Day 175 · Part 10: The Return
Ezra Comes to Jerusalem · Ezra’s Grief
In the Story
In context
In the seventh year of King Artaxerxes, about 458 BC, Ezra, a priest descended from Aaron and “a skilled scribe in the law of Moses,” goes up from Babylon to Jerusalem, a journey of four months (Ezra 7:1–9). “Ezra had set his heart to seek Yahweh’s law, and to do it, and to teach” it in Israel (7:10). The king sends him with gifts for God’s house and orders to appoint judges (7:12–26).
Ashamed to ask the king for soldiers after telling him, “The hand of our God is on all those who seek him,” Ezra calls a fast by the river Ahava, and they come safely to Jerusalem with the treasure, all of it weighed and written down (8:21–34).
It is a hard reading at the end. Leaders report that many, priests and Levites among them, have married women of the peoples around them, against the commands Ezra recalls (9:1–2, 10–12; Deuteronomy 7:3). Ezra tears his clothes and prays in shame, and the people make a covenant to send away the foreign wives and the children born to them; the book ends with a list of the men, some of whom “had wives by whom they had children” (Ezra 10:1–44).
Those who know your name will put their trust in you, for you, Yahweh, have not forsaken those who seek you.
Psalms 9:10 · Ezra told the king, “The hand of our God is on all those who seek him”; the psalm says the Lord has “not forsaken those who seek you.”
For families
Before the long journey to Jerusalem, Ezra called a fast “to seek from him a straight way for us, for our little ones, and for all our possessions” (Ezra 8:21), and they arrived safely (8:31–32).
Ezra prayed before a long trip with the little ones. What does your family do before a long trip?
In the Bible
World English Bible, as published by eBible.org (public domain).
Ezra 7
Loading…
Ezra 8
Loading…
Ezra 9
Loading…
Ezra 10
Loading…
A hymn for today
Nearer, My God, to Thee · words by Sarah F. Adams
- Nearer, my God, to Thee,Nearer to Thee!E'en though it be a crossThat raiseth me;Still all my song shall be,Nearer, my God, to Thee,Nearer, my God, to Thee,Nearer to Thee!
- Though like the wanderer,The sun gone down,Darkness be over me,My rest a stone;Yet in my dreams I'd beNearer, my God, to Thee,Nearer, my God, to Thee,Nearer to Thee!
- There let the way appear,Steps unto heav'n;All that Thou sendest me,In mercy giv'n;Angels to beckon meNearer, my God, to Thee,Nearer, my God, to Thee,Nearer to Thee!
- Then, with my waking thoughtsBright with Thy praise,Out of my stony griefsBethel I'll raise;So by my woes to beNearer, my God, to Thee,Nearer, my God, to Thee,Nearer to Thee!
- Or if, on joyful wingCleaving the sky,Sun, moon, and stars forgot,Upward I fly,Still all my song shall be,Nearer, my God, to Thee,Nearer, my God, to Thee,Nearer to Thee!