A Brief Moment of Grace- Our Desperate Need of Revival
Richard Bradley
Ezra 9:5-9
5 At the time of the sacrifice, I stood up from where I had sat in mourning with my clothes torn. I fell to my knees and lifted my hands to the Lord my God.
6 I prayed, ''O my God, I am utterly ashamed; I blush to lift up my face to you. For our sins are piled higher than our heads, and our guilt has reached to the heavens.
7 From the days of our ancestors until now, we have been steeped in sin. That is why we and our kings and our priests have been at the mercy of the pagan kings of the land. We have been killed, captured, robbed, and disgraced, just as we are today.
8 ''But now we have been given a brief moment of grace, for the Lord our God has allowed a few of us to survive as a remnant. He has given us security in this holy place. Our God has brightened our eyes and granted us some relief from our slavery.
9 For we were slaves, but in his unfailing love our God did not abandon us in our slavery. Instead, he caused the kings of Persia to treat us favorably. He revived us so we could rebuild the Temple of our God and repair its ruins. He has given us a protective wall in Judah and Jerusalem.
NKJV
Ezra was a priest. He was one of those Hebrews who had been taken into captivity after the fall of Judah and Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The 70 years of captivity passed and finally a gracious God smiled once again upon His people and permitted them to return to the land of their birth. Ezra's job was to refurbish and cleanse the Temple after it had been desecrated by the pagans. When he and those with him returned to Jerusalem they discovered that things were even worse than they feared.
The people who had been left in the land and those who had already returned were living exactly as God told them not to live. Not only had the holy place been desecrated but God's people had desecrated themselves through their disobedience to His Word.
The people of God ne ...
Richard Bradley
Ezra 9:5-9
5 At the time of the sacrifice, I stood up from where I had sat in mourning with my clothes torn. I fell to my knees and lifted my hands to the Lord my God.
6 I prayed, ''O my God, I am utterly ashamed; I blush to lift up my face to you. For our sins are piled higher than our heads, and our guilt has reached to the heavens.
7 From the days of our ancestors until now, we have been steeped in sin. That is why we and our kings and our priests have been at the mercy of the pagan kings of the land. We have been killed, captured, robbed, and disgraced, just as we are today.
8 ''But now we have been given a brief moment of grace, for the Lord our God has allowed a few of us to survive as a remnant. He has given us security in this holy place. Our God has brightened our eyes and granted us some relief from our slavery.
9 For we were slaves, but in his unfailing love our God did not abandon us in our slavery. Instead, he caused the kings of Persia to treat us favorably. He revived us so we could rebuild the Temple of our God and repair its ruins. He has given us a protective wall in Judah and Jerusalem.
NKJV
Ezra was a priest. He was one of those Hebrews who had been taken into captivity after the fall of Judah and Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The 70 years of captivity passed and finally a gracious God smiled once again upon His people and permitted them to return to the land of their birth. Ezra's job was to refurbish and cleanse the Temple after it had been desecrated by the pagans. When he and those with him returned to Jerusalem they discovered that things were even worse than they feared.
The people who had been left in the land and those who had already returned were living exactly as God told them not to live. Not only had the holy place been desecrated but God's people had desecrated themselves through their disobedience to His Word.
The people of God ne ...
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