Intermediate Level, Block 8—Recovery
Week 75
Ezra—A Scribe who Taught God’s Law to the Children of Israel
Point to Emphasize: It is important for us, as God’s people, to know God’s Word
Reading Reference: Ezra 7
Memory Verse: For Ezra had set his heart to seek the law of Jehovah and to do it and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel. (Ezra 7:10)
Story Sample
A good number of years after the return from Babylon to Jerusalem, after the house of God was rebuilt under Zerubbabel’s leadership, God put it into the heart of Ezra, a scribe (or teacher of God’s law) to go up to Jerusalem. The temple had been rebuilt, but now the people needed to learn God’s way of doing things. Up to this point, they had been learning the Babylonian ways, so they needed to be taught God’s ways. Ezra saw that there was a need for someone to go to teach God’s law to the people, so he set his heart to go.
Ezra realized that the first return was not complete. Zerubbabel had known how to govern and was very helpful in the first return to rebuild the temple. The children of Israel had returned to the right place. They were not in Babylon anymore, they were in Jerusalem. They were rebuilding the house of God. But they were still behaving like the Babylonians because they did not know God’s law. They did not know how to behave according to God’s law. So, now Ezra realized that there was the need for someone who was skilled in the law of God to help the people know God’s Word. Not only to know the Law in a general way but according to what God had spoken. Ezra was able to understand and teach God’s word, so he volunteered to go to the king, Artaxerxes.
It’s important to learn and know what God says in His Word. I’m sure you will all be so happy and grateful one day for all the things you have learned from your parents, children’s meeting serving ones, and others who love God. I know I am! I can look back at many times I have learned something in the Word because of someone teaching me.
I’ll share with you one of the moments where I realized my mom was teaching me God’s Word. One day I did something wrong to my mom. I spoke back to her in a very rude way. That night, when I went to bed, she sat down with me and read the Bible verse “Honor your father and your mother…that your days may be extended” (Exodus 20:12). In this verse we see that God expects us to honor our parents. There is a promise in that verse—if I honor, my days will be extended (I will have a long life)…So my mom was showing me the Bible in the same way that Ezra opened God’s law to the children of Israel. We all need someone to come and open God’s Word to us. [Storyteller, insert your example of receiving the help of someone teaching you God’s Word and its meaning to you.]
So, Ezra went to the king and appealed to him to grant his request (Ezra 7:6), to give many of the Jews in his empire the freedom to go back to the land of their fathers. And the king granted Ezra his request. Though the king did not worship God, he respected Ezra’s God and believed Ezra was going on behalf of God. The king granted him to go and gave him a letter, allowing him to go to teach the Israelites. He knew that Ezra was going with the wisdom of God. The king also offered silver and gold to Ezra so that the people in Jerusalem would have the money to buy everything needed in their worship to God. He weighed out into their hands all the silver and gold from the children of Israel and from the king. In today’s money, it would be worth over 200 million dollars! The king trusted Ezra to act according to God in His Word
We, as God’s people, need to know God’s law like Ezra did. We need to know who God is, what He wants us to do, and how He wants us to behave. So, God will always give us someone who can come and teach us. I want to encourage you to be like Ezra this week. Maybe after you memorize your verse, you could teach it to someone else—a friend, a brother or sister, or your mom or dad.