There shone in the sun, like a silver ribband, the River Ahava, as it wound its ancient course to the ocean. Nature seemed in her most peaceful mood, yet there were lurking dangers from wild beasts, and from still wilder men, for brigands and bandits abounded in those regions.
What meant, then, that band of some 1700 men, besides women and children, unarmed and defenceless, as they fasted and prayed? It was a strange spot for a prayer-meeting. Those who prayed had come from afar and were travelling to a distant land. Moreover, they carried with them a great treasure, enough to have excited the cupidity of the robbers of the district, and lead to the little band being murdered for the sake of gain. Hide as they might their treasure, the news of these things has a way of leaking out, and leading to the undesired happening.
The story is one of the most beautiful in Holy Writ. The men were from Babylon, they were Jewish captives, and their leader was Ezra, the priest, descended from Aaron. The treasure they carried was the Lord’s and their object was to carry it safely and intact to Jerusalem, to the House of the Lord.
The treasure consisted of silver weighing 750 talents, gold 200 talents, 20 basins of gold of 1000 drams, two vessels of copper precious as gold. Its value in our money would be well on to £1,000,000.
Moreover, Ezra had boasted of his God to the heathen King Artaxerxes, so that he was ashamed to ask for a band of soldiers and horsemen as a guard in this perilous journey. He relied not on an arm of flesh, for he trusted in the Lord.
What have we to learn from all this? The Jews could look back to the day when Solomon “reigned over all the kings from the river even to the land of the Philistines, and to the border of Egypt” (2 Chr. 9:26), when the wonderful Temple at Jerusalem was in its early glory, but now the inhabitants of the land were taken captive to another land, their harps hung on the willow trees by the banks of the rivers of Babylon (Ps. 137:1-4) as they mourned over their condition. Jerusalem, the city of the great king, in ruins, the House of God destroyed, the land overrun with wild beasts; it was a mournful spectacle indeed!
We Christians can look back to the wonderful days of Pentecost, when the power of God brought multitudes to the feet of the Lord, when assemblies were formed in places where paganism had hitherto been unassailed. Today we find the church of God broken up into fragments, the downgrade has set in for long, first love has long waned, ritualism has choked the real thing, rationalism, modernism, is sapping the very foundations of the faith, the apostasy is well on its way. Division, brokenness, weakness, alas! in many cases self-satisfaction, where sackcloth and ashes are more to the point, mark the present moment. Blasphemous sects have arisen claiming apostolic powers, in reality but snares of the devil.
Shall we in the face of this give up cleaving to the truth? Let the example of Ezra and his friends give us hearts of grace. There is nothing more striking in the Word of God than to listen to Haggai and Zechariah prophesying in a day of ruin. Haggai encouraged the broken remnant to care for the House of God; Zechariah’s soul was aflame with the vision of “THAT DAY,” when the glory of the Lord shall burst upon a repentant Israel, and all the promises to Abraham and David shall be fulfilled. There is nothing more striking than to see Zerubbabel, Joshua, the High Priest, and others setting up the altar of the Lord in the scene of Israel’s disgrace, amid a howling wilderness, infested by the enemies of the Lord. How Jerusalem had fallen, yet the place where the Lord had set His Name was remembered for blessing. It is a wonderful spectacle to see the faith and courage of these men, a sublime sight indeed.
With this example before us, we may well take courage, and seek to care for the interests of the Lord and the maintenance of the truth, where on every hand it is being given up. That God raises men in all stages of the church’s sojourn on the earth is the proof that GOD is working, and maintaining His interests in this world. How happy if He deigns to use the least of us in the carrying out of His purpose!
These men of old were carrying a vast treasure, not only of immense value, but likewise a sacred treasure, for it belonged to Jehovah and was destined for service in His House. Their concern was to deliver it intact, to be true to their trust. It was not in a spirit of careless bravado that they took their way through the enemy’s country, for we read that Ezra “proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of Him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance. For I was ashamed to ask of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way: because we had spoken to the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek Him; but His power and His wrath is against all them that forsake Him. So we fasted and besought our God for this: and He was entreated of us” (Ezra 8:21-23).
God was inquired of. He could protect His weak people and He did. You cannot match the extract just given from the Book of Ezra, written over two thousand years ago, in any of the writings of the ancients outside the Word of God. It is a delightful picture, full of literary grace that is positively charming, yet better still, it shows the divine work in souls, and how God cared for His interests in this day of weakness and ruin. The Book of Ezra, like all the books of the Bible, has plainly stamped upon it the hallmark of inspiration.
Following up the extract from the Book of Ezra just quoted, may we not remind ourselves that the God of Israel is our God, too, that He is unchanged in His power and in His interest in His own? Their side was to fast and beseech God for His help and protection. God’s side is expressed in the words, “He was entreated of us.” Will not our God be entreated by us? Have we not a marvellous opportunity given to us in these days of weakness? We talk about days of weakness and emphasize too little God’s almighty power and abiding interest in His own; we talk too much about the ruin of the church and too little of the great Head of the church in heaven and of His unabated interest in His people and of His power to care for them in all circumstances.
Ezra and his companions carried a great treasure, doubly precious because it was God’s and for the use of His earthly House at Jerusalem. They were anxious to keep it intact and deliver it without loss at the journey’s end. We Christians, too, have a treasure, even the Word of God. If much profit was the portion of the Israelites in having the oracles of God, the Old Testament Scriptures, committed to their trust, what can we say as to ourselves, who have the whole completed Word of God in our trust? Where the saints of the former dispensation had dim starlight, we have light above the brightness of the sun; where they had types, we have antitypes; where they had prophecies, we have fulfilments. In short all the truth is out. But there is a danger in not keeping the treasure intact. Remember if we do not practise the Word of God where we are called upon to practise it, we are losing the treasure. Many Christians pay lip homage only to certain parts of the truth; the practice of them would lead them into separation from the world and its evil; but in so doing they are losing immensely. If we part with any part of the treasure, we are losers; and through us the solemn truth is that God is the loser as to our testimony to the truth by our failure to practise it.
There is the wonderful treasure of the verbally inspired Word of God, the truth as to God, the Father; the Son; the Holy Spirit; the truth of the gospel; the truth of “in Christ” of new creation; of the necessity of the new birth; of the setting aside of the man in the flesh; of the atoning work of Christ; of His resurrection; His ascension; His session on high as Great High Priest and Advocate; the truth of His headship of His body, the church; the truth of the house of God; of the kingdom of God; of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and His glorious millennial reign; of the government that is exercised both in the church and the world today. We mention these things as they crowd into the mind. We have no space to elaborate them, but it will answer the desire of the writer in putting pen to paper, if the reader is stirred to a desire to keep this treasure intact.
If we cease to evangelize, if we cease to teach the whole truth of God, we are practically giving up the treasure. If we emphasize Ephesians, for instance, and neglect Roman; we are giving up part of the treasure. If we pay little heed to the history and prophecy of the Old Testament, to the types, to the breathing of the soul in the Psalms, to the sage advice of the Proverbs or the experience of Ecclesiastes, we are in danger of losing some part of the treasure.
If we fix on some line of teaching that appeals to us and make light of those that do not, we are in danger of losing part of the treasure. If a man in the Corinthian assembly were to say, “I am of Paul,” and neglect Peter and Apollos, he would assuredly lose treasure. Paul tells us that all things are ours. If the great Head of the church gives gifts we are to receive and profit by all. We have Paul, and Peter and Apollos, and all the rest, but in fixing on one to the exclusion of the rest we are really telling the Lord that His gifts are unnecessary.
It seems that if we become specialists in any one part of God’s Word, we lose the right relation of that part to the whole, and the part we specialize in is put out of its proper perspective. If I specialize on Ephesians and neglect Roman, I shall not get out the value from Ephesians that I might if I valued and profited by Romans.
The truth is attacked on every hand. The inspiration of Scripture is assailed. How blessed if we value it as wholly inspired of God. The truth of Christ’s Person is often attacked. How good to maintain the truth as to this in its purity and power. So we might go to one truth after another, and show how the enemy is seeking to rob God’s people of this wonderful treasure.