Ezra 7:6,9,10
Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the LORD God of Israel had given: and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the LORD his God upon him…Upon the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him. For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): We ought to pause over this account, short as it is, of Ezra’s character.
THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): “He was a ready scribe in the law of Moses.” “Ready.”—Some read it diligent, as that which had made him ready; so you have it in Proverbs 22:29, “a man diligent in his business.”
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): He was a man of great learning. The Jews say that he collected and collated all the copies of the law he could find, and published an accurate edition of it, with all the prophetical books, historical and poetical, that were given by divine inspiration, and so made up the canon of the Old Testament, with the addition of the prophecies and histories of his own time. If he was raised up of God, and qualified and inclined to do this, all generations have reason to bless God for him.
ROBERT HAWKER: As Ezra had dedicated himself particularly to this service, no doubt the thing was of the Lord. For as the Holy Ghost hath caused his writings to be so faithfully preserved and handed down to us, and as from their great importance in this part of the church’s history, they form so interesting a portion of God’s sacred Word, we cannot be at a loss to discover the work of the blessed Spirit accompanying all his labours with success.
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): “A ready scribe.” The Hebrew expression does not merely signify an excellent penman, but one who was eminently skillful in expounding the law.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): The meaning is not that he had a quick hand in writing out copies, but was well versed in the knowledge of it; had studied it thoroughly, was well instructed in it, and abundantly qualified to teach it others.
G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): “Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach.” This verse should not be passed without noticing its suggestiveness for all such as are called, or feel they are called to teach. The order is, “to seek—to do—to teach.”
MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Ezra had “prepared his heart;” he had set his mind and affections upon it, and made it his chief design and business, to search and find out the true sense and meaning, and thence to learn what sins or errors were to be reformed, and what duties were to be performed. First, he endeavours to understand God’s law and word, not for curiosity or ostentation, but in order to practice; Next, he conscientiously practices what he did understand, which made his doctrine much more effectual; then he earnestly desires and labours to instruct and edify others, that they also might know and do it.
H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): Notice the order in Acts 1:1, “Of all that Jesus began both to do, and teach.” Doing should always come before teaching. If there is anything that we as servants of Christ need to keep in mind it is this: there will be no more power in our messages than there is power in our lives. It is as we live for God that we are fitted to speak for God. We are called to do, before we teach.
MATTHEW HENRY: Ezra was a man of great piety and holy zeal.
THE EDITOR: He was also a man of prayer. Read Ezra’s zealous prayer in Chapter 9, confessing the sins of the people of Jerusalem; and in Chapter 10, see the effectualness of Ezra’s prayer as demonstrated by the people’s actions, and Ezra’s further instructions to them.
MATTHEW HENRY: Thus his example confirmed his doctrine. He “prepared his heart” to do all this, or he fixed his heart. He took pains in his studies, and thoroughly furnished himself for what he designed, and then put on resolution to proceed and persevere in them.
W. J. HOCKING (1864-1953): Did he possess the faculty of perception—of discernment?
H. A. IRONSIDE: Ezra speaks of “the hand of God,” in Ezra 8:18,22,31. He was a man who seemed never to look at mere human instrumentality, but, behind the hand of man, he saw the guiding, or controlling hand of the Lord.
THE EDITOR: Ezra saw God’s glory in the “good hand of the Lord upon him,” in departing Babylon, and in the great provision that king Artaxerxes had given for his journey, and the high authority the king had bestowed upon him to fulfil God’s purposes in Jerusalem, Ezra 7:11-26. “Blessed be the LORD God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem: And hath extended mercy unto me before the king, and his counsellors, and before all the king’s mighty princes. And I was strengthened as the hand of the LORD my God was upon me, and I gathered together out of Israel chief men to go up with me,” Ezra 7:27,28.
WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): He “was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help against the enemy in way, because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek Him and His wrath is against all them that forsake Him,” Ezra 8:22. He hath gloried so much of that God they served, that he is ashamed the king should think now that now he was not willing to cast himself upon God’s protection. Ezra goes to fasting and prayer, Ezra 8:21. Then they take their march, and find the way all along cleared before them, Ezra 8:31.
H. A. IRONSIDE: To the man of faith, instructed in the mind of the Lord, difficulties are never insurmountable; but he will be able in holy confidence to say with Paul, “None of these things move me,” Acts 20:24. Of such a spirit was Ezra the scribe, and of such must be all who would count for God in a day of ruin.
ADAM CLARKE: Ezra and his company set off from Babylon on the first day of the first month.
JOHN GILL: The month Nisan, answering to part of our March and April; this was New Year’s day.
THE EDITOR: The first day of a New Year is surely a good time to begin any new endeavour. Especially if it be to discern what needs to be reformed, or what has been neglected, and to correct it, or to do something we have not attempted before—and to set our hearts firmly to do it. Whatever our state or condition in this past year may have been—in the New Year, let us all, like Ezra, depart from Babylonian worldliness for a more spiritual Jerusalem. In our own strength? No. Remember Ezra’s confident dependence on the strength of the Lord.
ROBERT HAWKER: Dear Lord! grant me grace to be unceasingly enquiring after Thee in the Word of Thy truth.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Be as Ezra was, when having once made a resolve, he resolved to abide by it at all hazard. Pluck up courage and say within yourselves: Now will I prove that promise true, “He shall cover thee with His feathers and under His wings shall thou trust; his truth shall be thy shield and buckler,” Psalm 91:4.
