Nehemiah 9:30-31 “Many years you bore with them and warned them by your Spirit through your prophets. Yet they would not give ear. Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands. Nevertheless, in your great mercies you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.”

Seventy years had gone by. Seventy long, hard, cold years. Only a few could remember a time before the exile, before when Judah had been proud and the Temple of God had showcased the finery of the world. Slowly people had returned to Judah and to Jerusalem. Slowly the Temple was made habitable and slowly people had started to tell the old stories and remember the reasons for the Exile. The Governor and his good friend, a priest and scribe, found The Book of The Law and read it to the assembled returnees. The people wept because now they knew. Isaiah had been right. Jeremiah had been right. Those things which Moses had written would happen if the people ever left God had come to pass. The people wept and realized their error.

They had compromised. They wanted everyone to feel welcome and “at home.” They wanted to have everyone not feel threatened, but rather tolerated and affirmed. After all, “who are we to say that their gods are not as real as ours is?” “We can learn things from them and their practices, so they can't be all wrong.” They neglected to remember that God had wanted them to be set apart, total nonconformists to the world around them, relying wholly on the grace and providence of God Almighty to survive.

When the people realized this they wept, but then they realized that “This day is holy to the Lord our God, do not mourn or weep.” Just because they had failed in the past did not mean that they could not try again. God is the God of second and third and fourth and fifth chances. They had failed God. Their parents had failed God. Their grandparents, great grandparents, great great grandparents, and great great great grandparents had all failed God, but when they repented God had graciously and kindly and lovingly taken them back. The people were ecstatic with joy and they partied and shared the best food with everyone, rich or poor. They realized that they had no reason to grieve, for the Joy of the Lord was their strength. Not their city, not their people, not their temple, not their weapons, farms, gold, or poverty. It was God's Joy that was strength for them. They celebrated their return to God and as an entire people they confessed their sins to God and then they made a covenant, a pact, as people of Judah and worshipers of the Most High God “to observer and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord and His rules and statutes.”

We have compromised. We have done the very same thing that the people of Judah did. We have forgotten that there can be no compromise. We must be set apart to God. We must be Holy Nonconformists with a total dedication and total trust on God's providence in our lives. When we compromise morally or theologically we lose. We lose the strength of our witness, we lose the respect of those who are not believers, we lose the right to say “but we are different!” and we lose the mighty blessings of God in our lives. Even worse though, is that compromising with the world is compromising our soul.

We have one thing that remains for us though. We have a gracious and merciful God who does not leave us or forsake us. We have the chance to start again. Like the people of Israel, like those who returned from exile, like many of those with whom we go to church, we have a chance to return and start over again. Let us rejoice with a renewed heart and mind and soul in the love, glory, and mercy of our Lord.

Father, whose love we have wronged by transgression,
Christ, who wast nailed for our sins on the tree,
Spirit, who givest the grace of repentance;
Hear us, we pray Thee, good Lord.