Exile and Grace
I heard an awesome sermon yesterday by Robert Madu from John 1:14: Jesus is ‘full of grace and truth’. He said this: ‘Grace without truth is meaningless, and truth without grace is mean.’ I love that and I want more of it in my own life. That will involve me thinking before I speak, which for me, is going to take some adjusting. So, I say this because I read the book of Ezra today, and a number of times I read this phrase: ‘the gracious hand of our God was upon us’. So here are the main things I noticed.
Ezra took place during the time of the Israelite exile. God had told them over and over what He was going to do if they persisted in their sins. And ultimately that is what happened. The people were carried off to Babylon, the treasures in the palace and the temple carried off, and the temple burned. Now they are slaves again, and it was no surprise. However, God did not leave them alone. After some time, he moved the heart of the king to restore the temple and send some of the exiles back to Jerusalem.
God moves peoples’ hearts. He did this to King Cyrus, and later to King Darius. Things may seem hopeless, as they did in my own life for a while, but God changed my own heart and I watched Him do it. Suddenly the things that used to seem fun and important no longer did. In fact, I no longer wanted anything to do with them. I wanted to know Jesus and that became all-consuming for me. So then when my husband’s addiction had caused a relapse I decided to move out. And that was when his heart was changed. He had some time with God that is just between him and God. God met him right where he was and took away his desire for the things that were destroying him. I did not believe it for a while, but over time it became apparent and he is a different person today who is completely in love with Jesus!
Sometimes, even if we are doing what we are supposed to do, we will face major stumbling blocks. King Cyrus’ heart was moved to restore the temple, but this happened: ‘Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building. They hired counselors to work against them and frustrate their plans during the entire reign of Cyrus King of Persia and down to the reign of Darius King of Persia.’ (Ezra 4:4,5). Wow, that is some major discouragement. So, it occurs to me that I really need to be walking with God to know if I am doing the right things. If I am walking in sin, I deserve to be discouraged! And I know it in my heart. But if I am seeking God, and trouble is still around me, then I need to be in prayer, and I need to never give up hope because God is a God of miracles and He wants to show us what He is overcoming to work on our behalf. He wants to amaze us with the miracles He is doing in our lives! He has done that for me so many times, and still is.
Sometimes, the very thing that was a stumbling block turns out to be the thing that turns the tide in our favor. So, the work on the temple was at a standstill for 30 years. 30 years later, Haggai and Zechariah, both prophets, set to work again to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem. It is now the second year of the reign of King Darius. And the opposition comes to question them again. This time, when they were questioned, a letter was sent to King Darius to check and see if it was in fact true that King Cyrus had approved of and commissioned the work on the temple. King Darius searches the records, finds out that it is true, and because God has moved his heart as well, resolves to help even more. He wants to provide whatever is needed for the people for sacrificing to God, for their own needs, and for supplies. He orders the people who sent the letter to do it! And not only that, he adds that if anyone changes this edict: ‘a beam is to be pulled from his own house and he is to be lifted up and impaled on it. And for this crime his house is to be made a pile of rubble.’ (Ezra 6:11). Talk about a turn of events! But this is exactly what God does. He moves hearts and makes things happen. So, if you are in the middle of a discouraging situation like I was, ask God what He is trying to tell you. Keep praying and keep trusting. I love what King Jehoshaphat prayed when he was threatened by some arrogant enemies: ‘O our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on upon you.’ (2 Chronicles 28:12)
Sometimes even after God has disciplined us, we fall again. The remnant has just arrived back out of exile for their sin. But they very quickly became complacent and forgot what God had said: do not intermarry with the people around you or they will lead you astray to follow other gods. You may wonder what the big deal is, but I found out the hard way that anything you allow in your life that is not from God will lead you astray! At the very least you will not be in love with Jesus anymore. And if that is not bad enough, evil pulls at you to destroy you and it is waiting at your door. So, when Ezra finds out what has happened, he is appalled. Will we never learn? And this is the part that is full of grace and truth and really spoke to me: ‘What has happened to us is a result of our evil deeds and our great guilt, and yet, our God you have punished us less than our sins have deserved and have given us a remnant like this. Shall we again break your commands and intermarry with the peoples who commit such detestable practices?’ (Ezra 9:13). This same thing happened to me. After I had decided I wanted to walk with God, I fell again. A few more times. So, if you fall again, like I did, remember this: ‘The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.’ (Psalms 51:17). If you have fallen again, repent, turn away from it, and get rid of any part of it that could lead you to fall again. (That is particularly important: get rid of temptation and stop entertaining it). Stop agreeing with the enemy that you will never change!
Renewing a covenant is a good thing. I have been thinking about this a lot lately. Because of the last five years, my years of wandering and not trusting God, I fell apart in many ways. But this is the encouraging thing: I have noticed in my reading of the old testament that the people often ‘renewed a covenant’. Well, what does that mean except that they broke it? God did not break it, they did. But (and this is the grace part), he accepts you when you renew a covenant because you are agreeing with God about the truth of the situation. My husband and I are miraculously coming out on the other side of a dark season in our marriage and we are going to renew our vows. And this verse in Ezra is so encouraging for our situation because we are not so different from them: ‘We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the peoples around us. But in spite of this, there is still hope for Israel. Now let us make a covenant before our God to send away all these women and their children, in accordance with the counsel of my lord and of those who fear the commands of our God. Let it be done according to the Law. Rise up, this matter is in your hands. We will support you, so take courage and do it.” (Ezra 10:2b-4). We are unfaithful to our God whenever we put anything ahead Him and is contrary to His word. But He wants us back! And He will accept us and fill us with joy again. So try not to get hung up on the old testament situation that they were in because the people around them were not just ‘following other gods’, they literally did not know God and they were like the people I am reading about in the book of Jude 18,19: ‘in the last days there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires. These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.” They are pagans who follow their own instincts and if we choose to hang around them, we will become like them. It is a fact, which is why God is so strong about being separate. “For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do-living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.’ (I Peter 4:3-5). We were made for so much more! All it takes is getting to know Jesus and asking Him to open your eyes. That is what He did for me and it has literally changed my life.
