Let now our rulers of all the congregation stand, and let all them which have taken strange wives in our cities come at appointed times, and with them the elders of every city, and the judges thereof, until the fierce wrath of our God for this matter be turned from us. -Ezra 10:14

Here we see an instance where the people have fallen into great sin. For many of them had all taken “strange wives” of all the non-believers of the foreign countries where the Jews were spread abroad. It even says that there was “fierce wrath of God” for their sins.

In reading this, you might then conclude that the people were miserably cursed because of this sin. Yet, on the contrary: the events leading up to God’s wrath were filled with blessing.

Blessed, yet still in sin

Here we see the amazing mercy of God. Even though the people are still in sin, (though perhaps through partial ignorance), God still gathers them out from among the nations where they were scattered, and brings them back to Israel. Despite their impurity, God has patience with them, and gives them grace and favor in the sight of the Persian kings that ruled over them.

Blessed be the LORD God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem: -Ezra 7:27

The people were blessed, and caused to prosper even though they were still living in sin. Yet it was God’s plan and intention, that once the people were brought back into Jerusalem, and they rediscover God’s law, that they would be convicted of their sin, and turn from it, and be purified.

And so, we too have been shown much patience and mercy in our sinful state. God does not wait for us to become perfect and sinless before we can come to Him. He wants us just as we are, yet He doesn’t intend to let us remain in such a condition.

For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. -Romans 5:6

Maybe you’ve been blessed, and God has shown you the way of salvation. But perhaps you’ve continued in sin even after coming to Christ for salvation. Maybe you’ve assumed that since God has blessed you with innumerable blessings, that He doesn’t care about your continued sin.

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?-Romans 6:1-2

A new creation

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. -2 Corinthians 5:17

At the heart of sin is selfishness. We want to please ourselves, and make our own rules. Yet, if Christ has given His very life for us, how ought we to serve Him? If we owe Him our life, our salvation, our soul, our everything: how should we then live? Should we take His amazing gift for granted?

On the contrary, we are called to be living sacrifices.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. -Romans 12:1-2

And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat. -Exodus 16:14-15

It’s been commonly applied that God’s manna represents our spiritual nourishment. Just as the children of Israel went out and daily gathered their manna, so too ought we to get spiritual nourishment through the reading of God’s Word each morning, and through prayer.

A small thing

Yet one thing to keep in mind is the size of the individual pieces of manna: they were very small, about the size of a snowflake or an ice crystal.

In getting our spiritual nourishment, sometimes it is bit by bit: in small increments. It all adds up to a daily meal, but it comes in bits.

So often, we go out and look for an entire pork roast, so to speak. We want the big answer, the big verse that will change our lives. Yet we don’t want to apply our hearts toward the getting of wisdom, nor to the learning of godly principles.

The Gathering of the Manna, Dirck Bouts (1464-67)

We do not want to build precept upon precept, nor line upon line. We want an entire package all gift-wrapped and ready-to-go. Yet God does not always work this way: in most instances it is like the tiny bits of manna: many small pieces adding up to a whole.

What if the children of Israel refused to gather any of the manna because they didn’t want to trifle with such small pieces of food? They would starve! And so will we spiritually if we don’t recognize that God wants us to search out His ways and apply the little bits of wisdom to form a godly life. And in our search, He may tap us on the shoulder with the monumental calling or the revelation that we’ve been longing for.

Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. -Proverbs 2:3-5

Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers’ sepulchres, that I may build it. -Nehemiah 2:4-5

Here’s an interesting occurrence, with peculiar wording. Nehemiah is come before the king, and the king has noticed that Nehemiah is upset about something, and calls him out on it. At this, Nehemiah’s heavy heart becomes very afraid, and he must quickly make an answer to the king.

As it’s written, it appears as though Nehemiah is asked a direct question of the king, and Nehemiah says a prayer to God (perhaps brief and silent), and then answers the king. There doesn’t appear to be any indication that there is a break in the action from the time the king asks the question, to the time that Nehemiah prays and then answers the king.

Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight… -Nehemiah 2:4-5

Was Nehemiah praying on the fly? Did he send up a quick little prayer to the God of heaven right in the middle of business? We may never know until we get to heaven, but it appears that this was the case.

It’s my belief that God delights in these quick prayers. True, He desires for us to utter deeper, sometimes lengthier prayers, but I also believe that God honors the short little prayers of everyday life.

Sometimes, we’re in a jam, and we haven’t the time to get away and pray as we ought. Why not cry out to God in our hearts, with just a short simple prayer for strength and guidance?

Pray without ceasing. -1 Thessalonians 5:17

And I commanded, and search hath been made, and it is found that this city of old time hath made insurrection against kings, and that rebellion and sedition have been made therein. …Then ceased the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.
-Ezra 4:19-24

Here we see a mistrust in God’s people: that if they are allowed to prosper, they will become rebellious and damaging to the surrounding lands. And as a consequence, the king of Persia ordered that the Jews in the land stop their work on the house of God.

Yet, this estimation of God’s people couldn’t be further from the truth. Shortly after we see also in the book of Ezra a new king with an entirely different attitude towards the people and their work:

In the first year of Cyrus the king the same Cyrus the king made a decree concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, Let the house be builded, the place where they offered sacrifices, and let the foundations thereof be strongly laid; …That they may offer sacrifices of sweet savours unto the God of heaven, and pray for the life of the king, and of his sons. -Ezra 6:3, 10

Cyrus had a different outlook towards God’s people, and instead of seeing all the damage they might do, he saw them as peaceful, and able to pray to God for the health and life of the king. Cyrus may have had a self-interest in mind when he allowed the people to continue, but it was true! God does have His people pray for those in authority, and for peace.

I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. -1 Timothy 2:1-2

Then stood up Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and his brethren, and builded the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God. -Ezra 3:2

Here in the book of Ezra we see a daunting picture. The children of Israel, after a 70-year captivity, have been allowed to return to their homeland. They’ve been given a charge to rebuild the Temple that Solomon originally built.

When the Israelites returned to Jerusalem, and saw the desolation of the city, and thought of the immense work that was to be done in its rebuilding, they were perhaps overwhelmed.

Such a monumental task ahead of them, with so many adversaries all around, and the city lay in ruins: where to start?

It all begins with seeking the Lord

You’ll notice from the verse at the top of this page that the very first thing the people did was “builded the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings thereon…” This was their first objective: to re-establish a connection with God through an altar. Even before the actual foundation of the Temple was laid, they built an altar for God.

Perhaps in our own lives, we can feel very similar to the Israelites walking into the ruins of Jerusalem. We may have seemingly lost everything, and are feeling overwhelmed. There is so much to be done, so much to rebuild: we may not know where to start.

Step 1: build an altar. That is to say, the altar is a symbolic representation of a place or an area where we can connect with God. We can offer up to Him our sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving, or the sweet-smelling scent of prayer.

When all is seemingly lost, and we are searching for a place to rebuild, it all starts with the altar. Everything else builds around it. In Ezra’s time, eventually the altar would be housed in the Temple, and the Temple would be located behind the fortified and built-up walls of Jerusalem. But before all that, it started with the altar.

And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD. Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me. When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek. Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. -Psalms 27:6-9

“Why does no man confess his vices? Because he is yet in them; it is for a waking man to tell his dream.” -Seneca

These are truly sobering words.

As Christians, we always have the promise of God for our cleansing found in 1 John:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. -1 John 1:9

But the question comes up: what if we are so deceived by sin that we don’t realize our sins?

This, I believe, is one of the chief hindrances that keeps us from blessing. Not that we struggle with sin, and grapple with it, but rather, that we sin, and think nothing of it. We truly have little idea of how far we’ve missed the mark unless God reveals it to us through the candle of His Spirit.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. -Jeremiah 17:9-10

The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will. -Proverbs 21:1

Sometimes the people that you’d never think of doing right turn out to be on your side.

Just ask Ezra:

Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The LORD God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. -Ezra 1:1-2

After a captivity of seventy years, the Israelites’ regathering came from a very unexpected place: a heathen king named Cyrus.

As the verse at the top of the page says, the king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, and He is capable of turning it wherever He pleases.

In this case, it was God’s will for His people to rebuild His house, and so He gave them help from an unexpected source.

Also Cyrus the king brought forth the vessels of the house of the LORD, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem, and had put them in the house of his gods; -Ezra 1:7

All of the vessels of gold and silver that a previous heathen king (Nebuchadnezzar) had taken from the temple were restored onto the people. And this came some 70 years after their initial plundering!

Seeing that God can stir up in the hearts of even the most powerful men in the world on behalf of His own people, so we ought to recognize that God is able to work today in the very same way.

The heart of the king (or the president, or the prime minister, etc.) is in the hand of the Lord, and He is able to turn it wherever He pleases.

I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. -1 Timothy 2:1-2