“Ezra’s Honor” – Ezra 8:21-23

Sometimes I hear people talk about how when they are praying it seems like the prayer is not even reaching the ceiling. Do you ever feel that way? Do you ever feel like not only is God not answering your prayer but He probably doesn’t even hear it? We all know that God does hear our prayers but sometimes it just doesn’t feel like it. So, what’s missing? What do we have to do to get God’s attention?

 

The Bible often speaks of us approaching God in His throne room. There have been times for me that I feel like I must just be the size of an ant in that throne room and He can’t see or hear me. He is looking out over His Kingdom and I am right at His feet hollering, “Hey, look at me! Down here.” What do I have to do to get God’s attention?

 

It is a question for all the ages. People have basically wondered that forever. Because obviously we have to do something, right? We have seen God answer prayer and so we know He can but we have also seen prayer go either unanswered or not answered like we want so what is the secret to getting prayers answered? Is it saying the right words? Should we pray like the TV preachers?

 

“Oh, Almighty Deity of Omnipotence, hallowed be Thy name…” Because you know God hears King James prayers better, right? Or maybe it will work if we cry and scream. In some cultures they still flog themselves with whips to punish themselves in hopes that God will see how serious they are and answer their prayers. Does He only answer a prayer that is voiced while on our knees or can I walk around and pray?  What’s the secret?

 

I don’t know about you but if I knew that God would answer my prayer only if I was standing on my head in a bowl of green Jello then I would do it. I will say or do or wear or go or be or pray however God wants, if I only know what it is. What in the world do I have to do to get God’s attention? Do you ever feel that way?

 

Well, the good news is that you already have God’s attention. Psalm 139 says, “You know when I sit and when I rise;you perceive my thoughts from afar. ³ You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me,your right hand will hold me fast.”

 

And we learned a secret last week that will help us to answer the question of how to get prayers answered. Last week we looked at King Asa in 2 Chronicles. Asa had been a true believer and it said that at one time he did what was right in the sight of the Lord but when a major decision came up, he failed to pray at all and he paid the price. In 2 Chronicles 16:9, the prophet tells Asa, “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” That’s the secret. Shhh. Don’t tell anybody.

 

So we know that God sees everything and He is particularly looking for people to strengthen but He is looking for those people who are fully committed to Him. Psalm 37:4 says basically the same thing. “Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” But what does it really mean to be fully committed to Him and to delight in Him? Oh, great, now I have to be a missionary in Africa to get a prayer answered!

 

Or maybe I need to try to gin up some delight and smear a smile across my aching face when my world crashes down, just so God will hear my prayer of deliverance. Is that it? Of course not. I want to look at another Old Testament saint this morning to see what he did and what he said and see why his prayer was answered. Because maybe the secret includes doing exactly as somebody else did to get a prayer answered. Well, we will talk about that as we look at the Old Testament book of Ezra.

 

The book Ezra is between the books of 2 Chronicles and Nehemiah and the man Ezra could very well have been the author of all of those books. Ezra is called a scribe and as such he was a writer but also a teacher, a priest, a prophet and an astronaut. Well, maybe not the last one but he was a busy guy. And not only was he all those things but God called him to deliver a group of Israelites out of exile from Babylon back to Israel.

 

And that in itself was an answer to prayer, I’m sure. In fact, God softened the heart of the king of Babylon and he not only allowed them to leave but he gave Ezra crazy amounts of gold and silver plus food and clothes and everything they would need and even gave him a letter telling anyone they came in contact with not to bother the group and to give them anything they needed. And the king signed it and sent them off with hugs and kisses. Woohoo! Good news, right? We’re going home.

 

But all that was the easy part. Now they actually had to go. There were about 1500 adult males but they also had wives and kids and babies and all their belongings. And they had to travel about 900-1000 miles on foot across what is today Iraq, Iran and Syria. Can anybody foresee any problems with this situation? Can you imagine that there could be some difficulties? Can you see the desert they had to cross and the mountains to climb and the rivers they would have to get through?

 

And what about the bandits and robbers and just plain mean people who might have their eye on all that treasure? What will they eat and what will they drink? Can you imagine trying to lead 6-7000 people loaded down with stuff from here to say, Chicago ? On foot across treacherous country? What is the first thing you would do?

 

Do you remember what Asa did in our message last week? When the country to the north was about to attack him, he did something that made sense. He made a treaty with the country next to that one and then those two countries turned their attention away from Asa and that prevented a war. That was pretty smart. Except for the fact that the prophet came to Asa and called him a fool for not going to God first and then Asa was punished.

 

But Ezra did better than Asa. Let’s look at what Ezra did in chapter 8, verses 21-23.

 

“There, by the Ahava Canal , I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions. ²² I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road, because we had told the king,“The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him.” ²³ So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.”

 

 

 

 

A tale is told about a small town that had historically been "dry," but then a local businessman decided to build a tavern. A group of Christians from a local church were concerned and planned an all-night prayer meeting to ask God to intervene. It just so happened that shortly thereafter lightning struck the bar and it burned to the ground. The owner of the bar sued the church, claiming that the prayers of the congregation were responsible, but the church hired a lawyer to argue in court that they were not responsible. The presiding judge, after his initial review of the case, stated that "no matter how this case comes out, one thing is clear. The tavern owner believes in prayer and the Christians do not."

 

It’s obvious that Ezra believed in prayer and evidently God believed in Ezra because later in the chapter it tells how all the people made it safely and all the treasure was accounted for when they got to Jerusalem . So obviously Ezra did something right. And that is what I want to look at closer this morning. I have 3 points. I want to see

 

· What he did

· Why he did it

· Why we should not copy him.

 

So, what was it that Ezra did? Obviously he prayed but what is the first thing it says he did? He proclaimed a fast. And for some of us, fasting can be kind of mysterious so let’s talk about it for a minute. What is fasting? Obviously, fasting is going without food for spiritual reasons. It’s not a diet plan. In fact, it doesn’t work very well for that. Fasting is not a way to get God to do what we want. Fasting changes us, not God. By taking our eyes off the things of this world, we can more successfully turn our attention to Christ.

But did you know that fasting is never commanded by Jesus? We are commanded to pray but we are not commanded to fast, but it is assumed that we will fast. Matthew 6:16 says, “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do…” “When you fast”, not “if you fast”.

Fasting was common all through the Bible from Old Testament to New Testament.  Even Jesus fasted.  In fact, you know He fasted for 40 days before He started His ministry and I believe that was part of what enabled Him to continue doing everything He needed to do including resisting the temptation that Satan brought immediately after.

 

But I don’t know if fasting is as common as it used to be or not.  I say I don’t know because if done right, most of the time nobody will ever know if we are fasting.  That’s part of what else is said in Matthew 6, that we are not to be obvious about when we are fasting.  It is between us and God.  And that is part of what makes it so powerful.

 

Fasting requires self-control and discipline as one denies the natural desires of the flesh. During spiritual fasting, the believer's focus is removed from the physical things of this world and intensely concentrated on God. Put differently, fasting directs our hunger toward God. It clears the mind and body of earthly attentions and draws us close to God. So, as we gain spiritual clarity of thought while fasting, it allows us to hear God more clearly. Fasting also demonstrates a profound need for God's help and guidance through complete dependence upon him.

 

In Biblical times, a meal was a big deal.  It took time to prepare it, they took time eating it and it took a lot of time to clean up.  So, a meal was a big thing.  Today, it’s not usually as big of a deal.  We can run through the Mickey D’s drive through and hardly break stride.  But we do have lots of other things that can distract us from our relationship with the Lord.

 

And especially in these days when so many people are not able medically to skip a meal, much less more than one, maybe God would lead you to fast from something besides food.  Or maybe He would lead you to fast for only one meal but to include in that fast a refusal to watch TV or get on the computer.  And instead of using the time that you normally would use to have some entertainment, maybe you should spend that time in prayer.

I’ll be honest, when I fast and continue my day as usual, all I’m doing is missing a meal.  The purpose of fasting is to show God that you are fully committed to Him and that you will not allow yourself to be distracted by anything until your prayer time is over; no matter how long that takes.

 

I love being able to pray while I drive down the road.  We should be in constant prayer no matter what we are doing, but do you think you have God’s attention in a special way when you tell Him through your fasting that you are going to set aside a time when the only thing you are going to do is commune with Him?  You need to tell God that what you have to say is important enough and that what He has to say is important enough that you will give up this episode of Gilligan’s Island and you will not answer that text and you will not even eat anything until this conversation is over.

 

James 4:8 says, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”  If you want to have a powerful prayer life like Ezra did and like Moses, Elijah, Daniel, Paul and Jesus Himself did then you will fast, commanded or not.  James 5:16 says the fervent prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.  Fasting is fervent.  Fasting is difficult.  And fasting is humbling.  Which leads to my second point as we see why Ezra fasted.

 

Read verse 21 again.  “I proclaimed a fast so that we might humble ourselves before our God.”  How important is it that we are humble before God?  1 Peter 5:5 says, “All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”  He shows favor to the humble.  I want God’s favor so that’s a pretty good reason.

 

But it’s also a command.  Micah 6:8 says, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”  Matthew 23:12 says, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

 

 Do you want to humble yourself or do you want God to do it for you?  And if you really have an understanding of who you are as opposed to Who God is, then it’s not hard to humble yourself and fasting will certainly do that.  Fasting allows you to see how dependent on God you really are.  When Ezra took stock of his situation, he realized that there was no way he could do this.  He was totally dependent on God and so he showed his dependence by fasting and praying and showing that he was fully committed to God.  And that was exactly what God wanted Ezra to know.  And that is exactly what God wants you to know.

 

I’ll say it again.  Sometimes God allows you to be in a situation where you cannot do it.  It is too much for you to handle.  You are overwhelmed and out of control and it’s all falling apart and if it goes any further people are going to get hurt.  That’s right where Ezra was.  Ezra was a smart guy.  He was wise but if he had set off on that trip without God’s blessings, it could have ended badly.  People could have easily lost their property or even their lives.  So Ezra fasted and prayed and humbled himself and God said, “That’s right where I want you to be and there is no place safer for you than right in the middle of My will.”

 

So we have seen what Ezra did.  He fasted and prayed.  And we have seen why he did it.  He did it to humble himself before God.  Now, this 3^rd point may surprise you.  I want us to see why we should not copy him.  Yes, I said that we should not copy him.  In fact, after spending all this time talking about fasting and praying I will tell you that hearing from God and having our prayers answered is not about the fast or the prayer.

 

I was talking to a dear friend just this week who was telling me that he had been in a situation like Ezra was in and everything was going wrong and he realized he couldn’t go any farther.  He was done, spent, out of gas and out of wisdom and he didn’t even care any more.  So, he told God He would have to do it.  If this ministry was going to get done then God would have to do it through him.

 

 

And he said he immediately had this warm feeling come over him starting with his feet and going up to his head and he felt renewed physically, mentally and spiritually.  And God used him in a mighty way that day.  But then later he was in a similar situation and he prayed that God would do it through him but he kept waiting on that warm feeling.  But it never came.  And he felt he must have done something wrong because he never felt the warm feeling.

 

I don’t want us to copy Ezra and try to be like him because it is not about the warm fuzzies.  It is about being fully committed to God.  It’s not about missing a meal or saying the right words.  It’s about showing God; proving to God that you have nothing going on, no desire, no need so great as to hear from Him and to receive what he wants to give.

Yes, we should fast and pray and humble ourselves but when you start focusing on the act of doing those things, you start to put your faith in those things.  And when the warm fuzzies don’t come, you think God hasn’t answered your prayer.  Being fully committed to God means that if God leads you to fast, then you fast.  Don’t think that just because you went without food that now God has to answer your prayer.

 

You say, “But He did for Ezra!”  Yes, He did but God is so creative that His relationship with you is different than it was with Ezra and just because God did something before with somebody else doesn’t necessarily mean He will do it again with you.  God’s not as interested in my first point as He is my second point if you know what I mean.  He is not as interested in what you do as He is why you do it.

 

Being fully committed to God will include fasting and prayer.  It will include humbling yourself.  Being fully committed means that you will take special and specific time to tell God that no matter how bad I need to eat and no matter how bad I need to keep up with the Kardashians and no matter how bad I need to do anything else, God I am dependent on you and so I come to you knowing you are sovereign and that you have proven Yourself faithful.

 

And God, if you still don’t answer my prayer then I will just wait here for You until You do.  I will just be still and know that you are God.  I’ll be content in whatever state I am in.  I will consider it all pure joy when the trials come because You are God and I am dependent on you.  Thank you, Lord for hearing me.