“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can,…to all the people you can….” —John Wesley
Ezra continues the history of the Jewish people after the fall of Judah’s monarchy, but he is actually in the middle of a chain reaction of sorts. First in line is Jeremiah who, unlike the other prophets, warned the people of Judah of their fate, not at a distance, but while the engines of war were at their gates. However, the prophet had been told before he began, “You shall speak all these words to them, but they will not obey you. You shall also call to them, but they will not answer you” ( Jer 7:27). But a young Daniel had evidently taken a copy of the scroll with him into captivity. So 70 years later, he writes: “I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem” (Dan 9:2). He began to pray to that end, and the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus, a Gentile king, to call the Jews to return to their land and rebuild the Holy City. This they did in three waves, first under the direction of Zerubbabel. When the people became discouraged in rebuilding the temple, God used the ministry of Haggai and Zephaniah to spur them on. Then Ezra was called into action, because the people didn’t know how the temple was to function. Both a priest and a scribe, Ezra was the right man for the job, and the temple was soon back in action. Twelve years later, news came to Nehemiah in Babylon that the walls of Jerusalem were still in disrepair, causing him to return and inspire the population to fortify the city. So when someone incredulously asks, “What can one person do?” tell them of the examples in this line of solo servants from Jeremiah to Ezra. But remind them it’s actually one person—and God!