Passage Read: Ezra 10 - Nehemiah 3
Meditation Verses: Nehemiah 1:2-3
Thought
God had granted favor to the exiles and allowed them to return to their own land. God kept His promise to bring the people back after seventy years. But that doesn't mean He was done punishing or disciplining them. They had been greatly reduced in number, humiliated, and they remained under the rule of foreign powers. Sometimes those powers were more favorable to them, sometimes less. Often the local, regional rulers were uncaring, other times they took a dislike to them. They had not come to full repentance, as illustrated by Ezra and the foreign wives. They had returned home and rebuilt the temple, but they did not fully understand what it meant to trust and worship the Lord, so they remained in distress and humiliation.
Application
Here and there someone would recognize their need for further reform, and it would come. But for the next several hundred years, Israel would remain under the control of foreign powers, changing hands several times, but only briefly gaining measure of self-governance. God was still teaching them the difference between His rule and the rule of men. And it was a hard lesson to learn. They would eventually lose their land again, and remain cut off for almost two thousand years! To this day, they have not recovered their former strength and blessedness by the Lord. This teaches me that the Lord may grant a measure of relief from the consequences of my sin, but unless I truly make a break from them, there will still be consequences. I mustn't be fooled by a measure of relief, but seek full repentance. God wants my whole heart, not just bits and pieces. He wants my full devotion, not a bit of service here or there, a gift here and there to keep Him off my back.