God Honors Trust

God helps those who help themselves. 

Have you heard that? Did you know that it's not true? Did you know that it's not even biblical?

The biblical truth is that God helps those who trust Him and walk in faithfulness. 

Ezra knew that, and his story serves as a reminder for all of us even to this day. 

It's dangerous to be among the first persons to return to a previously conquered land, a land that has been filled with other exiles from other places, a land that lay in ruins, a land where you're likely to face opposition in trying to come home because, let's face it - it isn't home any more. In the years that Israel spent in exile, Jerusalem itself had changed. There were real dangers to what Ezra was trying to do.

Ezra knew it. Israel's captors knew it. The king who was letting him go back knew it. In fact, the king offered to write him official letters of safe travel, for himself and for everyone that was traveling with him. These letters would tell any potential enemies to back off and leave the returning Israelites alone, lest they face the full force of the very powerful government that was not only allowing this to happen, but was facilitating it. 

There were groups that may have wanted to pick on the Israelites, but nobody wanted to pick a fight with the dominant ruling powers of the day. 

But Ezra refused the king's letters. He said he didn't need them. 

He said that if the Lord was really the God that Ezra knew, the God that He had demonstrated Himself to be, the kind of God whose temple and altar and holy land were worth restoring, then God could keep them safe on their journey. God would protect them from anyone who might come against them. 

That's what he told the king, and that's what he told the people. He told the people the king offered them guaranteed safe passage and that he refused. He put his faith on full display and invited the rest of the returning exiles to share it. He encouraged them to take hold of the kind of faith that he had, the kind of faith that was willing to risk going back to rebuild, the kind of faith that believed that Jerusalem was worth it. That the Lord was worth it. 

Of course, it was. He was. He is. 

And God did keep them safe. 

Not because of anything they had done. Not because of anything the other nations hadn't done. Not for any other reason than that they simply trusted the Lord, trusted His heart, trusted His character, trusted the testimony of His story with Israel up to that point. And God saw that trust. He saw that trust put into faithful action as the exiles headed for home. And He honored it. 

And He always will.