Own It

“But after that our fathers had provoked the God of heaven unto wrath, he gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this house, and carried the people away into Babylon.” (Ezr 5:12 AV)

Ezra, upon the decree of Cyrus, returned with a remnant of Israel to rebuild the temple.  Two kings later, the enemies of Israel abiding in or around Jerusalem, were offended they were not allowed to assist in the rebuilding of the temple and consequently wrote the new king to cease the work of the temple.  The Tatnai, or Governor or Jerusalem wrote Darius, now king of the Medes and Persians and laid out his case as to why the work of the temple should resume.  Part of the accusation of the Samaritans was Jerusalem had a history of insurrection against former conquerors.  This was a half-truth.  Israel was a kingdom in decline.  Their captors were up-and-coming.  Of course, there would be warfare between them.  Rather then to defend their past behavior in this manner, the Tatnai assumed the rightful judgment of God’s hand as the cause of their predicament.  Rather than justify their past actions, which he could have done, he owned up to their disobedience to God as an explanation of their actions.  It is important that we own our pasts.  This does not mean we take every opportunity to expose our past to any and all.  Sometimes, when we do this, we end up glorifying the sin of which the LORD rescued us.  Or, we use it to avoid greater responsibility for service because we believe we have disqualified ourselves.  However, it is important that if our past becomes and issue, that we own it. 

We all have pasts that we wish were not the case.  There have been choices that we wish we would never have made.  Every once in a while, the devil likes to bring it back up to bring us a spirit of defeat all over again.  When we try to hide it, dealing with it only makes it worse.  Years ago, a young man made a choice that had gotten around to others.  It was very embarrassing.  Some even accused him of not truly being saved.  Rather than run from it or hide it, he owned it.  Yes, he had made that choice.  Yes, it was very wrong.  However, forgiveness is the answer.  Acceptance in Christ is the answer.  Not running and hiding.

The truth of those who wish to use our past against us is they are self-righteous.  They seem to believe that if the saints have worse sins in their past then they do, then it justifies their life and they do not need repentance and forgiveness.  They can life above the need for God.  There is a cleansing of the heart when we take ownership of our actions.  We are declaring to the world that we are not perfect and we are in just as much need of a Savior, even more so, than anyone else.  It is a declaration of complete and total surrender to the mercy of God.  This is why Darius was moved to help the Tatnai.  He was honest about the past, seeking mercy from a king who would honor humility.