Keep Plowing

Have you ever “plowed water?”  Yeah, that’s a joke – well, actually, it’s an expression I heard an evangelist use once when referring to  [seemingly] useless tasks.  Some consider doing laundry much like plowing water – just when you think you’ve made progress, your son cleans out from under his bed or cleans out his car.  Those are two examples of which I can personally testify.

 

Ezra was a scribe – well learned in the Law of God as given to Moses.  He spent much of his life in Babylon, exiled with the Jewish People.  As he devoted his life to studying of and teaching the Law, I suspect he wondered for what purpose it served.  Did it matter he continued to study to understand God’s words?  Was he  – plowing water?  In Ezra 7, we read at great risk yet complete personal surrender to God, Ezra went before the king asking permission for the Jews to return to their homeland, where worship of God and practice of His laws could be restored.  The king granted Ezra’s request, even financed the journey home!  We are commanded to be “doers of the word and not hearers only” (James 1:22) – obedience to God is a true mark of genuine Christianity.  We mustn’t second-guess God, supplanting our thoughts and ideas with His.  Just obey Him, persevering come-what-may.  God used Ezra’s exiled years to prepare Him for the climatic journey home, thus, fulfilling His purpose in Ezra’s life.  God never wastes an opportunity – not a circumstance, a struggle, a difficulty, a sorrow, a joy, a relationship – always working in and through those who love and fear the LORD.  Plowing water may be a phrase to challenge – even when plowing water, God’s purpose in us is at work.  Just keep plowing in faithful obedience!