Ezra 3:11 - “And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the LORD; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.”

Why do you sing in the assembly of the church? Is it because leadership says that you must? Is it because you enjoy the songs? Is it because it’s your long-established tradition? Oh, how beautiful a thing it must be to the ears in Heaven when Christians sing together, praising and giving thanks to God, for no better reason than that He is good. Where will your heart be the next time your body is in the assembly of the church?

Ezra 7:10 - “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.”

The verse is an explanation of how and why Ezra went, leading the second group of returnees, from Babylon to Jerusalem (v. 9). He made that journey because his heart was prepared to seek the law of God. How many of the 1,500+ who accompanied were thus prepared? I don’t know; there may have been many reasons for making the journey. What I do know is that God thought that Ezra’s reason was important enough to be singled out, written down, and preserved all these centuries so that you and I could notice it and learn from it. This is the attitude and purpose that God commends. Is your heart prepared to seek the law of the Lord? Is your heart prepared to do the law of the Lord? Is your heart prepared to teach the law of the Lord? If not, why not? When will you prepare yourself to be commended by God?

Ezra 7:23 - “Whatsoever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be diligently done for the house of the God of heaven: for why should there be wrath against the realm of the king and his sons?”

The king of the Medes and Persians gave this commission to Ezra in sending him back to restore the temple service in Jerusalem. That foreign king - not a member of the family of God, and apparently not wanting to be a member - understood the authority and power of God, and the potential consequences of failing to honor Him. It should be a lesson to all government leaders today. You and I can’t do anything about that - unless “you” are one of those government spies monitoring this page along with the thousands of others - but there certainly is a lesson for today’s church. If even a Gentile king could understand that, shouldn’t the church understand that the wrath of God can come against the realm (the nation) if the people of God (Christians) are not faithful in the house of God (the church: the fellowship we have with Christ and one another)? Read the Book, know the plan, and just do it.

Ezra 7:26 - “And whosoever will not do the law of thy God, and the law of the king, let judgment be executed speedily upon him, whether it be unto death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment.”

Aside from the obvious principle of swift punishment for crimes under man’s law, let us consider also that Ezra, in about 458 B.C. and moved by the Holy Spirit (II Peter 1:21), still called upon the people of God to “do the law of thy God” which had been written about 1440 B.C. In round numbers that portion of the Bible to which Ezra admonished the people was about 1,000 years old. The people were rebuilding their nation after they had been removed from the land and foreigners had occupied it for a generation. Did they say, “We need a new faith (or a new hermeneutic) for the this new beginning? No. The way to God’s approval was still the way that God had given that millennium earlier. When He wanted the people to do something different, he prophesied it (Jer. 31:31-34), and then fulfilled the prophecy (Heb. 8:8-12). What prophecy has He given in our age? That the word of Jesus will stand until the world ends (I Cor. 15:24-25). Though it is a different law from that of which Ezra spoke, God today expects all still to “do the law of thy God.” Read it. Obey it. Teach it.

Ezra 9:1-4 - “Now when these things were done, the princes came to me, saying, The people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations... And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down astonied.”

Where is the leadership in the Lord's church today when the people do not separate their practices, language, dress, etc. from the satanic practices of the heathen of the land? How many of us are truly grieved at the worldliness in the church? Haven't we become to a great extent complacent with a new “normal”? Haven't many of us resigned ourselves to the idea that the problem just can't be fixed, so we have just stopped “beating our heads against the wall,” preaching what seems to do no good? How many preachers and elders have even taken the “if you can't beat 'em, join 'em” approach? I'm not saying that there isn't concern, but what are we doing about the concern? Read the whole 9th chapter of Ezra, and ask yourself whether you are doing all that you could do to oppose - and lead people out of - “the sin that doth so easily beset us.”