The Hand of The Lord: Ezra’s Experience and God Working in Our Lives
Do you ever feel like God’s called you to something, but seeing the results takes forever? Yeah, I get that. So did Ezra and the Israelites of his day. So, let’s take a look at Ezra’s encounter with God and see what it reveals about God working in our lives today.
Ezra’s experience with God shows us that God is in control, that He’s always working in our lives, and that we should lean on His Word and promises. Ezra’s story reminds us that God is still faithful to His promises to us.
So, let’s take a deeper look at the story of Ezra and see what we can learn about God working in our lives today.
The Story of Ezra
The story of Ezra is very applicable to our lives today.
Ezra was a Jewish scribe and priest who lived during the 5th century BC, during the time of the Persian Empire.
Ezra was a descendant of Aaron, the brother of Moses, and he was well-versed in the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament (Genesis-Deuteronomy).
In the 7th year of the reign of Artaxerxes I of Persia, Ezra led a group of Jewish exiles back to Jerusalem from Babylon, where they had been in captivity for many years.
The Persian king granted Ezra and his followers permission to return to Jerusalem and instructed him to rebuild the Temple and re-establish the religious practices of the Jewish people.
This return was not the wonderful restoration that the prophets promised long ago. There was no Davidic King on the throne and God’s presence was not in the Temple.
God is setting the stage for the coming of the Messiah, the promised Davidic King and Deliverer. So, God restores a remnant of the people. The people are to continue worshipping and obeying God while they wait for this hope.
And so, Ezra works to rebuild the people of God. Upon arriving in Jerusalem, he discovered that some of the Jewish exiles had intermarried with non-Jewish people, which was against the teachings of the Torah.
He took it upon himself to enforce the strict observance of Jewish laws and customs, including separating the Jewish community from those who had intermarried. He conducted a religious reform, calling for the people to repent and purify themselves.
Ezra also worked to re-establish the religious and legal authority of the Torah, gathering the Jewish community and reading the Torah to them, interpreting it, and teaching them its precepts.
He is often credited with codifying and canonizing the Hebrew Bible, which includes the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings, into the form that is recognized by modern Judaism.
Ezra’s Experience of God And What It Shows Us
God is Sovereign and In Control In our Lives
First, Ezra’s experience with God shows us that God is sovereign and in control of our lives. God has a plan. He had a plan to restore Israel. He had a plan to bring about the reign of the Messiah. God works to fulfill those plans in His good time.
God works like that in our lives today. God has plans for us. If we are honest we wish He would move a little faster on those plans sometimes. But He doesn’t. He moves the plan along, but only according to His timetable.
So, what are we to do in the meantime? The same thing Ezra was calling the people to do in his day.
Our job, like the job of the people in Ezra’s day, is to stay faithful in worship and obedience to God. The more we worship God, the more we follow God, the greater our hope in His promises grow.
Then, when we see them become a reality, that reality will overshadow even that great hope. And God gets all the more glory.
God can Work In Ways We Don’t See
Second, we see that God works in ways we don’t often see. Ezra 1:5 says, “Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites—everyone whose heart God had moved—prepared to go up and build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem.”
Did you catch that? Everyone whose heart God had moved. Is that not how God often works in our lives today? He moves our heart, gives us inclinations, nudges, and promptings.
Throughout Ezra 7-8 we see reference to the “hand of the Lord.” That’s God working behind the scenes to accomplish His plans.
The people of Ezra’s day didn’t experience God in great miracles, signs, wonders. There was no flashing lights and booming voices. Rather, it was the silent hand of the Lord and tugs of the heart.
This serves as a vital reminder that just because we don’t see God working, does not mean that He isn’t working. We can experience God in the mundane, ordinary nature of our everyday lives.
We Should Remember God’s Word and Promises
Lastly, Ezra’s experience with God shows us that we ought to remember and lean on God’s Word and promises.
Ezra knew the importance of God’s Word and how important it is that we know and understand it, especially when we are going through hard times. Or it seems God isn’t working in our lives.
I had a mentor one time say, “When you don’t know what to do, read your Bible and pray.”
That’s good advice. That’s the advice Ezra gave the people. He gathered them together and read from Scripture, interpreted it and taught it.
Reading and studying the Bible reminds us of who God is, of what He’s promised. That brings comfort to us in challenging times.
Because of that I want to help those who don’t know how to study the Bible. That’s why I started Real Bible Experience and created these Bible Study Guides that will walk you through how to experience the Bible, encounter God, and live biblically.
Ezra’s experience with God reminds us that God is at work, even if we don’t see it. Because God is faithful to continue working, we ought to be faithful in worship and obedience while we wait. Reading and studying the Bible is a great way to help us wait faithfully through obedience and worship.
