Hallelujah! Glory to God! The Lord our God has been good to us throughout the past week and I believe that the Lord our God also blessed us with everything we need for our life on earth. Since God is the One who created us [in fact, He created us in His image and likeness], He alone is able to understand us fully and know our needs and sustain us on earth. He sustains us mainly in three specific areas, which are inevitable for any person to overcome the struggles in life and survive in this world: (i) He sustains us with His presence (our fellowship with Him and with one another keeps us move forward without losing heart]; (ii) He sustains us with His protection (the deliverance and salvation of our soul and body from possible harm and danger]; and (iii) He sustains us with His lavish provisions (He takes care of our physical and spiritual needs in life]. The reality is that it is impossible for anyone to live on earth without being sustained by God. This is exactly what God announced to the house of Jacob through prophet Isaiah: Listen to me, you descendants of Jacob, all the remnant of the people of Israel, you whom I have upheld since your birth, and have carried since you were born. Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you (Isaiah 46:3-4). Everyone needs God’s blessings to survive on earth because our life is like a flower that comes forth and then withers and falls away or like the grass of the field, which withers away when wind passes over it (Job 14:1-2; Psalm 103:14-16), as it is noted in the book of Job that Man who is born of woman Is of few days and full of trouble. He comes forth like a flower and fades away; He flees like a shadow and does not continue (Job 14:1-2). Apostle Peter made it clear, saying: All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall (1 Peter 1:24). Though our life seems weak and fragile like a flower or the grass of the field, we can become as strong as iron or steel if we abide in the Lord and strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit. I believe that God has a perfect plan for our life, as He spoke through prophet Jeremiah: For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11); and He is faithful to fulfill all that He promised to us (Isaiah 55:11; Romans 8:28; Philippians 1:6).

The Lord has blessed us with a very compelling Scripture passage (Ezra 10:1 / mentioned above) for our SftW meditation this week that encourages us to approach the throne of grace with prayer and confession and weeping for the wrong [knowingly or unknowingly] we commit before the Lord our God. It is believed that the book of Ezra is written by Ezra the priest/Scribe/the teacher of the Law of God (Ezra 7:6, 10-12, 21) who returned to Jerusalem from Babylonian exile to teach and strengthen the Israelite remnants from the Book of the Law of God given through Moses. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah record the details regarding the return of the Israelite remnants to Jerusalem and Judea who were taken to Babylon as captives by king Nebuchadnezzar sometimes between BC 612-586. The Israelites [despite being a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, and a people called and separated for Himself (Exodus 19:5-6; 1 Peter 2:9)] went through a lot of trials and troubles in their life and lost all that they had been blessed with because they repeatedly rebelled and sinned against the Lord their God who blessed them (Isaiah 1:4; 59:2; also refer to Deuteronomy 28:58-64; 2 Chronicles 36:14-21); which uncovers four spiritual factors to take notice: (i) God blesses those who live righteously, (ii) God punishes those who lead a wicked life, (iii) God doesn’t leave the guilty unpunished (Exodus 34:7; Numbers 14:18), and (iv) God doesn’t show any favoritism to anyone (Acts 10:34; Romans 2:11; Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 3:25). The cool thing about God is that when He intends to send calamity upon the mischievous, He warns them in advance about it and if they repent and return to Him, He will relent from sending calamity He intended to bring upon them. For instance, Manasseh was one of the most wicked kings ever ruled in Judah, but when he repented of his wrongs and return to the Lord, the God of his fathers, God forgave his sins (2 Chronicles 33:12-13). Another, example is about the city of Nineveh – though the wickedness of Nineveh reached before God, when they accepted the message from the Lord and turned to Him in repentance, He relented from sending calamity upon them (Jonah 3:10). The Israelites case was also not different from these examples, though they were chosen to be His special people, He punished them when they rebelled and sinned against Him. As a result, He allowed Assyrians to invade Israel (BC 720) and Babylonians to invade Judah (BC 612-586) and exile its peoples to Assyria and Babylon in their due times. However, He promised to deliver them and bring them back to their home country (Deuteronomy 30:3-5; Isaiah 11:11-12; 43:5-6; Jeremiah 23:3; 31:8; Ezekiel 36:24; Amos 9:13-14). In fact, God spoke through prophet Isaiah about two hundred years prior to the birth of Cyrus regarding the things He is planning to accomplish through him in relation to His people Israel: … who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, Let it be rebuilt, and of the temple, Let its foundations be laid (Isaiah 44:28).

During Judah’s invasion and exile to Babylonian, prophet Jeremiah prophesied that the exiles would be able to return to Jerusalem and Judea [and other territories of Israel] after a period of seventy years of captivity in Babylon (Jeremiah 25:11; Daniel 9:2; also refer to 2 Chronicles 36:20-21). As per the prophecies of several Old Testament prophets (Isaiah 13:19; 21:8-9; 44:27-45:2; Jeremiah 51:1-64), in the due time, Cyrus king of the Medo-Persian alliance became the instrumental in the hands of God to overthrow the Babylonian empire (Isaiah 44:27-45:2; Daniel 5:1-30). During his reign, king Cyrus issued a decree for the Israelite remnants that anyone who would want to return to their homeland are permitted to return and they were also given the authority to build a temple for the God of Israel in Jerusalem (Ezra 1:1-4). As a result, many remnants who were looking forward to return to their homeland returned to Jerusalem and Judea. We can understand that three separate groups of Israelite remnants returned to Jerusalem and its vicinity within the first one hundred years of the establishment of the Medo-Persian empire (BC 538, 457, 444). The first group of the remnants [a number close to fifty thousand / Ezra 2:64-65] returned to Jerusalem and Judea under the leadership of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Joshua son of Jozadak, whose primary tasks were to rebuild the temple of God in Jerusalem under the authority of king Cyrus (Ezra 1:2; 3:8; [1:1-6:22]). The second group of the Israelite remnant [a group of about 1700+] returned to Jerusalem and Judea under the leadership of Ezra the priest/Scribe/the teacher of the Law during the reign of Artaxerxes (Ezra 7:1-26), whose primary tasks were to establish the order in the Temple worship and teach the Book of the law of Moses to the leaders and common people alike (Ezra 7:1-10:44). The third group of the Israelite remnants came under the leadership of Nehemiah during the reign of Artaxerxes [the number of people who came with Nehemiah is not clearly mentioned] whose primary tasks were to rebuild the broken-down walls around the city and repair the city gates that have been burned with fire (Nehemiah 1:1-13:31) and to establish law and order in Judah and Jerusalem .

Although the Lord their God let the remnants to return to Jerusalem and help them to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and restore the worship of Yahweh in the temple, the people had broken their faith with Him, disobeyed His righteous laws and decrees, and commands, and sinned against Him in many ways, especially following the detestable practices of the people whom the Lord God drove out from before them, as it is mentioned:

The people of Israel, including the priests and the Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the neighboring peoples with their detestable practices, like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians and Amorites. They have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, and have mingled the holy race with the peoples around them. And the leaders and officials have led the way in this unfaithfulness (Ezra 9:1-2).

We can see several examples in the Scripture, especially in the Old Testament, that the leaders of the people confessing and praying for their people whenever they sin against the Lord or some disaster struck them. It was the custom that the leaders take initiative to plead with God in prayers and petitions confessing their sins; for instance: Moses, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and so on confessed their sins before God and prayed for their deliverance:

*Moses pleaded with the Lord several times, saying: Then once again I fell prostrate before the LORD for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the LORD’s sight and so arousing his anger (Deuteronomy 9:18).

*Daniel pleaded with the Lord their God (Daniel 9:20), and confessed their sins (his sin and the sin of his people Israel).  As it is mentioned: Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame—the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel … We and our kings, our princes and our ancestors are covered with shame, Lord, because we have sinned against you. The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him; we have not obeyed the Lord our God or kept the laws he gave us through his servants the prophets. All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you (Daniel 9:7-11a)

*Ezra pleaded with God: Ezra, being their leader, engaged in praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God admitting the wrongs he and his forefathers committed before God (Ezra 9:1-2, 5-15), as it is also mentioned: … Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God, a large crowd of Israelites—men, women and children—gathered around him. They too wept bitterly … Ezra ate no food and drank no water, because he continued to mourn over the unfaithfulness of the exiles (Ezra 10:1-6).

*Nehemiah pleaded with God, saying: … I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you. We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses (Nehemiah 1:6b-7).

Ezra, being a man of God, grieved over the exiles who have forsaken the law of God and rebelled and sinned against Him by doing the detestable practices of the nations God drove out from before them. In such hopeless and helpless situation, Ezra neither walked away from those people who were sinning against the Lord their God nor allowed them to continue in their sin rather he confronted those who were engaging in such actions as he was praying and pleading with the God of their fathers. He interceded for the people and invited them to correct themselves of all the detestable practices they were doing and return to the Lord, as it is mentioned:

When I [Ezra] heard this, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled hair from my head and beard and sat down appalled. Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of this unfaithfulness of the exiles. And I sat there appalled until the evening sacrifice. Then, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self-abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn, and fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the Lord my God and prayed … (Ezra 9:3-15).

Ezra did not stop praying, confessing, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God until people repented and returned to the Lord (Ezra 10:1-11). He also invited others to join him in praying and weeping and confessing and pleading with the Lord God Almighty for His mercy upon those who are guilty of following the detestable practices of the people whom the Lord God drove out from before them (Ezra 9:1-2; 10:1). It is noted that Ezra ate no food and drank no water, because he continued to mourn over the unfaithfulness of the exiles (Ezra 10:6). As a priest, as a teacher of the law of God, as a Scribe, as a leader, as an exile and remnant, Ezra knew his responsibility very well. He knew that it is his call to stand in the gap and pray for his people. He knew that he is responsible to correct people when they do wrong and make them walk in the right path in life – the path God set for them. He knew that he was chosen to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, as Jesus said to His disciples and other followers that You are the salt of the earth … You are the light of the world, as it is mentioned: You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden (Matthew 5:13-14). Despite everything else, even in the midst of such a hopeless and helpless situation, Ezra and the people with him trusted the Lord their God and believed that … there is still hope for Israel (Ezra 10:2b). We can understand from the Scripture that generation after generation the Lord had been the refuge and dwelling place for all those who seek Him earnestly, as Moses the man of God, exclaimed: Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations (Psalm 90:1). We who live in the present generation can also claim from our own life-experiences that the Lord our God has been our refuge and strength all the days of our lives, as the Sons of Korah testified: God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble (Psalm 46:1); and it is our assurance that He will continue to be faithful through all generations until the Lord’s return. Therefore, we will wait in hope for the Lord our God as He is our refuge and strength and help and shield in times of trouble, as it is mentioned: We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love be with us, LORD, even as we put our hope in you (Psalm 33:20-22). 

Dear friends in the Lord,  as we are about to conclude our meditation this week, let us draw closer to the throne of grace and rededicate our life once again to stand in the gap and uphold the value and worth of the Kingdom of God. As the faithful followers of Christ, let us know the fact that we are chosen for a purpose. Remember what Apostle Paul urged with the believers in Galatia: Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently … (Galatians 6:1). James the brother of Jesus also shared the same concept in his writings: My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back (James 5:19). When Ezra saw a problem among the people of God, as a servant of the Lord, he  did not walk away from them thinking it is their problem and I don’t want to interfere in it, rather he confronted them, he sternly warned them to stop the wrong things they were doing, he urged them to give up on the sinful life, he prayed for them, he interceded for them before the Lord, he didn’t want his people to perish or be punished again for the sin they and their fathers have been committing, he didn’t want God’s name to be profaned among the people of the nations around them, and so on. When the people around him saw he is seeking God, they too began to seek the Lord their God, when the people saw he is praying for them, they joined him in prayer, when the people saw he is interceding for their cause, they joined him in interceding for each other, when the people saw he is faithful to God in everything he does [ministry], they listened to him and obeyed directives, when people saw his intentions are true, they followed his instructions, and so on. In short,

• • Ezra the man of God identified a problem among the people of God
  • He prayed about it and interceded for the people involved in it
  • He addressed the problem and confronted the culprits
  • He ordered them to stop sinning against the Lord their God
  • He asked them to correct themselves and return to the Lord
  • The people listened to him and followed his orders
  • People stopped sinning and reconciled with the Lord their God
  • Ezra was happy, God was happy, and the people were happy
  • There was peace in the community and provisions for the country

Ezra acted wisely and boldly, which brought blessings for the people among whom he served and honor and glory to the Lord his God who had chosen him to serve His people. Ultimately, Ezra became a channel of blessing to everyone around him! It is mentioned in the Scripture that Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins (James 5:20) and they will shine like the brightness of the heavens and they will shine like the stars for ever and ever, as it is mentioned: Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever (Daniel 12:3). May the Lord God Almighty bless us all! Amen!