayed instead. And God brought them safely all the way to Jerusalem.

Reflection