Commentators differ on the dollar value of the treasure to be transported, but all agree it was a lot!
The four-month journey that lay before Ezra and his companions would not be easy. Marauders hid in the hills, waiting to rob the unsuspecting. And they were transporting a king’s ransom, “the silver, the gold, and the articles, the offering for the house of our God which the king and his counselors and his princes, and all Israel…had offered” (Ezra 8:25). If they didn’t have protection, it would be like taking candy from a baby. But there was a complication. The king, Artaxerxes, had been most gracious in allowing so many of them to leave. He had been most generous in donating both goods and services for the expense of restoring the temple. But even though he was commander-in-chief of the largest army in the world, he had not offered to send along a guard to protect them on the journey. And, said Ezra, “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’” (v 22). It wasn’t that he couldn’t ask the king for a hand, but they were on record as having told the king Someone was already giving them a hand—“The hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek Him.” You can hardly ask a man for help, even if he’s a king, if you’re already committed to trusting the Lord for His security services. Is He not enough? On the other hand, Ezra wasn’t about to presume on God’s help, either. So he “proclaimed a fast…that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions” (v 21). The result? As expected, “He answered our prayer” (v 23).