The (gracious) hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek Him.
This truth is one that both Ezra and Nehemiah (of the Bible) lived, and one they understood they received by faith. Sometimes to enter in to this truth they knew it to came by prayer and fasting.
For I was ashamed to request of the king an escort of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the road, because we had spoken to the king, saying, “The hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek Him, but His power and His wrath are against all those who forsake Him.” So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and He answered our prayer. (Ezra 8:22-23)
Then the king said to me, “What do you request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it.” Then the king said to me (the queen also sitting beside him), “How long will your journey be? And when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time. Furthermore I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given to me for the governors of the region beyond the River, that they must permit me to pass through till I come to Judah, and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he must give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel which pertains to the temple, for the city wall, and for the house that I will occupy.” And the king granted them to me according to the good hand of my God upon me. (Nehemiah 2:4-8)
The background here is that we had a people, taken from their home country (because of their sins), now in the foreign lands, a minority, ruled by one of the most powerful empires in their day, and yet they knew that when the gracious hand of God was with them they could see their rulers resources turned to rebuild them and their homeland.
The government of their day, and the rulers of society, would find themselves extending favour to them because of a God that many had not acknowledged.
In the case of both these two characters of the Old Testament, and hero’s of faith, they understood and saw that when the hand of God was upon them it could mean different things. Such as:
- Protection on the journey (in a hostile land for a people once exiled) – Ezra 8:22,23
- Prosperity and riches – Neh. 2:4-8, 20
- Favour with kings – Ezra 7:11–28; Neh. 2:4-8
- Given our petitions – Ezra 7:6
- Bring capable people (men of understanding) around us – Neh. 2:18; Ezra 7; 8:18
- Reaching your destination – Ezra 7:9
- Lasting favour – Ezra 5:5-6:22
The interesting thing is that this favour with the rulers of the Mede and Persian empires was prophesied many years earlier by Isaiah (see chapter 45:1-13), where God called to a king yet unborn to rebuild the temple and city His predecessors (only 70 years beforehand) had demolished and plundered. Starting with Cyrus, this favour continued through two other rulers, Darius and Artaxerxes.
In this God reveals to His people that He can work great things as we stay faithful to Him. The Cyrus anointing as it is called today, sees God anointing kings to do His will and grant them power and prosperity. The two things are linked. A faithful prophet (Daniel) and others remnants of His people used to perhaps trigger the release of this anointing king of the realm.
As we remain faithful to our calling and God, even despite persecution and slavery, God’s hand of grace comes upon us to do His work, and to see rulers in our times have their hearts turned to build His kingdom. This same hand of grace raising up the wealth and people needed to do His work. We need to seek this in faith, with prayer and sometimes fasting, knowing if God calls us to build His kingdom, His hand of Grace is with us.
And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (2 Corinthians 12:9)
Key to accessing this grace is staying connected in to the grace giver…not out of works, but faith. As Jesus said.
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)
The key characteristic of Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah is that they sort the Lord, prioritising prayer (and fasting) to God, despite the threat of death.
The lesson from times of Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, is that while at one hand the people of God may be being persecuted and perhaps plundered by the rulers of the world, who could even being actively seeking to demolish ‘God’s work’, on the other hand others of faith can see God’s favour with them which in turns see those same rulers, or those of the same house, extending to others the favour to do God’s work. Jesus will build His kingdom, and it never ends.
this Ezra came up from Babylon; and he was a skilled scribe in the Law of Moses, which the LORD God of Israel had given. The king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the LORD his God upon him. (Ezra 7:6)
On the first day of the first month he began his journey from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him. (Ezra 7:9)
This is a copy of the letter that King Artaxerxes gave Ezra the priest, the scribe, expert in the words of the commandments of the LORD, and of His statutes to Israel: Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the priest, a scribe of the Law of the God of heaven: Perfect peace, and so forth.
I issue a decree that all those of the people of Israel and the priests and Levites in my realm, who volunteer to go up to Jerusalem, may go with you. And whereas you are being sent by the king and his seven counselors to inquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem, with regard to the Law of your God which is in your hand; and whereas you are to carry the silver and gold which the king and his counselors have freely offered to the God of Israel, whose dwelling is in Jerusalem; and whereas all the silver and gold that you may find in all the province of Babylon, along with the freewill offering of the people and the priests, are to be freely offered for the house of their God in Jerusalem— now therefore, be careful to buy with this money bulls, rams, and lambs, with their grain offerings and their drink offerings, and offer them on the altar of the house of your God in Jerusalem.
And whatever seems good to you and your brethren to do with the rest of the silver and the gold, do it according to the will of your God. Also the articles that are given to you for the service of the house of your God, deliver in full before the God of Jerusalem. And whatever more may be needed for the house of your God, which you may have occasion to provide, pay for it from the king’s treasury.
And I, even I, Artaxerxes the king, issue a decree to all the treasurers who are in the region beyond the River, that whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the Law of the God of heaven, may require of you, let it be done diligently, up to one hundred talents of silver, one hundred kors of wheat, one hundred baths of wine, one hundred baths of oil, and salt without prescribed limit. Whatever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it diligently be done for the house of the God of heaven. For why should there be wrath against the realm of the king and his sons?
Also we inform you that it shall not be lawful to impose tax, tribute, or custom on any of the priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, Nethinim, or servants of this house of God. And you, Ezra, according to your God-given wisdom, set magistrates and judges who may judge all the people who are in the region beyond the River, all such as know the laws of your God; and teach those who do not know them. Whoever will not observe the law of your God and the law of the king, let judgment be executed speedily on him, whether it be death, or banishment, or confiscation of goods, or imprisonment.
Blessed be the LORD God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem, and has extended mercy to me before the king and his counselors, and before all the king’s mighty princes. So I was encouraged, as the hand of the LORD my God was upon me; and I gathered leading men of Israel to go up with me. (Ezra 7:11-28)
And I told them of the hand of my God which had been good upon me, and also of the king’s words that he had spoken to me. So they said, “Let us rise up and build.” Then they set their hands to this good work. But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they laughed at us and despised us, and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? Will you rebel against the king?” So I answered them, and said to them, “The God of heaven Himself will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build, but you have no heritage or right or memorial in Jerusalem.” (Neh. 2:18-20)
Then, by the good hand of our God upon us, they brought us a man of understanding, of the sons of Mahli the son of Levi, the son of Israel, namely Sherebiah, with his sons and brothers, eighteen men; (Ezra 8:18)
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