Ezr 10

To read this in Vietnamese, please click here.

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Yet there is hope still... 

I. Click here to READ Ezra 10 first.

II. One thing the Bible teaches: 

1 Now while Ezra was praying and making confession, weeping and prostrating himself before the house of God, a very large assembly, men, women and children, gathered to him from Israel; for the people wept bitterly. 2 Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, said to Ezra, “We have been unfaithful to our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land; yet now there is hope for Israel in spite of this.

III. Reflection

* Questions: Was Shecaniah one of those unfaithful listed in this chapter? What did he say to Ezra, the one who was having a heavy heart for his people?

IV. Application

Dear Lord God, I thank You for helping me to count all the names in the long list of offenders. I could not find Shecaniah, although he did say to mourning Ezra that "we have been unfaithful to our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land..." I thank You for Shecaniah's willingness to stand with his people and share the blame in the confession of sins. I also thank You for letting me see from this man that, despite a national distress casting a huge shadow over Israel at the time, he still saw hope for Israel. And he so proclaimed! I thank You, Lord Jesus, for taking me to this point to remind me of Your teaching that all things are possible for him who believes (Mark 9:20-23)—there is hope, always. O Lord! Here are the illnesses, sicknesses, scarlet sins, relational problems, learning issues, incompatible faith, financial burdens, etc. Even so, amid all these stressful problems, I thank You for reminding us that none of them is so hard that it causes You not to be able to care for Your beloved children. Help me, Lord, to faithfully bring these to You. There are always problems in this fallen world. Yet, there is hope, still. In You. Amen. 

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Note: If you want to reflect on other books and chapters of the Bible, click here.

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