Hebrew Word Study – Prepare –  Kun

Ezra 7:10: “For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.”

When you read about Ezra you find a man who loved God with all his heart, soul, and might. He devoted himself to the Word of God, learning everything he could about the heart of the God he loved.  Jewish tradition teaches that Ezra’s knowledge of the Torah was equal to that of Moses.  Not only that he was determined to make sure he obeyed every letter of the law for he knew it would bring pleasure to the God he loved and that is what he lived to do was to bring pleasure to God and encourage others to do the same. He was a religious leader, a scholar, an academic, and one who, by virtue of his ability to read, hence read the Torah he was also able to interpret what he read and share his knowledge of the law with others. Yet, like any good pastor, he just did not share his knowledge of God’s word, he devoted his life to encouraging others to follow the laws of God.  He was responsible for restoring the Jewish identity problem that developed during the captivity when Hebrew men married non-Hebrew women.  He carried such spiritual influence and authority that he was able to ordered the Hebrew men to divorce their pagan wives who refused to submit to God and continued to worship their idols and was leading their Jewish husband to forsake God for idol worship.    

Yet, Ezra was just a dusty old professor, a simple scribe. Yet, this simple academic insisted on leading 5,000 Israelites back to their homeland and persuaded the Persian King to not only allow him to lead his people back to Palestine, but the Persian King loaded him down with gifts and the treasures of the King as well as a offer to provide military protection on the journey back to Palestine. Ezra turned down the offer of military support insisting that their only protection should come from God.

It was this simple scribe and his incredible love for God that ushered in one of the greatest revivals in Jewish history.  What made this scribe so great is found in Ezra 7:10,” He prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it and teach it.”   Now think on that a moment.  “He prepared his heart to seek the law.”   This is where it all started, seeking the Word of God.  For if you love someone you will seek to learn all you can about that person. For Ezra, studying the law of God was like reading a love letter. When you read a love letter you read it over and over, picking away at every word, meditating on the love, tenderness, and longing found in each word.

 People of Ezra’s day were seeking out the latest fads in how God works. There was only a superficial knowledge of the Word of God. Teachers were teaching what other teachers were teaching.  Very few teachers really did any independent study of the Word of God to discover any personal message from God, not like Ezra who felt God speaking to him personally from every word of Torah.  Yet, there was a raging hunger among the Jews to really know the Word of God, and when one little Scribe arose and said he would prepare his heart to seek the Word of God, a mighty revival broke out.

So how do you prepare to study the Word of God? We need to examine this idea of preparing our hearts.  Are we really using the correct English words here?  The word in Hebrew that is used for prepare is kun which is found in a Hiphal (causative) form.  So Ezra was caused to prepare his heart.  His love and longing to know the heart of God caused him to prepare. There are many, many usages for the word kun.  It could be steadfast, firm, fixed, fashioned, and many others. Only the context will tell you which word to use for kun. One English word for kun is honesty. You are seeking for God to reveal His heart to you and like any lover, they will not reveal their heart to you if you are not first honest with them. You must really want to know God’s heart to prepare your heart.  Look at old Jonah who ran from the presence of God because he did not want to hear God’s heart.  He refused to go to Nineveh because he did not want God’s heart’s desire for Nineveh that they repent.  Finally, God took matters into His own hands to prepare Jonah to listen to His heart by sticking him in a fish’s belly. Suddenly Jonah became very interested in what God’s heart had to say.  

Ezra was caused to prepared to seek the Word of God because he first was in love with God and when you love someone you will want to know their heart. Then he was actually able to enter this preparing process by confirming and being steadfast in his determination and hunger to know God’s heart. Once Ezra learned God’s heart through the study of His Word, he fell deeper in love with God and when he saw the sinfulness of God’s people he knew how it broke God’s heart, and when you love someone you do not want to break their heart or see it broken by someone else, so presented his knowledge of the Torah to the people of Israel and they longed, in turn, longed to know God’s heart and when they did a great revival broke out.

Hi there! Thank you for reading this Daily Word Study. Can I ask a favor? Share this Daily Word Study with your friends on Facebook and Twitter by clicking one of the icons below.

Thanks & Blessings, it means a lot to me!