I think that’s one way to term it, “discretionary spending.” When one has paid all his obligations, and has a little left over, surplus. I am discussing this term because of a verse in Ezra chapter 7. “And whatsoever shall seem good to thee, and to thy brethren, to do with the REST of the silver and the gold, that do after the will of your God.” Verse 18 of the chapter.

The King of Persia had given the returning Jews (who had been virtual slaves for 70 years) a “grant” (silver and gold) to aid in purchasing animals to be sacrificed to the God of Heaven! (“… to buy bullocks, rams, lambs, with their meat offerings and their drink offerings, and offer them upon the altar of the house of your God which is in Jerusalem.” Verse 17.)

But since, it appears, the “money” was greater than the “need,” an allowance was added to the royal contract … “And whatsoever shall seem good to thee, and to thy brethren, to do with the rest of the silver and the gold, that do after the will of your God.” (Today’s Text Verse again)

Maybe funds to care for the Levites, or priests … until the tithes of the land could be collected?

Maybe to add some finishing touches to the Temple grounds?

Maybe to help with the rebuilding of the defenses of the City, walls and gates?

But that’s the point, isn’t it?

Do … “whatsoever shall seem good to thee.”

Isn’t that a summary of human action anyway?

We basically do “what seems good to us!”

I’ve often said about Church attendance (or Church absence) … that a man (or woman) does what he or she WANTS to do!

We go if we want to.

We stay home (or go elsewhere) if we want to!

“Oh, Preacher. I’ll be there Wednesday night for prayer meeting … if I can.”

Really means … “I’ll be there if I really WANT to, badly enough anyway!”

If a man wants to get up at 4:30 in the morning … to go hunting, he will do so if he WANTS to badly enough!

If that same man is asked to get up at 4:30 in the morning to drive his Wife to her Parents’ out-of-State home … he might be too sleepy! Because he does not WANT to do that!

Back to Ezra … “spend the money where you think best, where you want to!”

Bible believing folks tithe their income … if they want to.

They study their Bibles … if they want to.

They pray with their families … if they want to!

Do you get the point of today’s Lesson?

Yes, Psalm 37:4 is still in the Bible, I know. “The Lord shall give thee the DESIRES of thine heart.” God giving a Christian what he wants!

But not until first he has obeyed the preceding verse … “Trust in the LORD, and do good; and delight thyself also in the LORD.” Wow!

If we first want God … then we just might want other things that are right in the Eyes of God!

I am sure the Jews of Ezra’s day spend the overage in a wise manner … because they had the spirit of Matthew 6:33 in their hearts. “But seek ye FIRST the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and ALL THESE THINGS shall be added unto you.”

Amen.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Oh yes, if we love the Lord with all our hearts, we will want things that … fit into his Will! That’s why our text verse ends this way, even from the lips of a Gentile King: “… that do after the will of your God.”

When we learn to love what God loves, and to hate what God hates … and yes, to want what God wants … our lives will mature faster than ever, to His glory! (“The Will of God,” what a reality!)

 

Ezra 7:14 merely mentions them, “the king, and his seven counsellors.”

This would be King Artaxerxes of Persia.

Who gave the Jews plenty of help as they returned from captivity, going back from Babylon to Judah. Do you remember? “Silver and gold, which the king and his counsellors have freely offered unto the God of Israel.” Wow, Ezra 7:15, financing that long (4 month) trip back “home.”

The King “and his counsellors!”

That’s today’s Lesson … a King with all his power (an autocrat in reality, a dictator, a monarch) still feeling the need for advisors!

This reminds me of Proverbs 11:14. Truth indeed! “Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.”

I once heard a Preacher say that he called together a “team” of counsellors, a “brain trust” so to speak, who shared wisdom with him every time he faced a major decision! (Much like the President has a “cabinet” of experts, helping him make critical decisions!)

There is “safety” in such counsellors … so said Solomon through the Holy Spirit!

The Hebrew noun here translated “safety” means “salvation, deliverance, help, victory!”

It never hurts to get “direction” (“advice”), or at least “prayer support” from a close group of (spiritual) friends as you live your life for Jesus!

Wow!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Proverbs 15:22 helps here as well. “Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.”

I’ve just learned that our Proverbs verse is essentially repeated in that great Book of Wisdom! “For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude of counsellors there is safety.” This time, Proverbs 24:6. (When God says something TWICE, pay special attention!)

Even Acts 15:6 may illustrate today’s Ezra principle: “And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter.”

Psalm 1:1 now, its first clause. “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly.”

Well, I am convinced anyway!

 

I referred to Ezra 7:10 way back on December 12, 2017 … in the second lesson of this Series of studies on the Book of Ezra. But I did not exegete the verse then, and it is of paramount importance to understanding the Book’s namesake, the scribe we call Ezra.

“For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.” Ezra 7:10

Remember, the name Ezra means “helper!”

And if any person, spiritually speaking, truly wants to be a “help” to his brothers and sisters in Christ … he must fortify himself with the Word of God. Ezra did!

The man first “prepared” his heart … a Hebrew verb spelled “kun,” meaning “to establish, to fix (as with resolve), to confirm, to make certain!” And the verb is framed to suggest this is a one-time decision, made in the past, likely when Ezra was quite a young man!

By the way, the “heart” (in Hebrew “leb”) can include one’s mind as well, plus at times his soul and his understanding and even his will.

The whole person!

Prepared to do what?

Three things …

“To seek” God’s Law, God’s Word … employing the verb “darash,” here not a one-time act, but continual, habitual, on-going for a lifetime! The verb normally means “to enquire, to consult, to resort to” … but further, 12 times (in the King James Version) it means “to require!” As in IT MUST BE, the Word of God in my life. I’LL DIE WITHOUT IT! That kind of attitude! It is an absolute requirement!

Wow!

“To do” that Law as well! Now “asah” means “to obey” essentially. “To perform” it, to follow through on what it says, what it commands! Again, a lifelong occupation, grammatically speaking.

Then “to teach” the Scriptures to the people, to the Israelites! And “lamad” means “to aid learning, to instruct,” as one would expect. But this third verb is different on one key way, it is written in the PIEL stem! Meaning that the intensity of this verb is emphasized … teaching “with all you’ve got,” thus energetically, whole heartedly!

Wow again!

Yes, three verbs.

But when followed consistently and over time … a recipe for a successful, holy life!

What a man of God, Ezra.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Folks, I don’t know what else to write today! If Ezra’s lifestyle does not challenge us, if the Holy Spirit is not through this Text calling your heart to more diligent occupation with your Bible … things may be hopeless!

In closing, listen to the Psalmist addressing God! “O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.” Psalm 119:97, surely the sum result of living like Ezra did!

 

Ezra the Scribe, as did Sheshbazzar several years before him, led a delegation of (released) Jews from Babylon to Jerusalem. Essentially ending the “70 year captivity” prophesied by Jeremiah “at the Word of the Lord.”

Here’s a one verse description of their trip home. “For upon the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him.” Ezra 7:9

Look, do the math!

It took a total of four months to traverse the route … on foot no doubt!

I wonder if the returning pilgrims though of Psalm 121! “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.” I have  no doubt they had memorized this Poem, and recited it (perhaps) daily as they trekked across the terrain.

Anyway, I have already today revealed the “truth” that has seized my heart.

“Four whole months!” Ezra’s march lasted … “upon the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem.”

And a “dangerous” trip no doubt.

“Four months,” with elderly men and women along with their children and grandchildren (even some infants), what a group! (People whose hearts God had touched, to go back to Judah and her Capital City Jerusalem.)

Yes, serving God often takes “time!”

The gap from start to finish is not always “small, little!”

Moses was 40 years in the wilderness, training to lead God’s Chosen out of Egypt!

Paul too, 3 years in the Arabian desert, learning at the University of the Holy Spirit!

And Jesus? About 33 years on earth, aiming and arriving (and conquering) … at the old rugged Cross of Calvary!

Anyone reading here today on a “journey?”

From defeat to victory?

From prayer requested … to prayer answered?

From salvation to maturity?

From any “Point A” in your life to “Point B?”

Remember, the great God who can instantly do whatever He pleases … can also (if He deems best) … take lots of time to fulfil his Will!

So today we’ve talked about WAITING.

And I close with this … “They that WAIT upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31, a promise straight from the Lord God Almighty!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

“Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes WAIT upon the LORD our God, until that he have mercy upon us.” Psalm 123:1-2

 

Ezra 7:6 is as “loaded” a biographical verse as I remember anywhere in Scripture.

Honestly!

“This Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the LORD God of Israel had given: and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the LORD his God upon him.”

I realize that back on December 12, 2017 (in the second Lesson of this Ezra series) I referenced this verse, when I introduced you dear readers to the man Ezra, but these divinely inspired Lines need further attention today.

Did I tell you then? That the name “Ezra” means “help,” no doubt! In Hebrew spelled “ezra” (all the way from Eve being Adam’s HELP meet in Genesis … to God being Israel’s HELP in Hosea! A total of 126 times, I believe. But “ezra” is used as a proper noun, a name, only 22 times.)

Ezra the helper!

That’s a good testimony within itself!

But there’s more … “he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses.”

The little noun “scribe” (in Hebrew “saphar”) actually means “one who counts or writes” or even “declares” as in “teaching” others. In essence, a student of God’s Word! And a disseminator of that Book as well! Spreading God’s Truth!

But the intriguing adjective “ready” is noteworthy too. “Mahiyr” is only used 4 times in the whole Old Testament! It means “quick, prompt, speedily,” to me it has connotations of “eagerness!” This godly man loves his work and pours all his heart and strength into it!

Then we learn Ezra was a man of faith, a prayerful man, one who was not afraid to ask the King of Persia for supplies and provision for the work at hand! For we are carefully told: “the king granted him all his request.”

Which, as we shall soon see, included “silver and gold … with the freewill offering of the people, and of the priests, offering willingly for the house of their God which is in Jerusalem. That thou mayest buy speedily with this money bullocks, rams, lambs, with their meat offerings and their drink offerings, and offer them upon the altar of the house of your God which is in Jerusalem.” Verses 15-17.

Wow!

Then lastly today, we learn Ezra had the smile of God all over him! Inundated with the Grace of the Almighty! Blessed, apparently, beyond measure! Back to our Text: “the Hand of the LORD his God (was) upon him.” That’s a euphemism for some powerfully abundant blessings! Nehemiah loved this clause too.

What a man!

What an example!

Folks, God ALWAYS blesses the man (or woman) who truly loves (and obeys) His precious Word!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

As in Psalm 1, the man who … “delights in the law of the LORD; and in His law doth he meditate day and night … (then) he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”

Thrilling!