“And there by the Ahava Canal, I gave orders for us to fast and humbles ourselves before our God.
We prayed that He would give us a safe journey and protect us, our children, and our goods as we traveled. For I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to accompany us and protect us from enemies along the way. After all, we had told the king, ‘Our God’s hand of protection is on all who worship Him, but His fierce anger rages against those who abandon Him.’
So we fasted and earnestly prayed that our God would take care of us, and He heard our prayer.”
This second round of exiles is still organizing before making their journey. They have a group of Levites, ready to serve in Temple when they arrive.
Now they need logistical protection.
This section is so interesting. Particularly that Hebrew word for Ezra being ashamed.
It is boosh, meaning embarrassed or anxious. My husband and I talked through this on a road trip, some of our best talking time. He helped me with some of the practicalities of Ezra’s situation: the people were all looking to him not only to organize them, but utilize the resources he obviously had from the King to get the whole crew there safely.
Remember, this was 900 miles and four months of travel. Not by high efficiency vehicles, Amtrak or airplane. By foot or animal. Across various terrain. Accompanied by bandits and wild animals and with limited security. It was dangerous.
Ezra had already accepted monetary help as well as utensils and an official document to show to anyone asking that the group had the king’s authorization. So why the embarrassment of asking for some security?
Because of what he had told the king.
Ezra didn’t just make sure to point out God’s wonderful ability to protect those who follow Him to the king. He also warned him:
“…His fierce anger rages against those who abandon Him.”
Ezra was making sure the king knew how high the stakes are in going against this Covenant Yahweh:
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Who is powerful in love and blessing, is not to be used or taken for granted.
The Hebrew is so exquisite in the description of this God:
His hand (yad – ability and power) is on all who seek Him. The word for on here is al – the same word to describe this Creator God’s Spirit hovering over the great deep before He made the entire universe. His power is on or above – hovers over – all who baqash Him – eagerly inquire and seek after.
And this power doesn’t just hover over; it works for good. Good here means towb: Beauty.
His hovering presence and power work for beauty in the lives of those who beg to know Him and His Way.
But His power and wrath are on (al) those who forsake Him.
Power here is like a fortress, but a fortress of wrath. The word for wrath is aph, of the nose or nostril. The image it evokes is an angry bull snorting his fierce rage.
So this same God Who hovers over to work beauty in the lives of those earnestly seeking Him also allows His fortress-strong, angry-bull wrath to hover over those who abandon Him. The word for abandon here means to be remote or absent; to refuse and leave destitute.
To widow.
This is First Love language.
But we should back up because the wrath of God is not a popular topic. It makes us defensive.
Since we already talked about God’s Spirit hovering over the surface of the deep before galaxies and the tiny circle planet perfectly sustainable for human life were created, let’s stay there. In Genesis. In the Beginning.
After this intricate, expansive, ordered, and glorious masterpiece of a universe was spoken into being, God made man and woman. Not because He was lonely or needed something. This Three-in-One Elohim has had community for all eternity.
He made us because He wanted to.
And soon after He handed this breathtaking creation over to man and woman, they betray Him. It’s not enough, He’s keeping something from us, being faithful to Him is more effort than desired.
That’s what sin is. Distrusting His character, His motives toward us, and desiring to do it our way. Basically, as our small group is known to say, sin is giving God the middle finger.
I don’t think You can take care of this, and, frankly, I don’t want You to. I will do it myself.
At this point I think we understand, but the angry bull wrath still seems a bit…reactionary. He didn’t have to make us. Can’t He give our middle-finger-giving selves a break?
At these moments I wish we could peek into Heaven. And the armies and armies of angels. The way there are creatures made solely to say over and over, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the LORD God Almighty…”
If we could see. If we knew how completely dazzling He is. How worthy.
But not just that…how obeying and eagerly inquiring after His ways is the only ticket to live freely. Spaciously. To be in unison with the tides and Milky Way and wing flap of a lady bug.
When we resist this awe-inspiring Creator God we resist our own souls. All we need to be truly satisfied. Every ingredient for Shalom and the kind of joy Hollywood doesn’t sell.
There is a fierce enemy, a hateful adversary out there. Not just for the exiles’ travels, but for all our souls. He breathes out lies. He promises protection and devours you like a lion. He wants to destroy everything of beauty because this is the only shot he has.
But we have a Helper. Ezra’s Azar. Daniel’s Lion-Tamer. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego’s 4th Man in the Furnace.
Maybe our caravan had heard these exile stories from a generation before. Maybe they weren’t thrilled with Ezra’s protection plan: No weapons and no king’s calvary. Just prayer and zero food. After all, their children – the little ones – were with them.
Jesus loves me, this I know
For the Bible tells me so
Little Ones to Him belong
They are weak
But He is strong
But perhaps they trusted. We know they followed Ezra to humble themselves with fasting.
And He answered: athar – to listen and be moved by.
If He has drawn you to Him, if you have seen the Ultimate 4th Man in the Furnace and what He accomplished on the cross, He is your First Love. And He is moved by your earnest seeking of Him.
When our hateful adversary hisses how we don’t deserve it, we simply hold up the Cross and say, “Of course not. Never have deserved it. But His sacrifice was enough to cover me.”
And that’s the only eternal protection we need.