Ezra

I weighed into their hand six hundred fifty talents of silver, and silver vessels one hundred talents; of gold one hundred talents; and twenty bowls of gold, of one thousand darics; and two vessels of fine bright brass, precious as gold. (Ezra 8: 26, 27)

I recently posted about Nehemiah and Ezra and their responses to situations. I used statements that probably left some in the wilderness, especially concerning the treasure Ezra was ferrying.

Let me try to break it down in smaller pieces.

Let us take the talent.

According to books, the talent weighed between 50 and 60 kg.

This tells us that at the very least they were ferrying 32 tonnes of silver and 3 tonnes of gold.

Due to the state of the roads and means of transport, it must have been a very large caravan, visible from very far.

A talent of gold was worth 10 000 shekels, a shekel being the daily wage for a laborer. That of silver weighed at half of that of gold. You can localize that to get the worth of that gold and silver. Of course the vessels would cost more due to the labor involved.

It is worth noting that the journey took almost four months, of course through enemy territory.

Then we departed from the river Ahava on the twelfth [day] of the first month, to go to Jerusalem: and the hand of our God was on us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and the bandit by the way. (Ezra 8:31)

It was evident to all that God must have protected them from enemies and any other thieves and bandits along the way. Chance was ruled out as they were completely exposed and vulnerable without an army.

I hope you can see why Ezra proclaimed a fast.

I am sure that as Darius prayed for Daniel in the lions’ den, the king must have prayed that the God of Ezra protects all that treasure from enemies as it was mind boggling even thinking about the loss of all that treasure. And like with Darius the king must have started believing in Him since there was no logical explanation for that protection.

Yet do you know it is the same with our frail efforts at living our faith ‘dangerously’ in these times?

Do you know that we have the same impact on our friends, neighbors and relatives when we decide that radical faith is not only practical but is the choice for us?

Will you make a decision to jump into the deep end of your faith?