Courage and Protection for the Journey Ahead: Sunday Devotion

Ezra 8: 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. 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.” So, we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.

Ezra 8: 31-32 On the twelfth day of the first month we set out from the Ahava Canal to go to Jerusalem. The hand of our God was on us, and he protected us from enemies and bandits along the way.  So, we arrived in Jerusalem, where we rested three days.

Travel takes a lot of trust and courage, particularly by airplane rides up to sixteen hours. The trip that Ezra and his companions made from Babylon to Jerusalem after the rebuilding of the temple took five months, arriving on the first day of the fifth month (Ezra 7:8). That is a long journey, with so much that could have gone wrong, including bandits and robbers. It took courage and a firm belief that the Lord God was able and willing to keep them from all harm and danger.

Ezra did not ask King Artaxerxes for protection because he had told the king that the Lord would protect them from harm, and he didn’t want the king to doubt the power of the Lord to do so. Instead, Ezra called a fast, and they prayed for a safe journey, believing that the “gracious hand of our God” was with them. As a priest and a teacher, Ezra knew that the promises of God to protect His own were true.

We are all on this journey called life, and we encounter trials and troubles that can derail us. But we know that the Lord God Almighty can give us the courage and protection needed to see us until we reach our destinations. Enemies can be on every side, and still, we will make it through.

As we share this planet, let us humble ourselves and pray for the Lord’s protection for ourselves, our families, our communities, and the world in these uncertain times of increasing disasters. No matter how long the journey has been and how far you seem to be from reaching your destination, trust and know that the Lord is with you, and He will carry you through.

Have an Ezra-like faith in God; the courage and protection needed for each day will be yours and mine.