“I assembled them at the canal that flows toward Ahava, and we camped there three days. When I checked among the people and the priests, I found no Levites there.” Ezra 8:15 NIV
I found it interesting that no Levites were found to be among this list of exiles. Only seventy-four Levites went up with Zerubbabel and now there was not a single one in the whole group with Ezra. Erosion happens slowly and here we see evidence of a gradual decline in concern for service coming from the Levites.
What a disappointment it is when good men, set apart by God, should omit a good work, orchestrated by our good God. May we not need to be spoken to and prodded into service, as the Levites were, but rather have the inner desire to step up and answer what the Lord has called us to do.
Lock Your Wings 
Yes, that was interesting.
This stood out for me: “So we fasted and earnestly prayed that our God would take care of us, and he heard our prayer.”
Ezra 8:23 NLT
Reason #1: fasting and praying. We just heard about how Esther, her peeps, Mordecai and his peeps, fasted and prayed for Ether to be granted the king’s presence. Maybe we don’t emphasize fasting as often as we should?
#2: I think there’s general safety that they would have prayed for along the journey but the fact they were worried about robbers and thieves is curious. I counted a crowd of no less than1300 people, was the robber gang bigger than that? Shouldn’t there have been safety in numbers??
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