Are you and I mining the word of God for precious diamonds
or just shoveling dirt around and finding plain old rocks?
I recently watched a show about the process of mining for diamonds. They showed the beginning through the end. It was amazing what had to be done to get diamonds out of the ground and onto a finger. Simply amazing things must be done to achieve a polished stone worth thousands of dollars. The reason companies – an people – go to great lengths to get diamonds out of the ground is because their is great value placed on the diamond itself.
How do we approach studying God’s word? Are we willing to put in the time and effort to dig deep into His word in order to wear the truth of it on our life? We should be wiling to do extraordinary things to bring the gems of God’s word out of the Bible and into our lives.
There is a man in the Old Testament who mined God’s word for diamonds he could not only wear but also could show to others. He was dedicated to learning, applying, and teaching God’s word. His name was Ezra.And we can learn a lot from tis man.
So who is this Ezra guy?
Ezra was a Jewish exile in Babylon, and he was a man who was called a “Scribe” in those days. He wrote down the Scriptures as the prophets spoke. He was said to have done more to collect and arrange all of the Scriptures and record them than anyone else.
Ezra was a man of “great piety and zeal.” What that mean was that he focused on the things of God, and it was a priority to him to do so. He put God and the Scriptures first in his life every day. We could call his attention to the Scriptures, “Mining for Diamonds in the Word of God” because the truths he found were like diamonds that had great value in helping him to live as God wanted him to live.
What can we learn from Ezra?
It is important for us to learn how to “mine for gold” that is in God’s Word. How do we do this? I don’t mean the mechanical process of studying. I’m writing about the mental process. How do we decide to mine for gems in God’s word? Lets take a look at a verse in the book of Ezra and glean some tips for it.
For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. Ezra 7:10 ESV
He Set His Heart
Ezra’s dedication to God’s word was not by chance. He didm’t just happen to know the word of God. He decided to “set” his heart to study. The Hebrew word here has the idea of being firm or firmly established. It can also mean to set aright. So Ezra made a conscious decision to study God’s word. Ezra prepared his heart to know God’s word, not just read it. Does that convict you? Although I’m a seminary-trained person, sometimes I just don’t set my heart to study God’s word. Sadly I sometimes just skimming over God’s word instead of intently studying it. Ezra reminds me that effective mining of God’s word begins with having a purposed heart.
He Chose to Study
The Babylonians were people who studied many subjects– astrology, magic, and other subjects of the times. They were the “intellectuals” of their time. If it was written-down knowledge, they read it, they studied it, and they did it. Though Ezra has been around these intellectuals, his choice of what to study intently was vastly different than theirs. What Ezra chose to study was the Law of the Lord. This meant he studied the first five books of the Bible – known as the Penteteuch – He could have studied anything he wanted to, but he selected the Word of God as his priority. Ezra was saddened to see that the Jewish people had not studied much. Romans 15:4 says that Scripture was written for our learning, and we must study not only to understand the true meaning of Scripture but to learn out of it what will do us good.
What do you choose to study? Is it worthwhile? Will it make you a better person? Will it help you to grow in the Lord or will it turn you away from Him. Is what you are studying a productive use of your time – like mining the gorgeous diamonds mined from deep within the earth – or is it digging up just another piece of granite? Ezra made sure that he was selective in what he studied. There are many books we could read. Let us be like Ezra and to select them wisely and place the Bible at the head of the line of what we choose to study.
Ezra Sought the Law of the Lord
I get a couple of magazines in the mail each month. Invariably when I receive these magazines, the first thing I do is to flip through it. I don’t read it much. I just skim through it and look at headlines and pictures. I usually don’t study the articles. No, I just skim them to get an idea of what the article contains. Now skimming isn’t bad. In fact it can be very helpful. But if skimming is all I do, I’ll never learn anything.
We are told that Ezra chose to study the law of the Lord. He made it his business to check into what the Scripture said. He searched the Scriptures and sought the knowledge of God. What was God trying to say in this verse? He spent time reading the Word, thinking about it, clarifying what it meant. He was doing more than merely skimming the pages. He would stop on a particular verse and get his “pick” out and mine the diamonds that were deep down below the surface and hidden from the sight of the casual reader. It is important for us to allow the Holy Spirit to bring these truths out to us as we study the Scriptures. Otherwise they will be overlooked. When Ezra mined the gold, he laid up a treasure so that whenever he needed it, he had it ready to give out to others.
Ezra Applied the Law
What he mined, he applied to his own life. Do you apply what you learn in Sunday school and church to your life? If you don’t, then it is not causing changes to take place in your life. God wants the Word to transform you and to help you grow [Romans 12:2 ]. Ezra made use of the knowledge of the Scriptures in his life first. We must measure our life by the Word of God, be so thoroughly acquainted with it, and resolve to conform to it. Make it your way of life.
We have to apply the Word on our own lives first before other people will listen to us. Application of God’s word to life does not happen by chance. Ezra made it part of his life. So should we. We have to apply it and practice it daily.
In the Psalms David made the Word of God a priority. He hid it in his heart, laid it up there, that it might be ready for him to use whenever he needed it. He laid it up as that which he valued highly. God’s Word is a treasure that is worth laying up – like mined diamonds.
He Taught Israel the Law
Ezra was willing to mine the diamonds from God’s Word and to communicate them to others for their good. He wasn’t interested in looking smart as much as he was interested in communicating the truth of God’s word. Since he studied the Word, he could explain it to other people. He understood what God was trying to say, and he had applied theses truths to himself. Therefore he knew it worked.
Ezra was called a “ready scribe” in the law of Moses. He was able to discuss the Scriptures and explain them to others at a moments notice because he had already studied them. He knew them and was comfortable with the words already and was able to speak out just the right diamond of truth to the people that God brought to him. In 2 Timothy 4:2 Paul says to be ready to preach the word regardless of the circumstances you find yourself. We must grow in our Christian lives so that we can teach others what we have learned. It must be a part of us, not just something tacked on.
The Bald Theologian 