Revived

“Since the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt, and on account of our iniquities we, our kings and our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity and to plunder and to open shame, as it is this day.”

“But now for a brief moment grace has been shown from the Lord our God, to leave us an escaped remnant and to give us a peg in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our bondage.”

“For we are slaves; yet in our bondage our God has not forsaken us….”

Ezra 9:7-9

The problem with living under the laws of God is that we cannot possibly keep them all and the result is guilt and a barrier between us and God.  When we are feeling guilty we cannot look at God.  The Israelites experienced this again and again.  The temptation to sin was great and they were weak.  Ezra felt the full weight of the guilt of the Israelites.  

But in all this God did not forget His people, He did not turn from them, but extended mercy to them.

The mercy God extended to the Israelites is available to us.  No matter how big our sin, God will forgive us.  God sent His Son, Jesus, to bear the full penalty for our sin.  All we have to do is to acknowledge that we are sinners, ask forgiveness for our sin, and invite Jesus to be our Lord, Master and Savior and we are redeemed. 

And, we are revived.