Better than Ezra?

Well I’m just back from my exercise. I’m a runner, but today I wanted to do the stationary bike and some work on my abs. While I was on the bike I wanted some light reading so I popped open the Good Book and looked through the Old Testament. Lots of light reading in there right? Well maybe not, but I did manage to turn to Ezra and decided to finish it while I was on the bike. Thanks to the Holy Spirit it was profitable.

Recently pastor Don spoke a message on how Israel has over and over again backslid away from God. His point was that our walks as Christians are often the same. God is there willing and loving, but we often turn away from Him when the going gets EASY. We’re always seeking Him in the hard times, but when things are easy we think (as I would say) we’ve got it cased. He was speaking from Nehemiah but I think Ezra tells the same story. Ezra also points to Christ, but that is a real big topic. :)

Anyway, the book of Ezra talks about the building of the temple at Jerusalem. Permission is given and then taken away (by the earthly kings that is) and then permission is again given and great blessings of funds and resources are poured all over the project. No sooner was the Temple completed but the Israelites, priests and Levites started to committing abominations against God’s Law. The dirty of it was they were taking daughters of foreign nations for wives of their sons and giving away their daughters as well. This is an other subject but let it be said that this is not what God wanted them to do at the time.

So Ezra rebukes them and tells them to repent of their sins. Ezra gets down on his knees and spreads his arms. He prays agreement with God and seeks forgiveness for all for their sins. The people come to him and see him while he’s praying. They all repent, and not only that they send away the foreign dauthers and sons, and God is glorified.