Ezra 9:8 Commentary and Bible Study

Look at all the ‘littles’ in the verse. ‘And now for a little space [just a short time] grace’ – undeserved mercy and favour – ‘hath been shewed from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant’ – a remnant is a little thing, not the whole country, not the several millions, but the first return a mere 42,000 and the second another 8000 – ‘to escape, and to give us a nail.’ A nail is also a little thing. The Hebrew is something like a pin or a peg. It is not a footing, not a stronghold. We are just a few people, a remnant. We've been given a very short time just to put a pin, a peg only, in this holy place, ‘that our God may lighten our eyes’ – and you could add ‘a little’. That's the sense of the original – cheer us a little, give us a little hope or encouragement, ‘and give us a little reviving in our bondage’ – a little liberty, a little patch of liberty for Israel. Only little openings, but they are great blessings nevertheless. What is the argument here? It is this: we did not deserve anything from the Lord. We had been judged as a nation and there was no reason to think that God’s mercy would be extended towards us anymore. When we find that he has in fact not totally deserted us, but allowed us to sprout forth, like a tender shoot from what seemed like a dead root – something so small and fragile, which needs to be nurtured so carefully and protected so assiduously – then it is all the more shameful and dreadful that we have despised his kindness. We have been entrusted for just a short time with a little remnant of people, and a very small holding in Jerusalem, and a little encouragement, and just an element of, a taste of, real liberty, and we have already smashed it into the ground. This is God’s unwarranted token of benefit and blessing, and we have abused it already. That is the idea of the great string of ‘littles’.