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THE K I N G ’ S BUS I NESS
we follow our own will and fall into the captivity of sin, He awakens us to the need of a speedy return to His compan ionship and offers us freely and without measure the power of His restoring grace. It is estimated that Ezra and his company carried treasure with them with a value of four or five million dol lars. The journey was long and dan gerous- The country was infested with robbers. The king offered him a mili tary escort for safety hut Ezra had told the king that God would protect them. To accept a guard and rely upon an arm of flesh might seem to contradict his testimony. Ezra therefore refused the king’s offer and his faith was vindi cated and rewarded. Throughout the long, hard journey of four months, the hand of God was upon His people for good. The unbeliever might scoff at this and call it superstition and pre sumption. Ezra was a deep student of the Scripture, as well as a man of faith and prayer. He knew God and was neither afraid nor ashamed to trust Him. “ They that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that trust thee.” M 7:1. After these things.i The record of the return under Zerubbabel and the rebuilding of the temple ends with the previous chapter. Many years passed after the temple COMMENTS FKOM had been built be- MANY SOURCES fore the godly Keith L. Brooks Ezra and his com panions returned to Jerusalem. No record is in exist ence covering the years which inter vened between Zerubhahel’s expedition and Ezra’s. We know that a sad de cline among the returned remnant set in. Their moral and religious condi tion had suffered a severe relapse. Per haps these conditions moved Ezra to go to Jerusalem.—Anno. Bible. Arta- xerxes. He is considered identical .with the Ahasuerus of Esther’s time.—Chr- Worker’s Com. v. 6. According to the hand of the Lord. This phrase we meet a number
ance. It is supposed that the Old Testa ment canon was arranged by him, also the order in which the Book of Psalms comes to us. The Jews also attribute to ms agency the founding of that in stitution of later Judaism,, the syna gogue. While the term Israel is fre quently found in hoth Ezra and Nehe- mlah, in the book of Ezra we first en counter the name of Jews. No quota tion from the hook of Ezra is found in the New Testament. Ezra was a lineal descendant of Aaron and to him more than to any one else is due that enthus iasm for the letter of the law which con tinued through later times. Now that prophecy was about to cease, it was the proper time to increase the study and knowledge of the Scriptures. This is the only safeguard at any time and is the sure antidote to the abound ing errors of the present day. We are taught hy the ministry of Ezra that God uses the best at hand for the carrying out of His purposes, that God must be enlisted in the inception of every en terprise, and that holy things must have holy hands to guard them. - Faith in God does not exclude the taking of proper precautions or the maKing use of the wisest and best adapted means. The hand of God, however, is that which brings anything and everything to pass. Much is being said today of the need of a social salvation, the need of a re vival of honesty, of better living and of purer morals. The quickest if not the only way to reach the desired objective is to have a genuine revival of religion. When men get experimentally right with God, adjustment invariably follows in all the social relations of man with man. Israel in exile was at school learning the blessedness of chastise ment and the philosophy of suffering and pain. For the individual as well as for the nation God stands in the school room of sorrow to lead us into the open door of His love and compassion. If
Faith o f Young People? (See Page 863)
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