What makes us grow in the faith? (Ezra 7:1-10)

Whenever I visit churches, I ponder the question of what these places implicitly communicate about their purpose. One church I recently went to was particularly friendly and strong on fellowship and the sermon focused on God’s acceptance and love of us, yet the basis for this in the cross was not spelt out, nor sin mentioned. The place felt no different from a social club of like-minded people. Some churches focus on giving their congregation an uplifting message of God’s care and faithfulness, a spiritual ‘fix’ for the week, others dispense advice on how to handle particular problems akin to self-help books.  Yet others focus outward on the needs of the wider world around. There is nothing wrong with wanting fellowship, encouragement, counsel regarding life’s challenges, mission and ministry to outsiders, but walking out of church, I sometimes wonder how people who attend there ever grow in their faith and relationship with God.

God enables growth – Ezra

This was the issue for the exiles who returned and re-built the temple. They experienced God’s restoration and His presence, but like Christians who are saved, this is only the beginning and there is a need to grow and mature. It is not enough to rejoice and be buoyed up in His presence alone, there is a time to get beyond the baby stage of being fed milk, cleaned up and pampered. God reveals His will in His Word, so it makes sense that maturity can only come as we learn what God requires of us.

God knows what His people need and raises up the right man for the task. Ezra is a priest who can trace his genealogy back to Aaron, Israel’s first high priest (Ezra 7:1-5) and this gives him authority, since beyond the primary task of sacrifices, priests were additionally called to teach the Law.[1] Ezra also has the abilities to teach (‘skilled in the law of Moses’ – Ezra 7:6), i.e. he is proficient in understanding and interpreting it. Ezra returns some 57 years after the temple was re-built with other priests and temple personnel and with the determination to study, practice and teach God’s will (Ezra 7:7, 10).[2] As then, God’s desire is that His people mature in understanding and become transformed into His image and so He raises up in the church people who can teach and preach His Word, so everyone might grow up in the faith (Eph 4:11-16).

Seeking to grow in the faith

While not everyone has such gifting, we are all called to seek God’s will, to grow in understanding and mature in our Christian walk. Our salvation and God making us His children are His gifts by grace and can never be earned or re-paid. Yet, we have been redeemed for a purpose, for a full and useful life, which comes from conforming to God’s will. The serpent promised Adam and Eve a god-like existence by grasping what looked appealing and by doing what they wanted, irrespective of God (Gen 3:4-6); the Lord makes clear in Scripture that the path to god-likeness is through living for Him.

Ezra’s attitude is a model for us all. He set his heart (meaning his will and mind) to study (literally: seek) God’s law (Ezra 7:10). He was determined on seeking to know God’s will as revealed in Scripture. This was no theoretical digging into His Word to increase knowledge for its own sake but motivated by the desire to do what God says. A long time has passed since Moses received God’s law so that it was necessary to reflect on how some of those may apply in changed circumstances, just like today we need to re-think how to make sense of God’s principles in our world. For those in teaching and preaching roles in the church, there is the added challenge to live what we teach, but the principle has relevance for all Christians. It can be easy to say the right things and yet not walk the talk. At the beginning of this new year, it is a good opportunity to commit ourselves to seek God and a closer walk with Him through deeper engagement with Scripture.

[1] The main aim of priests was to mediate between God and His people through sacrifices, but the supplementary job of teaching God’s Word grew in significance during and after the exile. This is probably because the primary task of sacrifices could not be performed in exile – sacrifices could only be offered in the Jerusalem temple – and the Jews would have also recognised that God’s punishment came for their disobedience partly due to their ignorance of God’s will. The reason for focusing on the law of Moses is because this was the framework that God gave Israel for living and the full extent of what we call the Old Testament has not been written yet or recognised formally as Scripture. The principle of growing through understanding and doing God’s will as revealed in His Word remains the same, however. The Jews simply worked with what was available to them at the time.

[2] The temple was finished in 515 BC and Ezra likely returned to Jerusalem in 458 BC, in the seventh year of the Persian king, Artaxerxes I.

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