But now for a brief moment favor has been shown by the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant and to give us a secure hold within his holy place, that our God may brighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our slavery.
Ezra prays this right after owning his people's sin, and the first thing he does next is count the mercies. The verse holds two things together: a people still in slavery, and a people given a firm place, brightened eyes, and a small revival.
Grace named in the middle of confession
Ezra recites God's kindness for a reason.
Edward DennettHe has owned the sins of his brothers, and has declared God right in His ways with His people. Next he magnifies the grace that had visited them in their low state. That grace had brought them back to the land — only a remnant — and had allowed them once again to set up the house of their God. But why does he recite this proof of the Lord's grace and mercy? It was to show the character of His people's sin.
A nail, or a tent peg
Where the ESV reads "a secure hold," older versions read "a nail." One writer reads it as God Himself fixing them in place.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThe remnant through His mercy had escaped, and God had given them "a nail in His holy place" (Isaiah 22:23). Like a nail in the wall, fixed and immovable, so God had established them in Jerusalem.
Another writer reads the word differently.
F. A. HughesThe word "nail" is really "tent peg." It is a small item that looks unimportant, in a place almost out of sight. Yet how vital it is to the safety of the structure!
Either way the point stands: what God gave them was small, but it held.
Grace that does not wait for the ruin to be repaired
The exiles were back in the land. But no king ruled again in Jerusalem, and a foreign empire still held them. God blessed them inside that situation.
J. N. DarbyThe authority and the throne at Jerusalem, with the power to appoint that went with them, were not set up again. God gave no public seal of approval. Still, God blessed the remnant of His people when they were faithful. And the main thing, the thing that should stay on our hearts, is the grace that could still bless His people — grace in the middle of such ruin, and while the throne of a foreign power stood, set up because of Israel's sin.
Revived while still slaves
Ezra is not describing a slavery he has escaped. One writer notes that the next verse is better read in the present tense.
Leslie M. GrantEzra deeply appreciated the great kindness of God in the small measure of recovery He had given His people, though only a remnant. He had given them "a peg" in His holy place, a small support on which to hang their confidence. The peg was to give them enlightened eyes to see the truth of God more clearly, and some measure of reviving, though they were still in bondage. Verse 9 is rightly translated, "we are slaves." Even so, God had not forsaken them in their bondage. He had extended mercy to them in the sight of the kings of Persia. His aim was that they might at least rise in spirit above their circumstances, and have the temple of God repaired and the wall of Jerusalem rebuilt. Does this not show us that even in a sadly confined state God is able to provide grace to worship Him rightly? The temple speaks of that worship. He also gives grace to be in some true measure separate from the world, which the wall pictures.
So the reviving comes to people who are still slaves.
Little, and still worth asking for
Ezra asks only for "a little reviving." Small numbers were nothing new for his people.
Other AuthorsIsrael began as "the fewest of all peoples" (Deut. 7:7)... In the days of the exile, God raised the spirits of some (Ezra 1:5), but the revival was very limited in scope.
One writer sees Ezra's conditions in his own day.
F. A. HughesHow our hearts long to see affections stirred in loyalty and devotion to Christ and to the truth of His Word! We do not look for spectacular movements of outward greatness. We want our prayers to mingle with Ezra's, "that our God may brighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving" (Ezra 9:8). Conditions in Ezra's day were like ours in a moral sense. God's throne was no longer set up in Jerusalem. His rights were disowned, His people scattered and in captivity.
Summary
- Little. Ezra names the mercy for what it is: a remnant, a peg, a little reviving — not a full restoration.
- Fixed. The "nail" is a peg: fixed in a wall, or hidden in a tent. Either way, what God gives holds.
- Inside. The reviving comes while they are still slaves. God gives grace before He mends the ruin.
- Enough. Even in a confined state, God supplies grace for real worship (the temple) and real separation from the world (the wall).
- Convicting. Ezra recites the mercy to expose the sin. The greater the grace, the darker the sin against it.