Close attention to biblical characters can provide useful insights for preaching and teaching the Bible. This essay illustrates this claim by looking at the prophet Ezra. Israel had been in the Babylonian exile—according to Jeremiah it would last seventy years—and the Jews were allowed to return to their land under the Persian king Cyrus. But this happened only gradually, with different groups returning. Ezra 7 and 8 reports on the journey of one group that returned from Babylon to Jerusalem. They left on the first day of the first month in the seventh year of Artaxerxes and arrived on the first day of the fifth month. Quite a journey! Today in an airplane it is a matter of one or two hours.

But the return of the Jews from the exile is mentioned here as the backdrop to better focus on Ezra as a person. We appreciate people who have helped shape our lives positively. We appreciate those who have set an example in loyalty, courageous behavior, and commitment to a good cause. Biblical characters are among them, and often are the first to be listed. Good lessons can be learned from biblical characters. One of them is Ezra. In Ezra 7:1–6 he is described as a priest and as “a scribe skilled in the law of Moses which the Lord God of Israel had given.” In verse 11 this description is repeated in other terms. Ezra is a priest and “a scribe, a scribe of the words of the commandments of the Lord.” The term “scribe” is repeated twice in verse 11. Some translations render the second occurrence as “skilled in” the words of the commandments of the Lord. With verse 12 the decree of Artaxerxes begins. Again Ezra is called “the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven.” However, most remarkable—in my opinion—is verse 10: “For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel.”

Lessons to be Learned

This text provides us with at least four insights.

1. The Heart Counts

Many people today do their job just because they have to do it. It may be difficult enough to find a job. So they are forced to take what they can get. They have to make a living and earn money. Some have the luxury of choice and find themselves a career that allows them to make themselves a name and/or to get plenty of money. Apart from the lucrative financial benefits, their heart may not be with their job.

Ezra 7 tells us that Ezra was a scribe by profession, but he was more than a professional scribe who did his job because it was his task to do it. Ezra was personally involved. It must have been his heart’s desire to be familiar with the word of God. Ezra set his heart to seek the word of God, do it, and teach it. This phrase is primarily talking about commitment, devotion, and dedication. . The heart was not only the seat of emotions but also of the intellect. Thus the heart stood for the mind, will, and determination. Ezra “had ‘devoted himself’ to the three things mentioned”¹—studying, observing, and teaching.

The term “for” connects verse 10 with the preceding verse: “the good hand of his God was upon him.” Why? Because he had devoted his life to his ministry! His heart was in it! A job performed for a secular company may be done without much of personal involvement, although even then it is better to have a personal interest in what one is doing.

This is all the more so when what we do has to do with the kingdom of God. Halfhearted service, divided interest is not enough when it comes to God. “You cannot serve two masters.” “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” “Seek first God’s Kingdom and his righteousness, and all the things important to life will be added to you,” Jesus said (Matt 6:21, 24, 33). Ezra’s commitment was paired with God’s blessing.

2. Study Scripture

Ezra felt it important to commit himself to literally “seeking,” that is, exploring and investigating, the law (Torah) of Yahweh, which is the Word and also the law of God. The Word of God is like a mine which we can dig to find treasures. While some treasures are found at the surface, many are not. One has to dig and search, read and try to understand, compare one with another, and establish a biblical teaching.

Even a child is able to grasp the simple concept of how we can be saved. But the Scriptures also contain complex concepts and statements that challenge our mind and our lives; no wonder, we are dealing with issues that relate to God and surpass humanity. We are talking about human paradoxes and limitations of our understanding because we can reach out beyond our own dimension and get in touch with the transcendent Lord, the Infinite One. And yet reading and studying Scripture regularly comforts us, moves us, helps us to new insights, and brings us in contact with our Maker.

Study of the Word of God is a prerequisite for knowing God, His plan of salvation, and His will. It is the foundation of the Christian’s life and our spiritual journey.

3. Practice What You Have Found

Searching and exploring does not achieve much, if we are only intellectually enlightened. While this is good, it is not good enough. Studying Scripture must affect our daily life. Ezra allowed this to happen. He practiced what he found. He lived the will of God, as can be seen later in the book. An uncompromising commitment to the will of God led to a change of behavior and attitude in Judah (mixed marriages); in modern terms we would say to revival and reformation. Christianity appears oftentimes as unattractive because its adherents are no different from the secular population. They are still as greedy and angry, as selfish and proud, as pleasure-loving and compromising as many others. It was not only Nietzsche, the atheist German philosopher, who said that Christians would need to look more like redeemed people in order for him to believe in their savior. Adherents of other world religions tell us the same thing.

There are plenty of Christian scholars and university professors who study and teach Scripture, but it does not make a difference. Why? Because they have not allowed the Bible to be the Word of God, and make a difference in their lives. They have not been changed themselves. They do not have a living communion with the Lord, a heart of compassion, peace in Christ, assurance of salvation. One has to do the will of God to experience growth and change. Ezra had set his heart on practicing the will of God, living with Him, obeying Him.

4. Teach What You Have Found and Practiced

Ezra taught the Word of God. In the Old Testament, teaching the law of God was a function of the priests and Levites. Ezra was a priest, and he fulfilled the task to which he as a priest had been called. But Ezra was also a scribe.

Scribes were sometimes professional secretaries and sometimes government officials. So scribes may have recorded decisions of the elders, court rulings, and marriage contracts. They may have also been in charge of various records, and have copied documents, including biblical documents. But for some their task was not exhausted in recording decrees or passing on traditions. They also taught the Word of God.

In NT times teaching had already moved to the scribes. They were professional theologians, Biblical scholars. Some of the most famous scribes at the time of Jesus were Gamaliel, Hillel, and Shammai. They interpreted the Torah and applied it to their situation. Later in Judaism, a teacher of Torah was called a rabbi. Ezra was at the transition point when the teaching office begins to pass from the priests and Levites to the scribes. This transition occurred after the Babylonian Exile.

We have to return to the three aspects of ministry to which Ezra was devoted: studying Scripture, living Scripture, and teaching Scripture. “These three aspects of ministry are interdependent. One called by God to teach must also study and obey.”² Ezra “was not only a student of Scripture, but explicitly a practitioner and especially a teacher of its requirements . . . what he taught he had first lived, and what he lived he had first made sure of in the Scriptures. With study, conduct, and teaching put deliberately in this right order, each of these was able to function properly at its best: study was saved from unreality, conduct from uncertainty, and teaching from insincerity and shallowness.”³

“The model teacher in Ezra is a doer. And the doer can be no mere demonstrator. He must be what he would have his disciples be.”⁴ We today are the priesthood of believers. It is important that we practice what we find in the gospel; we also need to teach and pass it on to our children, non-Christians, and even Christians. In doing so it will become even more important, meaningful, and fresh for ourselves.

The Great Commission is addressed to all disciples and calls us, among other things to get involved in teaching: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt 28:19–20).

Although some people in church are especially gifted with teaching, all of us in one way or another must teach. But teaching must be based on studying and practicing.

In Acts 19 a sad story is recorded, in which these three dimensions were not connected. Some Jews got involved in exorcism. They attempted to expel evil spirits from people. However, they did that in a strange way. They used a kind of formula and thought it would work. The formula was: “In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” This formula is revealing. First, they think they can use a sentence like magic, and the desired outcome happens. It does not. Secondly, they have heard about Jesus and Paul, but they do not seem to believe in Jesus and practice discipleship. The result is devastating: “the evil spirit answered them, ‘Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?’ Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding” (Act 19:15–16, NIV).

Conclusion

“Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the LORD, and to teaching its decrees and ordinances in Israel” (Ezra 7:10). This was his call. He followed it. It is ours too today. We too— no matter what our profession or job—must devote ourselves wholeheartedly to:

1. Studying Scripture

2. Practicing Scripture

3. Teaching Scripture

As we do this, the Lord will bless us as he blessed Ezra and will make our ministry fruitful and our life meaningful. His gracious hand will be on us (Ezra 7:9). I hope to have shown in the above reflection how fruitful a close examination of biblical characters can be for biblical teaching and preaching, and for the devotional life as well.