‘So we arrived in Jerusalem…’ (v.32). Here is a phrase I’m sure many Israelites doubted they’d hear again during over 100 years of captivity in Babylon. Over the decades the old generation had died, and a new generation had arisen that had never seen Jerusalem or the temple and had probably found themselves quite comfortable in Mesopotamia, quite satisfied to live and die there. Still, a remanent faithful few returned to the land promised to them by Yahweh. It may not have looked as grand and marvellous as they pictured it, but ‘the hand of God was on [them]’ (v.31).

I wonder, have you ever had to trust and follow God even when the journey or destination is unknown or not quite what you expected? It can be easy to question and feel abandoned. But for God’s people we are never alone. Where God leads us, He also journeys alongside us, protecting and preparing the way.

For Ezra, despite leading God’s people back to the promised land of Jerusalem, he experienced nothing but grief and disappointment soon after their arrival. God’s people had been unfaithful just like their ancestors that provoked the exile previously! Ezra in response was filled with righteous anger. Have you ever been let down or discovered that people were not as upright as you expected them to be? Or perhaps you yourself have let others down or are not as beyond reproach as you would like? It can leave us feeling frustrated and with questions like Ezra’s.

But in these moments may we learn to have the response Ezra chooses and say to our heavenly Father ‘Here we are before you in our guilt…’ (9:15). No hiding, no pretence. Here I am, broken, sinful in need of grace that I do not deserve. 1 John 1:9 says: ‘If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.’ But the passage goes on to remind us of the confidence we have that ‘If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.’ What a promise! No rejection, no sending back to exile, but a fountain of grace upon grace for all who say: ‘Here I am…’.

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Prayer: Lord I confess before you that I am a sinner, broken and unable to set myself free from the same old sins. Pour out your grace and mercy upon me because of what Jesus has done and restore me to the child you have created me to be. Amen