A Man Who Cared Deeply for God's People
Ezra. He has a book in the Bible that bears his name. He is
an interesting personality to me because he is so pure, so earnest, so careful.
The sins of his nation bring him to tears. The failures of his people to
worship God and respond to His faithfulness are deeply distressing to him. He
inspires change in others, not by shouting and shaming, but by pointing to the
Lord who loves them. It is really something that we want to look at. How a
person can humbly and quietly make such an impact upon his nation is
magnificent. But there is even more to his story than is immediately clear.
Ezra the Scribe and Priest
Ezra was a scribe, a priest; he was someone who gave his
life to the Word of God. To studying, to writing, to explaining the Bible. Even
then, the scribal traditions in Israel were rigorous and demanding. Preserving
the Word of God was not something to be done flippantly.
But there is more to Ezra. While we know that he wrote Ezra,
and probably Nehemiah, there is good reason to believe he wrote other books of
the Bible as well. It is very clear to me that it was Ezra who wrote First and
Second Chronicles. These books were written to remind the returning exiles of
how they ended up in Babylon, how God was faithful, and how the priesthood and
Davidic lines had been preserved. What was truly important.
This understanding of history clearly shaped Ezra's
leadership. Israel had been disciplined severely when they were sent to
Babylon—that was a long and painful lesson, and I am certain that they were not
thrilled to learn it... much less to learn it again.
Ezra and the Preservation of Scripture
Ezra was also surely involved in the collection and assembly
of the Tanakh. The Psalms, the Proverbs, even the collections of the writings
of the prophets likely went through the hands of Ezra at several points. Please
hear me, Ezra didn't write these things, but he may have been involved with the
collection and organization of these things.
And yet, we barely notice Ezra! It is criminal.
It was Ezra who stood and taught the Bible to the returning
exiles. The Hebrew Scriptures were foreign to the returning Aramaic-speaking
Jewish population. Ezra spent his time expositing the Scriptures so that the
people of Israel could be connected once again to the Word of God. He was God's
instrument to deliver, preserve, teach, and exhort his fellow returning
Israelites to obey Scripture. This is a truly amazing hero of the faith.
The Lesson Ezra Teaches
This is to take nothing away from the other Bible authors
whom we can call "major"—Moses, David, Solomon, Samuel, Luke, Paul,
John, and others. But the quiet ministry of Ezra is so easy to miss that it
enforces a critical biblical lesson. Just because someone goes unnoticed does
not mean that they are not being used of the Lord. In fact, someone else may
get all of the credit... and that is just fine. That is because it was never
about our glory, and the true servant of God is encouraged by the simple
reality of God's glory expressed in our lives.
Beholding His hand in our lives and in the lives of others
is the greatest blessing and reward a person could ask for. It is a gift to be
part of that cause. The recognition of other humans is a cheap currency that
pays out very little. Yet, I hope we can all learn the lesson that Ezra
teaches. Faithfulness to the Bible, seeking to serve the Lord with our lives,
always has a huge impact on eternity. Whether we see it or not, whether it is
recognized or not, whether people oppose us or not. This is all there for us.
Man of the Word, Man of God
We need to get this right. When we seek after positions of
glory for ourselves, we lose the opportunity to be an Ezra—a humble and quiet
servant whom God can use for His purpose.
To summarize this simply: Ezra was a man of the Word. Ezra
was a student of history. Ezra wanted to see others know the God of Scripture.
Those are noble goals that will always pay off.
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