The Ezra Call (Part One)

One of my favorite Bible passages, and one I have long considered my “life verse,” is Ezra 7:10. Ezra dedicated his life "o study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel." In this article I am putting forth a challenge to you, my reader, to accept an Ezra call on your life. First, some historical background.
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The story of Ezra occurs about eighty years after the first return of Jewish refuges from Babylon under Zerubbabel in 536 BC. Between that time and Ezra’s ministry, Haggai and Zechariah had led in the rebuilding of the temple, and Esther had saved her people in Babylon from massacre. All of the Jews had not yet returned to Jerusalem, and many never would. In 458 BC, Ezra the Scribe led a group of Jews back to the land of Israel. This was the same general time period as Nehemiah’s rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. Ezra’s story can be found in the Book of Ezra, Chapters 7-19 and Nehemiah 7:73-9:37.

Nehemiah and Ezra found a discouraged and spiritually lax community in Jerusalem. They needed a social reconstruction and a rebuilding of confidence (Nehemiah’s ministry) but even more they needed the knowledge of the Law of God, the Scriptures, to rebuild their lives and their society (Ezra’s ministry). Just as Nehemiah rebuilt the physical walls of Jerusalem, Ezra rebuilt their spiritual walls.

Ezra gathered the people of Jerusalem and read to them the Law of God. Together with his disciples, he taught them the meaning of the Scriptures being read (Neh. 8:104, 7-8). By doing so he called them to repentance and a return to their national roots. The people of Jerusalem responded to Ezra’s ministry (Neh. 9:1-3). For a fragile community, vulnerable to backsliding and assimilation, God’s word became their salvation. Through the work of Ezra, they became forever a “people of the Book.” This, and only this, could ensure their national survival.

What made Ezra’s ministry successful? What enabled him to lead a national reformation, and to see a great revival? Only one thing was sufficient. Ezra had prepared himself beforehand for the work God had given him. “For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.” (Ezra 7:10 ESV). He had prepared his heart in three ways. First, he sought with all his heart to know the Scriptures; to be thoroughly acquainted with their content and message. Second, he sought to be obedient to what he learned, to be both a hearer and a doer. Third, he sought to be effective in communicating what he had learned within the sphere of influence given him by God.

In many ways American Christians today are like Israel in Ezra’s day. We too have been morally lax. We also face the temptation to sink to the lowest levels of the society surrounding us. We need our inner walls rebuilt, as surely as Jerusalem needed its physical walls restored. If we want to see perhaps we would do well to heed the example of Ezra, and to make the same threefold commitment he made. This is what I mean by the “Ezra Call;” a challenge to the church to be knowers, doers and teachers of the Word of God.

(Part Two will post tomorrow)