The Study of Ezra

Ezra Chapter 1 to Chapter 4:5
Our journey with God

1) The promise and the hope
The story begins interestingly with a hope. In Jer 25:11, Jeremiah "11 This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years." It was prophesised that after 70 years in captivity, the people were be free. In addition, in Isa 44:28 who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd,and he shall fulfill all my purpose’;saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’”.

Imagine, in Ezra "1:1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, " Wow, this will be the year and we are going to be free, free from captivity. Indeed, we served a God of hope. From the begining, He promised us a saviour, a salvation plan. To Abraham, He promised a nation, to the people in Egypt, He promised them land flowing with milk and honey. To Daivd, He promised a lasting kingdom. What then is your destiny? Our hope is in Him, the provider and author of our faith.

Indeed, when Cyprus made the proclaimation, we witness the fulfilment of the promise. God promise and fulfil them. He is a faithful God and we served that faithful God. He may seem slow at times, but never late in fulfilling the promises. Claim the promises.

2) The journey of faith
The journey of faith begun. Those who chose to go back, did so. But not everyone did so. Ezra 1:5"everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem.". Nevertheless, the others gave to those who went back. How about you? Would you want to go back. Yes, for years and decades, the people has been very comfortably settle in the cities of Bablylon. A lot of us, may say no. What's install there?

The journey from Babylon is significant. It is not only a step of faith, but a claimant to the promise God had given. Abraham was called out of Ur or Babylon. He obeyed. He took that step of faith and moved out of his home town - a place filled with idol worship and choose to worship and trust the soverign God. Likewise, the city of Babylon was a city of idol worshippers. Very simply, by just staying there, we will be corrupted.

In our world today, we had to made choice and some meant giving up. But when God called, do you obey?

3) The encounter with God
In Jerusalem, the people began a rebuilding program. They first rebuild the altar then followed by the temple. These were centre of worhsip - represented the presence of God - our focus.

When they started out their journey back to Jerusalem with the hope, but when they saw the destruction, something has to be done. The journey represent our first step of faith, the rebuilding represent our encounter with Him. If we choose to end our journey in Jerusalem, we failed to see the purpose, we will fail to claim the promise.

Ezra 3: "And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. 12 But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers' houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy, "

These older generation priest knew the former glory of God and the temple, but definetely not the newer generation. In verse 11, the foundation was laid, when the people shouted for joy. It is only the foundation not eh completion of the temple.

Our walk with God will be spices up with oir personal encounter with God. These encounters required our delibrate actions and a choice and santification on our part.

Noted lastly our encounters with God is not without trouble. The whole of chapter 4 spoke about that.

In the next study, we will look into how the obstacle was overcome.