Then we departed from the river Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go to Jerusalem. The hand of our God was on us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from ambushes by the way.
Ezra's company leaves the river Ahava for Jerusalem carrying a great treasure and no armed guard. Their safe arrival raises a hard question: is God alone enough protection when the danger is real?
A prayer answered, written down as history
Ezra writes the journey up in a single sentence. The dates around it show how long the test lasted.
Edward DennettIn verse 31 we have a short statement concerning their journey. It simply records the faithfulness of their God in answer to their prayers... Ezra 7:9 says they began to go up on the first day of the first month. That was probably the date when the people gathered at the river Ahava. So the journey itself took a little less than four months. Ezra testifies that God safely guided them through all its dangers and shielded them from all their foes. Truly "the name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe."
Why he would not ask for soldiers
Ezra had boasted to the king about his God. Asking for troops afterwards would have made that boast empty.
A. J. PollockIf Ezra had asked for a guard of soldiers, his boasting would have been mere talk. It would have damaged the character of his God in the eyes of the king, whose heart God had so wonderfully turned to Himself and His people.
The same test falls on anyone who says they trust God.
F. B. HoleIt is easy for us today to say we have great confidence in God about how we carry on His work. It is just as easy to fail when the test comes and we face some very practical questions. We may well feel shame when an opponent can reproach us and call on us to practise what we preach.
The threat was not imagined
The mention of ambushes on the road is not decoration.
Edward DennettThe reader should notice that the danger Ezra feared was no imaginary one. Afterwards he records, to the praise of his God, that "he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from ambushes by the way." Surely God is the refuge and strength of His people, and a very present help for them in trouble. They would know it more fully if, like Ezra, they only learned to count on Him as enough in every possible situation.
God guarding what belongs to Him
The treasure was not Ezra's. It belonged to God, and that changes how we hold anything He puts in our hands.
H. L. RossierGod watches over His goods and He preserves those who carry these gifts all along the way... May we never treat anything He puts into our hand as belonging to us. We hold it to hand back to Him, after we have faithfully managed it for Him.
Ezra and Nehemiah compared
Nehemiah made the same journey later with army officers and horsemen. Commentators differ on how to read that. Some see a lower level of faith:
Edward DennettNehemiah did not have the same simple faith. He was a godly and devout man, but he travelled with the show and ceremony of one of the king's governors. That way was more likely to win the respect of the world and the help of the king's servants.
Others decline to blame him, pointing to the difference in what each man carried:
H. L. RossierHe accepts the support of the protecting power he serves. This is not from any lack of faith. In these low times faith does not show itself with the same simplicity. Ezra, after the temple was finished, had only to carry gifts to the house of the Lord. The greater the treasure he carried, the more he needed to show the world that faith turned to God to keep what belonged to Him.
The same hand now
The point is not admiration for an old story. It is expectation for today.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThey must have had many narrow escapes. But they kept trusting in the LORD, in His good hand of mercy and power, and He delivered them from all dangers. The LORD who answered their faith and kept them is the same today, and never disappoints faith. His hand is the same as then, and we too can experience His gracious deliverance.
Summary
- Word given. Ezra had told a pagan king that God's hand is for good on all who seek Him — so his own word bound him to act on it.
- Hand sought. They prayed first at Ahava, and Ezra's short travel note is the written answer to those prayers.
- Hand instead of horsemen. Ezra refused a military escort. The danger of ambush was real, and only God stood between them and it.
- Hand upon them. Four months on the road ended in one line of testimony: God guided, shielded, delivered.
- Hand kept the treasure. God guards His own goods and the people who carry them — so hold whatever He gives you as His, not yours.