Thoughts on Ezra

“For Ezra had directed his heart to seek the law of Jehovah and to do it, and to teach in Israel the statutes and the ordinances.” Ezra 7:10

Here we have a wonderful and blessed example of a man of God, who not only was a scribe, but he was a ‘ready scribe in the law of Moses’. He delighted in the word of God. I believe, for us, following the example of the verse we have before us, that there are three steps when it comes to reading the word of God.

1. To seek the word of God. Ezra had first directed his heart to seek the law of Jehovah. How many people today do we see that do not desire to first seek the word of God. The Bible is very readily accessible to all, but the first step is to seek it and see what God has to say. We have the wonderful example of Josiah in 2 Chron 34:3 when he began to seek after the God of David his father. So we must first seek the word of God, like Ezra and many other men of God.
2. To do it. This is the next step after seeking the word of God and knowing what God has to say to each of us, we need to do it. It is a good thing to read and learn, as well as read commentaries and share in meetings, but we need to ‘be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving ourselves’ (James 1:22). Doing the word means a practical living of what and whom we believe. Again, it is good to hear the word of God being preached in ministry, but the ‘doing’ has to follow the ‘hearing.’
3. To teach. I believe the teaching here is twofold. First, we need to teach ourselves and learn the word of God, then, we can teach others. Teaching is a very serious thing (James 3:1), and we first need to live the practical life before we can teach or exhort others. Our Lord Jesus is the great example of One who lived to do the will of God, then taught the word of God. The apostle Paul was another example to which young Timothy saw. Paul lived the practical life – he lived according to what and whom he believed, then he was able to teach and exhort Timothy.

So, we see here these simple but rather challenging steps for us in our everyday lives. May the Lord help us, and may we daily and continually seek His word, to do it, and to exhort one another and teach others.