Ronald Reagan used to quip that the closest thing to eternal life that we will see on this planet is a government program. What he meant was that people naturally prefer the status quo. Once a government program is started, even if there is great opposition to it, years later everyone is used to it and no one wants to roll it back. Likewise, I recently saw a study about how questions are framed. People are much more inclined to answer “yes” to a question when it preserves the status quo, and they are more likely to answer “no” if it upsets things, even if “yes” would mean an improvement.
Perhaps that is why so few of the Jewish people went back from captivity to Jerusalem to help rebuild the temple. Ezra 1:1 says, “Now the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, and he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying…” Then the proclamation follows.
Cyrus afforded the people of God an amazing opportunity. He was basically allowing those who wished to go back to build the house of God in Jerusalem.
What is amazing is that very few people actually went back to help rebuild what had been lost. Years before, they had been yanked from their land, plucked from the life they knew, and placed into a land of captivity. Then, they had become comfortable living in foreign lands, and many of them had prospered there. Indeed, God had once told them to seek their prosperity in the land where He had placed them. But now they were given an opportunity, and most people failed to accept it. In fact, most people rejected it.
The reason for this is that people prefer stability to freedom. The people of Ezra’s day preferred the stability and wealth to which they have grown accustomed in captivity to the freedom of going back to help rebuild something important in Jerusalem. Most people prefer prosperity to opportunity.
These people were content enough in captivity that they did not want to take any risks. Most people prefer the status quo to change even if the change is back to their God-ordained original state.
It is the few who have the boldness to follow God who make the difference and change the world. This book is named for one such man. Ezra represents those who have the honesty to know what God wants and the courage to follow it.