This was because Ezra had determined to study and obey the Law of the Lord and to teach those decrees and regulations to the people of Israel. (Ezra 7:10) I recently spent a week reading through the entire book of Ezra. Upon reading it thoroughly and completely, I came across a phrase mentioned at least once in every single chapter of the book: “the gracious hand of God was on me.” That is a statement of faith and a worldview on life that be embraced and furthermore, an intentional, daily choice that is made by every Christ following individual. Simply put, if you lived in this world for any amount of time and suffered any type of hardship, whether real or imaginary, then you know it’s hard to say that God’s hand was gracious. It is an act of faith to even state that God was gracious. Let me explain what’s going on in context of this book. The Israelites that were previously in exile are beginning to return to Jerusalem for the purposes of rebuilding the Temple of God. They were given rights to do so under King Cyrus of Persia. However, this was short lived because another king came and reversed the decision after some of the local rift-raft petitioned against the rebuilding, and so the construction was halted. Then after years of toil, I don’t know how many exactly, but I’m guessing quite a few years of toil, because Cyrus’ reign ends at 530BC and Darius’ doesn’t begin until 519BC, the Israelites who had come to Jerusalem for the intent of rebuilding the temple were finally allowed to start up again under King Darius. But here’s the interesting thing– despite the years in between where life was probably very rough for the people, Ezra had one thing to say: the hand of God was gracious upon them. Just imagine the type of things that you can do in faith if this was your mindset and your worldview? You could accomplish anything and everything. You can persevere when there is no reason to. You would thrive even if the environment was not conducive toward it. I want you to imagine what would change your life if you truly believed that despite what’s going on in your life– good or bad– you lived with the understanding that God’s gracious hand was upon you. In our study verse for today, you see that the one reason Ezra saw life the way he saw it– as a blessing from God despite the hardships, was because he was determined to understand what God is doing for His people. God is doing something amazing in your life right now. Do you believe His hand is graciously upon you?
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