As I read through Scripture, certain characters in the Old and New Testaments inspire me by their example. While none of them were sinless except Jesus Christ, the only true Hero in history, some stand out as men and women of noble character.
Ezra is such a person. So much so that my daughter and her husband named their first son after him.
Ezra was a descendant of Aaron the priest. “he was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses that the Lord, the God of Israel, had given, and the king granted him all that he asked, for the hand of the Lord his God was on him” (Ezra 7:6). The first part of that statement seems to be directly linked to the second part of that statement. That is to say, they are not two separate, unrelated facts. Rather, they have a cause-and-effect kind of relationship.
This becomes even more clear in the verses that follow:
… the good hand of God was upon him. For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. (Ezra 7:9-10)
The reason God blessed Ezra was because he had committed himself to the Holy Scriptures. The word “heart” refers to the whole of one’s being. So the clause “set his heart” emphasizes a proactive, willful determination on Ezra’s part to give all that he is to all that God has revealed himself to be through his Word.
Ezra was a living demonstration of the “blessed man” of Psalm 1, whose “delight is I the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night” (v. 3). Ezra would have readily testified, as Jeremiah did, “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O Lord, God of hosts” (Jer. 15:16).
Ezra fully committed himself to three things when it came to God’s word:
Study it.
Do it.
Teach it.
All three actions are key, and their sequence is significant. By studying God’s word, Ezra made sure that he understood it correctly and could mark out his path accordingly. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Ps. 119:105). Ezra took to heart what the Lord said to Joshua centuries earlier: “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success” (Joshua 1:8).
By doing (obeying) God’s word, Ezra demonstrated that he really believed it. “It was not a dead letter, but a living reality to him” (F. Charles Fensham, The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah, p. 101). Faith is taking God at his word and acting on it. In his commentary on Ezra, Harry Ironside wrote, “Having learned the mind and will of God, he undertook to do it. He did not preach truth that he was not living.”
By teaching God’s word, Ezra sought to benefit others as well. The truth that Ezra had treasured up in his heart he shared intentionally and liberally with others. As Matthew Henry put it, Ezra “laid out what he had laid up.” This is the responsibility of every Christian: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teasing and admonishing one another…” (Col. 3:16). The apostle Paul wrote to an entire congregation of believers, “I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another.” We are to treasure up God’s truth for ourselves, and then dispense it liberally to others.
Ezra “set his heart” on God’s word, so God set his hand on Ezra. God used Ezra’s leadership to impact an entire nation. Later on, when the people of Israel sinned against the Lord, Ezra was shocked with grief, fell on his knees and cried out to God. His prayer of confession is one of the most moving passages in the Old Testament (Ezra 9:5-15). My eyes filled with tears as read his emotion laden prayer this morning. Oh, that I would have such a heart for God and his people!
But look at what the text says next: “While Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, a very great assembly of men, women, and children, gathered to him out of Israel, for the people wept bitterly” (Ezra 10:1). Wow! Talk about spiritual leadership! As Ezra prayed, people of all ages gathered around him and wept. They confessed their sin and recommitted themselves to the Lord, urging Ezra to lead them in this regard. They said to him, “Arise, for it is your task, and we are with you; be strong and do it” (Ezra 10:4).
You can guess what happened next: Ezra got up and did it! And the people followed his lead.
National revival and renewal came through a man who had “set his heart” to study, do, and teach God’s Word.
What an example Ezra is to us!
Who knows how God might use you, if you will “set your heart” to do likewise.