Blessed Be...the King? Nope.

Thinking about how profound Ezra's comment is in Ezra 7.27. Artaxerxes instructs that the temple at Jerusalem be rebuilt, thus clearing the way for the exiles to finish it. Artaxerxes is a great guy! We should thank him. We should say what a great guy he is. We should properly honor him. Ezra does just that: Blessed be...Artaxerxes? Nope. Blessed be the Lord, the God of our fathers, who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king.

Artaxerxes does the work. God gets the glory, because Ezra properly understood how God worked. The outworking of this truth for us is pretty important. Get a scholarship to college? Blessed be the Lord...not the givers of the scholarship. Saved from disaster? Blessed be the Lord...not the one who saves you (although it would be right and good to thank them profusely). What Ezra is saying here is that, behind every act, lurks the Lord moving in the hearts of men. That is a truly profound fact.