To Ezra it was natural for everybody to express their dependence upon God to grant them a safe journey so they could fulfill their mission in serving him. Think about the logic of this. Here we are about to embark on a dangerous journey, and we are going...not for the sheer adventure of it, but...for the sake of serving God. Notice…they did not just say,
Brian Borgmanwell, you know what, since we are going to do something good for God, God is certainly going to bless us.No, Ezra knew what his calling and his purpose was, and yet he also knew that he needed to seek the Lord for a safe journey. He needed to express an utter dependence upon God, even though the very act of going to Jerusalem was dependence upon God. And so here they are, they do not have to prove anything to God, but they are expressing to God: we hunger for you; we depend upon you; we are looking to you and you alone to grant us this journey so that we can serve you.1
21 Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our goods.