Ezra 9:1-15
9:1-2 Ezra and the people of Judah (freed from captivity) arrived in Jerusalem in the previous chapter. God had designed and ordered their release; He provided them all they needed to succeed anew (permission, provision, protection). Foremost, He impressed upon them His will and word. So many times in scripture God simplified the equation of life for humanity, Deuteronomy 11:26-28.
“Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today; and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.
Yet humanity has not followed the simple advice. In Deuteronomy 7:3-4, God explained that the people of the tribes of Israel were not to marry pagan people. He explained that association with people whose beliefs were in direct opposition to their own would corrupt their lifestyles and cause them to forfeit the blessing of God.
In the beginning of this ninth chapter of Ezra, the leaders approached him to deliver a devastating message: the people had begun to intermarry with the corrupt nations around them.
9:3-4 The news of the transgressions galvanized Ezra into despair, humiliation and finally, humble prayer. Ezra astonished that the people would so directly disobey God and so immediately after He had done so much for them. The people who had remained faithful to God joined Ezra in his sorrow.
9:5 It took Ezra awhile to recover from his painful shock. Often, righteous children of God feel hurt and confused by the choices people make in the world. For children of God, the equation of life truly is simple and to see it so flippantly rejected does not compute. The people of Judah were expertly set up to survive and thrive and they threw it away to serve their temptation for people and lifestyles that were not good for them.
9:6 God had enabled them to climb so high and suddenly, Ezra felt they had fallen back to base level... perhaps below it. Ezra felt ashamed and humiliated to even open communication with God due to the ungrateful, disgraceful actions of the people. Even though Ezra felt ashamed to approach God after such blatant ingratitude, for Ezra, God was refuge. For His faithful children, God's presence is our home base.
Ezra spoke to God from his heart: our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has grown up to the heavens. It simply did not seem appropriate to approach our holy God from such a spirituality dirty place.
9:7 Ezra pointed out that the people had been consistently undeserving of God's love and mercy. God generously provided chance after chance and many people just continued to waste the mercy bestowed upon them. The irony of the situation pained Ezra: finally, the children of Judah had been released from disciplinary captivity and with their freedom, they committed the exact same transgressions as before!
9:8-9 Ezra could not justify asking further forgiveness from God. He felt it was especially undeserved. God is so gracious, even though we each fall short of His glory, Romans 8:23. The remnant of Judah was small, enslaved, broken but God had remembered them and blessed them.
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. 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.
Except for God's love, they were insignificant. He loved them anyway; His love decided them significant. Ezra felt impossibly blessed, wholly undeserving but entirely grateful for the revival and light God gave to their lives. God provided them another blessed chance at a place in His kingdom and they squandered it away.
9:10 Ezra was so ashamed he could not find words worthy of God. How could they disregard God and replace Him with idols? They rejected the basis of His entire philosophy by living lifestyles in opposition to it. They submitted to their corrupt temptations rather than to their righteous God.
9:11-12 Ezra remembered God's exact words of caution.
‘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. 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.’
Ezra was a scribe for the word of God, he knew it well as he had dedicated his life to it. In Isaiah 43:26 we learn how beneficial it is for us to know the things God has promised. God supplies everything we need to maintain our freedom, blessing, and joy. In scripture, He also supplies us with everything we need to divinely-escape into freedom from temptation, fear, enemy, sin, condemnation.
Put Me in remembrance;Let us contend together;State your case, that you may be acquitted.
Ezra knew the word of God and therefore he knew how specifically the people had gone against it. Yet because he knew the word of God, he would have known that though they were not deserving of God's magnanimity, they would receive it anyway if they opened repentant hands and hearts toward it. If they turned their hears, they would be acquitted.
9:13-15 Ezra felt that God had already been lenient and magnanimous with them. He felt that they hadn't begun deserving and they were even further from deserving after the transgression. He could not bring himself to ask God for mercies he did not feel they had any right to receive.
In our own present time, the same quandary persists. So persists the love and mercy of God. Hebrews 7:25 Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. Know that Jesus makes intercession for you, claim that opportunity to be welcomed into the kingdom. The Kingdom is pristine and we have mud on our feet, we should not logically be allowed in. Our adherence to God's word and will is a cleansing as well as an invitation to the place we should most hope to belong.
