DAY 15
DATE: 1/15/2013
Good Morning! My name is Aaron Clark, and I was asked to give you a devotional thought from the book of Ezra, chapters 9-10.
KEY VERSE:
Ezra 10:12 Then all the congregation answered and said with a loud voice, As thou hast said so must we do.
REFLECTIONS:
Ezra chapters 9 and 10 are very important for us as Christians to understand. Within these chapters we see how serious God is about His people being pure and set apart only to Him. The prophet Ezra was totally broken about the sin that had become a part of the nation of Israel. The men of Israel were not to take wives outside of the Hebrew people, as commanded by God to keep his people of a pure line, from which the Son of God Jesus Christ would come out. As Ezra became aware of the sin that had taken place the Bible uses the word astonied, which means he was devastated and amazed by the direct abomination by the Hebrews. Nevertheless, Ezra goes immediately before God in repentance and humility asking for forgiveness and deliverance from the people’s sin. As he was doing so the people had started to gather and confess, to make a covenant to God to repent or correct this wrong against God, by separating themselves from the heathen that they had taken in as wives along with the children of those women. The rest of chapter 10 then explains how the people would offer sacrifice and make right the wrong that they committed.
APPLICATION:
It is VERY IMPORTANT when we read a chapter like this in the Old Testament that we differentiate how God dealt with the Israelites then in comparison to how He deals with us today as Greeks or non-Jews. However, as we look to Ezra 9 and 10 we can see several nuggets of truth that can help us today, the first being that God wants His people to be pure. God’s plan in the Old Testament was all about protecting a Holy seed that Jesus Christ would eventually come from. It was His plan from all ages past that He would send his Only Son the Messiah to become a man to be the one and only sacrifice for our sin. He had promised this Messiah to come through a Holy Race, the Jews, so that He would be born perfect, not as the result of man, but by an act of the Holy Spirit. We need to understand today that we are not the line that the Messiah would come through, but better yet, we are the bride that He is coming for. The Messiah has come and now He has established His Church and has promised that someday He will appear and the trumpet will sound and He will take us to heaven. So then the challenge from Ezra is this: be ready for the Lord’s return by not just confessing our sin to Him but by repenting or changing our mind about our sin. We need to live a life of purity in our thoughts, actions, and motives. Let’s start this morning by examining our lives and committing ourselves to doing exactly what the Holy Bible tells us to do. The Jews in Ezra fell short when they got away from what the Lord had commanded, and so do we when we deviate from His Word. If you’re reading this passage today then what a great start. Keep it up and commit today to living a continual life of purity before God according to His Word.
Thank you for being a part of the Route 66 Bible Reading Challenge. Thanks for reading, and pray that God will help us all to obey what He has given!
In Christ,
Aaron Clark
SAVED: October 1986
FAVORITE PASSAGE IN BIBLE: Psalm 1
FAVORITE BIBLE CHARACTER: Peter
FAMILY: Wife Julie Clark
HOBBIES: Carpentry, Riding Snowmobiles, Guns, Being with the People of VBC!
AREA OF MINISTRY AT VBC: Music Leader; Greeter Team; Mission Committee; Food Tasting Team
DREAM VACATION: Israel