MORE THAN JUST FEEL BAD (EZRA 10)
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By the time Bobby arrived, the football game had already started. “Why are you so late?” asked his friend.
“I couldn’t decide between going to church and going to the football game. So I tossed a coin,” said Bobby.
“But that shouldn’t have taken too long,” said the friend.
“Well, I had to toss it 35 times.”
In Ezra chapter 9 Ezra felt heavyhearted (9:5) and heartbroken knowing the priests and the Levites (9:1) and the princes and rulers (9:3) did not separate themselves from the people of the lands and had taken local women for themselves and for their sons. He rent his clothes, plucked off the hair of his head and his beard, and sat down stupefied (9:3). In chapter 10, this chapter, his tears freely flowed (10:1) Not only his but the people as well (10:3).
How do we know if people have truly repented? What is the proof of a person’s conversion and change? Why is change more than just crying and confessing?
Confession Must Be Contrite
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 Shekaniah 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.” 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.
Ken Bailey was a laborer on the Alaska Pipeline back in the mid 70’s. He worked up in the icy cold for a year and came back home and decided to visit church. The first Sunday he walked through the doors and sat in the back seat. He had a beard, looked like a Grizzly bear and perhaps a man that would never become a Christian. That morning the gospel was preached and an invitation given. The instant the music began Ken came rushing down the aisle. Tears came down his face as he gave his life to Jesus. The next Sunday he came back to services and he was dressed in a 3 piece suit and no beard! When someone asked what caused him to shave and dress up he said, “Jesus changed me on the inside and I want people to know it - so I changed the outside.” (Rick Stacy, Pastor of the Meridian Christian Church, Okemos, Michigan).
The verb “gather” (vv 1, 7, 9) makes one of its most occurrences in a chapter in the Bible. It was a meeting that people through the ages would not forget. People from all walks of life – men and women and children (v 1), the chief priests and the Levites (v 5), the princes and the elders (v 8), the rulers and the judges (v 14), and “all” in Hebrew - all Israel (v 5), all the children of the captivity (v 7), all the men of Judah and Benjamin (v 9), all the people (v 9) all the congregation (v 12) and all the men that had taken strange wives (v 17). “Wept bitterly” (v 1) does not provide an accurate picture of what happened. In Hebrew it is “wept very weeping/sore.” They cried their hearts out, their eyes swollen, their mouths dry, their face red and their throat coarse.
Elam, whose six sons were offenders (v 26), spoke for all. Surprisingly this is the first time the first person plural “We + trespassed” phrase - “we have trespassed/offended” (v 2) - is used in the Bible. Not only that, this is the first “trespass” confession in the Bible because it is usually in the third person – we trespassed (1 Chron 5:25) and he trespassed (2 Chron 28:22). In Hebrew there is another “we” before “we have been unfaithful/trespassed”– “we, we have been unfaithful/trespassed.” They accepted, admitted and acknowledged that they had failed the Lord, flouted God’s laws and forsaken His covenant. Trespass or transgress is from the preposition “very” – to overstep, overextended and overreached, over and above, over and over, over and over again.
The phrase “against our God” was a confession that ties only two books in the Bible together - Ezra and Nehemiah (Neh 13:27) together because the two addressed the same marriage problems after the exile. Foreign women (v 3) was a problem strictly mentioned in the post-exilic era because it was widespread, in Ezra (Ezra 10:11, 14 17, 18, 44). Sometimes it is known as Solomon’s sin (Neh 13:26). God is not opposed to the strange women they wedded, but the sinful idols they worshipped. Ezra did an unexpected thing, which was to make a covenant with the Israelites, an act so unusual and foreign to all but Ezra in the Bible. The three imperatives in verse 4 are as follows:
Rise up v 4
Take courage v 4
Do v 4
Attention
Attitude
Action
Don’t delay
Don’t dread
Don’t disobey
Decision
Daring
Deed
Mourn (v 5) is different from weeping because mourning is a usually for an extended time, just as Jacob - for Joseph - and others like Nehemiah did (Gen 37:34, 1 Chron 7:22, Neh 1:4). Ezra’s mourning was unique in the Bible because it stipulated that he did not eat bread nor did he drink water (v 5).
Change Must Be Concrete
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.
A soap manufacturer and a pastor were walking together down a street in a large city. The soap manufacturer casually said, “The gospel you preach hasn’t done much good has it? Just observe. There is still a lot of wickedness in the world, and a lot of wicked people, too!”
The pastor made no reply until they passed a dirty little child making mud pies in the gutter. Seizing the opportunity, the pastor said, “I see that soap hasn’t done much good in the world either; for there is much dirt, and many dirty people around.”
The soap man said, “Oh, well, soap is only useful when it is applied.”
And the pastor said, “Exactly, so it is with the gospel.”
Forfeit (v 8) is the lightest of all translations and the only time it is translated as such. Other translations are accursed (Josh 6:18), utterly destroy (Josh 6:21) and utterly slay (2 Chron 20:23). It is a no reversal, no return and no reparations punishment for the offenders. Expel (v 8) means divide (Gen 1:4), put difference (Lev 10:10), separated (Lev 20:24) and sever out (Ezek 39:14). To be expelled is to be ostracized – to be excluded, ejected, embarrassed, estranged, and excommunicated from the community. Forfeit has to do with possessions (belongings) and expel has to do with people (belonging).
Ezra started on the fifth month of the seventh year of the king (Ezra 7:8), and now it was the ninth month (v 9). The word “distressed” occurs for the first time in the Bible. It is more accurate to be trembling (KJV) – shaking, shuddering ad shivering. The rain is plural. So it added and amounted to their distress, disapproval and denunciation.
Three days (v 3) reveal the significance of the matter, the scrutiny into the issue and the support to the case. The three days (v 8) were stipulated by the officials and elders, not Ezra. There was no exception, no exemption and no extension. If it was good enough for elders, chiefs and laymen, it was good enough for everybody, the commoners, the laymen. The mention of the “men of Judah and Jerusalem” highlighted how heavy their hearts were because they had already lost the ten tribes of Israel, who were nowhere to be found and never to return again. The men of Judah and Jerusalem at hand were the remnant (Ezra 9:14), the rest (Neh 7:72), the remainder (Ps 76:10), the residue (Ezek 9:8) of all that were left.
Commitment Must Be Continued
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 honor the Lord, the God of your ancestors, 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. 18 Among the descendants of the priests, the following had married foreign women: From the descendants of Joshua son of Jozadak, and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib and Gedaliah.
A young woman, who wanted to point her life in a new direction, went into a church, took paper and pen, and proceeded to write down a long list of things she was going to do to change her life. She signed the paper, placed it on the altar and then sat down to wait for God’s approval.
After a time, the voice of God spoke to her inner heart: “You are going about this all wrong. Tear up what you have written.”
Reluctantly, the young woman followed God’s instruction. Then she heard the voice of God speak to her listening heart, “Take a blank sheet of paper and sign your name to it at the bottom. Place it on the altar and I’ll fill it in.”
Verse 11 has three imperatives. The first - honor - is an imperative – “make” (imperative) thanksgiving/praise (noun) in Hebrew. It is not supposed to be a solemn, sad and serious matter, but an occasion to declare their trust, testimony and turnaround. The second – “do” – his will. Will is accepted (Ex 28:38), favor (Deut 33:23), desire (2 Chron 15:15), delight (Prov 11:1). It is what the Lord accepts, approves and applauds. The last imperative – separate – is a stern, strong and straightforward warning, just as Moses warned the children of Israel to separate themselves from the ambitious Korah in the wilderness (Num 16:21), also in the imperative, the only other time it’s used as an imperative in the Bible. Ezra did not just talk about the method – separate- but the motivation – give Him praise and do His will. It is first of all, God-ward and then man-ward, God-centered before man-handled.
The work could not to be done in one day or two (v 13). The guilty ones were to come at set/ appointed times (v 14). It continued from the twentieth day of the ninth month (v 9).to the first day of the tenth month (v 16) and into the first day of the first month next year (v 17). It was a sensational, sensitive and sorry issue that involved 17 priests (vv. 18-22), six Levites (v 23), a singer, three gatekeepers (v 24), and 84 others from around the nation (vv. 25-43). The whole society was searching, scrambling and stumped for answers. It had been decades since their return in Jerubbabel’s days.
Verse 14’s “act/stand” and “come” are “jussives” in Hebrew – an indirect imperative in Hebrew. The officials/rulers, the assembly/congregation, the elders and the judges all had a part in the decision. The officials in Hebrew could mean the princes (Ezra 7:28), lord (Ezra 8:25), the chief of the priests and the Levites, and chief of the fathers (Ezra 8:29), so a lot of people the offenders were famous, fearsome and favored. The judges made their first appearance in the book. The “fierce anger” (KJV, fierce + wrath) – the only occurrence in the post-exilic era - was usually associated with Israel’s past and her punishment - her idolatry (Ex 32:12), immorality with foreign women (Num 25:4), the rebellion of the ten spies (Num 32:14) and Achan (Josh 7:26), so the recognition of God’s hot, heated and hostile anger against sin.
Conclusion: Are there areas or attitudes in your life that need to be addressed, audited or abandoned? Is your faith second-hand, skin deep and short-lived? Repentance is a turnaround, a transformation and a testimony. Change must be inside out (internal-external), top down (leaders-laymen) and side by side (together). May our commitment be consistent, commendable and conscientious, touching our next-to-kin, next-door neighbors and the next generation!
