KJB Daily Devotion – Following Jesus Through Every Chapter
Date: Tuesday, September 25, 2018
Chapters: Ezra 7-10
Message: The Good Hand of God
Hello My Friend,
I have to admit that I have been struggling for a while now trying to come to terms with some of the things God wants in my life, I do not question Him, but often question my will in doing His will. One thing that is for certain, I do know that God’s hand is in everything I do, and I have seen, especially this year, how He directs my every step, well, most of the time. You know, God tells us how He wants us to live and since everyone has their own opinion on what they believe that to be we are going to clash sometimes, even as Christians, I may not always know why He puts people or things in my life, but I know Him, and He would never put me in a position where I would be forced to go against His Word. He may test us, but would never put any of us in a position like that. Since we have this flesh, that often does what it wants instead of what God wants, we may not always make the right decisions, and that is why we have God’s grace. God has a purpose and a plan for everything He does and allows in our lives, He will even take the mistakes we made in our own will and make something good out of them. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” – Romans 8:28.
Ezra is a descendant of Aaron, he was also a scribe, a writer in the Law of Moses. Ezra not only made sure that everything written in the Word of God was accurate, he also penned several books under the inspiration of God, including the Chronicle books. Ezra was not only a big help to God as a writer of His Word, he also became the inspirational leader of the group of Jews that returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. The next four chapters gives us a little insight into the state of the people in how they dealt with matters concerning God.
“For upon the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him. For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments. Now this is the copy of the letter that the king Artaxerxes gave unto Ezra the priest, the scribe, even a scribe of the words of the commandments of the LORD, and of his statutes to Israel. Artaxerxes, king of kings, unto Ezra the priest, a scribe of the law of the God of heaven, perfect peace, and at such a time. I make a decree, that all they of the people of Israel, and of his priests and Levites, in my realm, which are minded of their own freewill to go up to Jerusalem, go with thee. And thou, Ezra, after the wisdom of thy God, that is in thine hand, set magistrates and judges, which may judge all the people that are beyond the river, all such as know the laws of thy God; and teach ye them that know them not. And whosoever will not do the law of thy God, and the law of the king, let judgment be executed speedily upon him, whether it be unto death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment. Blessed be the LORD God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem:” – Ezra 7:9-13,25-27.
“For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD,” In anything we do in life, whether it is to finish school, lose weight, get married, unless we prepare our heart for it we will not get very far. If we want to see God’s hand in all that we do and good come out of every situation we face we must prepare our heart. Do you know why Jesus does not come to some people until much later in life? Their heart must be right. My heart had to be ready to get in that water, be baptized, and dedicate my life to serving Him all those years ago. “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” – Romans 10:9-10.
Part of teaching God’s Word is that we live, we cannot be the example of Christ that the world needs to see if we are not practicing what we are preaching. It all starts by preparing our heart to seek His Word, but it is not enough to know what His words say, we must live them too. Ezra, having received the call from the king to assemble a group of people willing to go to Jerusalem to help them understand the Word of God was a little overwhelmed about the job God had given him to do. He knew God was with Him and would guide him in the right direction. Over seventeen hundred men volunteered to go to Jerusalem, before going any further the entire team fasted and prayed to God.
“And I gathered them together to the river that runneth to Ahava; and there abode we in tents three days: and I viewed the people, and the priests, and found there none of the sons of Levi. And by the good hand of our God upon us they brought us a man of understanding, of the sons of Mahli, the son of Levi, the son of Israel; and Sherebiah, with his sons and his brethren, eighteen; Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance. For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way: because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him; but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him. So we fasted and besought our God for this: and he was intreated of us.” – Ezra 8:15,18,21-23.
“The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him;” Part of living in God’s will is having faith in Him when things look impossible, we cannot say that we have faith in Him and not live it. Let me tell you, our faith is not always going to be in abundance, but it does not have to be, all we need is faith the size of a mustard seed to see God work. When we make decision upon decision in our own reasoning all we end up doing is going around in circles. Every decision we make we need to do it with God’s direction, if we have to afflict ourselves to get Him to tell us where we need to be, then that is what we need to do. It is better to be a little hungry waiting for God to show us His will rather than to be full making decisions that will keep us running around in circles. When Ezra and the people arrived in Jerusalem they expected to see at least a few of the Jews worshiping, praising God, and giving them some hope that God was there. Instead, it was just the opposite, the moral and spiritual condition in Jerusalem was terrible, and many of the priests were actually married and had kids with women who were not even Jews, and it grieved Ezra to the point that he fell on his knees in prayer.
“And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens. Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day. And now for a little space grace hath been shewed from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage. And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hast given us such deliverance as this; Should we again break thy commandments, and join in affinity with the people of these abominations? wouldest not thou be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor escaping? O LORD God of Israel, thou art righteous: for we remain yet escaped, as it is this day: behold, we are before thee in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before thee because of this.” – Ezra 9:6-8,13-15.
“our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve,” Every time I face affliction for some bad decision I made I get the same way, crying to God in shame, wondering why I did not get what I really deserved. We do not always make decision according to God’s Word, which is why we get afflicted, it does not even have to be that we committed any sin, not listening to Him to begin with is what brings shame. That is what God’s grace is for, when we are at the end of our ropes, and have no idea what to do next, God’s grace reminds us that God is still here. “Therefore, as ye abound in every thing, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also.” – II Corinthians 8:7.
As the congregation heard Ezra praying they too began to pray and repent of their sins, but now, came the hard part. Would they follow the Law as they said they would? One by one, each Levite agreed to present himself with his wife and children before the court to determine whether or not they served God or a false god, they were to get a divorce and separate from them forever if it was determined that they served false gods.
“Now when Ezra had prayed, and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children: for the people wept very sore. And Shechaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said unto Ezra, We have trespassed against our God, and have taken strange wives of the people of the land: yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing. Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them, according to the counsel of my lord, and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law. Let now our rulers of all the congregation stand, and let all them which have taken strange wives in our cities come at appointed times, and with them the elders of every city, and the judges thereof, until the fierce wrath of our God for this matter be turned from us. And the children of the captivity did so. And Ezra the priest, with certain chief of the fathers, after the house of their fathers, and all of them by their names, were separated, and sat down in the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter.” – Ezra 10:1-3,14,16.
“and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God;”
Making decisions out of the will of God about who we join together with can cause us to go in a direction that is far from God, they may not have even been living in sin, but they were in a mixed marriage of two different faiths, and that always brings problems. This is why Christians cannot even be married or even dating other Christians that are not likeminded in their faith, it brings too much affliction as one sees things differently as the other. You know, our flesh longs for affection, it wants to be accepted and feel comforted, especially when being afflicted, we all think that we can get the other person to see what we see, that even though they are set in their ways we can break them. We cannot break anyone, neither can God, for us or anyone else to change we need to be willing to change. Jesus can change anyone, but they must be willing, and by His grace He will begin the work of getting them in His will. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.” – I Peter 5:8-10.
Jesus Christ Magnified: “And at the evening sacrifice I arose up from my heaviness; and having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the LORD my God,” – Ezra 9:5.
Today’s Prayer: God, You know there have been times in my life when I sunk so deep in my past that I couldn’t breathe anymore, but Your hand always pulled me back up. Thank You for loving me and not forsaking me, for holding me up, even when I wanted to fall. Thank You for Your endless mercy and grace, it truly endures, and thank You for always being there for me, even when I wanted to give up. Lord, I need You to get through each day, pour Your Spirit upon me and fill me with Your love, mercy, grace, peace, strength, and wisdom. Help me to get through this day, uplifted and encouraged, knowing that You are always with me, have a purpose for everything I go through, and have something great in store for me when it comes to pass. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina
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