Ezra, the Priest and Scribe
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ashamed,” he has explained, “to require of the king a band of soldiers
and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way: because we
had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all
them for good that seek Him; but His power and His wrath is against
all them that forsake Him.”
Verse 22
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In this matter, Ezra and his companions saw an opportunity to
magnify the name of God before the heathen. Faith in the power
of the living God would be strengthened if the Israelites themselves
should now reveal implicit faith in their divine Leader. They therefore
determined to put their trust wholly in Him. They would ask for no
guard of soldiers. They would give the heathen no occasion to ascribe
to the strength of man the glory that belongs to God alone. They
could not afford to arouse in the minds of their heathen friends one
doubt as to the sincerity of their dependence on God as His people.
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Strength would be gained, not through wealth, not through the power
and influence of idolatrous men, but through the favor of God. Only
by keeping the law of the Lord before them, and striving to obey it,
would they be protected.
This knowledge of the conditions under which they would continue
to enjoy the prospering hand of God, lent more than ordinary solemnity
to the consecration service that was held by Ezra and his company of
faithful souls just before their departure. “I proclaimed a fast there,
at the river of Ahava,” Ezra has declared of this experience, “that we
might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of Him a right way for
us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance.” “So we fasted
and besought our God for this: and He was entreated of us.”
Verses
21, 23
.
The blessing of God, however, did not make unnecessary the
exercise of prudence and forethought. As a special precaution in
safeguarding the treasure, Ezra “separated twelve of the chief of the
priests”—men whose faithfulness and fidelity had been proved—“and
weighed unto them the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, even the
offering of the house of our God, which the king, and his counselors,
and his lords, and all Israel there present, had offered.” These men
were solemnly charged to act as vigilant stewards over the treasure
entrusted to their care. “Ye are holy unto the Lord,” Ezra declared;
“the vessels are holy also; and the silver and the gold are a freewill
offering unto the Lord God of your fathers. Watch ye, and keep them,