Dirty Hands and Clean Hearts

Ezra 9:1-15

Good morning. Well, here we are almost done with the study in Ezra and boy does it get touchy here in Chapter 9. There is trouble in the ranks so to speak, from the top down there is a crisis. Now by today's standards most people would not find anything wrong with mixed marriages, but it was a big deal in Ezra's time. And from what I hear bloodline is still an important thing in Israel. 

Probably more to the point was that the people of Israel were not following the laws concerning mixed marriages set by God. Sadly even some of the priest had taken foreign wives, if anyone should have known better it was these guys. Anyway here we go with Ezra 9.

A civilization may be wrecked without any spectacular crimes or criminals but by constant petty breaches of faith and minor complicities on the part of men considered very nice people. - Herbert Butterfield

Leadership confers power. By virtue of position alone, men and women in leadership affect circumstances and people within their domain. Older children to younger children, parent to child, president to nation, pastor to church – the force of one person spreads outward in concentric rings of influence. Even when perceived as weak, the leader remains the agent of change, their passivity or dullness creating voids others must fill or create new crises that bring revision or alteration.

When Ezra arrived in Jerusalem, an established hierarchy of priest, Levites, and civic officials directed the affairs of Jerusalem and Judea. Through candid dialogue Ezra was made aware of misconduct among certain leaders. Their actions had created a permissive atmosphere so that their lifestyle was being replicated throughout the community.

Ezra confronted the situation with wisdom. His concern for God's nation and his commitment to God's character compelled him to respond in confession and repentance on behalf of the people. With a prayer similar to the prayers in Daniel 9 and Nehemiah 9, Ezra's is also one of the great prayers of confession in the Bible.

Ezra had arrived in Jerusalem and after some time He gets His annual report and things are not going so good.

1. The Report (vs. 1-2): After receiving the king’s commission, Ezra led a party of Jews to return to Jerusalem (Ezra 7–8). God blessed their trip with safety for the travelers and bounty for the temple. Good news abounded and national restoration appeared to be just on the horizon. But the mood changed drastically in chapter 9 as Ezra confronted widespread sin.

Verse 1 begins with the phrase “when these things were done,” this, refers to the delivery of the goods for the temple in chapter 8.

Now, four months have passed since Ezra arrived in Jerusalem. For some reason some of the leaders of Israel now came to Ezra with a report of widespread sin. This small group of leaders were not tattling. They were giving Ezra an official report out of respect for the law which, in accordance with Artaxerxes's decree, served as both religious and civil authority. 

 

According to the report, the “people of Israel,” including “the priests and the Levites,” had not “separated themselves from the peoples of the lands” (v. 1). Instead, they had intermarried with these peoples and had taken “some of their daughters as wives for them selves and their sons” (v. 2). As a result, “the holy seed [was] mixed with the peoples of those lands” (v. 2). An especially distressing detail is added in verse 2: “Indeed, the hand of the leaders and rulers has been foremost in this trespass.” Whereas priests and Levites had already been numbered among the trespassers in 9:1, now we discover that other leaders had also led the decline into transgression.

The unusual phrase “holy seed” blends two biblical concepts: the people of God and the seed of Abraham. It emphasizes Israel’s uniqueness as a nation set apart for God alone. God's instructions not to intermarry with the Canaanites was purely religious, not racial (Joseph and Moses had foreign wives). The emphasis was on the “detestable practices” of the surrounding peoples, specifically their idol worship. 

 

The list of foreign peoples in verse 1 represents the kind of people found in the lands surrounding Judah. The Book of Deuteronomy states bluntly: When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, and when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly.—Deuteronomy 7:1–4 

 

As societies, they were not the Jew's neighbors, at the time of Ezra, but they were illustrative of pagan practices and God's disapproval of such. Like those of Ezra's day, you have to be on your guard or you will find yourself immersed in the ways of the world. You will be like Lot, who started out in the fertile fields of Sodom and ended up with a house in the city.

Did this announcement come as a surprise to Ezra, probably not. Maybe he hoped that his arrival might set things right, maybe he hoped the problem would just go away. How many times have you been there? Like with most of us, the problem for Ezra did not just go away.

2. The Response (vs. 3-4)

Once the issue became official, Ezra did not respond nonchalantly to this distressing report.

Immediately he tore his clothing. In Eastern cultures, the tearing of one's garment was a symbol of humility, anguish, or mourning. That Ezra tore both his outer garment and his inner garment indicating the strong emotion and deep distress he felt on behalf of the community. 

Pulling hair from his head and beard were also a sign of mourning. Because the surrounding pagan nations shaved their heads and beards when mourning, the Israelites were forbidden to do the same. 

Finally, Ezra sat down appalled, stunned, devastate or stupefy. Ezra’s gestures of grief not only expressed his own feelings but also drew others around him (v. 4). Verse 4 clarifies who had sinned by intermarriage: “those who had been carried away captive.” The problem did not involve those who had remained in the land after the Babylonian invasion, but, rather, those who were sent back to restore Judah. With fellow mourners gathered around him, Ezra sat “astonished until the evening sacrifice,” probably about 3:00 p.m.

Notice that the problem was not with the pagans, it was with God's people. It has been said it is the same today. That we as God's people have quit mourning for sins committed and have become excepting of them. When you see Christians acting contrary to God's laws are you appalled, stunned, devastated or stupefied? Do you mourn over the affront against God?”

Ezra and the others with him sat in silence, appalled and shocked at this deliberate disregard for God's law. They did so until the time of the evening sacrifice, around 3:00 p.m. And then it was time to get up and do something.

3. The Prayer (vs. 5-15): Ezra sat appalled for several hours, perhaps “fasting” (v. 5). The Hebrew word translated as “fasting” conveys more of an attitude of humiliation than of self-denial.

At the time of the evening sacrifice, Ezra offered a prayer of confession. He began by falling on his knees in a gesture of submission to God. His kneeling further emphasized an attitude of humility. As a person before a potentate, Ezra bowed before God with his hands spread out in admission of the people's unworthiness and great need.

Ezra’s prayer began in the first-person singular, “I am too ashamed,” then moved to the first-person plural as Ezra confessed corporate sin, “for our iniquities …” (v. 6). He did not distance himself from the community. Instead he identified with the people, including those who had sinned and produced the crisis. He conveyed the gravity of national sin by describing it as rising up to the heavens. Not only had the Jewish iniquities “risen higher than [their] heads” (v. 6), but their guilt had “grown up to the heavens” (v. 6). 

 

Verse 7 provides a brief summary of Israel’s guilt, which explains why the leaders of the nation had been punished by foreign kings. This also explains why Judah, even at this time, was subject to foreign rule. But verses 8 and 9 testify to God’s goodness, found in the restoration of the temple and reestablishment of traditional worship. The “wall of protection” referred not to the walls of Jerusalem but to the restored relationship between the Lord and Israel. 

Ezra repeatedly return to the law as the basis for life and conduct. The current resulted not from conflicting opinions or difference in culture and tradition but from a violations of God's express will. In spite of God’s grace, the people had forsaken his commandments (v. 10). Ezra emphasized God’s commandment not to intermarry with the peoples from the land, who were “unclean” (v. 11), it was morally and ritually opposed to God’s holiness. Only faithful obedience would allow the Jews to leave the land “as an inheritance to [their] children for ever” (v. 12). Only faithful obedience will allow you to dwell in that land God has promised.

Ezra then comes full circle to his opening theme: the habitual disobedience of Israel and God's enduring mercy. Ezra acknowledged that the exile was a result of...evil deeds and great guilt. But as harsh and difficult as the exile was, God had gone easier on them then they deserved. And now He had brought back a remnant to Jerusalem and Judea. Ezra saw the severity of God's holiness and understood that love and mercy tempered His response. Praise God it still does!

Ezra wondered how long God would continue to extend mercy to a people who regularly rebelled against Him, even in the face of extraordinary grace. Like Moses he felt shame, confusion, and amazement that God had been treated so indifferently. He understood that God's justice could annihilate every one of them.

Verse 15 concludes the prayer of confession with declarations of God's righteousness and the people's guilt, but Ezra stopped short of asking for forgiveness. Though God had graciously shown mercy throughout Israel's history, Ezra thought it would be impertinent to assume divine acquittal: not one of us can stand in your presence. God does not owe you anything, so don't live as though He does.

Conclusion: Several years ago, a man and his wife decided to restore a dilapidated patio behind their home to turn it into a usable room. Short on money, but long on naïveté, they chose to do the work their selves. For weeks they spent their free moments tearing apart the old structure. The more they worked, the more they discovered rotting timbers and a poor structural design. They spent hours in dusty, joyless demolition until they finally arrived at a base from which they could begin rebuilding. As I read this, I am surprised that they made it through that first stage of restoration. When they were finally able to build and to paint, it seemed like a party compared with the preliminary work of tearing down.

But that’s the way it is with restoration. Everybody loves renewal or restoration, in theory, but true restoration and rebuilding almost always require a painful process of taking apart what has gone be fore. And, unfortunately, it can be quite messy. Are you ready to get your hands dirty and your hearts clean?