Ezra 7 #FirstHour

FORGED
"This Ezra went up from Babylonia. He was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses, which Yahweh the God of Israel gave. The king granted him all his requests, for the hand of Yahweh was upon him." (Ezra 7:6 LEB)

God masterfully crafts His metal under a leaf-covered hut near nowhere. Ezra was born and grew up in a slave environment -- his taskmasters were they that uprooted their dignified Jewish family of priests from their homeland hundreds of miles away only to work as slaves in the land of the oppressor.

A child of God in affliction is a piece of ore that God burns, pounds, shapes, pounds some more, burns some more in the fiery furnace and sharpens on a nasty whetstone to become shiny and useful blade. The pounding of that blessed hammer on the anvil of affliction only God hears WHY. Others may hear and scoff. Puritan Richard Sibbes writes "Ungodly spirits, ignorant of God's ways in bringing his children to heaven, censure broken hearted Christians as miserable persons, whereas God is doing a gracious, good work with them. It is no easy matter to bring a man from nature to grace, and from grace to glory."

"The king granted him all his requests, for the hand of Yahweh was upon him." That's all there is to say for a man who IS forged in the furnace and the hammer of God's favor and mercy.

#FirstHour

Ezra 5 #FirstHour

And this is the answer they returned to us: ‘We are servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are building the house that was built formerly many years ago, which a great king of Israel had built and finished. But because our ancestors angered the God of heaven, he gave them into the hand of the Chaldean King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. He destroyed this house and carried away the people to Babylonia. But in the first year of King Cyrus of Babylon’s reign he issued forth a decree to build this house of God.(Ezra 5:11‭-‬13 LEB)

Affliction may blind the eyes of faith of a child of God. It may obstruct how we look at the story of our lives. It covers the Big Story where we belong -- a story of redemption (gospel) and of commission (duty). Yet when affliction shuts it out, we make little stories -- stories of duties, of resolutions that we think are currencies to buy for us a story.

The returning Exiles had no currency but the merits of God's grace for who they were -- that God called them to be His servants. To this story they returned amidst their terrible blinding pressure and threats from ungodly spirits. They saw God as the Writer of the Story to which they belong. And that is why your duties must persist in the context of His grace. You persevere, because He preserves.

The eyes of faith in times of affliction may see that "surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” (Psalm 23:6).

Begin today by asking God for forgiveness and repentance for the sin that caused your affliction or extends your affliction such as overmuch sorrow or anger, etc. As that Puritan with a honeymouth would say, "God has more grace in Him, than din in you."

#FirstHour

PS

Piety hath a wondrous virtue to change all things into matter of consolation and joy. No condition in effect can be evil or sad to a pious man: his very sorrows are pleasant, his infirmities are wholesome, his wants enrich him, his disgraces adorn him, his burdens ease him; his duties are privileges, his falls are the grounds of advancement, his very sins (as breeding contrition, humility, circumspection, and vigilance), do better profit him: whereas impiety doth spoil every condition, doth corrupt and embase all good things, doth embitter all the conveniences and comforts of life.

—Isaac Barrow

Ezra 4 #FirstHour

1Now the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple for Yahweh the God of Israel. . . 6In the reign of Ahasuerus, at the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem. . . 24Then the work on the house of God in Jerusalem stopped, and was discontinued until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia. (Ezra 4:1‭, ‬6‭, ‬24 LEB)

When God allows affliction to His people, it happens within the context of a promise. The Hand that writes the purpose for His people may be invisible but that's because It has written in advance. This is the reason why the Puritan Timothy Rogers would preach to "afflicted people. Do not judge your eternal state by what you now feel." The overriding purpose of His grace is written in benevolent providence for His people who although they may suffer the afflictions of the evil world and the consequences of their past, yet His glory to rebuild may hide behind the mountains at night but will break forth at dawn. "Weeping may endure for a night," says the beloved psalmist, "but joy cometh in the morning" (Psalm 30:5).

Ezra 2:1 #FirstHour

Now these were the people of the province who came up from the captivity of the exile whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon carried captive to Babylonia. They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own city.(Ezra 2:1 LEB)

After decades of exiles, the remnant of a nation returned to Jerusalem like a second Abrahamic call. Doong lugar din tinawag si Abraham noon galing sa lugar ng mga ilog ng Tigris at Euphrates. And now as they walked back, they were retracing the steps of their patriarch probably saying, "Our father Abraham took to these roads the call and vision of YHWH. May His glory be seen in our lives as it was with him . . . this second time around."

God's children may often find themselves falling by the wayside dahil sa kasalanan o pandaraya ng mundo buti na lang ang Panginoon may "mercies [that] never come to an end" (Lamentation 3:22) for His people. God will use heads of nations as sacrament for His ministry of love to His children.