Stand On Your Platform To Fulfill Your Purpose

To build my case for this devotion, I would like to start with the following scripture: “So, Ezra, the scribe, stood on a platform of wood which they had made for the purpose” (Nehemiah 8:4 NKJV).

The word “platform” caught my eye as I read that verse, mainly because it had been a common word in our home for many years. It fact, a physical platform was instrumental in our livelihood, becoming the major source of our bread and butter. During my husband’s career, he worked on several platforms around the world. Even though he is now retired, it is still ours – as well as yours – bread and butter. Here’s why.

These platforms are built in order to drill and extract oil and natural gas at offshore locations around the world. The platform provides an above-water facility for the necessary equipment required to do the job, as well as a place to house the men and women who perform the tasks. Without these platforms, and the workers fulfilling their work purpose, you and I would have no electricity, gas for our cars, natural gas for heating our homes, as well as dozens of other things that make our life as comfortable as it is.

Since a platform had been a common word at my house for years, perhaps that is why it caught my attention as I reading about Ezra. I was curious as to why a platform was built especially for him.

Let’s first look at the time period in which this platform was built. The Babylonian captivity was over and the Jews were coming back together as a people and establishing their natural heritage in Jerusalem. However, they had a big problem - the walls were down surrounding Jerusalem, which, of course, meant they could not be unified as a people, nor did they have protection from their surrounding enemies.

Nehemiah felt called by God to rebuild those broken down walls that had lain in ruins for years. He accomplished this feat in 52 days. But, I was struck by the assignment Nehemiah gave to Ezra to perform on the platform that the workers made especially for him.

Are you ready for this? “He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women, and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law” (Nehemiah 8:3 NIV).

What was Ezra reading? For hours, Ezra would stand on the platform and read the Book of the Law. Why was Ezra the one Nehemiah chose to do this? History scholars tell us that Nehemiah let Ezra take the lead in the re-establishment of the Law of the covenant because Ezra had spent his whole life studying the Law and knew it better than any living man. He worked to establish the Law in the hearts of the people to keep out sin and disobedience.

Nehemiah was a builder and an administrator, but Ezra is credited with shaping the returned exiles into the word of God.

Now, allow me to make a few points from Ezra’s life for women who desire to fulfill their purpose on a spiritual platform.

A spiritual platform has been built especially for you to stand on – Jesus Christ.
The purpose for which you stand on it is to use the gifts God has equipped you with to pursue the purpose you were created and designed to fulfill.
Nobody else can stand on the same platform and fulfill the same purpose for which God has created you to fulfill. Nobody else can do what has been specifically delegated to you when you were formed in your Mother’s womb.

Just like the platform built for Ezra to read the Book of the Law and a platform was built where my husband worked to drill oil, God has built a platform especially for you to fulfill a special purpose.

Reflection

Think about your purpose. Describe what you believe it is.
Is there anything keeping you from standing on your platform to fulfill your purpose? If so, what is it?
How can you rise above those obstacles?

So Ezra, the scribe, stood on a platform of wood which they had made for the purpose.

(Nehemiah 8:4 NKJV)