Scripture Daily

Context No. 1759 of 4322 · Ezra

Context · Reflection

Ezra 7:11-20: in context

11Now this is the copy of the letter that King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest, the scribe, even the scribe of the words of the LORD’s commandments, and of his statutes to Israel: 12Artaxerxes, king of kings, To Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the perfect God of heaven. Now 13I make a decree that all those of the people of Israel and their priests and the Levites in my realm, who intend of their own free will to go to Jerusalem, go with you. 14Because you are sent by the king and his seven counselors to inquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem, according to the law of your God which is in your hand, 15and to carry the silver and gold, which the king and his counselors have freely offered to the God of Israel, whose habitation is in Jerusalem, 16and all the silver and gold that you will find in all the province of Babylon, with the free will offering of the people and of the priests, offering willingly for the house of their God which is in Jerusalem. 17Therefore you shall with all diligence buy with this money bulls, rams, and lambs with their meal offerings and their drink offerings, and shall offer them on the altar of the house of your God which is in Jerusalem. 18Whatever seems good to you and to your brothers to do with the rest of the silver and the gold, do that according to the will of your God. 19The vessels that are given to you for the service of the house of your God, deliver before the God of Jerusalem. 20Whatever more will be needed for the house of your God, which you may have occasion to give, give it out of the king’s treasure house.

The passage records the decree of Artaxerxes, the Persian emperor, sending Ezra the priest and scribe back to Jerusalem. The king grants Ezra authority to lead any who wish to go, to carry silver and gold freely offered for the house of God, to buy sacrifices and offer them, and, remarkably, to draw whatever more is needed from the king's own treasury. A pagan emperor lavishly funds and favors the rebuilding of Israel's worship.

What is striking here is whose heart moved this decree. Artaxerxes was a pagan emperor, ruler of a vast empire, with no allegiance to the God of Israel; and yet he decrees generous support for the worship of that God, funding the sacrifices, returning the sacred vessels, opening even his own treasury for whatever more is needed. Behind the king's generosity, the tradition sees the hand of God, who moved the heart of a foreign ruler to favor and provide for his people's work. The king's heart, the proverb says, is in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he wills. And here we see it: God turning the heart of an emperor to accomplish his purposes, providing for the rebuilding of worship through the treasury of a pagan king. There is encouragement here about the reach of God's providence. We sometimes imagine that God's work depends only on the resources and goodwill of his own people, and that where those run short, or where those in power are indifferent or hostile to faith, God's purposes must stall. But God is sovereign over kings and empires, over the hearts of rulers who do not know him, and he can provide for his work through unlikely, even secular, channels, turning the hearts of those who do not serve him to serve his purposes despite themselves. Ezra's mission was funded from the treasury of a pagan emperor because God moved that emperor's heart. When God's work seems to depend on resources or favor beyond our reach, it is worth remembering that the hearts of kings are in his hand, and that he can provide through channels we would never expect.

Do I imagine God's work depends only on the resources and goodwill of his own people, so that where those run short God's purposes must stall, or can I trust, as in Ezra's mission funded by a pagan king, that God is sovereign over the hearts of rulers and can provide for his work through unlikely and unexpected channels?

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