Our God is a God of second chances!
We are studying new beginnings this week . . .
The nation of Israel was about as "far gone" as they could be. About as low as they could go. What a history!
The northern kingdom (almost all the tribes) had fallen into idolatry big time; the Assyrians had conquered them in 722 BC. The southern kingdom of Judah fell, as we studied before, in 587 BC. Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple, too, and then carried the Jewish people into captivity in Babylon.
Fifty long, hard years passed.
Then God stirred up the heart of Cyrus to issue his decree allowing the Jews to return to the land. And almost 50,000 people responded! We've been following the story to the third chapter now, and the altar has been built and the temple foundation laid.
A new beginning had happened!
Whether it's His people as a group or individual believers, our God is a God of new beginnings. We can see this in other places besides the book of Ezra, no?
King David, a man after God's own heart, fell hard. When he repented, the prophet said:
Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die." (II Samuel 12:13)Jonah sinned by directly disobeying the command of God to go to Nineveh and preach so that the people could repent and turn to God. When Jonah repented, the great fish deposited him unceremoniously on the beach, and God gave him a second chance:
Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” (Jonah 3:1-2)Moses failed miserably when he saw an Egyptian mistreating a Hebrew - he looked around and made sure no one was looking, then killed the oppressor and buried him in the sand. God gave this murderer a second chance:
And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” (Exodus 3:9-10)In the New Testament, Peter was weeping and broken; his humiliation was lifted when the risen Christ appeared to him and restored him.
To us humans, Saul of Tarsus deserved only a lightning bolt from heaven after all that he did to persecute the believers; instead, God spoke to him and gave him a new mission in life:
“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” (Acts 9:5-6)God graciously offers all of us, no matter how low we have sunk spiritually, a second chance. (And a third, and a fourth, a forty-seventh, and a three-hundred and twelfth . . . ) He offers us new beginnings, no matter our situation. Whether it's our marriage, our job, our finances, or our relationship with Him, God doesn't give up on us! He wants to heal us, to make it right, and to be close to us again. He wants to make sure we know we have a mission in life.
Our new mission may be completely different from what we think. But God will give us every tool and everything we need to complete it.
Where do we start? I'm glad you asked! We'll study that next time!
Perfect. Just perfect.
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