“When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns, all the people assembled as one man in the square before the water gate. They told Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded from Israel.”
Nehemiah 8:1
The Israelites suffered in exile for seventy years as a consequence of their sin. In that time, God’s people had been absorbed into the Babylonian and Persian cultures, no longer holding to God’s Word—and it cost them dearly.
In Ezra and Nehemiah, we see that God used a Persian king to allow Jewish people the chance to return to Jerusalem. For the first time in generations, they would be reminded of their history and what was required of them as God’s chosen people.
It was a spiritual revival that was desperately needed. Not so different from our world today.
What in our culture is drawing your heart away from God?
Whether pleasure or suffering, distraction or despair, the enemy wins when Christ is no longer the center of our lives. Taking our eyes off of the One who gives us life destroys us, our families, and our churches.
God’s people had suffered exile and persecution due to their disobedience. The result was that it made them hungry for the Law (God’s Word). We desperately need that same hunger today.
The enemy uses whatever means necessary to pull us away from the Lord. In our culture, we succumb most often to deception and seduction. As Christians, we need to be ready for the spiritual battle that is sure to come our way—if not today, then tomorrow.
Are you hungry for our greatest weapon—God’s Word? The Apostle Paul was, and he makes a stirring appeal to us, as soldiers of Christ in Ephesians.
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”—6:10-12.
Let us be clothed in God’s armor as we pray for a great revival in our hearts and the Bride of Christ—His church.
