Ezra 7

When talk show hosts and hostesses ask successful people the “secret” of their great achievements, the answers they get are varied and sometimes contradictory. Some successful people will give credit to their sobriety and personal discipline, while others will boast that they lived just the way they pleased whether anybody liked it or not. “I always maintain my integrity” is counterbalanced by “I pushed my way to the top no matter who got stepped on.”

But if we had interviewed Ezra and asked him the secret of his successful life, he would have said humbly, “The good hand of the Lord was upon me,” a phrase that’s found six times in Ezra 7 and 8 (7:6, 9, 28; 8:18, 22, 31). Nothing but the blessing of God can explain how an obscure Jewish priest and scholar, born in Babylonian captivity, could accomplish so much for God and Israel when so much was working against him.

That God’s good hand was upon this man doesn’t minimize the importance of his personal piety or his great ability as a scholar, nor does it ignore the great help King Artaxerxes gave him. God uses all kinds of people to accomplish His will, but if God’s hand isn’t at work in us and through us, nothing will be accomplished. It’s the principle Jesus taught His disciples, “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15: nkjv). What did God do for the people of Israel during those difficult days after the Babylonian captivity?

It was the year 458 and Artaxerxes I was King of Persia (465–424). Nearly sixty years had passed since the completion of the temple in Jerusalem, and the Jewish remnant was having a very difficult time. It was then that God raised up Ezra to lead a second group of refugees from Babylon to Judah to bring financial and spiritual support to the work and to help rebuild the city.

Every person is important to God and God’s work; but, as Dr. Lee Roberson has often said, “Everything rises and falls with leadership.” When God wanted to deliver Israel from Egypt, He raised up Moses and Aaron. When Israel was divided and defeated, He called Samuel to teach the word and David to serve as king. Richard Nixon was right when he said that leaders are people who “make a difference,” and Ezra was that kind of man.

When God wants to judge a nation, He sends them inferior leaders (Isa. 3:1–8); but when He wants to bless them, He sends them men like Ezra.

His noble ancestry (Ezra 7:1–5). There were some priests in the Jewish remnant who couldn’t prove their ancestry (2:61–63), but Ezra wasn’t among them. He had the best of credentials and could prove his lineage all the way back to Aaron, the first high priest. Some famous spiritual leaders are named in this genealogy, men like Hilkiah, Zadok, and Phineas. Of course, being blessed with godly ancestors is no guarantee of success for their descendants, but it’s a good beginning. God promises to bless the descendants of the godly (Deut. 4:40; Ps. 128). “I don’t know who my grandfather was,” said Abraham Lincoln; “I am much more concerned what his grandson will be.” Ezra knew the names of his ancestors and what these men had done, and he made the most of his heritage. He didn’t squander the rich spiritual legacy they had entrusted to him but used it to honor the Lord and serve His people. What a tragedy it is when the descendants of godly families turn away from the Lord and lead lives of disobedience and rebellion (Judg. 2:10–15).

His remarkable audacity (Ezra 7:6). You wouldn’t expect a priest and scholar like Ezra to dare to approach a mighty king and ask for permission to take a group of Jewish exiles to Jerusalem. Most scholars are retiring by nature, happy with their books and thoughts, and unwilling to get involved in the everyday affairs of life. The American poet and professor Archibald MacLeish wrote, “The scholar digs his ivory cellar in the ruins of the past and lets the present sicken as it will.” But not Ezra!

Ezra’s careful study of the Word of God had increased his faith (Rom. 10:17) and helped him understand God’s plans for the Jewish remnant, and he wanted to be a part of those plans. Certainly as he studied the Old Testament Scriptures, he prayed for God to help His people, and God answered that prayer by calling him to go to Jerusalem. He gave Ezra the boldness to approach the king and the king a desire to cooperate with Ezra’s requests.

When the first group of Jews left for Jerusalem in 537, it was because God moved upon the heart of Cyrus (Ezra 1:1–4), but now it was a lowly priest whom God used to touch the heart of King Artaxerxes.

His exceptional ability (7:10). When you recall that Ezra was born in Babylon, you can better appreciate his achievement as a skilled student of the Jewish Scriptures. Undoubtedly, some of the priests had brought copies of the Old Testament scrolls with them to Babylon, and these became very precious to the exiled spiritual leaders of the nation. There was no Jewish temple in Babylon, so the priests and Levites weren’t obligated to minister, but some of them, like Ezra, devoted themselves to the study and teaching of the Word of God.

When it comes to our relationship to the Word of God, Ezra is a good example for us to follow. He was a man with a prepared heart, devoted to the study of the Scriptures. “For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord” (v. 10 nasb). He would have agreed with the psalmist who wrote, “Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day” (Ps. 119: nkjv). Even the king recognized and affirmed Ezra’s great knowledge of the Scriptures (Ezra 7:11–14).

But Ezra did more than study the Word of God; he also practiced it in his daily life. It’s in the obeying of the Word that we experience the blessing, not in the reading or the hearing of it (James 1:22–25). “This one is blessed in what he does” (v. 25 nkjv, italics added), not in what he thinks he knows. If our knowledge of the truth doesn’t result in obedience, then we end up with a big head instead of a burning heart (1 Cor. 8:1; Luke 24:32), and truth becomes a toy to play with, not a tool to build with. Instead of building our Christian character, we only deceive ourselves and try to deceive others (1 John 1:5–10).

Ezra not only studied and obeyed the Word of God, but he also taught it to others. The priests and Levites were commanded by God to be teachers in Israel (Lev. 10:8–11; Deut. 33:10; Mal. 2:7), because that was the only way the people could learn God’s truth. The common people couldn’t afford to own scrolls of the law, so it was up to the priests and Levites to read and explain the Scriptures to the people. “So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading” (Neh. 8:8). What a model for all preachers and teachers of the Bible to follow!

Each generation needs to discover the precious treasure of the Word of God, but that can’t happen unless previous generations are faithful to learn the Word, guard it, obey it, and teach it. “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Tim. 2: niv).

The three qualities mentioned in Ezra 7: are paralleled in our Lord’s words in Matthew 13:52—“Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a head of a household, who brings forth out of his treasure things new and old” (nasb). Ezra was a scribe who studied the Word, a disciple who obeyed and practiced the Word, and a householder who shared the Word with others. He’s a good example for us to follow.

(Ezra 7:7–9 gives a summary of the journey to Jerusalem, the details of which we will study later.)

Just as God had worked in the heart and mind of Cyrus (1:1–4) and Darius (6:1–12), so He moved upon Artaxerxes I to permit Ezra and his people to return to their land. After hearing Ezra’s requests, Artaxerxes took several steps to assist the Jews in this important undertaking.

Authorization (7:11–12, 25–26). First, Artaxerxes appointed Ezra as the leader of the group and also as the king’s agent in Judah, even to the extent of giving him the right to inflict capital punishment on offenders (v. 26). From the way the king described Ezra in his official letter, it’s clear that he was impressed with this Jewish priest-scribe and the law which was the center of his life and ministry. The references to the law of God being in Ezra’s hand (vv. 14, 25) may refer to actual scrolls that Ezra brought with him for his audience with the king, or perhaps it simply means “which you possess” (see v. 25 niv).

Liberation (vv. 13–14). In his official letter, Artaxerxes gave the Jews the privilege to leave Babylon and go to Jerusalem with Ezra and join the remnant in rebuilding the city walls (4:12). Refer back to Ezra 4:7–23 for the account of the trials the Jews had in spite of the king’s encouragement, and keep in mind that it was the rebuilding of the city, not the temple, that was involved, along with the spiritual restoration of the people. (See the suggested outline of the book of Ezra.)

In 537, the first wave of Jewish refugees, about 50,000 of them, returned to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel’s leadership to rebuild the temple. Now, in 458, Ezra was authorized to lead the second group, 1,500 men plus women and children, to help restore the walls and gates and to bring spiritual renewal to the people.

In 444, Nehemiah would arrive and finish the job of building the walls and hanging the gates.

Compensation (7:15–26). The Lord had told the struggling people in Jerusalem, “The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine” (Hag. 2: nkjv), and now He proved it by opening the royal treasury and providing money to buy sacrifices to be offered at the temple in Jerusalem. The king commanded his officers beyond the river to give the Jews money out of the local royal treasury and defined the limits (Ezra 7:22). A hundred talents of silver would be nearly four tons of silver!

Then Artaxerxes gave Ezra the sacred articles from the original temple that hadn’t been carried back by Zerubbabel (v. 19). Finally, he allowed Ezra to receive gifts from the Jews who remained in Babylon and from anybody else in the realm who wanted to contribute (see 1:4). Not every Jew wanted to go back, and not all were able, but all could contribute something to the work.

Like Darius before him (6:10), Artaxerxes was anxious that the God of Israel bless him and his sons and give success to his kingdom (7:23), so his generosity had somewhat of a selfish motive behind it. But it’s doubtful if any person, king or commoner, ever does anything from an absolutely pure motive. It was remarkable that a pagan ruler would be this generous toward a captive people from whom he could hope to gain nothing. After all, if the God of Israel hadn’t been able to protect the Jews from Babylonian captivity, what could He do to help the Persians?

What Artaxerxes did for the Jews was clearly because of the good hand of God that was at work on behalf of God’s chosen people. Finally, Artaxerxes exempted the priests, Levites, and temple servants from paying taxes or being conscripted for special duty to the empire (v. 24). Even if he had selfish motives, Artaxerxes was concerned that the temple ministry be strong and steady. To make certain that everything went smoothly as the Jews rebuilt the city, the king gave Ezra extensive authority to enforce the law (v. 26).

Celebration (vv. 27–28). This is the first occurrence of first-person narrative in the book; it continues through 9:15. He praises the Lord for moving the king to cooperate with his plans, and he sees this event as proof of God’s mercy or covenant love. Ezra took no credit for this accomplishment; it was all the result of the “good hand of God” upon him. Without wasting any time, he assembled the chief men of the tribes and gathered the people who felt moved to travel to Jerusalem.