Fasting and Prayer for Protection

Ezra 8:1-23

   1 These are the heads of their fathers' houses, and this is the genealogy of those who went up with me from Babylon, in the reign of King Artaxerxes: 2 of the sons of Phinehas, Gershom; of the sons of Ithamar, Daniel; of the sons of David, Hattush; 3 of the sons of Shecaniah, of the sons of Parosh, Zechariah; and registered with him were one hundred and fifty males; 4 of the sons of Pahath-Moab, Eliehoenai the son of Zerahiah, and with him two hundred males; 5 of the sons of Shechaniah, Ben-Jahaziel, and with him three hundred males; 6 of the sons of Adin, Ebed the son of Jonathan, and with him fifty males; 7 of the sons of Elam, Jeshaiah the son of Athaliah, and with him seventy males; 8 of the sons of Shephatiah, Zebadiah the son of Michael, and with him eighty males; 9 of the sons of Joab, Obadiah the son of Jehiel, and with him two hundred and eighteen males; 10 of the sons of Shelomith, Ben-Josiphiah, and with him one hundred and sixty males; 11 of the sons of Bebai, Zechariah the son of Bebai, and with him twenty-eight males; 12 of the sons of Azgad, Johanan the son of Hakkatan, and with him one hundred and ten males; 13 of the last sons of Adonikam, whose names are these—Eliphelet, Jeiel, and Shemaiah—and with them sixty males; 14 also of the sons of Bigvai, Uthai and Zabbud, and with them seventy males.

   15 Now I gathered them by the river that flows to Ahava, and we camped there three days. And I looked among the people and the priests, and found none of the sons of Levi there. 16 Then I sent for Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jarib, Elnathan, Nathan, Zechariah, and Meshullam, leaders; also for Joiarib and Elnathan, men of understanding. 17 And I gave them a command for Iddo the chief man at the place Casiphia, and I told them what they should say to Iddo and his brethren the Nethinim at the place Casiphia—that they should bring us servants for the house of our God. 18 Then, by the good hand of our God upon us, they brought us a man of understanding, of the sons of Mahli the son of Levi, the son of Israel, namely Sherebiah, with his sons and brothers, eighteen men; 19 and Hashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari, his brothers and their sons, twenty men; 20 also of the Nethinim, whom David and the leaders had appointed for the service of the Levites, two hundred and twenty Nethinim. All of them were designated by name.

    21 Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, 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. 22 For 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." 23 So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and He answered our prayer.

Ezra had the support of King Artaxerxes and, more importantly, the blessings of God, to bring many out of Babylon back to Jerusalem.  He is careful to name each family who accompanied him, acknowledging their faithfulness to go back to a hostile environment where much work still needed to be done to restore their homeland.  He gathered them all together for three days before setting out, and there noticed that there were no servants for the priests, the Levites, in their assembly.  He had to send Iddo, a leader of Jews at a town on the road between Babylon and Jerusalem, to go round up some of these servants of the LORD from the Nethinim and a few other sons of Levi.  This was done by “the good hand of our God upon” them; Ezra gave the glory to God for His grace of providence and provision, and assigned them each individual tasks of service.  They were valued by God and man for their service to follow after reaching Jerusalem.  Ezra then led the people to humble themselves by fasting and prayer for direction and protection on their journey, for they had not asked for a government escort, having turned it down from the king with the statement of faith to,rely on God’s protection.  He had bragged about the ability of the LORD to keep them against enemies.   He told Artaxerxes that God’s hand is for good to those who seek Him (those who are His, Romans 8:28), just as His hand of power and wrath would be against those who forsake Him (leave, go without trusting or following Him).  Because he had spoken about faith in God’s providential protection for His people to keep them safe, their doubts were assayed by further fasting and prayer (1 Chronicles 5:20, Psalm 22:4-5, Mark 9:24).  Likewise, our lesson for us is to step out in trust of God’s providence and protection to follow Christ and serve Him on the gospel work we are each called to, praying and fasting along He way to allow His strengthening hand to guide and keep us in the work.  This is His protection, not necessarily against bodily harm, but always against eternal adversity.  We know by God’s character and examples like this that He answers prayers of faith (Psalm 31:14-15, 19,  Nahum 1:7, 2 Corinthians 1:9-10) to keep us as Romans 8:31 encourages us.