That's Your Job!

Daily Reading: Ezra 10

Arise, for it is your task, and we are with you; be strong and do it. (Ezra 10.4)

Devotional Thought: When I was the Lead Pastor of multiple staff, I‘d often tell my team members, “I will do anything I can for you—except your job!”  I’d help them solve problems, hatch strategies, and think through the merits of different scenarios.  But when it came to the nuts and bolts of doing what they’d been hired to do, that was their responsibility.

In chapter ten of Ezra, we discover a similar situation.  God’s people, who had wandered away from a vital connection with Him, have returned to the faith with intention and purpose.  An awakening has taken place and some things have become clear—most notably the mistake many of them made by marrying foreign women.  The problem was not with the interracial nature of these relationships.  The problem was they’d married outside the faith, and their relationship with God, which was supposed to be an acute fever, had become a dull habit.

A couple points of application emerge.  One has to do with remorse and making amends.  Seeking to set right our wrongs is a central practice to spiritual health.  It helps us change.  That’s why, when Zacchaeus said he’d pay back those he’d wronged four times what he owed and give half his possessions to the poor, Jesus said, “Salvation has come to this house (Luke 19.9).”  He knew Zacchaeus’ willingness to do that meant something had truly transpired in his heart.

The second point of application has to do with courage … courage to follow through and act on these impulses.  Something that inspires me about this passage is the willingness of the people to act upon God’s guidance and direction.  For at the end of the day, that was their job.

John Whitsett

Prayer: Father God, like the people of Ezra’s day, I’ve done things that have compromised my devotion to you.  For anything that is currently undisclosed to my spirit, would you not only awaken me but also grant me the courage to make necessary amends?  I don’t want to live out what has become a dull habit.  I want to be infected by an acute fever.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 98:1-9

1 Sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.

2 The LORD has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations.

3 He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

4 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music;

5 make music to the LORD with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing,

6 with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn— shout for joy before the LORD, the King.

7 Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.

8 Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy;

9 let them sing before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity.