No Soldiers on the Road

Beside a river, hundreds of families sit on the ground. No one is eating. Children are hungry, but no one is cooking. Because before they set off on a dangerous journey, they have one thing to do first. Pray.

Ezra is a priest and a scribe, an expert in the law of Moses, living in Babylon under the Persian king Artaxerxes. Decades earlier, the first exiles had gone home to Jerusalem and rebuilt the temple. Now Ezra is leading a second group. The king has given him a letter of permission, and treasure for the temple: silver and gold from the king and his advisers, and gifts from the Jews still in Babylon. Ezra has gathered families at a canal called Ahava. Men, women, little children, all their belongings. Ahead lies a journey of many weeks across open country, where bandits watch the roads. And Ezra has a problem.

The problem is something Ezra said. When he was speaking to the king, he had told him: the hand of our God is on everyone who seeks him, for good. But his power and his anger are against all who forsake him. It was a bold thing to say to the most powerful man in the world. And now, Ezra writes, I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road. How could he say God protects us, and then ask for an army? So instead, beside the river Ahava, Ezra proclaims a fast. Let us humble ourselves before our God, he says, and ask him for a safe journey, for ourselves, our little ones, and all our possessions. So they fasted, and prayed to God about this. And Ezra adds four quiet words. And he heard us.

Then Ezra does something careful and wise. Trusting God does not mean being careless. He chooses twelve of the leading priests, and twelve Levites. And he weighs out the treasure in front of them. Six hundred and fifty talents of silver. Silver bowls. A hundred talents of gold. Twenty golden bowls. Two fine bronze vessels, as precious as gold. Tons of treasure. You are holy to the LORD, he tells them, and these things are holy too. They are a freewill offering to the LORD, the God of your ancestors. Guard them carefully, until you weigh them out again in Jerusalem, in the chambers of the temple. Every piece was counted. Every piece would be counted again.

On the twelfth day of the first month, they set out from the river Ahava. Days turn into weeks on the road. And Ezra sums up the whole long journey in one sentence. The hand of our God was on us, and he protected us from enemies and from ambushes along the way. They reach Jerusalem, and rest for three days. On the fourth day they go to the temple, and the silver and the gold and the bowls are weighed again, by the priest Meremoth and the Levites with him. Everything is there. Every item was counted and weighed, and the total weight was written down. Then the travellers who had come back from exile offer sacrifices to the God of Israel: twelve bulls for all Israel, and rams, and lambs, and goats. And they deliver the king's orders to the royal governors, who then support the people and the house of God.

Ezra tells us how long the whole journey took. They began to go up from Babylon on the first day of the first month, and reached Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month. Four months on the road. Travellers usually followed the river Euphrates north-west before turning south, rather than crossing the desert directly, a journey that historians reckon at around nine hundred miles.

No soldiers on the road. You'll find this story in Ezra chapter eight, verses twenty-one to thirty-six. A leader who meant what he said about God, a fast by the river, a careful count of treasure, and a God who heard them. So here is a question to carry with you. Before you start something big, how could you stop and pray first?