Ezra: The Lord HelpsSample

Someone once said, ‘A man is only what he is when he is alone with His God.’ We see that very clearly with Ezra. 

The Lord took Ezra to Jerusalem to bring about a reformation among the people of God. This looks as if it might be about to happen. Ezra has identified Israel’s key area of sin and confessed that to the Lord. As a result, others have begun to acknowledge their sin and support Ezra. The leaders of God’s people make an oath to live as they should (v. 5). What happens next is very striking. 

I would expect verse 6 to tell me that Ezra began to implement his master plan, but no. Instead ‘Ezra withdrew’. He goes into a private room, eats no food, drinks no water, and continues to mourn the unfaithfulness of God’s people. 

Ezra’s magnificent and very public prayer in chapter 9 is genuine and heartfelt. He isn’t just putting on a show. Ezra takes himself to a place where he can be alone with His God and mourns the unfaithfulness he has discovered. Not eating or drinking is a mark of continued repentance. He is genuinely, personally crushed by the sin he has experienced among God’s people. 

Behind any reformation in the church are great Christian leaders on their knees in sincere, heartfelt, private prayer. Read the biographies of great Christian leaders and you’ll often learn they rose early from their beds in order to pray. 

In some ways, it’s easy to pray passionate prayers publicly (as Ezra does in chapter 9), but it’s quite another thing to pray that way in private. Only when we have a genuine concern about sin and unfaithfulness will we pray earnestly on our own. No one sees private prayer and yet, paradoxically, it is the sign to the world of heartfelt concern.

Reflection

Jesus exposed our hypocrisy when we pray publicly quite differently from the way we pray in private (Matt. 6:5–15). Consider how consistent your private prayer life is with the way you pray in public. Ask God to help you to be consistently prayerful in your daily, private devotions.