Ezra appears first, more than half way through the book named after him. Chapter 7 describes how, 57 years after the completion of the rebuilding of the Temple, Ezra receives a commission from Artaxerxes, king of Persia, to enquire into the degree to which the Law of their God was being observed in Jerusalem. He realises that in this God is at work and cries out at the end of the chapter,
Blessed be the LORD, the God of our fathers, who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king, to beautify the house of the LORD that is in Jerusalem
Ezra 7:27
For him, his mission was about making the house of God beautiful, and, as the chapter unfolds, it becomes he has two tools to make it so:
- The Word of God
- The Hand of God