I believe that I can speak for most Bible-believing Christians when I say that we have watched in utter dismay at the moral madness that has descended upon our beloved nation.
It has been going on for many years now as the nation descends further into lawlessness and wickedness, straying far from its Judeo-Christian roots, but the climax has been the unnatural and perverse ideology that accepts the premise that there are some men who believe that they are actually women, trapped in a man’s body. This entirely devilish doctrine charges God, the creator of all things and sustainer of all things, with making a grave mistake when giving life to His creatures.
In all my years of existence on this earth, I have never witnessed something so utterly stupid and idiotic and yet we have a major political party in this nation which not only sees nothing wrong or unnatural about this, but actually goes out of its way to malign anyone who challenges this nonsense.
That this thinking has been accepted by far too many is yet another sign of God giving some over to a reprobate mind so that they believe a lie. That is the reason I watched this election closely as I genuinely feared that we had gone too far and sinned against light to such a degree that God had washed His hands of this land.
Yet, we have good reason to give thanks to our longsuffering and most merciful and gracious God who hearkened to the prayers of His people, pleading with Him to spare us and our children from any more of this madness. The outcome of this election has granted us a reprieve from our misery.
In considering this moment of grace, I was reminded of a passage in the book of Ezra, chapter 9, which dealt with the situation that the remnant of Israel, who had been in captivity to Babylon and had now returned to their own land which was under the jurisdiction of the Persian empire, were facing.
After their initial return to the land, some of the princes of their nation had taken wives from among the original inhabitants of the land, (the Canaanites and others such as the Moabites, Egyptians and Ammonites) and had also fathered children from these unions. This had been expressly forbid by the Lord in the law of Moses which stated categorically that the holy race was NOT to intermarry among the inhabitants of the land. God in His infinite wisdom knew that these unions would lead Israel into idolatry and unfaithfulness, along with all the perversions that these nations had been guilty of.
When Ezra was informed of this, he was both heartbroken, angry, dismayed and crushed as he knew how grievous an offense this was against the Law and that it was sins like this which had provoked the anger of God that had led Him to hurl them out of the land of promise and into their long Babylonian captivity. This godly man trembled when he learned of this, tore his garment and fell to the ground to beg the Lord’s forgiveness. It is a portion of his prayer which I believe that the Lord, through His good Spirit, brought to my mind this past evening and that is what I wish to share with you.
“Since the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt, and on account of our iniquities we, our kings and our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity and to plunder and to open shame, as it is this day. 8 But now for a brief moment grace has been shown from the Lord our God, to leave us an escaped remnant and to give us a peg in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our bondage.” (Ezra 9:7-8)
Ezra understood that God had been incredibly gracious to this remnant and his fear was that they had already forgotten how merciful He had been with them and were taking for granted this respite from their bondage. He called for action on the part of those who had committed these sins which would denote a true and genuine repentance.
I believe that God, in much the same way, has granted our nation a “brief moment of grace” in spite of our provocations. Let us not go on our merry ways, taking this mercy from heaven for granted, and returning to our sins but rather let us show Him out gratitude for His kindness by striving to live so as to please Him, walking righteously and with integrity and humility. Remember, to whom much is given, much is required. Do not allow the awful sin of ingratitude to overcome us but rather take time to meditate on His goodness to we who are so undeserving of all the kindnesses He has shown to us.
I am including a large portion of chapter 9 below so that you can read it and get the full impact of it.
Yours in Christ Jesus,
Dan Norcini SS
“But at the evening offering I arose from my humiliation, even with my garment and my robe torn, and I fell on my knees and stretched out my hands to the Lord my God; 6 and I said, “O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, for our iniquities have risen above our heads and our guilt has grown even to the heavens. 7 Since the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt, and on account of our iniquities we, our kings and our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity and to plunder and to open shame, as it is this day.
8 But now for a brief moment grace has been shown from the Lord our God, to leave us an escaped remnant and to give us a peg in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our bondage. 9 For we are slaves; yet in our bondage our God has not forsaken us, but has extended lovingkindness to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us reviving to raise up the house of our God, to restore its ruins and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem.
10 “Now, our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken Your commandments, 11 which You have commanded by Your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land which you are entering to possess is an unclean land with the uncleanness of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations which have filled it from end to end and with their impurity. 12 So now do not give your daughters to their sons nor take their daughters to your sons, and never seek their peace or their prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good things of the land and leave it as an inheritance to your sons forever.’
13 After all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and our great guilt, since You our God have requited us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us an escaped remnant as this, 14 shall we again break Your commandments and intermarry with the peoples who commit these abominations? Would You not be angry with us to the point of destruction, until there is no remnant nor any who escape? 15 O Lord God of Israel, You are righteous, for we have been left an escaped remnant, as it is this day; behold, we are before You in our guilt, for no one can stand before You because of this.” (Ezra 9: 7-15)