I am on vacation this week. You have probably noticed more posting than normal. It is great to have the time to do this. Back to work next week however 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mon-Sat for the next few weeks. Very happy to have a job; very thankful.
I wonder as I have been reading through Ezra this week if we couldn’t title the book – “The Good Hand of Our God Upon Us.”
The writings brim with God’s sovereign care for his people.
So much provision was necessary for the trip back to Jerusalem to establish God’s work. Here Ezra looked around and saw there were no sons of Levi. But the good hand of his God was upon him and God directed his search to Sherebiah.
(Ezra 8:18 ESV) And by the good hand of our God on us, they brought us a man of discretion, of the sons of Mahli the son of Levi, son of Israel, namely Sherebiah with his sons and kinsmen, 18;
Providence.
Do you believe in the providence of God? All things working toward God’s purpose, all the mess, all the complicated relationships between individuals and countries, all confusion and uncertainty, all the events of our lives, good and bad. God really does have a plan, but his plan is not to execute our plan no matter how much we claim it or demand it. Basically still believing Romans 8.28 when the bottom falls out of your life.
We don’t see God’s providence and sovereignty unless we are bowed before him. Otherwise everything else, usually our personal agenda and perspective or that formed by the significant people in our lives, blurs reality.
Ezra after assembling his group was now ready to leave but he had to face the danger of the road ahead. The king would have given him an armed escort. He would have provided whatever was necessary, but Ezra had bragged up the goodness and care of his God.
So now it was time to trust and before trust comes humbling. You see, faith isn’t about being strong and victorious as we so often make it out to be. Faith is about trusting God, his power, his resources, his plan, his love.
(Ezra 8:21-22 ESV) Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our goods. (22) For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us against the enemy on our way, since we had told the king, “The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him.”
And God provided a safe journey.
I guess it just keeps standing out to me as I read Ezra – the good hand of our God. So for all the “places” we can be, all the goals we can set, things to aspire to, it seems this is a pretty good one. Am I in a place where the good hand of God is upon me?
Coaches talk about how they want to put their players in a position to win. So, Coach, have you put yourself in a position to win in God’s eyes. Remember as you look into the crowd, God is the one whose gaze you want to capture. Just as a basketball player scans the bleachers for his old coach or his mother or father or brother or best friend, because in spite of the thousands watching, that is who he is playing for.
So who are we playing for? Who am I playing for? Who are you playing for? The one person whose gaze you want to capture as you scan the crowd, who is it in your life?
