A Brief Moment of Grace

As I type this post, the Capitol building has been breached by protestors.

It is a very disturbing sight to see our very own symbolic building of nationalism billowing with tear gas, pictures of protestors invading the congressional chambers, and national guardsmen escorting protestors off the grounds.

How did we get here, America? Was it really an election or was it something else? There was definitely plenty to be concerned with, but I believe what is happening runs much deeper than politics.

We are a nation that doesn’t blush at much anymore. I won’t bother going over a laundry list of how our nation has blatantly sinned against a Holy God. We have turned basics truths on their heads and confused our priorities on the sanctity of life to the point that God must be nauseated with us.

Were they ashamed because of the abomination they have done? They were not even ashamed at all; They did not even know how to blush…” Jeremiah 6:15

Ezra is one of my favorite Old Testament books.

I seriously want a grandson named after him someday. He not only took personal responsibility in calling the nation of Israel to repentance because of their national sin, but he modeled true repentance –  facedown on the ground in torn clothes. Much of chapter 9 is a prayer of confession.

Oh 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.       Ezra 9:6

Ezra was not personally guilty of any of the sins mentioned in this chapter, but he knew the key to revival would be desperately calling out to God on behalf of the nation.  Look at how many times he used “our” in that prayer of desperation.

My friends, we can post and tweet unflattering things about political parties all day long. We can mindlessly defend them tooth and nail even when their words, actions, or behaviors are clearly horrendous.  But that will not do one thing to bring about change.

A president cannot change a nation. Only a people can change a nation.  God, before I ask you to change our nation, I ask you to change me.

Ezra referenced a brief moment of grace in Ezra 9:8…

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, so that our God may enlighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our bondage.

Ezra is referring to God bringing the remnant of Israelites out of Babylonian captivity and allowing them to return to Jerusalem. But if you read this whole chapter the scribe-prophet is urging them to repent during this brief moment of grace. 

In this brief moment of grace we are experiencing now, we need to be storming the gates of heaven with prayer, not the gates of the US Capitol building. God’s offer to us is always grace in response to our genuine repentance.