Introduction:
A. There is a story told of four preachers who were good friends, who lived in a small town many years ago, during a more simple and conservative time.
1. They often met for lunch at the local diner to talk about their lives and ministries.
2. During one of those gatherings, one preacher said, “Our people come to us and pour out their hearts, sharing their needs and confessing their sins. So why don’t we do the same, since confession is good for the soul.”
3. They all agreed, and the first preacher confessed that he liked to go to movies and would sneak off to see a movie when he was out of town.
4. The second preacher confessed to liking to smoke cigars and the third one confessed to liking to play cards (All those things were taboo for Christians back in those days).
5. When it was the fourth preacher’s turn, he remained quiet.
6. The other preachers pressed him saying, “Come now, we made our confessions. What is your secret or vice?”
7. Finally the fourth preacher answered, “I must confess that my greatest sin is gossiping and I’m afraid that your secrets are about to be well-known around town.”
B. Today, we are going to see that Ezra had a very different reaction when some people came to him confessing their sins, than the preacher in the story I just told.
1. I fear that we have become so desensitized toward sin that we fail to have the proper response toward it, whether it is our own sin, or sin in others.
2. How do we often respond to sin? We minimize it, justify it, or ignore it.
3. And then if we see someone reacting in a godly way toward sin, we think that person is a bit carried away or extreme.
4. We consider them to be judgmental or intolerant.
a. How dare they cast stones at others! Do they think that they are without sin?
5. And so, by casting our stones at them, we justify our sins and go back to business as usual.
C. As we are going to see, this is not the case with Ezra.
1. Ezra will model for us the right kind of reaction to sin, and by so doing, others will follow his example.
2. Let’s learn from Ezra and from the exiles about the correct way to deal decisively with sin.
I. The Story
A. Ezra chapter 9, verse 1 begins: 1 After these things had been done…
1. After what things? The things we looked at last week.
2. As you will recall, Ezra led the second wave of exiles who returned to Jerusalem and Judea.
3. After they arrived, they did all the things that King Artaxerxes had ordered: they made sacrifices to God, they made an accounting of the silver, gold and valuable vessels the king had sent, and they delivered the king’s orders for the local officials to assist these exiles.
B. So chapter 9 begins: 1 After these things had been done, the leaders came to me and said, “The people of Israel, including the priests and the Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the neighboring peoples with their detestable practices, like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians and Amorites. 2 They have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, and have mingled the holy race with the peoples around them. And the leaders and officials have led the way in this unfaithfulness.”
1. About four and a half months after Ezra had led a remnant back to the land, it was reported to
him that many people in Israel, including many priests, Levites, leaders, and officials, had sinned by taking pagan wives.
2. How would you have responded to such news?
C. Look at how Ezra responded: 3 When I heard this, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled hair from my head and beard and sat down appalled. 4 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. 5 Then, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self-abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn, and fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the LORD my God 6 and prayed: (we will look at the prayer in a moment).
1. Ezra did not take the news in stride, chuckling, “Well, people will be people.”
a. Rather, he tore his clothes, pulled some hair from his head and beard, and sat down appalled and speechless until the time of the evening offering.
b. By then a number of godly people had gathered around him.
c. Ezra arose only to fall to his knees, lift his hands to the Lord, and pray.
2. How a person reacts to the news of sin tells a lot about that person.
3. While I confess that I have never reacted as strongly against sin as Ezra did (I can’t afford to pull out my hair!), and while part of his reaction may be culturally explained, we still can learn from him that we need to abhor sin so that we do not become desensitized to it.
D. The first step in dealing decisively with sin is to recognize it from Scripture.
1. How do we know what is right and wrong?
a. A popular song from the past asked, “How can it be wrong when it feels so right?”
b. Most of us know that feelings are not a solid basis for determining right and wrong.
c. How many times have you heard someone say that they are going to do something that is against Scripture, because they have prayed about it and feel at peace about it?
d. In truth, the peace they feel is not the peace of God, if they are doing something that God has said not to do.
2. Some people say that we should follow our consciences, but the conscience is only reliable to the degree that it has been formed by Scripture.
a. Unfortunately, most people’s sense of right and wrong has been formed more by the culture than by Scripture.
E. Ezra was appalled when he heard about these Jews marrying pagans because he knew that God’s Word condemns it.
1. In the prayer Ezra prays, he laments (9:10), “For we have forsaken Your commandments,” and he goes on to cite God’s prohibition against intermarriage with the pagans of the land.
2. His citations are not an exact quote, but rather a summary of passages such as Exodus 34:11-16 and Deuteronomy 7:1-4.
3. Ezra and the leaders who reported this sin to him knew that it was sin because God’s Word declared it to be sin.
4. When the leaders reported that the holy race had been intermingled with the peoples of the land (9:2), their concern was not racial corruption, but rather, moral and spiritual corruption.
5. In the original command, God explained the reason for the prohibition: “For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods” (Deut. 7:4; see Exod. 34:16).
6. God knew the tendency of sinful, unbelieving hearts - Rather than influencing their mates to abandon their idols and follow the one true God, the Israelites would be prone to mingle pagan idolatry with their worship of God.
7. The Apostle Paul gave us a similar prohibition in 2 Cor. 6:14, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship
can light have with darkness?”
a. God knows that pagan wives make for pagan households, and pagan husbands make for pagan households.
F. Let’s look at Ezra’s prayer: “O my God, I am too ashamed and disgraced to lift up my face to you, my God, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens. 7 From the days of our forefathers until now, our guilt has been great. Because of our sins, we and our kings and our priests have been subjected to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation at the hand of foreign kings, as it is today.
8 “But now, for a brief moment, the LORD our God has been gracious in leaving us a remnant and giving us a firm place in his sanctuary, and so our God gives light to our eyes and a little relief in our bondage. 9 Though we are slaves, our God has not deserted us in our bondage. He has shown us kindness in the sight of the kings of Persia: He has granted us new life to rebuild the house of our God and repair its ruins, and he has given us a wall of protection in Judah and Jerusalem.
10 “But now, O our God, what can we say after this? For we have disregarded the commands 11 you gave through your servants the prophets when you said: ‘The land you are entering to possess is a land polluted by the corruption of its peoples. By their detestable practices they have filled it with their impurity from one end to the other. 12 Therefore, do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters for your sons. Do not seek a treaty of friendship with them at any time, that you may be strong and eat the good things of the land and leave it to your children as an everlasting inheritance’
13 “What has happened to us is a result of our evil deeds and our great guilt, and yet, our God, you have punished us less than our sins have deserved and have given us a remnant like this. 14 Shall we again break your commands and intermarry with the peoples who commit such detestable practices? Would you not be angry enough with us to destroy us, leaving us no remnant or survivor? 15 O LORD, God of Israel, you are righteous! We are left this day as a remnant. Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in your presence.”
1. Ezra’s prayer, which ranks with Nehemiah 9 and Daniel 9 as one of the great prayers of confession in the Bible, shows us the godly reaction to sin.
2. It is amazing to me that Ezra confessed the great sin of his people, identifying himself with them, even though he had not personally sinned in this regard.
3. Ezra makes it clear that God has been faithful and more than merciful, in spite of Israel’s unfaithfulness and rebellion.
4. Ezra knows that God has a right to destroy them, because after being disciplined in the Babylonian captivity for their unfaithful union with the nations and their gods, they hadn’t learned much, because as soon as they were released from captivity the first thing they did was to marry people from other nations!
5. The most striking feature of the prayer is that it contains no explicit petition – no request for God to continue His gracious providing; not even an appeal for forgiveness – no this prayer is pure confession laced with strong teaching overtones.
6. In the end, Ezra shows us that the godly reaction to sin is to recognize it from Scripture, to mourn over it, and to confess it without excuse to the God of mercy.
G. The story continues in chapter 10: 1 While Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God, a large crowd of Israelites - men, women and children - gathered around him. They too wept bitterly. 2 Then Shecaniah son of Jehiel, one of the descendants of Elam, said to Ezra, “We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the peoples around us. But in spite of this, there is still hope for Israel. 3 Now let us make a covenant before our God to send away all these women and their children, in accordance with the counsel of my lord and of those who fear the commands of our God. Let it be done according to the Law. 4 Rise up; this matter is in your hands. We will support you, so take courage and do it.”
1. When I look at what Ezra did in response to the sin he learned about, I’m amazed at the
reaction of the people.
2. Had Ezra flown off into a tirade against the people, or had Ezra attempted to impose an appropriate punishment, what might have happened?
a. The people might have said, “Whatever!” Or might have thought the tirade was correction and punishment enough.
3. Can you remember how our mom’s and dad’s lectures used to make us feel when we had done wrong? We likely tried to tune them out, or rolled your eyes at them – internally, if not externally.
a. But what if, rather than correct you, your parents wept and prayed before God? Would your reaction have been different?
b. I was certainly much more touched when my parents were disappointed than mad.
4. So it was almost like Ezra’s inaction (except repentant prayer), was more potent than any flurry of activity would have been.
5. And so, instead of whipping a reluctant people into action, Ezra has pricked their conscience to the point at which they propose a solution and urge him to lead them into that solution.
H. Let’s pause and consider the solution that was proposed.
1. How many of you are uncomfortable with the proposed solution of sending away the foreign wives and children? Me too!
2. We must recognize that these measures are extreme by the standards of both Testaments.
3. We must also recognize that the text says nothing about the matter that gives rise to the greatest outrage today – the lack of provision for the divorced women and their children.
a. These sent away ones most likely would have returned to their own families who would then have taken responsibility for them, which was the custom of those cultures.
b. We don’t know what provision were made, since the text is concerned with other matters.
4. We know that the Old Testament teaches that divorce was permitted (Deut. 24:1), but it was considered a serious undertaking and one which God “hated” (Mal. 2:16).
a. Incidentally, Malachi was a contemporary of Ezra and Nehemiah, and some scholars believe that the passage on divorce in Malachi 2 had to do with Jewish exiles who returned to Jerusalem, divorced their Jewish wives and took pagan, foreign wives of the land.
5. The situation described in Ezra 9 and 10 is a classic example of one in which the lesser of two evils had to be chosen.
a. If a serious reason for divorce could ever had existed, this had a better claim than most.
b. Distasteful as this may be, the marriage reforms here in Ezra must be seen as a purification of the community along priestly lines of separation from all that was unclean.
c. Their intent was to preserve the faith intact and redefine Israel’s identity as a religious community.
6. As Christians, we know from NT teaching that we can’t use the Ezra example as a reason to divorce an unbelieving spouse.
7. Paul wrote: To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. And if a woman has a
husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him (1 Cor. 7:12-13).
H. The story continues: 5 So Ezra rose up and put the leading priests and Levites and all Israel under oath to do what had been suggested. And they took the oath. 6 Then Ezra withdrew from before the house of God and went to the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. While he was there, he ate no food and drank no water, because he continued to mourn over the unfaithfulness of the exiles. 7 A proclamation was then issued throughout Judah and Jerusalem for all the exiles to assemble in Jerusalem. 8 Anyone who failed to appear within three days would forfeit all his property, in accordance with the decision of the officials and elders, and would himself be expelled from the assembly of the exiles. 9 Within the three days, all the men of Judah and Benjamin had gathered in Jerusalem. And on the twentieth day of the ninth month, all the people were sitting in the square before the house of God, greatly distressed by the occasion and because of the rain. 10 Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have been unfaithful; you have married foreign women, adding to Israel's guilt. 11 Now make confession to the LORD, the God of your fathers, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples around you and from your foreign wives.” 12 The whole assembly responded with a loud voice: “You are right! We must do as you say. 13 But there are many people here and it is the rainy season; so we cannot stand outside. Besides, this matter cannot be taken care of in a day or two, because we have sinned greatly in this thing. 14 Let our officials act for the whole assembly. Then let everyone in our towns who has married a foreign woman come at a set time, along with the elders and judges of each town, until the fierce anger of our God in this matter is turned away from us.” 15 Only Jonathan son of Asahel and Jahzeiah son of Tikvah, supported by Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite, opposed this. 16 So the exiles did as was proposed. Ezra the priest selected men who were family heads, one from each family division, and all of them designated by name. On the first day of the tenth month they sat down to investigate the cases, 17 and by the first day of the first month they finished dealing with all the men who had married foreign women.
1. Notice that Ezra continued to approach this problem spiritually, with fasting and prayer.
2. Ezra called for a mandatory assembly, and the people obeyed and followed his leadership.
3. Notice that it was late in the year, the 20th day of the 9th month, well into the equivalent of Dec.
a. Verse 9 captures for us the shivering misery of the scene – the people were greatly distressed because of the occasion and because of the rain.
4. Ezra then called it like it was: “You have been unfaithful…adding to Israel’s guilt”…then he issued the suggestion the leaders had proposed.
a. The whole assembly, minus four dissenters, agreed to both his assessment and his solution.
5. The crowd pointed out that it was a big problem that needed time to resolve, and that trying to do it while standing in the rain was not wise.
a. The fact that it took 3 months to work through all the cases confirmed the fact that it couldn’t be done in a day or two and that the problem was a bigger one than Ezra realized.
b. The rest of the chapter, which we won’t read, catalogues all the cases of foreign marriages by name.
c Where we might have expected some cover-up of priestly guilt, with true biblical candor, this catalogue goes out of its way to give it prominence, by reversing the order followed in chapter 2, where the priest were listed last, not first, as here in chapter 10.
I. And so, it is on this painful note that the book of Ezra comes to an end.
1. But in many respects, it is an appropriate way for the book to close.
2. It was Ezra’s mission to go to Jerusalem and teach the people God’s law.
3. And it is God’s law that brings the knowledge of sin, and hopefully repentance from sin.
4. Rest assured, this is not the last time we will see Ezra.
5. This negative strengthening of God’s people will be paired with Ezra’s positive strengthening of God’s people thirteen years later in Nehemiah chapters 8 – 10.
II. The Application – what lessons from today’s story can we apply to our lives?
A. First, We learn that God’s people must remain distinct and distinctive from the world.
1. Blending in with the world rather than being distinct from it has plagued God’s people down through the centuries.
2. Monasticism was an attempt to escape worldly influence by withdrawing from the world.
3. The problem with monasticism is that Jesus wants His followers to be in the world as salt and light, but not to be of the world (Matt. 5:13-16; John 17:14-18).
4. Jesus calls us to go into the world with a distinct mission, to reach the world with the gospel, but to do that effectively, we must remain unstained from the world.
5. James 4:4 bluntly says, “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an
enemy of God.”
6. First John 2:15 is no less strong: “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
7. An obvious application of this point and today’s text has to do with whom we marry.
a. I have seen many Christian young people fall in love with unbelievers and consequently either fall away from their faith or have their zeal for the Lord greatly diluted.
b. If you know and love Jesus Christ, the most important thing to look for in a mate is a person who loves Christ and is devoted to following Him.
c. A believer and an unbeliever have totally different values and goals.
8. So, be on your guard! Satan uses the tool of dating or marrying an unbelieving or worldly person to ensnare many Christians.
B. Second, We learn that sin must be seen for what it is and it must be detested.
1. We are prone to minimize our sin by calling it a shortcoming, a fault, a tendency, or other benign terms, aren’t we?
a. Our first reaction to sin must be to see it clearly from the Scriptures.
b. We will mourn over sin when we realize it was our sin that put our Savior on the cross.
2. Satan always sugarcoats sin to make it look appealing.
3. We mistakenly think that sin will get us what we want, but it always leads to bondage and ruin.
4. God’s Word plainly warns that sin not only enslaves and eventually destroys the sinner; it also takes a toll on others.
5. While sin always hurts other people and we need to ask their forgiveness when we sin against them, sin is first and foremost against God Himself.
C. Third, We learn that when we find ourselves in sin, it must be mourned, confessed, and decisively eliminated (repentance).
1. First of all, genuine repentance involves heartfelt sorrow before God for our sins.
a. Paul says that godly sorrow “produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death” (2 Cor. 7:10
2. Second,, genuine repentance takes the necessary action to correct our sins, even when it is personally difficult to do so.
a. Jesus said, “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off…” (Mt. 5:30)
3. God’s desire for His church is that every member would correct his or her sins because of heartfelt repentance before God.
4. But if a sinning member refuses to repent after the biblical steps are followed (Matt. 18:15-17; Gal. 6:1), the Bible is clear that he must be publicly removed from the fellowship.
6. The leaders of God’s family must enforce holy standards on the whole body, or the church and the testimony of Christ will be compromised.
D. There are many today who teach that all that a sinner has to do is to believe in Jesus, and that repentance has nothing to do with salvation.
1. They would say, repentance should come later, and to call sinners to repentance is to confuse faith and works.
2. That’s not what Jesus said. Jesus said that He came to call sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32).
3. In the Great Commission Jesus said “that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations” (Luke 24:47).
E. But repentance is not just something that we must do at the beginning of salvation.
1. It is something that should characterize believers all of their lives.
2. As the Holy Spirit convicts us through God’s Word of our sins, we should continue to repent.
3. Some Christians have adopted a word for those who are true Christians: They are called “Repenters.”
4. True Christians should be genuine, lifelong “Repenters.”
F. Is there something you are involved in that you know you need to repent of?
1. It could be a relationship online, an addiction to a substance or pornography, lying, stealing, mistreatment of others, or a lack of serving God.
2. Will your reaction to sin and the sins of others be like Ezra’s?
3. Are you willing to deal decisively with your sins and the sins of others?
4. May God help us to be His holy people through ongoing repentance.
Resources:
Lesson 9: The Godly Reaction to Sin (Ezra 9:1-15) by Steven J. Cole
Lesson 10: Genuine Repentance (Ezra 10:1-44) by Steven J. Cole
Ezra-Nehemiah, by Mark Throntveit, Interpretation Commentary Series, 1992
Ezra & Nehemiah, by Derek Kidner, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, 1979
Ezra, Nehemiah, & Esther, by J. Vernon McGee
