7/21/2011 9:00:30 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: We are unworthy of Your blessings
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ezra 9:8-12
Message of the verses: “8 "But now for a brief moment grace has been shown from the LORD our God, to leave us an escaped remnant and to give us a peg in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our bondage. 9 "For we are slaves; yet in our bondage our God has not forsaken us, but has extended lovingkindness to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us reviving to raise up the house of our God, to restore its ruins and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem. 10 "Now, our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken Your commandments, 11 which You have commanded by Your servants the prophets, saying, ’The land which you are entering to possess is an unclean land with the uncleanness of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations which have filled it from end to end and with their impurity. 12 ’So now do not give your daughters to their sons nor take their daughters to your sons, and never seek their peace or their prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good things of the land and leave it as an inheritance to your sons forever.’”
In verses eight and nine I have highlighted five different images to picture what God’s grace had done for the people who had returned to the land.
1. In His Grace God persevered a remnant. As one looks at the Bible in general and in particular the nation of Israel, it can be seen that there were times when because of their sin that God would destroy part of them but would always keep a remnant. One example of this is when Elijah thought he was the only one left in Israel who was serving the Lord, the Lord told him that He had 7000 who had not bowed their knee to Baal. There are other examples that can be found, and the one that sticks out in my mind is when the Lord sent the world wide flood to cover the earth and the remnant that was left was Noah and his family.
2. Next Ezra speaks about a peg in His holy place. This speaks of the foothold that the Jews now had in the land, the land that was take away from them. The peg in the holy place speaks of the Temple and now that it was rebuilt because of the grace of God the Jews were more secure in the land.
3. God enlightens their eyes. This speaks of the Jews returning to their homeland. The enlightened eye speaks of new life, new joy, and dawning of a new day. Here are two verses from the book of Psalms that help explain this: Psalm 13:3 “Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death; Psalm 34:5 “They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.”
4. Grant us a little reviving in our bondage is the forth picture of God’s grace bestowed upon the returning Jews. This actually pictures the resurrection from the dead for these returning exiles, for how could this have happened if not by the grace of God.
5. To give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem is the final picture of God grace to the returning exiles. I spoke of it a bit in the last picture of Grace. When one reads the history that is found in the OT they will see a lot of bloodshed. The people during this time of history had very little value for human life and so when you come to look at four different kings from the empire of Persia and they just send their captives back to where they came from and not only that but they paid their way, gave back all of the articles for temple worship, which amounted to tons of gold and silver, there is only one answer to how this happened and that is the grace of God. God foretold this in the 44th and 45th chapters of Isaiah and actually gave the name to Cyrus who was the first king to let the exiles go back.
I think that when you look at all of these acts of grace that the Lord had bestowed upon these exiles and then to have them completely go against the Law of God by marrying pagans it is now wonder that Ezra was speechless before the Lord for a while and unreservedly ashamed.
How did Ezra pray to the Lord about this situation? John 15:7 will give the answer to this question: “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.’” The highlighted portions of John 15:7 are the key to the answer on how Ezra prayed, for we have already learned from Ezra 7:10 “For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel.” The key to pray is to know the Scriptures and to abide in the Lord or remain in the Vine, and when this happens in a believer’s life then the last portion of John 15:7 will happen. It is clear that Ezra knew the OT Scriptures and this was the reason that he was so upset because by knowing them he knew that the exiles were sinning against the Lord and His Law.
In his prayer from verses 12-13 one can see why the Lord had destroyed the Canaanite people, but do not think that they did not have a chance to repent for the Lord gave them four hundred years to repent before Israel came in to conquer the land. Genesis 15:16 has long been a verse that has been near to my heart because it shows the grace of God. Here is how I picture this verse; God has a bottle in heaven and in this bottle is stored the sins of the nations, and in this case the Canaanite nations, and when that bottle is filled the wrath of God will be taken out on them. The wrath or judgment of God is part of His attributes, just as the love of God is and all of God’s attributes bring glory to Him. It is part of His character that He has just as love and grace are part of His character. Genesis 15:16 “"Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.’” This verse is part of a conversation that God had with Abraham. Chapter 15 is a large part of the covenant that the Lord had with Abraham and his descendants that has not been fully completed yet.
Dr. Wiersbe writes the following about what these men who had sinned were doing: “These men were sacrificing the future and paying a great price to do it. It wasn’t worth it. No wonder Ezra was speechless and asked, ‘What shall we say after this.’”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Prayer is what is on my heart this morning. My sister has a practice that she learned from a Beth Moore bible study of praying Scripture out loud to the Lord about different circumstances that she faces. It is good to learn something from your sister. This practice goes along with “abiding in the Vine,” and also can be seen in Ezra’s prayer in this section of Scripture. I am concerned about the usefulness of my prayer life and it surely seems to me that the Lord has answered this prayer.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Continue to have a more useful prayer life that will bring glory to the Lord.
2. Continue to learn contentment.
3. Proverbs 3:5-6.
4. Psalm 139:23-24.
7/21/2011 10:41:54 AM
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