The late gospel preacher Frank Dunn, in his book Know Your Bible, noticed five great lessons from the book of Ezra, each of which is relevant to the present-day Christian. ((Temple: Frank and Yvonne Dunn (1997), 163-165.)) I have adapted these five lessons here:
- There are disastrous results from failing to study God’s word. The people’s ignorance of Scripture had led to the captivity in Babylon (Isaiah 5:13) from which Ezra leads a return. When we fail to study and apply the Bible, we are causing ourselves grief and struggle (Hosea 4:6). Do we read and study the Bible daily in our homes and with our families, or have we forgotten to let God speak to us?
- There are grave consequences for marrying the wrong person. In Ezra 10, we read about the children of Israel putting away their foreign wives. Malachi also condemns the Israelites for marrying foreigners (Malachi 2:10-16), and there is no wonder why he would do so: The ungodly wives of pagan people often turned the hearts of God’s people away from Him, as in the case of Solomon’s wives (1 Kings 11:1-8). The Christian today must exercise great caution to marry someone who will help him go to heaven (Ephesians 5:22-33).
- There is great power in godly preaching to produce penitence. Ezra was not only a priest before God, but also a faithful preacher and writer: “He was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses that the Lord, the God of Israel, had given, and the king granted him all that he asked, for the hand of the Lord his God was on him” (Ezra 7:6). When preachers today speak the “oracles of God” (1 Peter 4:11), then God is with them.
- Sin always brings sorrow. Ezra and the people recognized that God had punished them because of their sin: “And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, seeing that you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserved” (Ezra 9:13). Sin is always hurts us even if it brings temporary gratification (Romans 6:23).
- God’s prophecy and providence are decisive. Jeremiah had foretold that a remnant would return to Judah after 70 years of captivity in Babylon (Jeremiah 25:12, 29:4-10). About 200 years before Cyrus the Great was born, Isaiah named him as the king who would allow the Jews to return (44:28-45:1). The book of Ezra begins with the fulfillment of these prophecies (Ezra 1:1). God is in control of human events, even on the grandest political scale.
May we never fail to study the Old Testament and draw its lessons for our lives (Romans 15:4).
