The possibility of powerful change (Ezra 5)
Ezra 5:1-17
After the commissioning service in my first job teaching Old Testament, someone approached me with the message, which he felt was from God. It was, ‘You in yourself are enough’. For a rookie lecturer those were powerful words that I reached back to time and time again when I felt inadequate. I suspect that most of us can think of words, whether verses from Scripture or spoken by a godly person that were life-changing for us.
God’s Word: the potential and our reality
As we return to Ezra and pick up the story line of the temple building again, we see the powerful effect that Haggai and Zechariah’s message had. The exiles heard God’s Word and acted on it by re-starting the building (Ezra 5:-2). It reminds me of the sequence that we read of in the creation story: God said, ‘Let there be…’ and ‘it was so’ (e.g. Gen 1:9, 11). Wouldn’t it be wonderful if our lives were shaped by God’s Word in this way? The reality, of course, is that as sinful creatures, we no longer obey God’s commands automatically and the exiles’ story shows how enthusiasm for God’s things can wane, obedience may be followed by the temptation to be preoccupied with our own lives, by discouragement and a slackening of our enthusiasm in staying the course.
This is why we read that the prophets continued with the people and supported them (v.2). Their message was at times confronting, but they did not point a finger from a distance. Rather, they stood with the exiles in their struggle to live for God. Whether we give advice to a friend in an informal capacity or speak in Bible study or the pulpit, it is important that we do not place ourselves over God’s Word, as if it applied to someone else only.
Challenges when doing God’s will
As is to be expected, the exiles could not build for long before they encountered obstacles. When we turn to God in obedience, challenges are inevitable. At this point, the Persian authorities notice the work going on in the area (Ezra 5:3; Tattenai is governor of the larger Trans-Euphrates region referred to in Ezra as ‘Beyond the River’). They needed to be vigilant of any unusual activity that may be a precursor to unrest in the province, so their question of who gave permission for such building is reasonable (Ezra 5:4). Yet, no matter how many ‘eyes’ of the king (as Persian inspectors were informally known) are on the exiles, what really counts is that God’s ‘eye’ is on the people protecting the project from being shut down (Ezra 5:5).[1] When we are in God’s will, He ensures that what He has planned will happen.
What God’s Word achieved in the exiles
What follows in this chapter is a testimony to the powerful change that came about in the people as a result of God’s message. They have a clear identity and the right understanding about God’s nature (‘we are the servants of the God of heaven and earth’; Ezra 5:11). They serve the God who has authority over all creation, no wonder then that they do not give up the building project in fear. They can also face the past and acknowledge God’s earlier judgment over them, even to foreign officials (Ezra 5:12).[2]
How do we respond?
Our reading raises the question, how does God’s Word affect us? We hear sermons on Sunday, read Scripture in our quiet time, and may be involved in a mid-week Bible study. So often though, the words wash over us, so that God’s ‘let there be…’ never becomes ‘and it was so…’. Yet it is only as God’s Word permeates our lives that we gain a clear understanding of who we are and who God is and can face both past sins and have future hope. As Jesus explains, our being is like the ground on which seed falls, sometimes barren, sometimes with only a thin layer above rock, sometimes overgrown with weeds that choke God’s message, but sometimes fertile soil that receives the seed and bears fruit (Matt 13:3-9). The exiles’ story demonstrates that great things are possible if we respond to God’s Word with obedience.
[1] H.G.M. Williamson suggest this possible contrast. Ezra, Nehemiah, WBC 16 (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1985), 77.
[2] We may find it odd that an official letter talks about God and sin so openly, but in the ancient world, it was common to speak publicly of the gods and to explain historic events in the light of divine activity. This is unlike Western cultures, where we consider such an interpretation purely a private matter.
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