For May 17, 2026
Trembling Before God by Greg Holmes, D.MIN – Director of Missions serving 17 churches
ALL OF US are prone to anxiety from time to time as we face an uncertain outcome that seems quite important to us. Once in a great while we may be reduced to abject fear as we anticipate some great loss, perhaps of health, or finances, or life itself. Even less frequently we encounter dread at a scale of alarming events that extend beyond ourselves to family, or city, or nation. So it was for Ezra the scribe, as the Israelites began to filter back into the Promised Land after the seventy-year exile. From commoner to priest, the people had disobeyed God by inter-marrying with the people who worshiped false gods, “mingling the holy race with the peoples around them.” (Ezra (9:1) Ezra says, “When I heard this, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled hair from my head and beard and sat down appalled. Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of this unfaithfulness of the exiles. And I sat there appalled until the evening sacrifice.” (Ezra 9:3-4)