Ezra 5:5 mentions that the Lord was watching over his people. In all the events we read about from Ezra 5:1 – 6:22, we see how God was watching over the people of Israel.
At the end of Ezra 4:24, the building work had come to a stop because the people of Israel were scared of their pagan neighbours. But because the Lord watches over his people, he sent them two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, to encourage them to start building again (Ezra 5:1–2).
With the arrival of Tattenai it is unclear whether he will allow the people to keep building or if he will tell them to stop. But because the Lord watches over his people, the Lord made sure that Tattenai told them they could keep building till he received an answer from King Darius (Ezra 5:5).
After King Darius received the letter, he looked in the archives of Babylon. Instead of giving up the search, he also looked in the archives of Ecbatana (Ezra 6:1–2). Because the Lord watches over his people, he made sure that King Darius kept searching for the scroll containing the edict of Cyrus until he found it.
Once King Darius found the scroll, he wrote a letter back to Tattenai. Because the Lord watches over his people, the Lord made sure that King Darius provided them with much more than they needed to finish their building project (Ezra 6:6–12).
The Bible tells us that if we are Christian believers, we should think of ourselves as children of God (John 1:12–13; 1 John 3:1–3). If we believe in Jesus Christ, we are the people of God (Galatians 3:26–29). Even if we come from a Gentile background, that does not matter (Ephesians 2:11–22). The people of God are not those who are of Jewish descent, but those who believe in Jesus Christ. If you believe in Jesus Christ, you belong to Christ, you are Abraham’s seed, you are heirs of the promises God made to Abraham (Galatians 3:29).
Since Christians are the people of God, that means Christians can be sure that God watches over them just like God watched over the people of Israel in the past. The Lord watches over his people.
Because God is watching over Christians, we can confess the following wonderful truths.
God is my Father who will provide whatever I need for body and soul and who will turn to my good whatever adversity (trouble and/or hardship) he sends upon me in this sad world.
God is able to do all these things because he is the almighty God of heaven and earth.
Romans 8:28–29 tells us that God is at work in this world. He is working all things for our good. That does not mean he is working all things in order to give us prosperity and riches. The good which God is working is for us to be conformed into the image of his Son.
He is working so that we will become more like Jesus Christ. That is why he also disciplines us. As we read in Hebrews 12:4–13, there are times when we will face hardship and suffering because God is using these times to discipline us and grow our faith. Just like the people of Israel in Ezra faced challenges, we will face challenges in our lives as Christians. We must trust that God is using these challenges to grow our faith in him and achieve his purposes in us. But we must trust and believe that God is working with a plan, even if we do not understand that plan today.
1 Now the prophets, Haggai and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel who was over them.