Fast and pray. God REALLY needs to do this.

I personally found this portion of Ezra (latter half of Chapter 8), to be slightly comical. Ezra has proudly told the King that God will protect them on their four-month journey back to Jerusalem, so then he felt ashamed (as in, he felt it would dent his pride!) to ask the King for a guard or security of some sort.

So, Ezra got the people of Israel to fast and pray to God asking him to protect them and keep them safe during their journey. Which God does.

My thoughts only are : Did God use Ezra's shame (and/or pride) to get all the returning exiles to focus on Him and pray to Him? How 'okay' is it to let such pride/shame rule our lives? And, something I've done multiple times in my own life, is it okay to challenge the world at large because we have such an awesome and fantastic God?

I don't have the answers to the above questions. I only think that we should be so comfy and cosy and understanding of God, that we completely bank on Him and say, "So what if the world won't help or show up? My God and me, we can do anything!"

The hand of God in everything

In today's modern world, where we look at every event and phenomenon as a cause and effect, can we really do what Ezra did? There were some actions undertaken by the non-Israelite King Darius, and Ezra saw the hand of God in all this.

Believers need to do this more. Can we, or do we, really truly see the hand of God in all the actions that happen in our day to day lives? Or do we keep attributing it to other things/causes alone? There's something to think about.

And the best part is, when believers start looking at the world around us this way, others get to come along for the ride as well!!! (last bit of the verse above)

Ha ha! Suck it, enemies!!

If you've been following our recent posts, the Israelis had enemies who questioned them on their right to rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem, and then wrote back to King Darius, requesting him to check the court records to see if King Cyrus had indeed ordered them to rebuild their temple at Jerusalem.

In Chapter 5, we see that the King does so, and finds that the royal decree was also to supply everything required for the rebuilding of the Temple.

Incensed and angered by the ones who wrote to him complaining about the Israelis, King Darius orders the enemies of the Israelis (the regional Governor et al) to provide all material wealth required for the Temple, basically, through the taxes they collect from that region.

It's like the plot twist in audience-popular films and drama - the villain (Israel's enemies) is snubbed and the hero (Israel) gains from the villain.

It is an ever-pleasing trope, and one that makes me wonder if the Bible isn't just moral stories written to 'tell' people to be good. But then I remember the rest of the Bible, and my own life, and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, that every word written in the Word is so definitely true. If such tropes exist in today's world, it is highly possible that they originated from the ancient Hebrew and Greek texts of the Bible itself, considering that Christianity spread its wings across all continents, with the help of the far-flung yester-year British empire.

The bottomline is this - if we're doing God's will (as we saw in a previous post), then we can be assured that everything will work out right for us. Even if we are killed in the pursuit of His will by our enemies.

For Jesus, King and Country

What a response, the Israelis give, to their enemies who question them on the rebuilding of the temple - in Ezra 5:11!

In today's modern world, where we (Christian included) try to be politically correct all the time, could we ever think of telling some Government official asking us who we are and why we're doing something, "We're children of the most High God. We're doing what the King of Heaven commanded us to do. And also what has been allowed us under the constitution."

At best, we may leave out the first two sentences in the above dialogue, and put forth only the third sentence. Why?

What makes us so scared of earthly powers and the government? We are not standing against the Government at any point; we are not called to do that. In fact, the Bible recommends that we dutifully pay taxes to the current ruler (or government, in today's world) and abide by the laws of the land (where they do not directly conflict with the ideals of heaven).

It's time for us to wake up. Stop being cowards. We're children of the most High God. We're doing what the greatest King in history has asked us to do. And what has been allowed for us to do, per the Constitution of India.

Jai Hind... Jai Jesus.

Know Thy Enemies

Opposition will always stand in the way of those who are trying to accomplish good; in the way of people trying to do something for God, in the way of those trying to fulfill His will.

Our prayer to His Spirit should be to give us the wisdom to recognize the true nature of opposition when we see it. In Ezra 4, the enemies of the Israelis at first came and offered help to rebuild the temple. That's when the Israeli remnant says that they will do it on their own, as per the orders of King Cyrus.

In life, too, there may be those around us who offer their help - when we're trying to follow orders from an earthly superior, to accomplish the will of the Almighty. Wisdom comes in knowing which is which, and such wisdom only comes from above. Seek such wisdom, and we should find it.

Praise: Following Instructions

This verse from Ezra throws up two points to consider.

Firstly, praise need not always precede an activity (like Joshua leading the Israelites against Jericho, where they praised God for 7 days, for the walls of Jericho to fall). Sometimes, praise can (and sometimes, I guess it should) take place after the fact.

Secondly, praise can be orderly, and stuck to certain rules or a "curriculum of praise", if you will. Here, we see the Israelites following the instructions of David, although God does not (and neither does the Bible) specifically instruct the Israelites that praise must follow the instructions of David.

The Israelites were overflowing. They praised God. And they stuck to David's instructions. It would serve us well in the modern day to remember these things.

Praise can happen after the fact, and praise can follow set instructions by a great worship leader - or otherwise - even if God hasn't specifically instructed us to follow those instructions.