THE GOOD HAND OF OUR GOD IS UPON US
Ezra was finally given a chance to go home. Not that he had ever seen “home” before. He had been living in the country of Babylon his entire life because it had been 90 years since his people had been taken into exile. By this time many of Ezra’s countrymen had already been allowed to return, but now Ezra himself would be able to go back to the land he never knew. I’m sure Ezra was eager to see the country God had once given to his people, an almost mythical place about which he had only heard stories. He had to be anxious to finally step foot on the ground that the Bible described as a “land flowing with milk and honey.” But although Ezra was certainly excited to travel to the country of his forefathers, he probably also understood that it wasn’t going to be easy. Not only would he have to travel for four months through strange and dangerous lands he wasn’t familiar with, but Jerusalem itself would still be in ruins when he got there. The city walls had yet to be repaired from the Babylonian attack almost a century before, and Ezra, as a leader and a priest of the Israelites, would have to deal with it. There would be a lot of work to be done with very few people, less money, and no guarantee that he would even reach the land of Israel safely.
But the good hand of his God was upon him. We’ve already seen in our worship service this morning that Ezra was blessed by the hand of the Lord - and he knew it! He saw God working through the people and the situations around him so that everything fell right into place. In fact, in the span of just two chapters in the middle of his book, Ezra repeats six different times that the hand of his God was upon him. Ezra admits that the good hand of his God was upon him when the king simply allowed Ezra to leave. And the good hand of his God was upon him again when 38 Levites and 220 temple servants were found to travel with him to the land of Israel. And the good hand of his God was upon him again when the Lord protected this group of Israelites from enemies and robbers on the 800 mile journey to the Promised Land without any of the king’s soldiers or horsemen to defend them. Ezra was fully aware that the Lord was behind everything that was happening to him and he praised his God for it! But that wasn’t everything that the Lord had done for him. Ezra himself writes: “I weighed out to them the offering of silver and gold and the articles that the king, his advisers, his officials and all Israel present there had donated for the house of our God: 650 talents of silver, silver articles weighing 100 talents, 100 talents of gold, 20 bowls of gold valued at 1,000 darics, and two fine articles of polished bronze, as precious as gold.”
The good hand of his God had moved the king of Babylon and his advisors and his officials to contribute a large sum of money to the treasury of the house of God in Israel. But the Lord had also moved the hearts of the Israelites themselves to give their gifts to the Lord as well. And the total offering was no meager amount! 100 talents of gold were collected - that’s 3 ¾ tons of gold! By today’s standards that would be worth $132,000,000 - not to mention another $335,000 for the 20 golden bowls along with over 28 tons of silver. The good hand of God was certainly at work, supplying these exiled Israelites with an incredible amount of treasure to take back to the house of God in the Promised Land! It was more money than Ezra could have ever guessed he would carry with him. The entire trip was blessed by the hand of his God far beyond anything he could have imagined.
But that’s what the good hand of our God does: he supplies us with blessings beyond anything we dare to dream. And he does it even without our asking. We ask him for a lot of things, there’s no doubt about that, but it seems that most of the blessings we receive come before we ever ask! And the gifts our God gives us without our asking are wonderful! Think of how many blessings the Lord has personally given to you throughout your lifetime that you didn’t ask him for. Your spouse, your children, your parents, your house, your job, your home town, your Christian friends… and sometimes those blessings are as small as the ability to take a breath of fresh air, your heart beating at a regular pace even during sleep, temporary relief from the pain that’s been bothering you, an unexpected phone call from an old friend, a chance to see your grandchildren for a day, an opportunity to relax on a sunny afternoon, a small insight that the Lord gives you while studying his Word… The good hand of our God is constantly upon us, pouring out blessings that we wouldn’t even think about requesting. We don’t even know them all! We aren’t even aware of all the blessings the good hand of our God provides for us because many of them are behind the scenes and out of sight and unnoticeable. Especially here, especially now, especially to us. As Christians in this country at this time, we have received more blessings from our God than we can possibly keep track of. And so it’s a pity that we forget to thank out God for most of them.
We are so used to enjoying the good things of this life, we are so familiar with experiencing the blessings of our God from every conceivable angle, that we sometimes forget to even acknowledge that God is behind those gifts that we don’t deserve. In fact, we almost expect that those good things will keep on coming - and if they don’t, if those blessings that we count on suddenly stop, we sometimes get a little angry and somewhat perturbed that the Lord would do such a thing to us! We act like spoiled brats sometimes. We are the rich kids that are so used to getting everything all the time that we come close to throwing a two year old tantrum when we don’t get something that we’ve always had in the past.
Understand that the life we live here is largely unprecedented in the history of this world for Christians to enjoy. Think of almost any Christian in the Bible. Bring to mind any era of history in the Christian church beginning with the apostles and all the way up to the present day. I would guess that at least 90% of Christians who have ever lived on this earth have lived hard lives amidst violent persecution with very few physical blessings. They lived in dangerous countries under anti-Christian governments with little opportunity to do anything about it. But you can be sure that those Christians thanked their God for the blessings and the gifts that they did receive from his good hand. Those few material blessings they happened to have were precious to them. They cherished them.
The blessings we receive are no less precious. We just don’t always cherish them as much as they should be cherished. And we don’t always thank our God for what he does for us every day of our lives as often as we should. We would do well to be more like Ezra. Because Ezra the priest seemed to keep those kinds of things in perspective. He appreciated what the Lord had done for him and thanked his God even for the small blessings that the Lord had given his people. But he also kept in mind the most important blessing that came from the hand of the Lord: the Word of God. 12 years after Ezra arrived in Jerusalem the walls of the city were rebuilt under the direction of Ezra’s friend, Nehemiah. Nehemiah was an Israelite who had come from Babylon as well. And together Nehemiah and Ezra were able to organize the Israelite nation and rebuild the walls that had been lying in ruins for over hundred years. But during that time they also spent a lot of effort rebuilding the spiritual walls of Jerusalem through the Word of God. Under Ezra’s direction the people celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles for the first time in almost 1000 years. Ezra also read from the Book of the Law in the hearing of the people on a regular basis. And during that time the Israelites praised the Lord not only for the physical blessings he had given them, but especially for the spiritual blessing of forgiveness that he would grant them through the coming of his Son. Ezra made sure that the good hand of his God was upon the people through his Word as much as possible.
The greatest blessing we have from the good hand of our God is no different. It is what we are enjoying right here this morning in God’s house. It is his Word, the written power of God that speaks to us about his mercy and love, his incarnation and his cross, our sins and our forgiveness. The good hand of our God is upon us every time we open our Bibles or sing a hymn or listen to a Scripture reading or recite a psalm. He is reaching out to bless us through his Word, comforting our guilty consciences and convincing our hearts that he has done everything for our salvation and we have nothing to worry about. Nowhere is the hand of our God more evident than in his gospel. Here in the gospel he puts his hand on our shoulder as a good friend in times of trouble. Here in the gospel he places his hand around our side and holds us close to him when we are afraid of what’s to come. Here in the gospel he rests his hand upon on our heads and assures us that we are forgiven because he is our Father, and he loves us more than anything else in this world. The good hand of our God grasps our hearts every time we come into contact with his Word and he leaves no doubt that the gift of heaven is ours to keep because the gift of heaven is his to give.
What a breath-taking way that the good hand of our God blesses us! And what an amazing act of God’s grace that he continues to give us even more! On top of our forgiveness and in addition to Jesus coming down to this earth and dying on the cross and rising from the grave and ascending into heaven and reigning on his throne and working faith in our hearts through his Word and the power of Holy Spirit, he blesses us with countless physical gifts every day! Blessing upon blessing upon blessing because he likes to give us good things and he is happy to fill our cups to overflowing. Just look at what he has done for this congregation over these past few years. He has allowed a group of only 50+ people to spread the gospel in a town filled with souls who need to hear it - despite the fact that the synod itself is closing missions and struggling with finances. And yet here we still are spreading the Word. The good hand of our God has been upon us! The Lord has blessed this congregation with a strong desire to work together and to maintain a unifying bond of peace as brothers and sisters in Christ - regardless of the many strong personalities this congregation is made up of. The good hand of our God has been upon us! The Lord has even moved the hearts of his people here to give an extraordinary amount of money to the building fund - even though visible results have yet to be seen - so that now we at least have the option to look for new land and to make plans for the future when we didn’t have that opportunity three years ago. The good hand of our God has been upon us!
I feel like Ezra, showered with gifts, humbled by God’s people who love the Lord and respect me despite my many and obvious faults, blown away by the outpouring of offerings that have been given for the work of God’s kingdom, and strengthened by all my fellow Christians who have a desire to share the Word of God with people just as much as I do. The good hand of our God has been upon me! He has blessed me exponentially each year. And I love it! I can’t thank God enough! He has been so good to me that I can’t possibly give him enough to make it up.
I pray that’s the way you feel too. I hope you realize how good the Lord has been to you in so many ways and how instrumental his good hand has been in your life. And the good hand of your God will never go away. His hand will always be there to support you and guide you and protect you. The good hand of your God will be with you every step of the way during the 800 mile journey of this life through strange lands and dangerous enemies. The good hand of your God will guide you to the Promised Land with the riches of your salvation in hand. And in the good hand of your God he will one day lead you home.
Amen.
“God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.” - Phil. 4:19-20
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