“I Got Your Back” - God

Oct 23

Read: Ezra 8

“I Got Your Back” - God

“The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him.” - Ezra (v.22)

What actual good is it to have the Lord on your side? Does it mean anything in this world to be a child of God? Should it bring any real comfort to us… or peace? Ezra boldly declared to the king of Persia that, “The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him.” Now that idea is put to the test as Ezra contemplates the long and dangerous trip to Jerusalem that lies ahead of him. It comes time to put his faith in action… to put this bold claim to the test.

The trip to Jerusalem would be quite daunting. Remember that Ezra is traveling with literally thousands of pieces of gold, silver, and other precious gems and artifacts. He is traveling through a land filled with bandits and thieves… people that are enemies of Israel and contentious to the conquering powers of Persia. Not to mention it was a long journey with no cars, no air conditioning, no armored truck to carry their stuff. In short, it was a long, hard, and dangerous road ahead of them. Any time we are faced with a long hard road ahead we will be tempted to doubt the promises of the Lord. Normally this comes about by us beginning to “scramble” and try to do any number of earthly things to “stack the deck” in our favor. For Ezra, this was the temptation to go and ask the king of Persia to provide him with soldiers and protection. Look at what Ezra says concerning this: “For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us against the enemy on our way, since we had told the king, “The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him.” (v.22) For Ezra, it would have been shameful to reject the protection of the Lord in exchange for the protection of the king. Ezra’s faith was being put to the test.

It is humbling to surrender our own plans and hand over our own preparations to the Lord and in turn trust him. It says as much in verse 21, “Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might HUMBLE ourselves before our God, to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our goods.” We will never know the right times to lean into God vs. use the earthly resources that God has entrusted to us if we are not humble before him and fasting in prayer. What if that was our first response when we spot a rough road ahead - to “humble ourselves” and “fast and pray” together with other believers!?! Even the act of fasting requires us to trust God to fuel our bodies outside of the natural means of fueling our bodies (ie. food). It is a microcosm of the question - “Do I lean into the supernatural here, or make use of the natural resources you have provided me?”

God gives Ezra and the rest of the people traveling courage. He meets them there at the river's edge. They set out on their journey expecting to see God provide for them and take care of them along the way. Nevertheless, they still realize that God is calling them to participate WITH HIM in the journey as well. Notice how Ezra assigns priests to guard the gold and silver vessels of the Lord. These priests may have thought to themselves, “I am not cut out for this! I am a priest, not a warrior.” Even these “professional holy men'' would need to lean into the Lord working in them and through them. They were up to the challenge because God was with them and near to them on the journey. These men knew it would be shameful to reject this call to guard and protect. This was forcing them to put their faith into action just like Ezra.

There is one more idea to address: “the power of (God’s) wrath is against all those who forsake him.” Is it true that “forsaking God” means experiencing the power of his wrath? Would it be “forsaking God” to reject / abandon the truth that “The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him…”? I thought God loved everybody, all the time, no matter what? I think these two ideas travel hand in hand. Trusting that God is working for our good also means trusting God will deal with those who oppose him or forsake him. Ezra and the rest of God’s people on the road were trusting that God would fight for them… that “the power of his wrath” would genuinely be used to protect them. Notice how the scriptures use the term “power”. It is not just the emotion of “wrath”, but actual “power” in this real world.

What are the ways that we “shamefully” run to our own understanding and strength while rendering empty the truth of God’s promises for us? Are we guilty of not making the trip down the tough road unless we have the “kings soldiers'' with us? Could we be alright with the King of Kings guarding us… or do we Darius the Persian king as well? Has our own fear kept us from experiencing God’s goodness and protection as we walk the dangerous road ahead? Do we have any real expectations that God works in this physical realm… or have we subtly extracted him from protecting us in our day to day lives? The answer for what exactly this looks like in each of our situations will only be made clear by the Lord through humbling ourselves, prayer, and fasting with other believers by our side. Love you guys! - JDP