 Throughout my life, I've increasingly found that reading scripture in public isn't just about feeding our own spirits and minds. It's about rehearsing the mighty acts of God for God's glory. So let's think together about Ezra chapter 7 verse 10. And first, let's have some tea. For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach the statutes and ordinances in Israel. This is a wonderful statement of vocation. The vocation of Ezra, the priest, the scribe who comes to Jerusalem, comes back with some of the exiles from Babylon, realising that what is going to be absolutely vital, as well as rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem, is the teaching of the law. But this statement of vocation isn't just, oh well, somebody's got to teach the law. Let's make sure that we get it right this time because they have long memories of the time before the exile, when the reason for the exile was that Israel hadn't kept the law. So somebody's got to get this one right. But for Ezra, this clearly is more personal than that. And for me, when I was a young scholar trying to study scripture, I came back to this verse again and again. And it spoke to me because it's got this triple form. Ezra had set his heart, that's the framework of it, not just the mind but the heart, to study the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach it. Each aspect of that is vital for those who are called today to be teachers in the church. The studying is vital. You can't just grab the book and hope that it's going to work for you. You've got to go down into it. You've got to spread it out. You've got to pray through it. You've got to know your way around it. Like somebody studying a map and then going and visiting all the little villages and hamlets as well as the towns and cities on that map. That's what it takes to study the law of the Lord. And from the Christian point of view to study the whole scripture, including of course the New Testament. But then not only to study it but to do it. It's all too easy and we all, us scholars, us preachers, we all find this tension sometimes. We've got it in our heads. We can talk about it till the cows come home. But are we actually doing it? And we have to go around that particular loop again and again and say Lord have mercy on me a sinner. My head has got ahead of my life and my life needs to catch up. And sometimes therefore the studying and the doing need to be brought into fresh alignment. But it's from those who are studying and doing it that the teaching is really going to work. And knowing how to teach grows out of the study and the doing. Of course there are different styles of teaching just as there are different personalities, different styles of studying. But the studying and the doing provide the authentic platform upon which the teaching can stand. There are some people who study and teach but without doing. And the students kind of know or they get the sense that this is something which is missing out an element. And there are some people who are very zealous and doing all kinds of things. But when they get up in the pulpit it sometimes seems shallow because it hasn't been backed up by the studying. Ezra's vocation was this triple one of studying the law of God, of doing it himself and then of being able to teach God's statutes and ordinances in Israel. And if that was necessary for the reconstitution of the people of God after the Babylonian exile facing they didn't know it but facing a further 400 years of struggle and puzzle and prayer before finally the Messiah would come, how much more is it necessary for us followers of Jesus to be studying the scriptures, to be doing them ourselves a constant challenge in order that we can then be people through whose lives as well as through whose words others, the next generation, the church at large will be taught. This is that moment of vocation and I hope and pray that many people watching this will have that sense of God putting his hand upon them and saying how about this being your vocation as well. So may God give you grace to hear his call upon your life and perhaps to become somebody who studies, who does and who teaches so that God's word may go forth and abound and that you may have the joy like Ezra of knowing that you are part of the shaping of God's will and his purposes. Amen. How is this passage speaking to you? Let us know in the comments. Like and subscribe or check out our other videos.