Please read your Bible text: Ezra 7:1-28
‘For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek (study) the Law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel.’ (Ezra 7:10)
[Notes: Between chapter 6 and 7 – there is a gap of about 58 to 60 years. The first group of exiles returned under Zerubbabel. The second group returned under the leadership of Ezra in Chapter 7.]
The rebuilding on the temple had been completed. Much had been done on the physical aspect. It is only in Ezra 7 (58 to 60 years later) that a reformation began to affect the spiritual aspect of the lives of the people regarding the temple of God. The people merely had a house for God then but they did not have a heart for God! Not until a spiritual reformation took place. For that, God had to raise up Ezra – His kind of a leader – the leader of the hour!
Very often our ministries focus on the external. So much of our ministries at best can be just on the physical, at worst on the carnal. In any reconstruction work, a demand for both MEN & MATERIALS are needed! But who or what gets the priority? We give so many premiums on materials but God is first looking for the men. May the Lord raises US up as the Men of the hour and with Godly Materials rebuild both a house and a heart for God in our ‘ZION’… What kind of a man or leader is Ezra?
1. Ezra is a Student of the Word – v.10
He devoted himself to the study of the Word of God (the Scriptures). No one can teach without first becoming a student. If Ezra was going to instruct the people from the Scriptures, he first had to study it. This he did by dedicating himself to the studying of the Law. Today if we are to be used by God to teach out from His living Word to affect lives and bring spiritual reformation we ought first to devote ourselves to study the Word of God. The men who greatly move the world and steer the spiritual momentum of the church are men who carried the revelation of God out of the study of God’s Word.
To devote in studying the Holy Scriptures there must be a love, a hunger, a longing for more of God Himself. Bible study should be a delight and not a chore! We study not to be puffed up with knowledge but to see the Lord Jesus afresh in the Bible. That is what I called ‘REVELATION’. When you study the Bible and the Holy Spirit reveals something fresh about the Lord JESUS CHRIST – you feel good – your soul is nourished. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal Christ as you study the Word of God. In this way, you will become a student of the Word through sheer delight.
2. Ezra is a Doer of the Word – v.10
Ezra not only taught the Law of the LORD, he obeyed it by doing it. People learned better by observing a life that is modelled on practicing what ones preaches. Many usually forget the Word we preached but they cannot forget the life we lived. We touch lives profoundly when we practiced what we preached. More so, many who are outside the Kingdom of God may not want to read the Bible (the Word of God) but they cannot avoid reading your life! So we need to live out the Word of God. Be a doer of God’s Word, for then the fifth Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is according to YOU.
I knew of someone who tried to practice what he read, but failed and failed miserably. I also knew of someone whose live was changed dramatically reading the Bible. So what is the difference between these two? The former read with his mind academically, legalistically, trying to practice what he read. The latter read with his heart, filled with love and joy so much so his life changed unware!
3. Ezra is a Teacher of the Word – vs.6, 10
For spiritual reformation to take place – the Word of God must affect lives. But how can it happen unless the Word of God is been taught or preached? Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. How can one hear unless it is taught or preached? Ezra was a scribe, a teacher well versed in the Law of Moses. If people are to be educated in the Scriptures and be dramatically affected or transformed by it, we need leaders like Ezra to lead people in both precept and practice. This is very true—you cannot be a teacher unless you first study and then practice what you have learned.
Not all are gifted to teach. But all can receive the abundance of God’s grace and enjoy seeing more and more of Jesus Christ in studying the Word of God. And when we are so full of the revelations of Jesus – we will burp out sharing to others. This is teaching by accident!
THINK: You can build a house of God without a heart for God – that’s scary!
PRAYER: Father God, give me an insistent appetite for CHRIST, the living word – that I may know Him and behold Him always. Help me to embrace the truth that as CHRIST is – so am I on this earth. In so doing, I may become a student, a doer and a teacher of your Word effortlessly (without a tint of my flesh).
David Quek.
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