Yahweh Puts This in the King’s Heart
Introduction: The King's Heart is a Watercourse
We live in an age that is utterly baffled by the concept of true authority. Our political discourse is a frantic attempt to locate the ultimate levers of power. Some think the power is in the voting booth, others think it is in the boardrooms of corporations, and still others think it is in the secretive cabals of a deep state. The modern secular man, in his frantic search for the one who is truly in charge, looks everywhere except up. He assumes that history is a chaotic wrestling match between competing human interests, a story written by the victors, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
The Bible presents a radically different reality. The Scriptures teach us that while men propose, God disposes. History is not a runaway train; it is a story being written by a sovereign author, and He does not drop His pen. The book of Ezra is a case study in this glorious truth. The people of God are a conquered remnant, scattered subjects of a pagan superpower. The prospect of rebuilding their nation and their worship seems, from a human standpoint, to be entirely dependent on the whims of a foreign potentate. But the central lesson of this book, and of our text today, is that the king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of Yahweh; He turns it wherever He will (Proverbs 21:1).
Ezra is a man who understands this. He is a scribe, a scholar, and a leader, but above all, he is a theologian who sees the world as it actually is. He sees the hand of God not just working around the edges of political power, but working directly in the very heart of that power. He understands that God does not simply react to the decisions of kings; He authors them. This is not a truth that should lead us to fatalism or passivity. As we will see in Ezra's own response, a robust doctrine of God's sovereignty is the very thing that fuels courageous, faithful, and effective human action. It is the foundation of true worship and the engine of faithful work.
The Text
Blessed be Yahweh, the God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify the house of Yahweh which is in Jerusalem, and has extended lovingkindness to me before the king and his counselors and before all the king’s mighty princes. Thus I was strengthened according to the hand of Yahweh my God upon me, and I gathered chief men from Israel to go up with me.
(Ezra 7:27-28 LSB)
Doxology Precedes Analysis (v. 27a)
Ezra has just received a stunningly generous decree from Artaxerxes, the Persian emperor. This pagan king has granted him permission to return to Jerusalem, given him authority to teach the law of God, and provided him with a massive amount of silver and gold from the royal treasury to support the temple. A modern political analyst would immediately begin dissecting the king's motives, the geopolitical advantages, the strategic calculations. Ezra's response is entirely different. His first move is not analysis, but adoration.
"Blessed be Yahweh, the God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify the house of Yahweh which is in Jerusalem..." (Ezra 7:27)
Ezra's immediate reaction is to bless God. This is the mark of a man with a biblical worldview. He sees the secondary cause, the king's decree, but his eyes look straight through it to the Primary Cause. He knows that the king is an instrument, a tool in the hands of the sovereign God. He does not praise the king's enlightened policy or his generous spirit. He praises Yahweh, who planted the policy and generosity there in the first place. All true theology begins and ends in doxology. If your understanding of God's sovereignty does not lead you to worship, you do not understand it correctly.
Notice whom he blesses: "Yahweh, the God of our fathers." This is not some generic, deistic "man upstairs." This is the covenant-keeping God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Ezra is connecting this contemporary political event to the ancient, blood-bought promises of God. The exile did not nullify God's covenant. The apostasy of the people did not exhaust His faithfulness. This act of Artaxerxes is not a lucky break; it is an outworking of God's steadfast, covenantal love for His people. He is the God of our fathers, and He is still our God today.
The core of the verse is this thunderous declaration of sovereignty: "who has put such a thing as this in the king's heart." Artaxerxes did not come up with this idea on his own. God, the sovereign Lord of history, placed this thought, this inclination, this decision, into the king's mind. This is not a violation of the king's will; it is the divine direction of it. The king made a real choice, for his own reasons, but God was the ultimate author of that choice, shaping it to serve His own redemptive purposes. God's providence is not coarse work; it is fine needlepoint. He works through the genuine decisions of free agents to accomplish His own infallible plan. The ultimate purpose of this divine intervention was "to beautify the house of Yahweh." God is zealous for His glory, and that glory was uniquely tied to the worship at His temple. He moves the heart of the most powerful man on earth for the sake of the worship of His name in Jerusalem.
Providence is Personal (v. 28a)
God's sovereignty is not a cold, abstract, philosophical principle. It is a warm, personal, and pastoral reality. Ezra experiences this grand, geopolitical act of God as a direct expression of God's personal care for him.
"...and has extended lovingkindness to me before the king and his counselors and before all the king’s mighty princes." (Ezra 7:28a)
The term here for "lovingkindness" is the great covenant word hesed. It means steadfast love, covenant loyalty, mercy. Ezra sees the favor he received in the Persian court not as a result of his own charisma or diplomatic skill, but as an extension of God's personal, covenantal faithfulness to him. God's grand plan for history includes His tender care for individual believers. He does not just direct the hearts of kings for the sake of "the church" in the abstract; He does it for you, for me.
God gave Ezra favor in the very center of pagan power: "before the king and his counselors and before all the king's mighty princes." This is a pattern throughout Scripture. Joseph found favor with Pharaoh. Daniel found favor with Nebuchadnezzar. Esther found favor with Ahasuerus. God is not intimidated by the halls of power, and we should not be either. He is perfectly capable of seating His people at the tables of influence and giving them the wisdom and favor needed to accomplish His purposes. This should give us great confidence to live faithfully in whatever sphere God has placed us, knowing that He can grant us favor even in the most unlikely of places.
Sovereignty Fuels Action (v. 28b)
Here we come to the great paradox that the modern mind cannot grasp. A deep and abiding belief in God's absolute sovereignty does not lead to passivity. It leads to action. It does not breed fatalism; it breeds courage. Because Ezra knew that God's hand was upon him, he was not paralyzed, but empowered.
"Thus I was strengthened according to the hand of Yahweh my God upon me, and I gathered chief men from Israel to go up with me." (Ezra 7:28b)
The logic is crucial. "Thus," or "therefore." Because God put this in the king's heart, because God extended hesed to me, therefore I was strengthened. The recognition of God's sovereign grace is the source of our strength. It is the rocket fuel for Christian duty. If you know that the living God is orchestrating events on your behalf, that He holds the hearts of your opponents in His hand, what is there to fear? This is why the doctrine of divine sovereignty is not a wet blanket to be thrown on the fire of evangelism and cultural engagement. It is the bellows that fans the flame.
And what did this strength produce? It produced immediate, decisive action. "I gathered chief men from Israel to go up with me." Ezra's God-given strength was not for his own personal encouragement. It was for the task at hand. He did not sit back and say, "Well, God is sovereign, so He will get the men to Jerusalem somehow." No, he understood that God's sovereignty establishes the framework within which our responsible actions have real meaning and effect. God's providence does not negate our responsibility; it enables it. Doxology led to duty. Faith led to works. Ezra saw the open door that God had created, and so he stepped up to lead the people through it. This is the biblical synthesis: God is 100 percent sovereign, and we are 100 percent responsible. And there is no contradiction between the two.
Conclusion: Seeing and Doing
The lesson from Ezra's prayer and subsequent action is twofold. First, we must learn to see the world as Ezra did. We must cultivate the theological vision to look past the headlines, the political maneuvering, and the apparent chaos of our times, and see the steady, sovereign hand of "the God of our fathers." When a court decision goes our way, when a hostile politician has a change of heart, when an unexpected door of opportunity opens for the church, our first response must be, "Blessed be Yahweh, who has put such a thing as this in their heart." We must learn to trace all blessings back to the Giver, to see His personal, covenantal hesed in our lives.
Second, this vision must lead to action. A right view of God's sovereignty should make us the most courageous and industrious people on the planet. It frees us from the anxiety of thinking everything depends on us, and simultaneously empowers us to act boldly, knowing that our faithful efforts are the very means God has ordained to accomplish His purposes. We should pray for our leaders, not as a pious formality, but as a genuine appeal to the one who can turn their hearts like a watercourse. And when God answers and provides an opportunity, we must be like Ezra. We must be strengthened by the knowledge of God's hand upon us, and we must get to work, gathering others to join in the great task of beautifying the house of God, which is His church, for His glory.