Ezra 8:22 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

Navigator

Ezra 8:22

Comments

But then we learn of the shame of Ezra, ‘For I was ashamed’. What a passage this is! ‘I was ashamed’, the Hebrew says. ‘I paled’, which implies shame, of course, in this context, so the translation is sound. I paled at the very thought of asking the king for a contingent of military – ‘to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen.’ It would have been a very large company to look after eight thousand people – ‘to help us against the enemy in the way.’ They were going to travel a thousand miles, and much of it was going to be desert. But there were hordes of people who made their living by raiding trading caravans and travellers. These were dangerous times. You would be guaranteed to be attacked, ambushed, waylaid, any number of times on a large journey. Somehow or other word gets out, though you can't imagine how. Those bandits along the way would have known that there was a fortune being carried by these people. They would have been so vulnerable. And yet even in those circumstances, Ezra pales at the very thought of asking the king for an escort, and he won't do it, and he tells us why. ‘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.’ He seems to be saying, ‘We would be worse off if we didn't trust the Lord, but we will be protected if we trust him.’ He dare do nothing to undermines his boast of confidence in the Lord, for that would be to dishonour the Lord before the king. Where did he get this from? What was Ezra quoting? Well he is not quoting anything. You won't find these words in any previous Scripture. He is summarising the constant teaching of the Scripture in these circumstances. It is a repeated exhortation: God is saying to Israel that if they avoid idolatry and they put their trust in him, then he will treat them as the apple of his eye. As eagles spread their wings over their young and carry them on their wings, so God will carry his people and confound their enemies, and protect and keep them. ‘Don't make chariots; don't use horsemen; don't go in for the latest accoutrements of war. If you only have faith, I will look after you in every battle. Send only infantry into the field and that will be enough. I will give them such power and deliverance and help.’ That was always the code and the way with Israel, and Ezra knows that, and he knows that still holds good. So he is going to cross that desert, and go into that desperate territory without any escort. ‘So we fasted and besought our God for this, and he was entreated of us’, which is either an after comment, or in some way they were assured that God had heard their prayer.

Application

That happens to us. When we prepare the way in prayer, we are very often granted very great assurance after such prayers, that God will hear, and he will answer. ‘And he was entreated of us’ was maybe an assurance they received at that very time even before they started the journey.

We seek a right way to serve the Lord, a right way for us, for every member of the fellowship, for the children, for the treasure that we are carrying. We pray that the Lord will help us, so that the doctrine and the gospel will be protected and preserved, and never adulterated. We all on a journey and we are carrying treasure, and we pray for our preservation and for its preservation. You have it in the Lord's Prayer: ‘Lead us not into temptation, and deliver us from evil.’ Deliver us from temptation from within, and from without, Deliver us from worldliness. Deliver us from a love of ease, from coldness of heart, from vain distractions. Deliver us from all the things that would take away our zeal, and our love for the Lord, and our concern for souls and the gospel. And he does, and even if we may go through experiences and trials where the devil throws everything at us – and every Christian at some time, and repeatedly through life, may well have such an experience, when your head is filled with doubts about your salvation, and even doubts about the faith. When the worthwhileness of your Christian walk seems to disappear, and you are almost under strong temptation to believe that you would be better off as a worldling, and you are assaulted with one thought after another, what do you do? Well, the Scripture says, ‘Resist the devil and he will flee from you.’ What is the best way of doing that? Appeal to Christ to rescue you. Tell him that you love him, and you depend upon him. Remember what he has done for you. Give yourself to him all over again; appeal to him. And never forget this: that on Calvary's cross the devil was utterly defeated. He was crushed. He won't face up to that, and he puts the thought out of his mind, and he convinces himself that he can bring us down, and he can bring you down, and that he can bring the whole Christian experiment of God to an end, and that he can claim some victory in the end. But nevertheless, because of Calvary, he is afraid of Christ, and he fears, and if you appeal to Christ in moments of deep doubt and attack and trouble, he interposes himself between you and the tempter, and then the tempter will flee and you will be relieved. Watts puts it beautifully. When Christ comes onto the battlefield, says Isaac Watts, ‘But hell shall fly at Thy rebuke, And Satan hide his head; He knows the terrors of Thy look, And hears Thy voice with dread.’ Satan fears Christ, and Christ will come and aid you.

They prayed, they had a need, and they defined it. Some never define the need. Their prayers are very airy-fairy. They needed defence and well-being, so they proclaimed a fast. In the New Testament fasting is mostly personal and secret. It is to stir us up to the business of prayer. It does not itself procure anything, but it helps us focus on prayer and to be earnest with God. This was not just a casual asking of God.

Let not Christians turn to enemies of the cross and to the culture of the times for help. Help may be offered, but there is a price to pay. As the unbelieving world sees us depend on their help, they are privately thinking to themselves that our claim to trust in God is mere words, and our actions show what we really think. Ezra would not expose his testimony to this danger. Today we don't see it that way, or at least there is the temptation, not to. Bible believing Christians so often do take the king's armed guard, the king’s escort. They say, ‘I can't do Christian work without music and drama. I can't do Christian work without entertaining the people to keep them coming. I want the church to appear in the estimation of people as rich and successful, and not too dissimilar from the world. We need help, you know. This gospel is not naturally popular, so we need the flesh brought in to help us, and devices, and gimmicks.’ We have to avoid that so carefully, and thrust that away, and say with Ezra, ‘I was ashamed to feel the need for fleshly aids.’ We are reliant on the Spirit of God alone, and the power of the word, and the power of the gospel. Ezra is a great hero of faith. Step-by-step he leads them aright.

Questions

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

Ezra 8:22 Commentary and Bible Study