In Ezra, chapter seven, verse ten, Ezra was a model for all who would dedicate themselves as people pointed by God to studying, obeying, and teaching the Word of God, as in verses six and nine. Ezra believed that the law was given through Moses by God Himself and that it was the ultimate authority for all God’s people, as in verse six and Nehemiah eight, verse fourteen. Ezra purposed in his heart to study God’s Word. He sought to know God’s ways and thoughts about life, the world, and God’s purposes among His people. Therefore, the wisdom of God was with him, as in verse twenty-five.
Ezra purposed in his heart to obey God’s commandments and righteous standards. What he taught, he lived, as in Acts one, verse one, First Corinthians nine, verse seven, and First Timothy four, verses twelve and sixteen. Ezra purposed from his heart to teach God’s Word to preserve truth, righteousness, and purity among God’s people.
Ezra had prepared his heart and remembered that the providence of God over him immediately precedes: not as the reward of his preparing his heart, but as the reason for it. First, he gave himself to study the law, then to practice it himself, and lastly, to teach its statutes or ordinances and its moral judgments or precepts is a perfect description of a teacher in the congregation. There is nothing discordant in Ezra saying of himself that he had “set his heart.” He had set his mind and affections upon it and made it his chief business. To seek the law of the Lord is to search out the sense and meaning of it and thence to learn the sins or errors for reformation and what duties to perform.
The order of things with Ezra begins to endeavor to understand God’s law and word, not for curiosity or ostentation, but to practice; next, he conscientiously practices what he did understand, which made his doctrine much more effective. Then he earnestly desires and labors to instruct others that they also might know and do it.