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Ezra: Spiritually Restoring a People
by Jerold Aust
Ezra the priest was a faithful servant of God who helped fulfill God's promises to the remnant of Judah in Babylon in the 400s B.C. His calling was not self-appointed, nor could anyone on his own fulfill the kind of responsibilities to which he was called.
God recognized Ezra as a man of judgment (Ezra 7:25). He was conscientious (Ezra 9:3). His principles led him to resolutely oppose sin. He had a profound love of God's Word and devoted himself to studying it and faithfully teaching God's truth (Ezra 7:10).
Ezra found the spiritual strength he needed through prayer and fasting. He was willing to sacrifice his own needs--and encourage others to do the same--to extol and honor God.
Understanding Ezra's background can help us see how God could use him to bring His people back to wholehearted obedience.
Judah restored
God forgets neither His people nor His promises to them. In love, He warned the people of Judah that, if they didn't repent of their sinful, rebellious ways, He would remove them from their homeland. When they refused to heed His repeated warnings through His prophets, He allowed the Babylonians to conquer and remove them through three major deportations (ca. 606, 597 and 587 B.C.). Their punishment was 70 years of captivity in a foreign land (Jeremiah 25:1-13).
True to His word, God fulfilled His promise to restore the descendants of Judah after the 70 years.
Zerubbabel headed the first return, which was to rebuild the temple (Ezra 1-6; ca. 536-516). Ezra led a later group in 457. Nehemiah, Ezra's contemporary, returned to rebuild the shattered walls of Jerusalem in 444.
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