Ezra 9: 1 – 15
You’ve got to change your evil ways baby
9 When these things were done, the leaders came to me, saying, “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, with respect to the abominations of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. 2 For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, so that the holy seed is mixed with the peoples of those lands. Indeed, the hand of the leaders and rulers has been foremost in this trespass.” 3 So when I heard this thing, I tore my garment and my robe, and plucked out some of the hair of my head and beard and sat down astonished. 4 Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel assembled to me, because of the transgression of those who had been carried away captive, and I sat astonished until the evening sacrifice. 5 At the evening sacrifice I arose from my fasting; and having torn my garment and my robe, I fell on my knees and spread out my hands to the LORD my God. 6 And I said: “O my God, I am too ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God; for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has grown up to the heavens. 7 Since the days of our fathers to this day we have been very guilty, and for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plunder, and to humiliation, as it is this day. 8 And now for a little while grace has been shown from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a peg in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and give us a measure of revival in our bondage. 9 For we were slaves. Yet our God did not forsake us in our bondage; but He extended mercy to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to revive us, to repair the house of our God, to rebuild its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem. 10 And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken Your commandments, 11 which You commanded by Your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land which you are entering to possess is an unclean land, with the uncleanness of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations which have filled it from one end to another with their impurity. 12 Now therefore, do not give your daughters as wives for their sons, nor take their daughters to your sons; and never seek their peace or prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land, and leave it as an inheritance to your children forever.’ 13 And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, since You our God have punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us such deliverance as this, 14 should we again break Your commandments, and join in marriage with the people committing these abominations? Would You not be angry with us until You had consumed us, so that there would be no remnant or survivor? 15 O LORD God of Israel, You are righteous, for we are left as a remnant, as it is this day. Here we are before You, in our guilt, though no one can stand before You because of this!”
You’ve got to change your evil ways baby before the Lord deals with you. Sounds like a song doesn’t it, but it’s true. Our Holy Father disciplines His children. He does not want any of us to continue or return to any sinful evil way. Let me share with you some scripture which speaks about this point;
Proverbs 14: 12, “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.
Proverbs 21: 2, “Every man's way is right in his own eyes, But the LORD weighs the hearts.
Psalm 36: 4, “He plans wickedness upon his bed; He sets himself on a path that is not good; He does not despise evil.
Proverbs 4: 14, “Do not enter the path of the wicked and do not proceed in the way of evil men
Psalm 1: 1, “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
Psalm 17: 4, “As for the deeds of men, by the word of Your lips I have kept from the paths of the violent.
Psalm 119: 101, “I have restrained my feet from every evil way, That I may keep Your word.
Proverbs 4: 19, “The way of the wicked is like darkness; They do not know over what they stumble
Proverbs 15: 9, “The way of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, But He loves one who pursues righteousness.
Jeremiah 18: 15, “'For My people have forgotten Me, they burn incense to worthless gods and they have stumbled from their ways, From the ancient paths, to walk in bypaths, Not on a highway,
Zechariah 1: 4, “"Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, "Return now from your evil ways and from your evil deeds "' But they did not listen or give heed to Me," declares the LORD.
It is important here to recognize that what was in question was not the taking of foreign wives who willingly turned away from all false gods and became worshippers of YHWH, but the problem of taking foreign wives who introduced their false gods and ideas into the worship of Israel. This is specifically brought out in 9.1-2, 11-12. It was because of such false worship that God’s judgment had come on Judah and Jerusalem previously, and there was a grave danger that it could occur again. It was this recognition, and not racism, that made Ezra act as he did. We note here that Ezra’s reference to himself in the first person continues. We are still within the sphere of his own memoirs. His decision here was vital to Israel’s future.
It is understandable why some of the returnees should seek wives among the local population because the numbers given in Ezra 2 suggested that many of them were unmarried. But what they should have ensured was that those wives rejected idolatry and became true worshipers of the God of Israel, Yahweh. It was the failure to observe this rule, by taking wives still involved in idolatry, that led to the problem
It is noteworthy that the problem in question was drawn to Ezra’s attention by some of the ‘princes’ of Israel. This suggests that something had made them become concerned about a situation that they were aware of. And this must surely have been the Law of God as expounded by Ezra. Ezra had begun his work of teaching the Law, and dealing with law-breaking, and in the course of time he would deal with the very question that was raised, especially as he was probably aware of a little of what was going on. But seemingly he did not want to meet the people head on over such a large issue until at least some concern was expressed. Rather he dealt with it by reading aloud and expounding the Law of God on the subject, leaving that to work on their hearts. Indeed, 10.3 suggests that it had been a matter of concern among those who were faithful to the Law ‘and trembled at it’ to such an extent that they now came up with a solution of how it could be dealt with. So, we must see what follows as the people’s response to the teaching of the Law.
9 When these things were done, the leaders came to me, saying, “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, with respect to the abominations of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.
‘Now when these things were done.’ sometime after the arrival of Ezra and his party, once their celebrations were over, and once he had carried out the king’s initial requests. ‘These things’ included the furthering of the people and the house of God which would involve a lot of his time. Initially proclaiming the Law around the area, and setting up a system of judges would also necessarily take some time, and the period was broken up by the Feast of Trumpets on the 1st day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement on the 10th day of the seventh month and the Feast of Tabernacles on the 15th day of the seventh month for eight days, during which time the Law would be read out to the people (Deuteronomy 31.10-13). It may well have been the reading of the Law at the Feast of Tabernacles in the seventh month, together with exposition by Ezra, that made certain of the leaders finally come together and decide to approach Ezra in this way. It was no light thing to do.
Some of the ‘princes’, (heads of fathers’ houses, rulers of districts, and no doubt some of the recently appointed judges), came as a deputation to Ezra and pointed out that men out of all Israel, (the people, the priests and the Levites), were all guilty of practising idolatry and the evils of Canaanite religion. Their words clearly reflect a knowledge of the Law which had probably been emphasised by Ezra. The reference to the Canaanite, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites and the Amorites can be instanced again and again. Exodus 34.11, 16 and Deuteronomy 7.1-4 are particularly apposite as they refer to the dangers inherent in marriage with these peoples with their debased religions. The peoples from north of Israel, or the wandering Arabs to the east, may well have been seen as Amorites. The reference to the Egyptians may have been derived from Leviticus 18.3, where the ‘doings of the land of Egypt’ were compared with the ‘doings of the land of Canaan’. The Ammonites and the Moabites were the source of the worship of Molech which was such an abomination to the prophets and such a curse to Israel, and was probably still being carried on in the land, which was probably one reason why, apart from their lack of hospitality, they were excluded from membership of the assembly of Israel for ten generations even though they should convert to Yahwism (Deuteronomy 23.3-6). But the impression of the whole is not that it says that it was all right to marry among peoples not named regardless of their religious attitude, but rather to condemn any marriage with people involved in idolatry, and that could include people who worshipped Yahweh along with other gods.
That God had been right to legislate in this way comes out in that, even after the warnings of the prophets and what had happened to Jerusalem in living memory, Israel were still marrying such people and being led astray by their ‘abominations’, that is by their idols and their false religious ideas. We must remember that of the poor who had been left in the land probably the large majority had continued in these ways, and as we have suggested the returnees might well have seen them with their idolatrous practices as reflecting the nations named. It would have been just as wrong to marry a practicing dual worshiper of Yahweh who included other gods as to marry into these peoples.
2 For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, so that the holy seed is mixed with the peoples of those lands. Indeed, the hand of the leaders and rulers has been foremost in this trespass.”
The ‘princes’ pointed out that the main culprits had been the aristocracy who should have been preventing it happening. And they saw their activities as causing ‘the holy seed’ of the returnees and those who had united with them to become mingled with ‘the peoples of the land’, by allowing the aristocrats and the other men of the new Israel to intermarry with idolaters.
We can compare Paul’s injunction in 1 Corinthians 6.15-17, where he condemns true Christians who have consorted with harlots, religious and otherwise, because by doing so they have become one with them. We should note that this reference to ‘the holy seed’ is in the words of the officials and is probably citing Isaiah 6.13. They are not the words of Ezra. But it does demonstrate that they saw themselves as the holy remnant of Israel, and as such needing to be religiously pure.
Once again, we must reiterate that at the heart of what happened was a hatred of idolatry and sexual perversion, rather than an attack on races. People of all such nations could eventually have been absorbed into Israel (and had been in the past) if they had truly turned to YHWH. It is, however, certainly a warning to us not to be ‘unequally yoked together with unbelievers’ (2 Corinthians 6.14), because that is to mix light with darkness.
3 So when I heard this thing, I tore my garment and my robe, and plucked out some of the hair of my head and beard and sat down astonished.
Ezra’s response was immediate. This does not necessarily indicate that he had been unaware in general of what was happening, but it does demonstrate that he wanted the people to realize how seriously he treated the matter. He tore his clothes, plucked hair from his head and his beard, and ‘sat down desolated’. These were deliberate signs of distress and anger. They not only depicted sorrow, but judgment.
4 Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel assembled to me, because of the transgression of those who had been carried away captive, and I sat astonished until the evening sacrifice.
Then those who trembled at the words of the God of Israel, that is the truly God-fearing, who, of course, had not taken foreign idolatrous wives, gathered to him to support him because of the gross dereliction of duty, the grievous sin, of ‘those of the captivity’ (those who had returned with Zerubbabel) who had become involved with idolatry. Ezra was clearly now in the Temple area but in a place where people could come to him, that is, in the court around the Temple. And he sat there in his anger and anguish until the time for offering the regular evening sacrifice, at around 3.00 in the afternoon.
When the time of the evening sacrifice came, no doubt feeling that this act of atonement and dedication on the behalf of the whole of Israel was a suitable time, Ezra then rose from his sitting position and fell on his knees with his arms spread out towards YHWH. This presumably indicated spreading out his hands towards the sanctuary. And then he confessed before YHWH the sin of the people in the face of God’s gracious love towards them.
It was a prayer that suited the occasion only, not of a kind for general use, and is totally an admission of guilt. He does not even ask for mercy. He just leaves what response God will make in the hands of God. His prayer may in fact have been longer, but the gist of it is given here, for it is not only a prayer admitting guilt but is also an attempt to lead the people into similarly admitting their guilt, and that involved awakening their thoughts to the truth of the situation. He wants them to see the stark reality of what they have done.
5 At the evening sacrifice I arose from my fasting; and having torn my garment and my robe, I fell on my knees and spread out my hands to the LORD my God.
He had been sitting there with his garment and robe torn (verse 3), in a condition that demonstrated his humiliation, and it was in that condition that at the time of the daily evening sacrifice, he rose up and fell on his knees before God with his arms outstretched towards the Temple.
6 And I said: “O my God, I am too ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God; for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has grown up to the heavens.
Praying on behalf of the people he admitted to God the shame that ‘he’ felt concerning what ‘they all together’ had done. (‘I am ashamed --- our iniquities’). He was so ashamed that he himself blushed at the thought of lifting his face towards God. And this was because the sins of the new Israel, (in which he included himself), had grown and increased over their heads and their guilt had grown even up to the heavens. ‘Increased over our head’ probably indicates that they had got so big that they could not be contained within themselves but multiplied over their heads before God.
Ezra accepted communal responsibility. If Israel had sinned, then he had sinned. He had not taken an idolatrous foreign wife, but he shared guilt with those who had because he shared responsibility for what happened in the community. This was not just an ancient belief, there was logic to it, for the community should have done something to prevent it happening.
7 Since the days of our fathers to this day we have been very guilty, and for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plunder, and to humiliation, as it is this day.
By continuing in the sins of their (pre-exilic) fathers they shared their guilt, and they also shared in what had historically happened to them was the cause of their present condition. For it was due to ‘our’ iniquities that they (Israel and its anointed ones, kings and priests) had been delivered into the hands of the kings of the lands, suffering the sword, captivity, plunder and total embarrassment right up to this day. These were the sore judgments described in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28, the curses on those who broke the covenant, which Israel had suffered again and again through history, as the book of Kings reveals. And they were still suffering under them to some extent. The sword and plunder were a common hazard at the hands of their adversaries and of lawless bands.
This must not be interpreted as signifying that they must necessarily continue to suffer for the sins of their fathers, for the very idea behind the putting away of idolatrous foreign wives was in order to ensure God’s continuing favor. Corporate responsibility did not mean that there was no way out. If they repented they would not suffer for the sins of their fathers.
8 And now for a little while grace has been shown from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a peg in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and give us a measure of revival in our bondage.
But while they were still not truly free and were still in bondage to the Persian empire, God ‘for a little moment’ had shown them His unmerited favor and love (grace) in giving them a remnant who had escaped from exile, and were firmly established in His holy place, where God could enlighten their eyes and give them a little reviving of life even though they were in bondage. His ‘for a little moment’ contained within it the hint that it might not carry on unless they truly repented.
The remnant here is not simply those who survive disaster, as the word indicated when they were in the land but has in mind specifically those who have returned to the land as a remnant of His people.
‘To give us a nail (or ‘tent peg’).’ This may indicate that God has firmly encamped them in his holy place so that they are ‘tent-pegged’ there, or that He has given them a nail as a means of support by providing them with reliable leaders (compare Isaiah 22.23). ‘His holy place’ may be the Temple, or Jerusalem, or even His land. In Psalm 24.3 it indicates the Temple and it surrounds. In Psalm 46.4 it indicates the city of God.
‘May lighten our eyes.’ (1 Samuel 14.27), ‘he (Jonathan) dipped his rod in the honeycomb and put it to his mouth and his eyes were enlightened’. It describes the effect of good food for someone who is very hungry. Metaphorically therefore it signifies being revivified in spirit.
9 For we were slaves. Yet our God did not forsake us in our bondage; but He extended mercy to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to revive us, to repair the house of our God, to rebuild its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem.
Yet he recognized that they were still bondmen. He was under no grand illusions. Nevertheless, God had shown His unmerited favour in that He had not forsaken them in their bondage, but had revealed His covenant love towards them, either in a way that could be observed by the kings of Persia, or by causing the kings of Persia to look favorably on them. And the consequence was that He had given them a reviving of life through the Law, through the setting up of the house of God, and the repairing of its ruins, and to ‘give them a wall in Judah and Jerusalem’. This signified the protection of God Himself because of His presence in the Temple among His people, rather than literal walls. The word for ‘walls’ is not the usual one for the walls of a city, but rather refers to fences round vineyards. Thus it indicates that Judah and Jerusalem are God’s vineyard under God’s protection.
10 And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken Your commandments, 11 which You commanded by Your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land which you are entering to possess is an unclean land, with the uncleanness of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations which have filled it from one end to another with their impurity. 12 Now therefore, do not give your daughters as wives for their sons, nor take their daughters to your sons; and never seek their peace or prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land, and leave it as an inheritance to your children forever.’
But now his question is, what is he to say, ‘after this’, that is after God has demonstrated His unmerited favor in this way? For unbelievably, after His goodness to them, they have done the very thing that their forefathers had done. They have allowed among them the very abominations (idols) that God had commanded them to cast out. Thus, they had forsaken His commandments by allowing idols to enter into the very houses of His own people, His remnant who have returned to the land. They are turning it again into an unclean land as a result of these uncleannesses which have their source in the peoples of the land, and this in spite of God having forbidden them to take daughters from those peoples for themselves. Only by not taking these daughters will they be strong and eat the good of the land.
13 And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, since You our God have punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us such deliverance as this, 14 should we again break Your commandments, and join in marriage with the people committing these abominations? Would You not be angry with us until You had consumed us, so that there would be no remnant or survivor?
Ezra then drew out before God the awfulness of what they were doing. He asked God whether, in view of the fact that He had punished them less than they deserved, after all that had come on them as a result of their evil behavior and their great guiltiness, and had given them a remnant who had returned from exile, did He really think that they would again break His commandments and join in affinity with the very peoples who did these abominations? Surely it seemed impossible. Indeed, would it not mean that He would be angry with them and consume them, so that therefore there would be no remnant, nor anyone to escape?
In other words, he recognized that the people’s guilt was so great in doing what they had done, that really, they could not hope for mercy any more. Having been given a second chance by deliverance, they had failed to take it. How could they then expect anything but the severest of judgment?
15 O LORD God of Israel, You are righteous, for we are left as a remnant, as it is this day. Here we are before You, in our guilt, though no one can stand before You because of this!”
Ezra does not pray for mercy. He does not ask forgiveness. He instead reminds YHWH that He is the Righteous One. In one sense that leaves them without hope because it means that He will judge righteously as He did with Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18.25). But in another sense it means that He can bring to them His righteousness (Isaiah 46.13), so that in experiencing deliverance they can say, ‘Glory to the Righteous One’ (Isaiah 24.16). And it is this that Ezra is hoping for but dared not ask for.
He reminds YHWH that they are left as the remnant who have escaped because of His goodness, but immediately admits that that does not mean automatic pardon. He admits that they stand before Him in their guiltiness, something which means that none of them can stand before Him.
So his cry for mercy and pardon is unspoken and he recognizes that that will all depend on God’s compassion as the One Who has chosen His remnant.
