“For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.” (Ezra 7:10, ESV)
How do you turn a nation back to God when it seems to have lost its way? That question seems relevant in our present times. Is revival and restoration even possible? The Book of Ezra offers hope. As we read through its chapters, we discover how one man’s dedication and determination became the catalyst for a nation’s revival.
Ezra, one of my favorite Old Testament characters, was a scribe and a priest living in exile in Babylon. With the approval and support from Persian King Artaxerxes, Ezra led about 2,000 men and their families back to Jerusalem.
Eighty years earlier, another group of 50,000 had returned under the leadership of Zerubbabel to rebuild the Temple. When Ezra arrived, he expected to find a community of vibrant worshipers. Instead, he found a people who had intermarried with the pagan nations around them and who no longer followed the Law of the Lord (Ezra 9:1).
By intermarrying and partaking of the idolatrous worship of the surrounding nations, the Israelites were no longer a people separated unto God. Their distinction was gone. They had lost their identity as the people of the One True God. Oh, no doubt this did not happen overnight. After all, backsliding is a gradual process. Small steps, little compromises, begin to blur the lines between the holy and the profane.
Ezra was overwhelmed with grief at the spiritual condition of the people. “As soon as I heard this, I tore my garment and my cloak and pulled hair from my head and beard and sat appalled” (Ezra 9:3, ESV).
How was it possible to turn the nation’s heart back to God? Ezra led the people into repentance. Falling to his knees, Ezra cried out, “O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens” (Ezra 9:6, ESV).
Others soon joined him in repenting and in calling upon the Lord. “While Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, a very great assembly of men, women, and children, gathered to him out of Israel, for the people wept bitterly” (Ezra 10:1, ESV). They were taking their first steps back toward God.
Ezra was God’s man for that hour. While still living in Babylon, he had prepared himself by studying the Law of the Lord and then living according to its principles. Had he not prepared his own heart first, he would have been unable to teach the Law so that others could find their way back to God. He led by example.
We live in a society that seems to hold little regard for things holy. Things God has called an abomination are now accepted and even embraced. Judges 17:6 talks about a time in Israel’s history when “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” This sounds much like our present world. The lines between the holy and the profane have been blurred. Each one decides what he feels is right rather than following God’s commandments. There is little distinction between the actions of a professing Christian and the non-believer. The separation is gone, and our identity is at risk.
It is time for believers to step forward as the Ezras of this generation to lead the way in repentance and recommitment. Our world needs a clear voice to bring a much-needed revival. Like Ezra, we must prepared ourselves so that God can use us to revive our land.
“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (II Chronicles 7:14, ESV)
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