As is quite clear from these verses, Ezra sensed his great need for God's help in the dangerous trip that lay before them. This moved him to seek God's favor in prayer. Verse 21 was the text of John Robinson's last sermon at Leiden before the Pilgrims sailed for the New World in 1620.120Fasting enabled the people to give more time and concentration to their praying (cf. Neh. 1:4; Acts 13:3). Fasting facilitates prayer; it does not manipulate God. Ezra's primary concern, as these verses indicate, was God's reputation.
"The refusal of an armed escort (historically surprising, given the amount of bullion being transported) brought into play the same providence which was vouchsafed to the ancestors in the wilderness (Ezra 8:22)."121
"It is well to affirmfaith, as many Christians do regularly in the creeds. Yet it is salutary to ask whether anything that one ever does actually requiresfaith."122
