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Ezra, the King’s Trusted Friend
About seventy years after the first exiles returned, Artaxerxes
Longimanus came to the throne of Medo-Persia. Ezra and Nehemiah
lived and worked during his reign. In 457 b.c. he issued the third
decree for Jerusalem’s restoration. He often showed favor to God’s
people during his long rule, and in his trusted Jewish friends, Ezra
and Nehemiah, he recognized men whom God had appointed.
Ezra, living among the Jews who remained in Babylon, attracted
the favorable notice of King Artaxerxes. He talked freely with the
king about the power of God and the divine purpose in restoring the
Jews to Jerusalem.
Ezra had received priestly training and had also become familiar
with the writings of the Medo-Persian realm’s wise men. But he
was not satisfied with his spiritual condition. He longed to be in
full harmony with God. And so he “prepared his heart to seek the
Law of the Lord, and to do it.”
Ezra 7:10
. This led him to search the
books of the Bible to learn why the Lord had permitted Jerusalem to
be destroyed and His people taken captive to a heathen land.
Ezra Studies to Show Himself Approved
Ezra studied the promise God made to Abraham and the instruc-
tion He gave at Mount Sinai and through the wilderness wandering.
Ezra’s heart was stirred, and he experienced a thorough conversion.
As he learned to yield his mind and will to divine control, the prin-
ciples of true sanctification came into his life. In later years these
helped shape the character of all associated with him.
God chose Ezra so that He might put honor on the priesthood,
whose glory had nearly vanished during the captivity. Ezra devel-
oped into a man of extraordinary learning and became “a skilled
scribe in the Law of Moses.”
Verse 6
. These qualifications made
him stand out as an important man in the kingdom.
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