After years of Babylonian captivity, the children of Israel were permitted and even urged to return to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel; the temple was rebuilt. But Israel needed restoration – restoration to following the Law of Moses which for so long had been neglected and violated. A man named Ezra, both scribe and priest, came to Jerusalem and was instrumental in bringing the needed reforms to restore true worship.
Nehemiah 8 tells of a momentous occasion when Ezra read from the book of the law before the congregation of Israel, and it led to their repentance. In Ezra 10, Ezra helped lead the children of Israel to leave their improper marriages with heathen people.
The record tells us that Ezra’s great work did not come about by accident; rather, it arose from a deliberate purpose within him: “For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel” (Ezra 7:10).
First, Ezra served the Lord because he prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord. Service to God begins with a desire to know His will. For Ezra and the Israelites, that will of God was contained with the Law of Moses, called in this context the Law of the Lord.
Second, Ezra prepared his heart to do it. Ezra determined within himself that he wanted to know the will of the Lord not for knowledge’s sake but in order to do it. To do the will of the Lord would require great sacrifice, and one must be committed to follow through with it.
Third, Ezra had purposed that he would teach the statutes and ordinances of the law to his people. Ezra could perform the duties of the law himself and be a good example in it, but to make it effective for Israel it needed to be taught.
Even today, serving the Lord in His kingdom, the church, involves these three elements.
Have within you the strong desire to know the truth of God’s will. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6). God’s word is that source: “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth” (Jn 17:17)
Have the motive within your heart to know the word of God so that you may do it. “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves….But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does” (Jas 1:22,25). Blessing comes in doing.
And make it your desire to teach others the law of Christ, the gospel. In your family, talk about it “when you sit in the house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up” (Deuteronomy 6:7). As you have opportunity, do good to others by sowing the seed, the gospel, in their hearts.
Prepare your heart to seek the law of God, to do it, and to teach it. And have this attitude within you: Let the work begin with me.
-Larry Jones