Aside
I’m going
to begin today’s blog post with a bit of a side comment. Some days I get into the text and I am
absolutely filled with ideas to write.
Other days I get into the text and I have a few ideas but I’m not sure
about them. So then I go to my commentaries
and determine if I am at least barking up the right tree. There is yet a third category of days. These are the days where I genuinely read the
text and don’t have much to add besides simply retelling the text. On those days I usually read through a
commentary until I hit an idea that genuinely inspires my writing.
Today
happened to be one of those middle days.
I had a few ideas but I wanted to consult a commentary or two before
writing. But here’s the funny part. Of all the commentaries I trust that grant me
access to thoughts about Ezra, there is a grand total of a single paragraph on
Ezra 8. So I feel like I am flying
reasonably blind today. Lord willing I’ll
stay on the course!
Willing vs. Unwilling
My first
thought today is actually a thought about the difference between a willing
participant and an unwilling one. Think
about this in terms of employment. Just
about everyone that has worked can tell the difference between a person who
does their job because they genuinely enjoy what they are doing and the person
who is there because they need the paycheck and they can’t find a job they
enjoy any more than this one. There is a
noticeable difference in these categories.
You can see it in attitude. You
can see it in performance. You can see
it in productivity. You can see it in
conversation. In almost every dynamic of
employment you can see the difference between the person who loves their job
and the person who is just there to collect a paycheck.
So it is
with faith as we can see in this chapter.
When Ezra called for fellow Jews to accompany him back to Jerusalem to
take up the cause of teaching and leading the Hebrew people in worship, dozens
if not hundreds of men showed up out of the ranks of the volunteers. Of all the tallies listed in the first 14
verses, the number 28 is the smallest tally while most of the numbers are 70+
and many are multiple hundreds! But then
we discover that there were no Levites present! Therefore, Ezra “drafts” some Levites. Not counting the 220 servants of the Levites
(who weren’t really Levites anyway), we have a grand total of 38 Levites who
show up! Can you not see the difference
in this chapter regarding the willing versus unwilling participants?
That
really got me thinking about my spiritual life.
Barring God taking control and forcing His will on my life, I can
genuinely say that I always get more out of the spiritual activities that I do
willingly than the ones I do out of resentful obligation. And I think that is true in community as well
as within each individual. When the community
comes together and genuinely serves God with one another – those are the
moments that God’s Holy Spirit abounds.
But those moments when we come together and do the task at hand out of
reluctant obligation to church policy or church tradition, those are the
moments where the Holy Spirit is quenched by our unenthusiastic response. And don’t get me wrong. I’m not making any judgment upon the activity
itself. My judgment is against the
attitude we bring to the activity.
The Fast
Then we
hear about an incredible claim to faith.
Ezra declares a fast and asserts that they will be doing the journey
without military escort. They are going
to be carrying all the beautiful and ornate temple furnishings that
Nebuchadnezzar had plundered a century ago.
If there was ever a reason for a group of bandits to rob a caravan, here
is the time! In this moment Ezra
declares that they will make the trip with God as their sole source of
protection. What incredible faith!
In an age
of all kinds of “safety nets” and “safety measures” like bank accounts,
retirement accounts, savings accounts, military patrolled borders, spy
satellites, interceptor missiles, deadbolt locks, keyless entry, GPS tracking
cell-phones, etc … we could really learn from the boldness of Ezra. What does it mean in a world like ours to put
our faith in God’s protection? I am
blown away by Ezra’s move and bold pronouncement of faith.
And as we should expect, God does not
disappoint. God delivers. They arrive safe and sound. And the people worship God. What a great testimony to God!
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