It’s a favorite line from Aladdin. It’s also a phrase that comes to mind, from time to time, as I read Scripture. And it comes to mind again this morning as I read in Ezra 7. Like the “genie gig”, the word of God, in a sense, is “phenomenal cosmic powers, itty-bitty living space.”

Love Ezra. One my heroes of faith. Inspiring because he was a man of the word. “A scribe skilled in the Law of Moses” (Ezra 7:6). A guy who had “set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach His statutes and rules in Israel” (Ezra 7:10). Though not a temple builder, per se, integral to revitalizing temple worship in Jerusalem as he “opened the book” for God’s people (Neh. 8).

But here’s my observation this morning, not about Ezra but about the book. The Spirit identifies it in a number of ways. It is the “the Law of Moses” which God had given (Ez. 7:6). It is the “the Law of the LORD” which Ezra purposed to study (Ez. 7:10). And the Spirit moves a pagan king to recognize something transcendent about the book, as well, referring to it as “the Law of the God of heaven” (Ez. 7:12), that which is “decreed by the God of heaven” (Ez. 7:23). But here’s the identifier for God’s revelation that’s pushed the button on the old awe-o-meter this morning . . .

“And you, Ezra, according to the wisdom of your God that is in your hand, appoint magistrates and judges who may judge all the people in the province Beyond the River, all such as know the laws of your God. And those who do not know them, you shall teach.”

(Ezra 7:27 ESV)

The wisdom of your God that is in your hand . . .

A couple of days ago I read that by wisdom the LORD founded the earth (Prov. 3:19) — sounds like phenomenal cosmic power to me. And today I read that Ezra had the same wisdom in his hand — talk about your itty-bitty living space. Kind of jaw-dropping, huh?

And that wisdom is open in front me this morning on my desk, a pretty small book on a not much bigger desktop. It’s the living and active word of God, “sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). Communicating thoughts not my thoughts and ways not my ways, thoughts and ways that, like the heavens, “are higher than the earth” (Isa. 55:8-9). God-breathed (2Tim. 3:16). Able to transform lives through the renewing of the mind, making known “what is the will of God” (Rom. 12:2). If that isn’t phenomenal cosmic power, I’m not sure what is.

The wisdom of God in your hand. Talk about an “at will” encounter of the divine kind!

Oh, that all God’s people would be like Ezra. That the wisdom of God in our hand would be sought, studied, obeyed, and taught.

By His grace. For His glory.