God's Good Hand Upon Us | Ezra 8 (Mark Evans)

Ezra is preparing to return to Jerusalem and asks for Levites to join him. He proclaims a fast and humbles himself before God, seeking a safe journey for himself, his children, and their goods. He is hesitant to ask the king for protection, as he had previously boasted in God's hand being for good to those who seek Him. Ezra trusts in God's good hand and power of wrath against His enemies. The passage encourages deep trust in God and obedience. If you have your Bible, you can make your way to the book of Ezra, chapter 8, as last week we were finally introduced to the man Ezra, this great scribe, and we saw how he is purposing his heart to return to Jerusalem, and that is where we pick up the story and so forth. Today's scripture reading will be in Ezra 8, and to get us going, I will read, or we'll spend a good amount of our time in verses 21 through 23, 21 through 23. And these are the words of the God who was, who is, and who is to come. Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river Ahabba, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our goods. For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us against the enemy on our way, since we had told the king, the hand of our God is for good unto all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him. So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty, and the grass withers and the flower fades, and let us pray. Our gracious God and heavenly Father, indeed your good hand is upon your people, and this covenant of grace as our good shepherd, and so we pray as our good shepherd that you would lead us to still waters, you would lead us to the green pastures that are found in Jesus Christ alone, and you would give us eyes to see and give us ears to hear, for we humble ourselves before you, that unless you give the light, we are blind and lost, but in Christ we have a fullness of salvation, and so we pray you would give us a foretaste of that very thing right now, it is in we pray, amen. You may be seated. Well I can still remember when our children were quite little just how often we would use this motion here to nudge and to prod them along. For instance, I can remember when we were teaching our kids to swim. One of us would be in the pool, and the child would be on the pool deck, and we'd stand in the pool and we'd do this motion, effectively saying, jump into our arms. Or I remember when we were teaching one of our little ones to walk. One of us would be seated on the floor, child in front of us, and once again we'd do this motion and say, come. I even remember once we went on a hike and one of our children became stranded, or at least thought they were stranded, on top of a large boulder. So walked underneath them and once again did this motion, effectively saying, jump into my arms and I will catch you. And of course what all of those have in common, as every parent knows, is that we were in effect summoning the child to actively, willfully put their trust into our hands to catch them. Which as every parent knows, that's the same thing as telling the child to actively, willfully trust us personally, that we will do good to them. Trust me as your father, trust her as your mother, that our hands will catch you. And it's as if you could say that Ezra chapter 8 is just a transcript of this motion. That God's people must know that the good hand of their God is upon them, even, or we might say especially, when in a dangerous, perilous situation. They must trust that God's good hand is upon them. And so we're going to walk through this very long chapter, but in three simple parts. Look at this problem that they encounter. Secondly, the prayer that they make, and then thirdly, their passage from Babylon back home. But the main summons is really for that deep trust of the good hand of God upon us. And to therefore go forth in obedience. That's something far easier said than done for those who have trusted that reality. So firstly, the problem. Verse 1 sets the scene for us. You see there it says, the heads of the father's houses, the genealogy of those who went up with me from Babylonia. And you see that phrase, those who went up with me from Babylonia. That's a helpful reminder as to where we are in the story. If you remember from last week, we finally got to meet Ezra, this scribe who set his heart to study, to do, and only then to teach God's word. And his mission is to return to Jerusalem for the explicit purpose of instituting God's law for God's people. And so he's heading home. And these are the people who are going with him. Remember, this is the second wave of returnees. Second group has already made it back, and they completed the temple, and now you have this second group. Some 60 years has elapsed. And verses 2 through 14 gives us the roster of these totals. Some 5,000 people. It's a considerably smaller group than the first wave of people. But before they head out, as men are prone to do, they have a camp out. So you see verse 15, have Ezra gather them at this river, and they camp there for three days. Three days reminds us of the exodus. You remember Moses said, let us go into the wilderness for three days. Ezra is once again like this second Moses, leading God's people back to the promised land. But there is a problem. They're camping out. Who knows, maybe they're having a great time, roasting s'mores, singing campfire songs. Everything is going great. But verse 15 alarms us. Ezra conducts this survey, this inventory, and notices that there are no Levites. That is highly problematic, because Levites are critical. You cannot have a functioning temple without Levites. It would be like saying, we're going to throw a play. We're going to put on a theatrical performance. But we have no stage director, no art director, no musical director, no choreographer. Now, those people may not be on stage as the main actors, but they are critical for the performance. And so too are these Levites. They serve and keep the temple running. What good is a temple if it's not operating? This is a recurring problem throughout Ezra. There's this high demand and yet short supply of Levites. That is their dire, desperate need. And of course, it doesn't take much imagination. Think of all the needs of our current Christendom, how often we have high demand and short supply of something. We need more missionaries. We need more trained pastors. We need more evangelists. We need more open doors. We need more politicians who aren't politicians, right? We need more revival. We need more repentance. We need more courage in the church. You can think of your own needs. You've probably said, I'm sure, I need more time. I need more grace. I need more fellowship. I need more provision. I have high bills and low paycheck. I have too much anxiety and not enough rest. And so if that is their need, what is their response? Well, firstly, verse 16, just notice, Ezra sends for help to these leading men. Now, this is something that we, particularly men, are not all that good at, and that is sending for, or more simply put, asking for help, right? There's that old joke before the days of GPS that a man would rather be lost on a road trip than stop and ask for directions, right? No, honey, we're not lost. We're just taking the scenic route. But as Proverbs 11 says, where there is no guidance, a people falls, but with the abundance of counselors, there is safety, or even as some translation says, in the abundance of counselors, there is victory. And so Ezra does exactly that. He has this problem, and he seeks out counsel. But notice, it's not just from any random counselor. Notice how these leaders are described at the end of verse 16. They are, quote, men of insight, men of insight, of understanding, of wisdom, this people of prudence. And so you see, just as important as it is to seek out the counsel, comes the matter of, well, who is the counselor? Not just advice, who is the advisor? And this is something, as Christians, that we must take great notice of. We live in a day of what is sometimes called the, quote, tyranny of experts, the tyranny of experts, that we're surrounded by so-called experts. And Christians are often tempted to seek out counsel from a so-called expert in their time of need. And so they may seek out a psychologist, a psychiatrist, a medical doctor, a so-called mental health expert, even a trained counselor for guidance, because they are the credentialed experts, and therefore they are to be trusted as such. But, of course, the great danger is that such experts are not neutral, right? They so often do not have a biblical worldview. They're not thinking in terms of faith and repentance. They're not thinking in terms of putting off the old man and putting on Jesus Christ. And so they are so often not counseling in terms of the power of the Spirit and the light of God's Word. Christians often fall prey to seeking out such so-called experts long before they seek out God's wisdom. Long before they seek Christians, full of wisdom, full of the Spirit. Now, to be clear, there absolutely is a place for expertise, right? Let it be said by God's common grace, an infection that would have killed you in the 1800s no longer does. Yes and amen. And so this is not to disparage advancements or to call for some kind of radical skepticism of all things modern. Oh, but it is a call for discernment. Where are you going for help and guidance? Is it a reservoir of biblical insights or is a cauldron of worldly wisdom? It's helpful to remember, I think, that it's not at all unique to us. Israel herself was historically often tempted to lean on things like divination, magic, sorcery, necromancy. And now those things may seem archaic to us enlightened folk, but they absolutely represented the accepted wisdom of the day. And so you see in Ezra this great instinct of being wise enough to seek out wisdom from a place of wisdom. And how did Ezra know how to do that? Well, just remember who he is as a man. What did we see last week? Ezra is a man who purposed his heart, I'm going to study God's Word, I'm going to do God's Word, and only then am I going to teach God's Word. He has God's Word stored up in his heart. And he's wise enough to know, I don't know everything. And so he surrounds himself with these men of insight. This is why it's so important for Christians to be in fellowship with fellow Christians. As Proverbs says, he who walks with the wise will himself become wise. And you see that outcome exactly. Ezra sends off for the help, verse 17 states the request, send us ministers, we need those Levites. And in verse 18 you see the provision, that by the good hand of our God upon us they brought us a man of discretion in the line of Levi. So God honored Ezra's pursuit, gave him just what they needed in this Levitical man of discretion. God's good hand was upon them. So the problem is resolved, but not so fast. Remember this is only so that they can begin the journey. This just gets you to the base of the mountain. Now you've got to scale up the mountain. So let us now turn to the great prayer of Ezra. It was years ago, I was conversing with a friend over spiritual disciplines, and we're talking through disciplines like prayer, Bible reading, meditation, and so forth. And somehow we fell into ranking spiritual disciplines as to their importance. And then we got on the subject of fasting. And the offhand comment was made that fasting is, quote, overrated. And this, of course, was long before fasting was fashionable as it is in the health and wellness world today. And so it was just rashly said, fasting is overrated. Well, somebody forgot to tell Ezra that. As you see in verse 21, he proclaims a fast. It begs the question of you, what would you rank the spiritual discipline of fasting? Is it, quote, overrated to you? Is it even in your inventory of spiritual disciplines? We're reminded of the words of the Lord Jesus to His disciples, that when, not if, but when you fast, right? It's a statement that carries the obvious meaning, we will be a fasting people until the groom returns. And you see that same singular devotion to their fast in verse 21, fasting so that we could humble ourselves before our God. As mentioned earlier, if you're not aware, fasting has actually made a huge comeback today. I remember as a younger athlete, fasting was entirely discouraged for health reasons. But fasting is now quite fashionable in the wellness world. There's intermittent fasting, 24-hour fast, week-long fast, and so on and so forth. But found nowhere in such fasting protocols is the purpose of verse 21, right? Instead, fasting is promoted for its health benefits, its mental clarity, better metabolism, burning more fat, on and on and on, which is all well and good. But we're to recognize it's all about the benefits rather than the benefactor. It's all about the gifts rather than the giver. Because you see the fullness of the fast in verse 21 so clearly, let us fast for this specific purpose, so that we would humble ourselves before God. So we learn of fasting, but we learn even more so of the nature of true humility, that we will never simply stumble across humility. Rather, we are called to humble ourselves. A literal reading of that would be, we made ourselves humble before God. We brought ourselves low before Him in this position of complete dependence and reliance. Kids, kids, you've probably been taught at some point basic fire safety. If you're caught in a home that's on fire, what do you do? As you might know, one of the most important things that you can do is get low and stay low. Right? Get low and stay low. Standing up may seem like the right idea, but of course the smoke is actually far more dangerous. And so your safety is to get low and stay low. And that is all the more true of the Christian life, isn't it? Get low and stay low. One of our perpetual enemies, young and old, is pride. It's so hard to detect how often we think it right to stand up in puffed up arrogance only to inhale the toxic fumes of pride. And so God can, will, and often humbles us and brings us low. But verse 21, you see the better path. This is for man to proactively humble himself before God. And that is something that is good and right for us to perpetually do. Now, if you wish to be prideful, I've got great news for you. You are in luck. Just keep doing what you're doing. Just set your soul on autopilot and before long you will grow prideful to your own destruction. Right? Pride is the captain of our sins and such is the nature of our fallen flesh that our default setting is puffed up arrogance. If you say, oh, no, no, that's not true of me, you're only further proving the points. So the better portion is to actively humble yourself before God. And so you can do that regularly by fasting as a great discipline for that, but of course with prayer and regular moments of coming before God and acknowledging I am nothing more than the branch to the vine, sheep to the shepherd, clay to the potter, that truly I can do nothing apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. And they do exactly that here. And you see specifically in verse 21, they fast for this reason, quote, seeking from God a safe journey, not just for them, but for their children and for their goods. So simply put, it's a prayer for travel mercies. And we might all know there's a kind of hyper-spirituality that looks down its nose at these kind of prayer requests. Right? It's far too trivial to pray for a safe journey, recover from sickness, to pray for a surgery that goes well. Well, such things are just not spiritual enough to be bothering God with. But you see here, it's a God-honoring prayer that magnifies Him as our great protector. There was once a terrified lady on board a ship in this terrible storm, and she happened to pass by the captain. She said, Captain, is there any hope? To which the captain responded, our only hope is in God. The lady turned even more pale and said, are things really that bad? So easily do we deceive ourselves just how much we are in control. And thus Ezra prays so hard. But you see also, he prays somewhat out of embarrassment, this kind of shame to ask for the king's help. Verse 22 says this, for I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers to protect us against the enemy on our way, because we had told the king, the hand of our God is for good on all who seek Him. So what's going on here? Well, it's as if we get to peer into Ezra's psyche, and Ezra has this moment of clarity, or maybe it's a moment of regret, and he thinks to himself, oh man, I talked this big game to the king about my big God and just how awesome my God is. In fact, He's so awesome, I don't need your army to protect us on our journey. I don't put my trust in chariots, I don't put my trust in men or princes, I put my trust in God. His good hand is upon us. And just to set the context, remember, this journey from Babylon to Jerusalem is not walking down the street, right? This is some 900 miles, and you have with you women and children and treasure, and you are responsible. Add to this that the threat of ambush by bandits is a very real, very present danger. You are a proverbial sitting duck. And so how tempting to think, yeah, wouldn't it be nice to have some guys armed with assault rifles escort us on the journey? Also add to that, remember, there is no doubt that if Ezra went to the king and asked for a security detachment, he most certainly would have received it, right? We've seen King Artaxerxes is in full support of Ezra. Whatever he wants, he gets it. So Artaxerxes would have said, sure, you can...in fact, I'll send the infantry and Humphies and Blackhawk helicopters to escort you on the way. You have the option of full security detachment staring Ezra in the face, and yet he says, I'm ashamed to ask for that option because I boasted so much in my God, it will look like an empty boast, a false confidence if I go back, tail between my legs, and ask for the king's help. So what do we make of this? Is Ezra here being foolish and stubborn? If you say to Ezra, Ezra, man, swallow your pride, get over yourself, quit tempting God, do the right thing for the women and children and their safety, and take the king's help. This is not about faith, this is about your ego. Or is Ezra being faithful here, right? Is Ezra right in saying God's good hand is upon us? So we don't need the king's help. Our God is faithful. This, of course, presents us with a further problem for the Christian life. Do we go and do likewise, right? When you drive home from church today, do not buckle your seatbelts because God's good hand is upon you. Well, of course, we don't want to think about it in such simplistic terms. Firstly, Scripture is quite clear, the Christians are not to run headlong and heedlessly into danger, right? As Proverbs says, the wise man sees danger and he takes refuge. They're not to be thoughtless in the face of risk. But we also see in Scripture many commendable, courageous confrontations with danger and with risk. And it's always in an atmosphere of much prayer, much discernment, much counsel, and a spirit-wrought confidence that God has called us to this very thing. And the Apostle Paul is a very fine example of this, right? You see that there are times. He actively avoids dangerous people and dangerous places, and yet there's other times he advances full well knowing that he is stepping into the lion's den. And that's a word for us today. A recent speaker commented that Christians today, especially our younger Christians, are far too risk-adverse, far too afraid of the unknown. And when you further factor in things like COVID and helicopter parenting and victim mentality, it only compounds our fear of danger. But you see this great confidence of Ezra, and perhaps, yes, maybe his mouth did outrun his mind. That's certainly possible. At the end of the day, he knows God's good hand is upon those who seek Him. Not only that, he knows the other side of that equation that we most certainly should not skip over in verse 22. He knows of God's good hand, and you see he knows the power of God's wrath upon his enemies. Christian, do you know of the power of God's wrath upon his enemies? I do wonder that as the church has lost, largely lost the truth of a wrathful God, did we also lose our courage along with it? What good is a defender who is defenseless? What good is a protector who is powerless? What good is an avenger who takes no vengeance? And to go back again to Paul, part of his great confidence was that in the face of danger, he knew God was his avenger. Even in 2 Timothy, speaking directly about one of his opponents, Paul says, I know, I know the Lord will repay him for the evil that he has done to me. And Ezra knew it well too. Given the student of Scripture that Ezra was, he could have so easily called up into his mind the many times that Israel trekked out in the wilderness on the Exodus, and the many times they were ambushed, they were attacked, and yet God powerfully delivered his people. So just imagine, you're on this 900-mile journey. You might look out over the horizon and go, man, that looks a lot like bandits, and they're coming our way. Or that looks a lot like armed raiders, and they're coming our way. And you circle the wagons with the sole confidence, the good hand of God is upon us, and the power of his wrath is upon our enemies. So Christians, you need to ask that simple question, do I have that same storehouse to draw from? It doesn't take much to look around and see the world's ambushes are only increasing. Threats and oppositions are only intensifying. But to confess Christ as King is to confess, he rules over me, the world, Satan, and he offends me. And so we've seen the prayer. Now let's see if they make this safe passage back home in our third section. As Ezra 24-30 there says, he sets apart the 12 priests, that number 12 no doubt signaling to us a reconstitution of Israel, and that helps us to better situate what's going on here in these travels. See, if you or I head out this month on a summer vacation, of course we should pray for travel mercies, but we're not to expect a reduplication of Ezra 8, right? We won't get a flat tire because God's good hand is upon us. Now what we're looking at here, God's sovereign purposes, accomplishing God's sovereign promises that he made to Israel. And you see that outworking in verse 31, we departed from the river to go to Jerusalem. The hand of our God was on us and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from ambushes by the way. Now the text doesn't actually tell us, were these real ambushes? You know, was this live fire or just contrived ambushes that the Lord diverted? But what you do see clearly there is this tale of two hands. You see that phrase, the hand of the enemy. It's said against the hand of our God in this kind of cosmic arm wrestling match. You see the hand of the enemy had every intention, every inclination to lay hands and do violence on God's people. He overpowered them. It's the hand of our God. And so verse 32 proclaims that upper hand with these simple words, we came to Jerusalem. We made it home. We glorified the temple and we offered worship to God. The good hand of our God was upon them and overruled the hand of the enemy. And now you might be saying, and you'd be right to do so, well that's all well and good. But what about when it doesn't go this way? What about when we don't make it home, so to speak? When I'm not delivered from an ambush, a death, a disease, a persecution, what then? And that's why with our New Testament eyes, we are to see how this is supremely summed up in the Lord Jesus Christ. For He was the one delivered into the hands of the enemy. What do the Gospels specifically, repeatedly tell us? That Christ was betrayed into the hands of sinners. That day after day they were seeking to lay hands on Him. That the scribes and the Pharisees sought to lay hands on Him. And eventually He was indeed delivered into the hands of the enemy. And so over and over the Gospels paint this picture that as Jesus is increasing in His mission to save His people, the hands of the enemy are increasing in intensity to destroy Him and to oppose Him. And let's ask, how did the Lord Jesus respond? How did Christ overcome the hands of the enemy? Remember His very own words upon the cross, Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit. The Lord Jesus knew in the darkest hour, in the most agonizing hour, in the hardest hour, in the hour of the power of darkness, the most blessed place to be is in the hands of My Father. And trust My Father's hand to deliver Me. And so it was on the third day, His Father did deliver Him and overturned the hands of the enemy. And Christian, you must know that because He was delivered into the hands of the enemy, that means that God's people never, never, ultimately, finally will be. That Satan and the powers of darkness may have every intention not simply to ambush but to obliterate God's people. But what is the promise of Christ to you? What is the promise of Christ to His church? That no one, no one will snatch My people out of what? Out of My hands. And so may the good hand of the Lord Jesus be upon you. That is our confidence and you have a preview of that here in Ezra in the Old Testament church. And so as we begin to close, let us lay up in our hearts three uses of this great section of Ezra 8. Firstly, pray, don't presume. Pray, don't presume. As is rightly said, action without prayer is presumption. Prayer without action is ultimately unbelief. And we've seen this morning the happy couple of both. Prayer with action, right? This great risk was ventured for a great purpose with great gains and yet none of it apart from great prayer, intense prayer. And so it is for us. A great missionary, William Carey, once said, attempt great things from God. Expect great things from God. We could only add, do so with great prayer to God. Pray, don't presume. Secondly, humble yourself before God. Humble yourself before the Lord. Now we've seen how God responds to those who humble themselves before Him. God exalts the lowly. You might remember King Ahab who was one of, perhaps the most evil king in the Old Testament. And God came to him and declared disaster upon King Ahab. But what happened? Ahab heard those words, he repented, he put on sackcloth and guess what God said? God said, because Ahab has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring disaster upon him but in his son's generation. And so indeed if you're here this morning and you don't know what it is to humble yourself before the Lord, hear it now. The prideful person will not have God's good hand upon him. God opposes the proud and God's hand will always win. And so as it's said, get low and stay low or you will be brought low. And that may mean even for some of you to humble yourself for the very first time. To humble yourself in coming before the Lord and crying out, Lord Jesus, have mercy on me for I am a sinner. And we've seen the goodness of our God that a lowly and contrite heart, He will not turn away. And lastly, put it all in God's good hands. Put it all in God's good hands. Of course, that it could be finances or health or our careers, our anxieties, but of course it is our very lives that we put into God's hands. And as sometimes it's said, you can tell a lot about a man from his hands. Are his hands rough? Are his hands callous? Are they tender? Are they smooth? Are they strong? How much more is that the case with our God that we can tell much of our God from His hands? For God's hands have all the marks of a good shepherd. Hands calloused from His rod of good correction. Hands strong and mighty in their power to save. Hands tender in their compassion for His people. Hands open and ready to receive the lowly and humble heart. And above all, hands full of goodness for His covenant people. And friends, if you ever doubt that, if you ever wonder about the goodness of God's hands, all you have to do is look at the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ and see those pierced hands, pierced for our transgression, pierced for our salvation. Let us pray. Our gracious God and Heavenly Father, indeed we do praise You that Your good hand would be upon us as but sinners made in Your image. We praise You how You have done so, that You have done so through the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who was delivered over for our trespasses but raised up for our justification. And so we pray that we would hear the promise of our good shepherd, that truly no one, nothing can snatch us from the hands of the Lord Jesus. We pray we would not simply rest upon such a truth, but we would also go forth in a courageous obedience to You, trusting all along the way that the good hand of our God is upon us. We ask this in the strong name of Christ, and amen.