Ezra: The Lord HelpsSample

Previously we saw the huge numbers of people who made the move from Babylon to Jerusalem. In the next few devotions, we’re going to look at the different groups listed in this chapter. After the family groups listed in verses 3–35, we next read of the priests. 

Four clans of priests are named, who together add up to nearly 4,300. It’s a huge number of priests. Why so many? Dale Ralph Davis writes, ‘Doubtless because they longed to serve at the altar in a restored temple, which they could not do in exile. Their desire was to rebuild the altar and the temple, to restore the public worship of God so they could serve where they were meant to serve.’ (Dale Ralph Davis, New Opportunity Under Grey Skies, p. 10). 

Reading that explanation begs the question, ‘Do we have the same desire to serve the Lord with the gifts and talents we’ve been given?’ The Lord gives us gifts for the building up of His church. We should long to use our gifts in His service. That longing to see the church built up should drive us to go to extraordinary lengths, to make remarkable sacrifices, and to work incredibly hard. That’s what we see in these priests. 

We can become unhelpfully self-obsessed in spending time focussing on the gifts we have. What is helpful is asking, ‘How can I serve the Lord in order to build His church?’ When that’s our attitude, we take the focus off ourselves and onto the Lord’s purposes and how we can serve others. 

I can think of a number of people like that. They long to serve God so that the church will be built up numerically and spiritually. These people don’t talk about how God has gifted them; prepared to go to great lengths to serve God and His church, they get on with that task by using their gifts.

Reflection

Ask God to help you to use your gifts to serve Him and others so that the church is built up.