There we go. All right. Let me open this up in prayer and then we’re going to dig in. Father God, thank you. Thank you again for a Wednesday night that we pause in the middle of our week and we get to dig into your word and understand you better, understand your heart, your kingdom, how to live more like you and how to understand the world better because of you. God, thank you for everybody who gave up their time. Thank you for just the opportunity. This is a blessing to be together. Guide us as we dig in tonight. Help us to understand. Help us to wrestle with questions and help us to come out better understanding you. We ask all this in your name. Amen.
All right, so as promised, we are doing chapter 7 and 8. In very classic, those of you that I’m still new to you will find this out. I tend to dream big, and then you start studying and prepping, and you realize, oof, I needed to backpedal. So 7 and 8 is the plan tonight. I wish it was just 7, because 7 is really, really great. That said, we’re going to read on your papers. I copied some. I am going to still keep reminding people to bring Bibles because we’ll cover some verses that are not on the paper. But the core stuff that’s most discussed is on that side of the paper. Before we read chapter 7 and part of chapter 8, the back of your paper has a question there at the top. It’s outlined in black.
And this is kind of, we don’t have to necessarily discuss yet, we’ll come back to it, but I want to frame our discussion this way. What truly sits at the center of your decision making? When you think about how you process stuff, how you make decisions, what are the things that shape your choices, maybe your priorities, the things that you hope? I tell kids at school sometimes, the things you catch yourself daydreaming about. The things that you kind of hope for and look toward, what shapes that? And then is your life rooted in the things that, I’m sorry, what in your life is actually rooted in the things that provide clarity or stability?
I think tonight is a really neat opportunity. Like, I really love chapter 7. Like, if there was, we’d pick one chapter, and then it, I’m going to admit this now. A couple of folks that are in my Sunday school class know that I do this. I tend to have favorites. And then I have, as I keep going, I have other favorites. So I’m at least, at least with me on this. It’s like, oh, this is my new favorite. I mean, I was reading, I’m in Hosea now with my like, I got a little bit ahead. And man, it just, I was, I remember going, my, my RA in college, my freshman year, taught through Hosea. And I remember thinking it was real dry. No part of me, freshman Brian, enjoyed Hosea. And rereading Hosea this time, I’m just like, man, gosh, we’re just like over. And it’s so dumb. Anyway, so it’s like my new favorite because I read it this morning. Anyway, you’ll get used to me.
But this is a neat week because I think what we see in this, really, gosh, a few verses of chapter 7 even, show us this moment that Ezra’s a great example of what should shape the way we view the world, the way we make decisions, the way that we trust. It’s beautiful. So enough said, we need to let scripture speak for itself. Let’s read chapter 7, and we’re gonna read 1 through 10. Now, the paper I gave you just has 1 and then 6 through 10, but I’m gonna read 1 through 10.
After these events, during the reign of King Artaxerxes of Persia, Ezra, Sarai’s son, Azariah’s son, Hilkiah’s son, Shalom’s son, Zadok’s son, Ahathub’s son, Amariah’s son, Azariah’s son, Meriath’s son, Zeruiah’s son, Uzi’s son, Buki’s son, Abishua’s son, Phinehas’ son, Eleazar’s son, the chief priest Aaron’s son, came up from Babylon. He was a scribe, skilled in the law of Moses, which the Lord, the God of Israel, had given. The king had granted him everything he requested because the hand of the Lord his God was on him. Some of the Israelites, priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, and temple servants accompanied him to Jerusalem in the 7th year of King Artaxerxes. Ezra came to Jerusalem in the 5th month during the 7th year of the king. He began the journey from Babylon on the 1st day of the 1st month and arrived in Jerusalem on the 1st day of the 5th month since the gracious hand of God was on him. Now Ezra had determined in his heart to study the law of God, obey it, and teach its statutes and ordinances in Israel.
So we’re starting there. We’ll see how this works this week. I am. But thank you for reminding me. I really appreciate that. Because there have been many times you get 10 minutes in and you’re like, oh, thankfully I did. With this, I mean, this part is just, if we had to really dial down the whole week’s lesson into my favorite section, it’s here. And it just starts this 2-chapter section we’re doing tonight in such a neat way. What we see when we look at this section is we see this introduction of who Ezra is. Like the very first few verses, we see, I guess it’s 1 through 5. It’s unfolded. Who is this guy, Ezra? Why should we listen? But then, verses 6 through 10, we start to see the heart behind what he’s actually doing. And I think I did put that in the handout. Yep.
Verses 1 through 5, intro of Ezra and the line back to Aaron. And then 6 through 10, it’s Ezra’s heart, his sincerity, and his love of the word, which we’re going to really dig into because that got me excited, not surprising. It’s neat. So if you’re looking at your Bible, I’m not going to reread all those names that I absolutely butchered, although I didn’t make anyone else do it because, yeah. But we can read verse 1 where it just says, after these events, during the reign of King Artaxerxes of Persia, Ezra, and then we see the short lineage.
So one of the commentaries I read said it’s not actually a complete lineage. Like they kind of hit the high names versus listing every single name all the way back. But if you notice in verse 5, it says Phinehas’ son, Eleazar’s son, the chief priest Aaron’s son. So Ezra himself, do you see who he goes back to in his family? I mean, he’s of the line of Aaron. And Aaron was the first high priest of Israel that was Moses’ brother that was appointed to be the intermediary between him and God’s people. So it’s neat. I mean, it’s a very dorky fact, but that’s a special thing. I’m trying to remember. I wrote in my notes, and hopefully I can find it quick.
When you think about this idea of legacy and genealogy, it is really easy. Anyone in your family, do you have anybody that just has gone down the rabbit hole of, like, Ancestry.com for, like, maybe it’s you. You don’t have to raise your hand. Like, I appreciate those Fleming members who have given me the very neat, you know, fold-out paper they’ve made of, like, how it traces back to so-and-so. I think it’s neat. I don’t really know their names, and I don’t know where the paper is anymore, but it was probably in the fire. So I had the digital copy somewhere. That’s like all of life now is going to be like, do I still have that? No. Did I rebuy that? No idea. But that’s fine.
I remember, like, looking at it, and you can see when people left. It wasn’t called Germany, but, like, Prussia or whatever Austria was at the time. And you can see, like, they left. At some point, they were born in, like, early 1800s, and they showed up here by 1830. And we don’t know exactly when and where and how they got here, but that’s cool. Like, that’s a fun. Obviously, Ezra’s is much more impressive than, you know, mine. None of my people were important people. But Ezra’s family goes back to Aaron. And while the way that this, the couple commentaries I was reading yesterday, you can’t, they phrased it like this. You can’t necessarily hang your hat on genealogy and just assume that because you have good genetics, like, everything works out. Everybody knows that’s not true. But it also doesn’t mean we should ignore it just because it’s not always true.
True. There are times that like families just do a really great job of like passing on a love of something to their family members. And it continues on through life. And we see that. I’ve got to find in my notes where I wrote it. It’s going to annoy me. It’ll come up. This is a neat thing about about Ezra. But we have to look on. So chapter 6. I’m sorry. Gosh. Verse 6. I’ll read this. And I think it’s on your paper. Yep, you’ve got 6 through 10. So this is where we’re going to hover longer.
So Ezra comes up from Babylon, him being a scribe skilled in the law of Moses, which the Lord, the God of Israel, had given. And the king granted him everything he requested because the hand of the Lord, his God, was on him. Some of the Israelites, the priests, the Levites, the singers, the gatekeepers, and temple servants accompanied him to Jerusalem in the 7th year of King Artaxerxes. Ezra came to Jerusalem in the 5th month during the 7th year of the king. He began the journey from Babylon on the 1st day of the 1st month and arrived in Jerusalem on the 1st day of the 5th month, since the gracious hand of his God was on him. Now Ezra had determined in his heart to study the law of the Lord. Obey it and teach its statutes and ordinances in Israel.
So any guesses my favorite verse? It’s verse 10. Verse 10 is so good. I mean, what a way, like, to be written about that forever in scripture, that that was the heart of this guy, is a really special. His legacy, really great. Really neat that he goes back to Aaron. Very cool. But even neater, that that’s what was written about him. That he was determined in his heart to study the law of the Lord, obey it, and teach it. That’s special. Talk about something to be known for. So there are many. I put some questions on the handout this week trying to help, I don’t know, break this thing up a little bit differently. There is lots to talk about. But the first one I do want to pause at before we get too into it. It says, how does Ezra’s long story begin? Challenge the way we view our own spiritual journey the people places history god used to shape us it’s funny when you write questions like a couple days before then you read them the night of and you’re like why did i write that question that way i don’t even like it that way that’s just honest moments but i’m going to rephrase slightly when we look at this: Ezra’s coming right after, like it’s been decades since the first group came back to rebuild the city and to rebuild the altar and build the temple. He’s coming decades later. This is not immediately after.
And then verse 1 of chapter 7, it’s after these events, during the reign of King Artaxerxes. Like all that’s happening a little later. But then he comes up and it also, it’s alluded to that it takes several months for them to make it. I think it was 900 miles. I think as the bird flies, crow flies, so you can pick your bird. As the crow flies, I think it was 500 miles from the city back to Jerusalem. But the way they went was 900 miles. So it took them months to make it back. This wasn’t an overnight, like, let me just drive down to Springfield and run back in the morning. I mean, it takes time. Or Uber. I have never Ubered. I have no idea how to do it. And at this point, I’m afraid to ask. I’ll hike. If I have to go somewhere and I don’t have a car, I’ll just hike. It’s fine.
It’s not a quick journey is the heart of that question. When you think about Ezra, this takes time and it takes preparation. And as we read, we’re going to see in the rest of 7, he did not leave immediately after the king gave permission. They did some prep work. So when we think about how long these things take to happen, how do we handle that when things take longer than we wish? Does anybody love when things take longer than you wish? Course not but have you seen before how god uses the waiting for really good things yeah it’s so hard to remember that though in the moment because we’re we’re just a little impatient um but in this time like we get to see that and i think the most important part i’ll go back to verse 10 is ezra’s heart for what he’s doing: I think when he knows exactly what he’s about and he knows what he’s called to do and how he’s going to go about it, it makes the waiting a lot easier.
Because in the end it says, or the end of that little section, like, now Ezra had determined in his heart to study the law of the Lord, obey it, and teach its statutes and ordinances in Israel. He knew what his mission was. He knew exactly what he was called to do. He knew who he was. And he knew what the Lord had charged him with. The waiting is still not easy, but it’s a little more, I think, conjecture. In my life, it has been easier to hold on to whatever the thing is that’s taking a long time when you know what you’re about. And you know the thing you’re called to, and you’re unwavering and steadfast in your decision. And Ezra is that guy. He is resolute. He is steadfast. He is dead set. And I see it because in verse 10 it says, actually, look at it. What does it say about his attitude? It’s the first few words. He had determined. He prepared his heart. He determined in his heart.
This was not just, yeah, I think that’s a good idea, friends. It was like, no, this is so near and dear to him. There is no changing his mind because his heart has now been set on this thing. Which the second question, I’m kind of curious what you all think. What does it mean to set your heart towards something? What does it mean to set our hearts towards something? Something you love, you’re counting on it, you’re striving. You’re determined. I mean, setting your heart is way different than… I don’t know, something as silly as going to the grocery store and knowing I really want that kind of ice cream. And then settling for the second best because they never have Millennium Crunch.
Blue Bell has this ice cream, Millennium Crunch. It’s their best name, and it’s such good ice cream. I don’t like ice creams that have extra caramel and things in them. I just want little bits of crunch here. Anyway, kind of boring. It’s so good. But when you go to Deerburg’s and they don’t have it, you’re like, ugh, schnooks. So then you go to schnooks and they don’t have it, and you’re like, ugh. And then you have to pick something else. This is not that. My heart was not set. I mean, I probably dramatically would have told you in a moment. Your stomach was. My stomach was set on it. Deerburg’s, schnooks, and then where did you go after that? You just give up. You just give up. That’s all you got. I don’t know. Does anyone else sell that? It really is. It really is.
Thankfully, living in Concord Village, you have lots of grocery store options in a tiny bubble. It’s a little bit easy to feel spoiled sometimes. You like it more when it’s set in your heart than when it’s set in your mind. Right. And that’s really it. I often have my mind set on things. I am naturally a planner. The way my brain works, I’m always kind of working on a plan, and I pivot all the time. But I like plans because it at least kind of gets me prepared for whatever’s the next step, whether it’s something at school, something with the kids, something at home. That’s the way my brain’s always worked. Those of you that know some of my family members, I come from a long line of analytical planners. I just… I’m still the black sheep of big and loud. But I think I embarrassed my family, but it’s okay. I’m not your mother. Yes, she’s embarrassed by me all the time, and it’s fine. I don’t even care anymore. She hatched me. She knows. She knows.
You know, as much as I have my mind set on things, like even going into school. I get to school really early because of some of the stuff I do. And I have my mind set on, like, my schedule. I’m hoping to get these things done on my to-do list. I don’t have my heart set on those things. I don’t walk away disappointed because my to-do list of way too many things didn’t happen today. You move on. Having your heart set on something when it doesn’t happen is just agonizing. But when we have our heart set on something, it also changes our drive to get it done. When our mind is set on something, like, again, I have to-do list stickies on my desk. They’re so cool. Did you know you could buy those online? Man, like, Amazon’s great sometimes. But the kids make fun of me for my to-do list. But they’re great, because otherwise I would never remember to do anything.
But the to-do list, I never finish all the things on it. But my heart wasn’t set on that. I don’t go home set. I go home and I’m like, great, I’ll make a new to-do list tomorrow. It’ll be pretty. It’ll be great. But this is the man that we’re looking at. And I think we can’t drive that home enough, this idea that Ezra’s heart is set on studying the law of the Lord, obeying it, and teaching it to the people of Israel. Like, yeah, he’s important. His family line goes back to Aaron. He’s a big guy. He’s clearly important because he says in verse 6, he’s a scribe skilled in the law of Moses, which the Lord, the God of Israel, gave. And then the king even granted him everything he requested because the hand of the Lord is on him. He’s important. You bet. But that’s not the thing he cares the most about. He cares the most about God’s word and understanding it and obeying it and teaching it. And that’s really special. And it’s so special that his heart has said it.
So I think, I wrote this as the second part of the question, but it’s, I don’t know if it’s really a question as much as a thought. Think about how many people would say, oh, yeah, like the Bible is really important. Like, yeah, of course it is. Think about how that’s different from like, you either like or respect scripture and My heart is set. This is the air that I breathe. This is the thing that when I’m confused or I’m frustrated or I’m waiting or I don’t know the answer, I’m going to go back and I’m going to read Psalm 119 or Psalm 1 or Psalm 32 or Psalm 20. Because I know that grounds me in the midst of the storm. And it’s awesome. And that’s who Ezra was. His heart was set on it.
And I think that’s such an important caveat. I know kids at school who would genuinely say, oh, yeah, I’m a Christian. I have a Bible verse in my Instagram bio. And you’re like, that does not make someone a Christian. That’s cute that you have a Bible verse on Instagram. There’s a difference. What’s a Bible verse? Yes, what actual, did you actually write the verse out? Do you know what the words are of that Bible verse? Or do you just have, you know, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. There was a meme I saw once, and memes, you know, being like those goofy things on Facebook that are like, you know, funny. And it said, I can do all things through a verse taken out of context. Quoting like that, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I giggled for a long time. It does not take much to tickle me, but…
Nevertheless, this idea of setting our heart, when we look, I mean, the exact example is of Scripture. And we have to also challenge ourselves constantly, like not just enjoying or liking or respecting Scripture, but living in Scripture. You know, there’s an old Spurgeon quote. It’s like, I think, visit many good books but live in the Bible. It’s something to that effect. It’s a great quote. Like, that should be the thing that we’re just always going back to because it does crown us. And I genuinely believe when it says in verse 6, like, he was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses. That correlates to verse 10. He was determined in his heart. He had his heart set on this because he had spent so much time studying it. It had changed him. It had transformed him. And really studying scripture should transform us. It shouldn’t just be like, I know more facts. It should be transformative.
<I think he was my hermeneutics professor, which is like Bible interpretation and understanding scripture. I had that class early on in seminary, and I was very intimidated by it. It’s one of those things that just felt very over my head. And it was not intimidating at all because our professor, Dr. Vickers, for starters, the very first Zoom call we had with him, he had his phone propped up on his mountain bike and he was mountain biking on the trail behind his house to introduce himself. And I’m like, whoa, I can get on board with this guy. And somehow you’re talking to me while mountain biking? You’re not crashing and you’re speaking? Anyway, better shape than I am.
But he said early on, and he mentioned it often, he was like, you know, there are many methods of biblical interpretation. And there’s a million great resources, and you can go learn Greek and Hebrew, and you can learn Aramaic, and you can, it’s amazing. He’s like, but the best thing you can do, and anyone can do this, is just keep reading their Bible over and over again, the whole thing. And they start to see the connections. Like, it’s impossible for their brain not to be like, oh, I was just reading that, and that reminds me of such and such. And then if you get smart, which I’m not smart, you look at your references in the bottom of the Bible and you realize, oh, someone else did that for me.
But it’s still really neat, and Dr. Vickers was right. The more that we abide in it, the more that we study the whole thing, the more our brain makes those connections, and we see it, and it’s neat. And that’s who Ezra was. So I know I really drove that in hard, but I wrote in one commentary, I highlighted this in my notes so I couldn’t forget. It says, clearly he was a beaver, which I like that animal, a beaver for Torah, the word of God, and living it out, and rubbing it into the pores of God’s people.
I’ll say it again because I liked it so much. I should have put on the notes. Clearly, he was a beaver, a beaver for Torah and God’s word, for living it out and rubbing it into the pores of God’s people. I mean, the word picture alone is weird, but really good. He’s so tenacious for, that he’s just devouring. I mean, a beaver. I went down there behind the villa houses and the woods that used to be some of the church. And there were so many cool beaver logs that had been like annihilated. I mean, and you see some of these and you’re like, how big is that beaver? I mean, like big teeth marks.
When you think about that, like the tenacity of a beaver just destroying trees and place that on Ezra. But not only that, wanting to live it out and rubbing it into the pores of God’s people. That’s a guy I want to hang out with. Like, what a neat guy. And then that’s who Ezra was, despite the fact that he was relatively important and he was respected by the king because he was given what he needed.
So I love that, and I think it’s a neat thing that we see. So we’ll come back to a couple other thoughts. Let’s read 11 through 16. I did not copy this, so I’ll read to you unless you have a Bible. And actually, what time is it? Okay, we’re good. If you have a Bible, I’m going to read from verse 11 onward.
This is the text of the letter King Artaxerxes gave Ezra the priest and scribe, an expert in matters of the Lord’s commands and statutes for Israel. Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the priest, an expert in the law of the God of the heavens. Greetings. I issue a decree that any of the Israelites in my kingdom, including their priests and Levites who want to go to Jerusalem, may go with you.
You are sent by the king and his 7 counselors to evaluate Judah and Jerusalem according to the law of your God, which is in your possession. You are also to bring the silver and gold the king and his counselors have willingly given to the God of Israel, whose dwelling is in Jerusalem, and all the silver and gold you receive throughout the providence of Babylon, together with the freewill offerings given by the people and the priests to the house of their God in Jerusalem.
Verse 21.
I, King Artaxerxes, issue a decree to all of the treasures in the region west of the Euphrates River. Whatever Ezra the priest, an expert in the law of God of the heavens, asks of you must be provided in full. Up to 7,500 pounds of silver, 500 bushels of wheat, 5,500 gallons of wine, 55 gallons of oil, and salt without limit. Whatever is commanded by the God of heavens must be done diligently for the house of the God of heaven so that wrath will not fall on the realm of the king and his sons.
Be advised that you do not have authority to impose tribute, duty, and land tax on any priest, Levite, singers, doorkeepers, temple servants, or other servants of this house of God.
Verse 25.
And you, Ezra, according to God’s wisdom that you possess, appoint magistrates and judges to judge all the people in the region west of the Euphrates River who know the laws of your God and to teach anyone who does not know them.
Verse 27.
Blessed be the Lord, the God of our ancestors, who has put it into the king’s mind to glorify the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, and who has shown favor to me before the king, his counselors, and all his powerful officers. So I took courage because I was strengthened by the hand of the Lord my God, and I gathered Israelite leaders to return with me.
What about that strikes you as amazingly neat? The king must have really known about… There were a few theories I read. I don’t think anyone knows absolutely for certain, but there’s a few theories that because Ezra was so well respected by the king, that over time the king had come to understand through Ezra. And yes, providence that God worked all these things out behind the scenes, but also Ezra’s character and respect of the king and respect by the king afforded some of these opportunities. Amazing. Amazing.
I mean, we can’t dig into all of them. Like, we’ll focus on the 25 to 28 part. But you have to read the whole thing because when you read it, you just go, wow. Like, God does crazy stuff, but, like, kind of almost subtle. Like, those are not, like, I mean, it’s huge, but it’s also, like, how?
Like, you have people giving free will offerings and you have, where was it? You may use the royal treasury to pay for anything else needed for the house of your God. I mean, all these little pieces just coming into play perfectly. It’s just, I mean, it’s amazing to watch.
Those are the moments it’s hard to doubt God’s providence and sovereignty because clearly God is able to move the will of kings and men to get what he wants for his kingdom. It is interesting, though, that he says specifically, you know, I always notice that when they say, our God, your God, your God, right? That he’s still clearly not fully buying in, right? There’s still that hedge of like, there was one spot. Oh, it was verse 23. He said,
It was the only one that was like closest. Whatever is commanded by the God of the heavens must be done diligently for the house of the God of heavens. It’s like the only one that wasn’t your God. But he doesn’t still say our God. It’s like…
A little like I’m in but I’m not because I’m Artaxerxes and I’m God. It’s an odd dynamic but amazing because God’s able to use even him who thinks he is God because that was the thinking in the Babylonian empire, they were a God. Um, it’s that’s pretty awesome. Um, when you think about this, I wrote this. This is question number 3. There, I should have added numbers. I’m gonna make that note for next week. Numbers would be better. Um.
Ezra is given enormous authority. Ezra is given a crazy amount of power and authority. But with that comes a need for a great deal of responsibility. What does faithful stewardship of influence look like for us? How do we steward influence? How do we handle that well?
Because not all. There are a lot of people who want to be influential. I mean, influencer is a weirdly famous job now, or popular job for young people. And they make a fortune of money by influencing others. People love the idea of having influence. How do we do that well? How do we do that in a way that honors God? How do we steward that? Because I think it’s a gift. Like, Ezra getting that was a gift. But that means we have to steward the gift really well.
Yeah. Yeah. Uh-huh. There are… There was somewhere I read… And I’m blanking, there were like 4 or 5 words that all were similar like that, like laws, commands, decrees, ordinances, and there was one other. I don’t know if it was in a class, like seminary class, or if it was something I read. Jim, does that ring a bell at all? I’m putting you on the spot, I’m sorry. But there is something to that effect, that those words get used interchangeably a lot. And it’s not that they’re necessarily different,
But if I remember, I remember going back in the… Sort of like a facet of a gemstone, you know, looking at different… Yeah, like you’re looking at a different angle of, like… The tree you’re not losing any part of. Yeah. Like, because it comes up a lot with, like, the laws and ordinances or the decrees and commands. Like, it almost always pairs them together. Well, like, what I was thinking, kind of maybe in the way of, like, Joseph or something. Yeah. Like, where, okay, like, the king issues…
Degrees, maybe he issues commands or vice versa. That’s what I’m saying. You know, if there’s like a level. I’m honestly going to look. I’m going to look and see if I can sift through my notes. Because there was some lesson I sat through that talked about that. I’m going to jot it down. Because there was something about that. Yeah.
In Egypt, because I mean he was like second to Pharaoh. Yeah, yeah, he could issue this. Yeah, Pharaoh could issue that. Yeah, that was kind of the same thing. Yeah, I’ll look it up. I feel pretty confident somewhere in my notes, and being me, I type all my notes so I can search them easily, so I’ll add that in the email if I find something. Because it rings a bell, and I just don’t remember the details enough to say it right. Because I do think they go together. So when you think about the idea of stewarding influence, how do we handle power? How do we handle authority? How do we responsibly handle influence? Because Ezra had it. I mean…
He’s more important than us. You know, his family line goes back to Aaron himself. And he clearly has the ear of the king and the trust of the king. And he has this great heart that’s spoken of. So he has a great deal of influence. How do we handle that faithfully? Hmm. Both.
Arneal said, we the people or the leader. I think both are interesting. The people won’t follow if the leader is not true. Yeah, is not faithful in that. And I think they go together really well. I’m glad you hit on that. It’s also preparation. Yeah. He was a long time doing the word before. Yep. And he just kicked off. Yep. So it was like the calling came after the preparation. Yeah. Even though some of it was, in his instance,
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Skilled in law, Moses. The God of Israel had given. Yeah. So we have even more support for internal support from the scripture. Yeah. Of the origin of scripture. Yep. The law of Moses didn’t come from Moses. Right. It came from the Lord. From the Lord. Yeah. The God of Israel. Yep.
And that’s a very important distinction that we must hold onto. But yeah, it’s almost like stereophonic, right? He’s saying he studied this, and then all this happened. And he studied, and he’s kind of hard for it.
Making it very clear, yeah, that this person was favored because God had prepared him because he had prepared as well. Yeah, which is such a cool thought because you see that mirrored this idea of the law came from the Lord. The Lord put this on his heart, but then I did not count… I should have in 7 and 8 the number of times it says the Lord’s hand was on them. Like, it brings that and it kind of with that thought of like this came from the Lord, but yet also the Lord’s hand was on them.
Man, what a place to be. Like, it had to have been a little scary. Like, and there’s actually a moment, like in 8, we’ll see it. We’re like.
He doesn’t want to ask the king for protection. Like, he wants to, like, because they told the king, like, the Lord’s going to be with us because we’re faithful to the Lord. So, like, but there’s, of course, natural, I mean, you’re taking, which we haven’t read yet, thousands of pounds of gold and silver on a train, which, I don’t know, camels or animals of some kind moving back to the Holy Land. Like, that’s not a safe thing. I mean…
Your mom always told you not to carry too much cash on you. And that was like $100, not thousands of pounds of wagon loads of precious gems and medals. It’s incredible. But I love how much it has the Lord’s hands on them.
Right. Like, I’m not just, like, popping over to Commerce to make a quick deposit. I mean, it’s like, I won’t tell you where, but I still am the old man who hides cash in my house. So I’ll let you figure out if you ever get it. I went back in, and I found… So embarrassing. I found 3 of 4 caches. I had 4 caches around the house. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. My mom gets mad. She’s like, what’s wrong with you? You could be earning interest. You know this. You’re a business teacher. You have an MBA, Brian.
And I’m like, yeah, but it’s cash. I wanted to keep it. I don’t know. Something’s wrong with me. I don’t know. It’s…
Yeah, as long as you don’t bury it to the dead. I mean, yeah, something’s wrong with me. It makes her mad regularly. And then she and my wife gang up on me. It’s really fun. It’s fun when you’re. I don’t think you’re the only one that does. I’m regularly ganged up on. I am regularly ganged up on. But that’s okay. Life goes on.
This idea of faithful stewardship is important and we see it. It’s gonna unfold more so we’ll come back to that question a little bit when we read 8, but Ezra does a great job. I mean he has an immense amount of influence but he handles it beautifully and again because the hand of the Lord is on it, but when we look back, let’s see there’s 2 or 3 noteworthy things in that passage, one.
I’m going to read 25 and 26, which I think I did copy in your notes, yeah. And you, Ezra, this is from Artaxerxes to Ezra. And you, Ezra, according to God’s wisdom that you possess, that alone is a cool thought, appoint magistrates and judges to judge all the people in the region west of the Euphrates who know the laws of your God and to teach anyone who does not know them. Artaxerxes just told Ezra, because God has given you wisdom,
You should appoint magistrates and judges to make sure that people obey the law of your God and teach your God’s law. It’s crazy. And then 26, anyone who does not keep the law of your God and the law of the king, let the appropriate judgment be executed against him, whether death, banishment, confiscation of property, or imprisonment. Whoa. Like not only has Artaxerxes provided everything they need,
And given them more money and more blessing than would have thought possible from a very pagan king. He then also tells him, hey, because God’s made you wise, you need to make sure that the people live according to these laws. The laws of God. The laws of Yahweh. Not him. Yahweh. I like how he tacked on the N and the law of the king. It’s like you can follow the laws of your God.
He did tack that on. And I think that that part’s so neat, and clearly Ezra did too, because Ezra’s words are verse 27 and 28. And this, I wrote in the notes, I think I called it Ezra’s, yeah, Ezra’s doxology. Blessed be the Lord, the God of our ancestors, who has put it into the king’s mind to glorify the house of the Lord in Jerusalem,
and who has shown favor to me before the king, his counselors, and all his powerful officers. So I took courage because I was strengthened by the hand of the Lord my God, and I gathered Israelite leaders to return with me. I mean, sometimes you just have to praise the Lord. Like there’s absolutely nothing, like no other response would make sense.
Like, when you read all of the decrees from, I think it’s verse 11 through 26, you can’t possibly do… You have to have, like, no heart and no brain to not hear Artaxerxes, the great pagan king, and not go, wow, God, I can’t believe it. I mean, it’s amazing. So that’s why I called that little last bit this doxology. Doxology meaning praise.
And so the question I wrote there, number 4, or the last question there is, sometimes you just have to praise the Lord. The circumstances move you deeply. But how can we recover the habit of doxology? Think about the ways that God is kind to us every single day that we don’t even realize. The things we fail to thank him for. And I know we can’t thank him literally for every breath, even though every breath is a gift.
But there are so many ways that I think we could recover a habit of praise for the little things. I put it in my notes somewhere. I think sometimes it’s easy. I’ve said this before. I’ll probably say it again, so forgive me. We live in a world where being impressive is the thing that gets the most attention.
Not everyday faithfulness. Not like one faithful, trusting step in front of another. But in God’s kingdom, one’s not more important than the other. And this is such a simple moment of praise. Even though it’s a really, really big thing that God has done. And it’s a miraculous, long, long line of providence paving the way for them to return.
Worship was the only response. But we should worship God even in those little things too. As silly as it is. Like, this is a goofy, like, I will really, this is a goofy example. Pre-fire. Like, our house is very ordinary. Like, 3-bedroom ranch, like, built in the 50s, super normal house. And, but walking down the hallway from, like, the bedrooms were all there on one little hall. And then the living room, dining room, kitchen.
And we had worked in the house for 11 years. Like, it was almost done. Like, it was beat up when we moved in. But, like, in the living room, we had bought this really, I mean, it’s Ikea, but it was this really pretty Ikea white, like, bookcases with glass doors. And it was, like, one of those things we’d saved up for. I just loved that thing because, like, I don’t know, there’s nothing prettier than glass bookcases. I’m a dork. But I liked them.
And just walking down the hall, and it’s, again, this is how silly this is. My chair was right, like, at the end of that, like, you know, line of sight there. And it was the chair my grandpa had bought me when I graduated college and, you know, moved into the K-Life house. So it was, like, a special chair that, like, I really loved that chair. And it had, like, it was right by my, I had this old brass lamp I got at a thrift store, and, like, all my nice books were right there.
And I don’t know why. Every time I walked down that hallway, I was just really thankful. And it’s silly. I know that’s silly. But every time it just felt like, man, like what a pretty spot. Like, you know, it was not a flashy house. It’s not a it was not big. It still isn’t like it is just normal. But it was that was like, I mean, I can see it right there. It wasn’t even that far. And I just loved that spot.
That’s the kind of, like, it’s silly, but we should be thankful even when God catches us in those moments and we’re like, that’s pretty cool. Like, again, silly. But why is that not a gift too? You know, why is it?
I’ve said this before, too. I loved when our kids used to go to, there’s a Kindercare, Twin Oaks, I think it’s Big Bend and 141. You drive over the Valley Park Bridge, and I used to love that bridge because I would drive over as the sun’s coming up over the train bridge side, and then the sun would be going down on the other side, and in the winter, the ice starts. Man, I loved that drive. I had so many very dangerously taken pictures that I’m like,
Like driving, you know, thankfully most of the time traffic is slow, so it’s not that dangerous. But silly. But shouldn’t those be the things we thank God for too? And I think deeply when we get in the habit of thanking God for even those silly things. Oh, man, a good parking space. Absolutely. This is funny. I didn’t even think about this until now.
That stoplight going on to Big Bend off of 141, it’s crazy long. It goes really far diagonally. And if we would hit the light right in the morning and it was green, all 3 of my kids would be like, thank you, Jesus. Because that light was so long. If we missed the light, the kids knew, oh, dad’s going to be late to school now. And you’re like, yeah, dad is going to be late to school. But I genuinely believe.
The way I wrote that is kind of silly now, but when we get in that habit of praise and doxology for the little things in life, that changes our mindset. It changes our hearts. And then when God does the big things that we may not have noticed otherwise, now we see them and we can actually glorify God and go, this was only him. This is me.
I know I’m harping on a few of these things, but I genuinely believe we see, like throughout scripture, people changed.
Secular psychology has even caught up with the Bible now. Everywhere you go now, it’s like, practice gratitude. And you’re like, duh. Christians have been saying it forever. Be thankful. Thank the Lord for the blessings you have. Count them.
And it’s amazing. I love when that stuff happens. And people, like, you go to the books, like, oh my gosh, Dollar Tree. And they have gratitude journals now at even Dollar Tree. Like… It’s amazing. One, you don’t need to buy gratitude. One, a regular piece of paper works too.
But it changes us, and now we see it, and it’s amazing. So it does. It genuinely rewires, like, the way your brain processes setback and frustration.
We spend a lot of time, probably too much. Nah, not too much. Kids don’t have a lot of grit now. And a lot of it is this idea of, like, I know I teach business, but we talk about the entrepreneurial mindset, and the entrepreneurial mindset is that you don’t see failure as like, oh, you see it as like, okay, now I know not how to do that.
Let me pick up and try the next step. It’s really growth mindset, in which grade school kids are taught that everywhere. Do they still talk growth mindset? Some?
Okay, I know it’s really big for like, we spent like a good 10 years only talking growth mindset. But it’s the idea that fixed mindset means nothing can change. Growth mindset is that I can learn from this. I can make it better. It’s not a problem.
All that said, when we look at these things, it does change us. Gratitude, praising the Lord, which is gratitude. All these things change us. So we have to keep moving. 7:21.
Also, why did I wear long sleeves today? Foolish. Okay, we’re not going to read every little bit. We’re going to read, because I can’t read all those names. But let me read one through, I think I copied on your page just 21 through like 30. But I want to read a little bit at the very beginning.
So verses 1 through 14 are the genealogy of the returnees. And I have a cool thought about that in a minute. But these are the family heads and those genealogical records of those who returned with me from Babylon during the reign of King Artaxerxes. He lists them all out. It’s awesome. Huge long list.
Then he summoned, I’m sorry, verse 15. I camped, I gathered them at the river that flows to Ahava, and we camped there for 3 days. I searched among the people and priests, but found no Levites there.
Then I summoned the leaders, a bunch of names, and I sent them to Edo, the leader at Kasafia, with a message for him and his brothers. The temple servants there, that they should bring us ministers for the house of our God.
And since the gracious hand of our God was on us, another one of those hands of God moments, they brought us Sherebiah, a man of insight from the descendants of Mahali, a descendant of Levi, son of Israel, along with his sons and brothers.
18 men plus Hashabiah along with Jeshashiah and the descendants of Merariah. I’ve got to stop trying. And his brothers and their sons.
So he’s listing out all these folks, and he realizes that he doesn’t have Levites among them. But thankfully, the hand of the Lord is on him, and he goes and Levites volunteer. What I want to point out before I forget, and I don’t know where I wrote it.
Okay, this is the cool thought. This is not a Brian thought. This was in a book I read. Those that came back with Ezra, this long list that was from verse 2 through 14, that list of people, the families who came, many of them are related to families who came back 80 years before, which is pretty cool.
So then, and this is where I think I made this comment before. It doesn’t mean we make an awkward deal out of genealogies or genetics. But it also means we don’t discount it either. Like, there’s a really, really good chance… I mean, some of you, not all, some of you knew, my gosh, like…
I know Arnegal knew my grandpa, so I got one. But I cannot hang my hat on like, oh, your grandpa was Fred Malloy a long, long time ago. You can’t. But it also doesn’t mean you ignore that fact either.
And that’s the heart of what this commentary was saying was, obviously we shouldn’t trust genetics, but we also shouldn’t despise genetics. And he went on to say, sometimes covenant faithfulness runs in the family.
And then he went on to say, over generations, particular families are seen over and over again, which they took as this idea of there was much faith in action. These families very likely took their duties very seriously. They really believed their faith, and they passed it on. And it’s a neat thought.
And I was reading this today because it’s easy to read. Okay. I can’t pronounce those names. So, like, you kind of read it, but you really don’t read it, and you feel guilty because you don’t know how to say it, and you’re like, am I really reading? Yes, you are.
But these names, when I saw the chart of how many of them corresponded from chapter 2 to chapter 8, it was awesome. And so these were families that very, very, very likely, it’s because they had passed on their faith well that more family members were now following after them, which I can genuinely say, like, I
grandpa is one like my mom’s side of the family. My, I know the stories of my grandma becoming a widow at 45 with 4 kids, 2 little girls at home, 1 high school boy and her like between social security, sewing for people and cooking at church. She provided for all of them.
Like anyone who wanted to go to college, went to college. They, you know, they either got a car or a wedding for the girls. Um, I, I, grandma’s faithfulness passed down.
And I have a few cousins who are like maybe a little out there, but none of them would not say that they follow Jesus. That’s grandma’s doing. Like, that’s an incredible…
Mom’s dad died when she was 9. Like, we don’t… I know his name. Bear, actually, is named after him. Winfred. Which, if you catch Bear in a good mood, he likes to be fancy sometimes, and he’ll tell you he prefers Winfred today.
Usually when he’s wearing a polo, he’s like, it’s Winfred. But he has a speech impediment, so it’s Winfwid. Which is… What a cuter.
But all that said, you look back and go, yes, like it’s not a given. There are some cousins who have kind of gotten odd. But when you can look at grandma’s family and see, wow, like there have been like 4 or 5 cousins,
youth pastors or pastors in that mix of cousins that are all like my age of cousins there have been a few missionaries there have been i mean it’s amazing and that’s because i genuinely believe grandma’s faithfulness passed out um so when we see that that should actually encourage us when we as silly as that long line of names is it should encourage us to do do the hard work and and
This is not a word people like today. We should indoctrinate our kids in the right ways, in the love of God’s word. It doesn’t guarantee anything. We all know the stories. We all have family members. But it certainly is something here we can see mattered. And so it’s still worth doing. And it still shows result and faithfulness.
So we have to keep moving because 7:27. Oof. Okay. The other thoughts in here, we can’t read all of it, but the first 14 verses of that genealogy, 15 through 20, were that Levite shortage. We did read that, and God provided. Then, verse 21 through 23. Actually, we’ll just read quick.
I proclaimed a fast by the Ahava River so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us, our dependents, and all our possessions. I did this because I was ashamed to ask the king for infantry and cavalry to protect us from enemies during the journey, since we had told him the hand of our God is gracious to all who seek him, but his fierce anger is against all who abandon him.
So we fasted and pleaded with our God about this, and he was receptive to our prayer. We don’t have a lot of time. But I think it’s important.
I would describe Ezra’s heart and character there as incredibly humble. There’s not an ounce of like, we’ve got this. It’s a complete dependence on the Lord. And he knows it. And he doesn’t want to ask the king. Like I mentioned that earlier, he doesn’t want to go back and tell the king, could we have protection?
Of course they’re afraid. They’re bringing, I mean, I didn’t do the math. It’s got to be millions of dollars worth of gold and silver back to the Holy Land. That is not something that you take lightly. None of my cash hoards have ever been that big, by the way. No one assumes that. But this is an incredible thing, but yet…
He does not pridefully try to manipulate the situation. He doesn’t try to over-prepare. His preparation is we’re going to fast and we’re going to humble ourselves before the Lord and seek his favor and seek his direction. I love that. How rarely do we really do that anymore?
That we actually pause and we seek the Lord and we pray and we wait for him. What a good reminder. Man, we don’t wait well. We’re American. Like we can do things. It’s really bad for us sometimes.
So then we see in verses, and I think I copied just 28 through 30. So I’m going to read those. This is after, so the few verses in between, it’s really talking about the stewardship of all these things.
So it’s good, it’s important, but it’s Ezra organizing all of the priests that were handling all of the gold, silver, the articles, weighing them, checking them, making sure they’ve all been done properly. But when we pick up in verse 28, he says, Then I said to them, You are holy to the Lord, and the articles are holy.
The silver and gold are a freewill offering to the Lord God of your ancestors. Guard them carefully until you weigh them out in the chambers of the Lord’s house before the leading priests, Levites, and heads of the Israelite families in Jerusalem.
So the priests and Levites took charge of the silver, the gold, and the articles that had been weighed out to bring them to the house of our God in Jerusalem. So you have, like, again, it feels very…
narrative like it’s a story they’re explaining that you know they they were good stewards they guarded it well they weighed things they were making sure that when they got there they handled it it’s good organization that’s great but when we look a little bit deeper we see this this really neat oh what’s the word ordinary acts of faith i guess it doesn’t feel like important jobs
There’s a lot of jobs that don’t feel that important. They’re not setting up the altar. They’re not reestablishing temple worship. They’re bringing lots of gold and silver articles from Babylon. It’s important in a financial sense, but it doesn’t necessarily feel like a flashy job.
And arguably, we mentioned this, maybe it was the first week, they were probably living in perfect comfort in Babylon. So you’re sacrificing a great deal to leave the known and the comfort to then move to a place you’ve never been and to go and help reestablish worship there over a 900-mile journey that’s perilous and dangerous and probably fearful.
So this is a hard thing they’re already doing, but yet they’re faithful with something as simple as organizing and counting and measuring stuff. Which is pretty neat. I should tell that to my accounting teacher at school. Counting things is good. Organizing is seen right there.
So there are several questions, and I know we’re probably not going to get through all of them, but that’s okay. You have your paper. Think about the very first question. Think about the unsung faithful people in your life, the ones that aren’t necessarily in a position of influence, but the people who, like, they’re…
Quiet, faithful obedience influenced you and shaped you. I mean, like, I told you the story before my grandma. Like, I know that Grandma Self was her name. That was her last name.
I know her obedience, her faithfulness, her going through everything she went through, that changes you. When you know the story and you hear the story, it changes you.
I really, really, really hope. That’s my prayer anyway. Some of you know this. Not everyone. We tried really hard to post updates post the fire after it happened. This is what’s happening. This is what God’s doing. We tried to…
catalog it partly because it was easy when people were curious here’s the update but also partly because we really wanted someday for our own kids to look back and go oh because they’re little like they didn’t i mean they’ll know what happened it’ll be the thing everyone i know that’s gone through like a fire or something they’re like you’ll always talk about life before and life after like it’s just it gets divided but like they won’t totally get it
Like, you know, they remember little bits, but they’re so young. Like, it’ll be memories of our memories, not necessarily their own. So that’s why we bring it down. We really hope that maybe someday that’s the thing that then…
Who knows? I don’t have my grandma stories. I don’t have my great, great, oh gosh, like 5 great grandma story when they were on the Trail of Tears. I just know it happened. I would love to have read about that and what they were going through.
I hope my great, great grandkids can because there’s something left behind. Because again, I haven’t written books. I’m not published. But the hope would be even ordinary faithfulness of like a teacher who lives in South County, St. Louis in the 1920s, whatever we are, that those things still matter.
And that should be the same for every one of us. It doesn’t matter who we roll with, what our influence is. Ordinary daily faithfulness matters. I can’t remember if I said it last week. There’s a book I really love.
I think I was talking to my kids at school. Eugene Peterson, he’s the one who transcribed the paraphrase, the message Bible. But he also wrote a lot of books. And one of my favorite books I’ve ever read was called A Long Obedience in the Same Direction.
And it’s really that idea. That it’s not necessarily, I’m not getting, Eugene did pretty big stuff. But he’s like, the things I’m most proud of are actually like, just every day being obedient and faithful in a million little ways. Because I know that’s my act of worship to the Lord. That’s to me offering my life in front of him.
So, fourth question. I had too many questions today. Sometimes you just get to writing questions and you just can’t stop. Where in your life do you need to slow down, humble yourself, and seek God’s direction before moving forward? Only you and the Holy Spirit know.
You might have family and friends who can help you. But for sure, that’s between you and the Holy Spirit to genuinely wrestle through that. I think I told you guys the story of how Bach, I know you guys have heard this that have been in Sunday school.
At the end of Bach’s compositions, he always wrote Soli Deo Gloria, which was Latin for to God be the glory, which is beautiful. What an incredible thing. At the beginning of his compositions, he would write in Latin, Jesu Juba, which just meant Jesus help.
I mean, talk about like, if something will slow you down before you get to work, that’ll do it. Like, just that slow pause and reminder of like, Jesus, give me, like, help. Like, I don’t even, you don’t even have to know what to pray sometimes. It’s just Jesus help.
When Jack went through some of his really hard seasons at school, that was the prayer. I was like, buddy, don’t do faint. Just sit there and say Jesus help over and over again until you calm down. Because sometimes we don’t know what to pray. We don’t know what we need, but we know we need help.
So the very bottom of that page, I want to make sure we have time to land here. I wrote down, I actually wrote the word land. That’s ironic.
Every one of us lives from a center. Or there’s something that is our focus, or it guides us, or it directs us. Or sometimes the word that gets used is our telos, which is like our passion and direction. And oftentimes, something is always shaping. I wrote this down so I don’t forget.
Something is always shaping our decisions, our desires, our fears, and our hopes. I can tell you, and some of you work in schools, working in a school, you see this firsthand. Something is always driving decisions and fears and hopes. Always.
Kids are way less stable than adults most of the time. Not always, but most of the time. But Ezra is showing us what it looks like when our center or our telos is the word of God.
That’s why I said, like, verse 10 of chapter 7 is my favorite of the whole night. Because that tells me what’s guiding Ezra. Everything else we see. Now, Ezra had determined in his heart to study the law of the Lord, obey it, and teach its statutes and ordinances in Israel.
That was his telos. That was his center. That was his, you could call it worldview, his focus. Everything came back to that point.
And when scripture becomes the aim and anchor of our lives, it changes the desires. I don’t necessarily want the desires of the world anymore. I want the things of God.
I heard it said once, and I say this a lot, when we want to want the things of God, that’s a gift. Like wanting to want the things of God means that there is a seed the Holy Spirit has placed that has given me some desire and passion for wanting to want the things of God. That alone is a gift.
I love that thought. Like I can’t remember even who told me it, but it stuck with me for decades. And it’s one of those anchoring things when you feel a little wobbly in the world, which we all do at some point.
To remember, it’s like, you know what? Wanting to want the things of God is a good sign. That means God is still working. God is still active and desiring change.
So when scripture becomes the aim and anchor of our lives, it reshapes desires. It steadies our decisions. It strengthens courage. But it also teaches us to trust God’s hand in every step.
And I think the heart, if there was one challenge, I highlighted it there at the very bottom. We could probably phrase this a hundred different ways. But what would change us? What would change in us if the word of God sat at the center the way it did for Ezra?
What would change in our life, in your life, in my life, and the people who are around? What would change in our lives if the word was genuinely at the center of everything just like it was for Ezra?
Because there’s a lot of believers who love the Bible. But it probably isn’t fair to call it love. It’s probably more of a deep appreciation or like, I like it a lot. Or I know it’s really important. Yeah, we should read.
But there’s not that many that are like, this will be the thing that I come back to and back to and back to over and over again. And we should. It should be the thing.
Some of you know how if you watch YouTube, it feeds you videos that are like the videos you’ve watched before. Mine are very funny because it’s either like videos of campfires, like just a campfire, like in the woods.
But I put it on my screen at school sometimes when you just need to like calm the room down a little bit. Or it’s videos of people talking about Bible stuff. And there’s a guy I like. And his big catchphrase idea that he comes back to a lot is, We should make the Bible our hobby.
Like, it should be the thing that consumes us. When I have that extra hour on a Saturday afternoon, it’s like, you know what? I want to go and just spend some time and slow down. I want to be with the Lord. I’m just going to. Like, that should be the thing.
This morning, I’m not back patting. I told you, like, I’ve been reading through this year. This morning was Hosea. And in reading through, and I’ve never read through the whole NLT before, so it’s a whole new world.
I’ve enjoyed it so much after I got used to it being not my normal that like even this morning I had to actually stop myself and be like, dude, you have to go to work. Like you got to leave. Like and it’s just but that should be like it doesn’t happen every morning.
But that should be something that that starts to happen in our lives when we fall in love with the word, because all of a sudden we realize like. This is the mirror that I am now seeing my life that’s exposing my sin that’s then pointing me back to Jesus and then helping me repent. It’s awesome.
I know I say the word awesome too much, but it’s just sometimes you’re wired wrong. My mom knows. But nevertheless, it’s her fault. Poor mom, it’s really not. Everyone wonders where I came from. It’s okay. But
That’s the challenge. It’s highlighted there at the bottom of the paper. My prayer tonight is that we chew on that as we walk away. What would actually change in us if the Word sat right in the center of our lives?
There’s so many stories, and I can’t think of them all at the moment, but when you look back at Scripture over the last 2,000 years and as different faith heroes were translating it into German and into English and getting the Bible into the hands of people, it changed everything.
Because they finally had the word of God and they could read it and they could study it just like Ezra. It could become the thing that their heart was set on.
And you hear stories even now of, I get emails sometimes from different mission organizations that are asking for donations to get Bibles in the hand of pastors all over Africa or Asia or South America. I can go online and order another Bible tonight if I want to. But they can’t.
Either not in a country they can or they just don’t have the access to buy them. And for them, sometimes they’ll be sharing Bibles among like 7 pastors are sharing one Bible. That’s all they’ve got.
It should be something special like that to us too. It’s this treasure. Anyway, I’ve gone… Oh, we’re not over. It’s only 7:43. We have time to pray without being late. Any last thoughts before we…
Okay. Father God, you are good. And Father, your hand is on us.
Father, help us to, like Ezra, camped by the Hava River, and ready to take journey. Help us to humble our hearts and to seek you. Give us a hunger and passion for your word. Let it be living and alive and active. And on the hard days, help us to drive into it anyway.
Help us to open it and learn how to abide. Let it be our hobby. Let it be the thing that is the center of our lives. And let us be transformed by that. Whether it’s reading it, whether it’s listening to it, whether it’s hearing it taught, whether it’s writing it down, whatever it may be, help us to continually find ourselves at home in your word.
God, thank you for our class, and thank you for Wednesday nights. We ask all this in your name. Amen.
