Ezra Chapter Eight | Bible Study Wednesday

 

Welcome back to this week's Bible study. We continue in the book of Ezra, picking up in chapter eight. If you have not read these 36 verses, I encourage you to take a few moments and do so. If it has been a little while since you reviewed the text, you may want to refresh your memory on the passage. Keep your Bible open and if you choose to take notes, have a pen or pencil and notepaper handy. I am not doing a line by line study of this book. I will be dividing each chapter into sections and hitting some of the highlights. I am so thankful for those of you who take the time to participate in these weekly Bible studies. Let's begin.

Verses 1-14 Those Who Went With Ezra

You may be tempted to gloss over these verses as it lists the names of those who joined Ezra on this journey, I encourage you to compare these names with the list in Ezra 2:3-15. Do you see repeated names? Now 80 years after the first roll was called, we see the descendants: family lineage, continue on just as they had before.

The trip these brave men, women, and children took with Ezra was not for the faint of heart. It was dangerous. This 1,000 mile trip through the desert made them an easy target for robbers. It appears as though 5,000 said yes to this journey and just the fact that they all made it safely to Jerusalem was another testimony of God's hand on them.

We may be going through tough, dry, desert times, too, but remember the God who had His hand on Ezra and the 5,000 men, women, and children has His hand on us, too!

Verses 15-20 No Levites

They reached the point where the river runs to Ahava and they camped out for three days. A long journey like that would require rest stops. The humans and animals would need to rest and eat and regain their strength before going on. Ezra started looking around and he noticed there were people and priests but no Levites with them. Ezra called for Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jarib, Elnathan, Nathan, Zechariah, Meshullam, Joiarib and Elnathan who were men of understanding and had good insight. He sent those men to a city called Casiphia to speak with Iddo and his brothers and the temple servants. They were to request ministers for the house of God. 

So God's hand was upon them again and they sent Ezra a son of Mahli, Sherebiah. Sherebiah came to serve in the temple with his sons and brothers, 18 men! What a great answer to a big need they had! But that was not all! Hashabiah and Jeshaiah with his kinsmen and their sons added another 20 men! That was not including the 220 temple servants king David and his officials had set apart to attend the Levites. The Bible says they were all named. It was not just any group of men. They were sent with a purpose. You and I may feel like we are lost in a sea of other Christians who are working for God, but He knows our names. We matter to God.

Verses 21-23 Fasting and Prayer

The best thing Ezra could do was start out with prayer and fasting. He did not want to ask the king for supplies and provision. He knew the king would honor his requests, but Ezra had already bragged on God. Ezra decided God would provide everything they needed, so he called a fast where they were camped out. This denial of their flesh gave them an opportunity to hear from God clearly about what they should do. They fasted and God heard and answered their prayer.

Sometimes we find ourselves in situations that we just don't know what to do. We realize we are in over our heads and since God is the one who is telling us to do the thing, we must pray and fast and wait for Him to answer us. He will do it. The answer will come. The clarity will come. The provision will come.

Verses 24-30 Priests and Treasures

Ezra selected 12 leading priests and weighed out the silver, gold, vessels, and offerings for The Temple of our God that had been given by the king, advisors, and Israelites. There were:

25 tons of silver

100 vessels of silver valued at 3.75 tons of gold

20 gold bowls weighing 18.5 pounds

2 vessels of bright red copper, as valuable as gold

Ezra instructed the men to guard them until they could be properly weighed in their tradition. Ezra told the leading priests that they were holy and the vessels were holy. Sometimes we need to remember we are holy and our work for God is holy. We are to guard and watch the things God trusts us with until we can properly do with it as He has called us to do.

Verses 31-36 Journey To Jerusalem

Verse 31 tells us that God's hand of protection kept them as they went on this incredible journey. The robbers and criminals hiding out, watching the large caravan, wanted to attack, but God was with them. He kept them safe, all the way to Jerusalem.

They made it to Jerusalem and they stayed there three days. Meremoth and Eleazar were with Jozabad and Noadiah as they numbered, weighed, and recorded the treasures in the house of God. Upon their return, the exiles offered burnt offerings to God: 

12 bulls representing all Israel

96 rams

77 lambs

12 he-goats

And finally they delivered the king's orders to the king's provincial administration, whom gave support to the people and the house of God. God can do anything and will do anything for His mission to be a success. If we put our hope and trust in Him, we will all succeed. He is the God that cannot fail. When we throw our plans out the window and fully embrace the journey we are on as we yield to His leadership we will do everything He wants us to do. 

My goodness! I never realized what an encouraging book Ezra was. I know I keep saying that but it is so good for the season that I am in right now. We will spend two more weeks in this book as we wrap up this study. I have a really fun idea for July's Bible Study Wednesday blog posts. I hope you'll join me. It's a little different than I have done on here before but I really hope we can have fun with it. Until next time, friends. I hope that something I have shared today has been strength for your journey and light for your way! God bless you!

~Bridgett Owens

Daily Bread | Wednesday Bible Study

My memory verse for this week is Matthew 6:11 "Give us this day our daily bread." It is simple enough to remember. I have been meditating on this verse to commit it to memory. My goal for 2021 is to memorize 52 memory verses: one per week. This verse has a special meaning for me because of the book I hope to publish this year. I want to unpack this verse today in a brief Bible study.

Jesus is teaching His disciples how to pray. We have access to the Scriptures so we are learning how to pray as well. Jesus cautions in verse seven of the same chapter not to use vain repetitions when we pray. Prayer is a conversation we have with our Heavenly Father. It is not mysterious. It does not have to be a long conversation and we do not need to use big words and Jesus even says don't repeat the same things over and over. No one wants to talk to someone for a half hour and twenty minutes of that time is spent repeating the same phrases. Our Heavenly Father wants a real conversation from our hearts. When we pray to our Abba Father, speak clearly and honestly. He knows our thoughts and the intents of our heart. Nothing we say will shock Him!

Jesus goes through the different parts of prayer and when He gets to verse 11 it really got my attention. We are to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread." Why should we pray this specific request? What does it mean? What are we really asking when we say Lord, today give us our daily bread?

We should pray this specifically because it was important enough for Jesus to highlight when He teaches the disciples. We are in a heart posture of recognizing we need something that we cannot obtain without God, our Heavenly Father, providing it for us. It is not a want. It is not a selfish desire. It is a basic human need and we cannot get it without God. What is this need?

We pray, "Give us" because we lack something. "This day" is every single day we pray. The need is repetitive. It is not met in one prayer session one day once in a while. We need this from God every single day we live. "Our daily bread" is not just the food we put in our mouths. Yes He does provide food for His children. David said, "I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor His seed begging bread." (Psalms 37:25) God is going to meet your needs for food. He has done it for me time and time and time again. He never fails! But what else could it mean?

Matthew 4:4 reads "But He answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Our physical bodies require food to live, but we can live a while without food before our bodies are damaged and we waste away and eventually die. People fast all the time. In fact, in January many people begin the year with a 21 day fast, sometimes using methods Daniel used in the Old Testament and it is called the Daniel Fast. Others use those same 21 days to fast things they enjoy the most in an effort to grow closer to God. Fasting food is Biblical and is important for every Christian to do in some form or another. So if we do not need food to eat, why would we pray for daily bread?

Jesus said He is the bread of life. He said it twice in John chapter six. John 6:35 "And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and He that believeth on Me shall never thirst." Does that mean that once we become a Christian we never want food or water anymore? No! Of course not. This is spiritual. Jesus is the sustenance we need for life. Without His spiritual food and spiritual drink we will die. We cannot live without Jesus! We need Him every single day. We need the daily bread of life!

Jesus says it again in John 6:51: "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." This was such a hard saying that many of His disciples couldn't take it. They turned back and stopped following Jesus. They had learned so much from Him but when it came down to acknowledging Jesus as their source of life, they decided they wanted selfish desires more than a closer walk with Him. They would rather be comfortable in their unbelief and their religious rituals than to uncover the truth that would give them eternal life.

When we pray "Give us this day our daily bread," we are actually asking for a daily dose of Jesus. We are praying for more of Him. More of the bread of life and the living water that sets us free. We are asking God to give us more of what we need to survive in this spiritual war we are in and without it we will die! We need Him that much!

Jesus included this request in His example of how to pray. It is so important we take time to not only ask for our daily bread, but to take our time enjoying the bread. Take our time getting to know the bread of life. Jesus wants to reveal Himself to us in a special way. He wants to draw us closer to Himself. He wants a deeper relationship. We can communicate with Him every single day, all day long because He taught us how to pray. We do not need to repeat the same thing over and over, but we must ask for a fresh portion of the bread of life every single day we live.

I had a really crazy day! It was a doozie! But God sustained me. He kept fighting for me and reminding me of how to win, how to persevere, and how to overcome. I am ending the day bruised, sore, and a little tattered but I have the joy of the Lord down inside my soul and strength and peace that does not make sense. I am going to bed tonight feasting on the Bread of Life and I never want to go one moment without Him!

God bless you!

~Bridgett Owens