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.
The heart of mankind
When Scripture speaks of the hearts it is not meaning that organ in our body that pumps the blood thru the vessels to keep us alive. Just as when speaking of feelings the eastern people speak of the bowels (2 Cor 6:12; Phil 2:1) not the heart. The heart is the center of our being; it keeps us alive by pumping the life-giving blood thru our bodies. Therefore, when you speak of the center or driving force of our lives the heart is used. The command center is the heart and that is used in our language today – heart of the matter, heart of the issue, etc. Since the heart is our command center (Prov 4:23; Matt 12:35; Mk 7:21) Jesus speaks of loving God with all our heart.
Jeremiah tells us that our hearts are very deceitful (Jer 17:9) and only God knows the true state of our heart. The Psalmist seeks God to search him and know him thoroughly (Psa 139:23; 26:2). When Samuel went to anoint David as king, he learned that God looks on the hearts and not the outward appearance (Prov 17:3).
Preparing the heart
Ezra prepared his heart even while he was in captivity – prepare means to stand erect; upright. As he stood firm in the things of God and relied upon God his heart was prepared (Ezra 7:28). David gives some insight into preparing the heart in his prayer concerning Solomon and the building of the temple (1 Chr 29:16-19). God tells us that people’s hearts were unprepared or evil because they forsook the right ways and strayed from the way God gave to them (Gen 6:5). Hosea speaks of preparing to seek God (Hos 10:12); Jeremiah also speaks of heart preparation (Jer 4:3-4). The fallow ground relates to what Jesus said in Matthew 13 in the parable of the Sower and the Seed and the wayside or hard soil (heart).
King Rehoboam
King Rehoboam did not prepare his heart and suffered because of it (2 Chron 12:14). His rebellion and sin eventually led to the division pf Israel and because of other’s unprepared hearts – whether kings or common people – the whole nation ended up in captivity.
God’s work
As in salvation, it is God who cleanses our hearts and renews us spiritually (Titus 3:5); and as we seek and prepare our hearts it is God who actually prepares our hearts (Prov 16:1; Psa 10:17).