Ezra 7:27 Commentary and Bible Study

Ezra knew that though thanks were due to the king, they were ultimately due to God who had worked in Artaxerxes’ heart. Yes Ezra had asked him, but he knew that no success would come without God preparing his heart. Maybe Ezra had seen him soften over the years. Under the circumstances or Judah being ruled by a remote power, this was the only way this could have been done. Prophecy was going to come to pass, and the temple was going to be built again and Israel as a nation preserved. If that required a pagan king to be so moved by God that he became sympathetic towards a project that promoted a religion that he was not born into, that belonged to a defeated nation, then that is what would happen. God never fails his people.‘And hath extended mercy unto me before the king.’ ‘Mercy’, is that an appropriate word? Ezra has received so much. He doesn't say, ‘Look what I obtained from the king. Look what I negotiated. Look what I secured.’ He attributes it all to God, and he calls it – interesting word – ‘mercy’; mercy, because everything we have is by mercy. ‘Unto me, before the king.’ The king was made merciful, and his councillors were made merciful, and all the king’s mighty princes. This is astonishing, says Ezra. You might have thought, if the king said, ‘Yes’, soon there would be powerful, antagonistic princes, asserting themselves, chopping bits off the decree, opposing this, opposing that, putting up obstacles and difficulties. So in amazement, Ezra says, ‘They have all been so affected and overruled by God that they are all, to a man, showing goodwill and mercy to me.’ This is astonishing. One minute he's facing the Persian Empire – you couldn't do anything in those days, without the emperor's consent – the next he travelling back to Jerusalem with great authority and the backing of the most powerful empire on earth at that time. Ezra believed in the sovereignty of God. God could overrule the secular powers. There is a very obvious lesson, but constantly we see efforts to glorify men, or to take credit to ourselves. Ezra does not fo that. He does not say, ‘Here in the rather brilliant policy I followed.’ He gives no clue what part he played in securing this decree fro the king. He refuses to detract from God, and he was strengthened by what happened and by reflecting on it.