We find much instruction in Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, and Malachi for the present day, which is somewhat analogous to the time referred to in those books. The ten tribes had been carried away by Shalman-ezer, and were lost. Judah had been carried into Babylon, and spent 70 years in captivity. A remnant from Judah returned in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, and the temple and the walls of the city were rebuilt. This return, and the building of the temple and walls of the city were all pure grace from the Lord.
But we see on the part of the people so favored, a constant tendency to decline. They did not go on with the work as they should. They yielded to the influence of the enemy and the work ceased. Haggai charges them with living in ceiled houses, while God's house lay waste, and they had to be stirred up afresh to go on with the work.
Then in Malachi, a little over 100 years later, we see most dreadful declension—a mass of profession without reality, in the midst of which were to be found a feeble few who "feared the Lord and spake often one to another.”
This little remnant alone gets the approval of the Lord, with the assurance that they should be His when He makes up His jewels. About 400 years later we still find this feeble remnant in such as Zachariah and Elizabeth, Mary, old Simeon and Anna, and the shepherds on the plains of Bethlehem. But oh, how few and how feeble they were. And it is somewhat the same now, as we draw near the end—a great mass of profession with little reality.
There are those the Lord owns, and of whom He can say that thou "hast kept My word, and hast not denied My name." There are those, too, who have kept their garments clean, and who shall walk with Him in white.
These are the few, not the many. In such a day, what we are called to is to hold fast. "Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." Rev. 3:1111Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. (Revelation 3:11).
The struggle will be short, for He is near, but it is real, and we need courage to stand, even if it be alone. There was a time when no man stood with Paul. But the Lord stood with him, and the testimony was given and he was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. How blessed to be able to count on Him, though all others forsake!
A. H. Rule