Ezra 7:6-10

We ought to pause over this account, short as it is, of Ezra's character. A scribe was one conversant with the Scriptures; and as Ezra was a ready scribe, and had dedicated himself particularly to this service, no doubt the thing was of the Lord. For as the Holy Ghost hath caused his writings to be so faithfully preserved and handed down to us, and as from their great importance in this part of the church's history they form so interesting a portion of God's sacred word, we cannot be at a loss to discover the work of the blessed Spirit accompanying all his labours with success. Reader! think if Ezra was so earnest in the study of the books of the scripture which were extant in his day, and in which Jesus was so little known, compared to our vast privileges in this gospel day in which we live; how ought we to be alive in searching those precious scriptures, where Jesus forms the sum and substance of every book and chapter! Dear Lord! grant me grace to be unceasingly enquiring after thee in the word of thy truth, that I may be made wise unto salvation through the faith which is in Christ Jesus! It is somewhat remarkable that Ezra should have been left so long in Babylon after the return of the children of the captivity. But it should seem that the Lord had work for him there to do. The obtaining this commission from the king for the great purposes conceived in Ezra's mind, seems to explain the cause of his detention there very fully. From all calculations, however, as the temple was now built, it must have been many years.