From Ruins to Renewal | Ezra's Mission and God's Hand - Davide Colletta

Welcome to the Sermon of the Week. Before you begin listening, let me pray that you would encounter God right where you are. Father, I ask that your spirit would be present wherever people are listening. May they be aware of your presence and receptive to the voice of your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen. God bless you as you listen to this week's message. to go back into the book of Ezra.

We've been in Ezra, and today we're going to talk about Ezra's mission and the hand of God upon Ezra. Recently read this story that talked about this commercial airline pilot that really fits well

with today's message. Essentially this captain was known for being very calm, steady, confident, the kind of pilot that you want to have take you somewhere

at a nice exotic location, right? Now one day, during one of his flights, the plane hit this unexpected turbulence, it was really, really crazy.

And it's not the kind of turbulence that you shrug off, and you say, oh, it's just a little movement. I'm talking about the turbulence that makes you grip your armrests

and it makes you, you know, I don't know if you've ever seen the movie, Plane, Strains, and Automobiles, you know, when they're like grabbing the dashboard of the car

and it's like, it puts imprints into the, well that kind of turbulence. We're talking about something that made passengers get very nervous.

It's the kind of turbulence that made the drinks fly everywhere, the kind of turbulence that caused some of the pilots or some of the passengers verbally expressed their concern.

That kind of turbulence. Now while the plane was shaking hard, the captain, speaking over the intercom with a steady and composed voice said this. This is your pilot?

No, I'm not going to do that because I probably don't sound like a pilot. But he basically told them that they were navigating through extreme turbulence. the word extreme, which is not seldom used in a plane, right? I think you'd be concerned if you heard that.

And they were going to be just fine. Easy for you to say, Cap. He reminded the passengers that the aircraft was built for it. And he told them to buckle your seat belt.

Everything is going to be fine. Now, he smoothly, safely navigated through that storm with confidence. He got out of it.

And after the flight, it was asked, how did you stay so calm? What did you do? And the pilot basically said, you don't rise to the level of the moment.

You rise to the level of your preparation. And then he went on to explain that he spent years studying weather patterns, emergency procedures, aircraft systems, security, flight simulations.

And then he said, he didn't become steady in the storm during the storm. He became steady in the storm long before the storm ever took place. That's a great lesson for us because Ezra, in this particular, in the next couple of verses or couple of chapters that we're going to look at,

Ezra stepped into extreme turbulence in the period of Israel's history as a nation. They were spiritually drifting. They were immoral confusion and decay and they needed direction. And Ezra did not panic.

Ezra did not improvise or try to guess how to address that moment in history. rose to the level of his preparation, much like this captain. And we're going to look at Ezra chapter 7 and chapter 8 today, and we're going to start by pointing out that Ezra is a man devoted, devoted to God. Now scholars believe that between Ezra chapter 6

in chapter seven, approximately 60 years one by. Ezra six ends with the completion of the temple in 515 BC, and then Ezra seven begins with Ezra's arrival and the people's arrival into Jerusalem

in the seventh year of King Art Exorcise. Roughly around 458 BC, which if you do the math, gives us a gap between 58 and 60 years, mostly scholars agree.

Now, Ezra chapter seven, verses six to 10, we're gonna read these verses. And it gives us a picture of what's taking place at this point as Ezra arrived into Jerusalem.

He said, it says this, this Ezra came up from Babylon. He was a teacher well versed in the law. That's his preparation.

Well versed in the law of Moses, which the Lord, the God of Israel, had given him. The king had granted him everything he asked. That is incredible.

Can you imagine a royalty granting this man everything that he asked for? Why? Because the hand of the Lord, his God, was on him.

Some of the Israelites, including priests, Levites, musicians, gatekeepers, and the temple servants also came up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Arduxerces. Ezra arrived in Jerusalem in the fifth month of the seventh year of the King. That's the historical, and I've said this several times that the history behind what we're studying proves the authenticity of the Word of God.

And so it's important to understand that history here and dates are important. He had begun his journey from Babylon on the first day of the first month. That's the first day of the first month of Nisan. And then he arrived in Jerusalem on the fifth day of the fifth month, which is the month

of Hav, which is totally four months of travel. It took them to go from the place where they were in Babylon to Jerusalem. For the gracious hand of God was on him. For Ezra as devoted himself, and this is key, to study an observance of the law of the Lord

and to teaching its decrease in Ezra. He devoted himself. Twice we read that in this passage. Now in this commentary on Ezra, Kidner says this about Ezra.

that his name stands very high in Jewish tradition, where he came to be regarded as a second Moses. And indeed it was he more than any other man who stamped Israel with his lasting character as the people of a book. And you can't think of anyone else. As you read right through the Old Testament, there's no one else in the history of Israel that actually prepared God's people

through the study and the preparation of the book of the law, where God had given Moses. Now, Israel was a skilled scribe, skilled scribe. And that word, skilled, actually literally means rapid, which basically is telling us that Ezra had an ability, God-given ability, to grasp the