When God opens His hand when His face shines on us?
We see that God opened the heart of King Artaxerxes. Ezra was a Jew, part of the diaspora who 70 years earlier was taken from Israel and whose temple was destroyed, and so was their worship. The king issues a decree and gives abundant resources to Ezra. Releases all the Israelites to go back to Israel and gives authority back to them from the leaders of the region.
I love Ezra’s response.
Ezra 7:27-28
Praise be to the Lord, the God of our fathers, who has put it into the king’s heart to bring honour to the house of the Lord in Jerusalem in this way 28 and who has extended his good favour to me before the king and his advisers and all the king’s powerful officials. Because the hand of the Lord my God was on me, I took courage and gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me.
He praised God and thanked the king. But notice – he took courage and went to work.
Fantastic!
I reflected on this and thought just how gracious God is with me. May I worship Him and thank those He has moved to help.
But may I take courage and do the work God has called me to do.
