by Ian McKee (Northern Ireland)
Grief attracts. The abject misery of Ezra sitting astonied with garments rent demonstrates his horror and intense distress. The moral outrage and disgrace felt by this servant of God in relation to these illicit relationships caused him, uniquely in Scripture, to pluck out his hair.
This was grief uncommon in its intensity. It was the experience of one who studied the Scriptures until he knew God intimately. More than any other man at this time, Ezra understood the abhorrence of God in relation to the present sin. The measure of his understanding is evidenced by the overwhelming effect upon his physical and emotional capacity. Thus he continued to sit traumatised.
Ezra’s grief was also magnetic: "Then were assembled unto me every one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel," Ezra 9.4. He was no longer alone! There are others who take the Word of God seriously. They all come to Ezra feeling the gravity of this sin. They too had kept apart from this evil and were alarmed that God would revisit His people with judgment.
His grief was silent and settled. There are emotions too deep for words that silence only can express: "none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great," Job 2.13. Ezra continued in this manner until "the evening sacrifice," Ezra 9.5.
His subsequent activity is on the basis and value of sacrifice, which prefigures the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary. This is the only ground on which those who have sinned can approach God and plead for His continued grace and mercy. While recognising that fact, Ezra does not proceed with a blithe spirit. For too many the gravity of sin is little understood. For others any conviction of sin is shallow and transient. But that was not the case with Ezra. His initial activity is in keeping with rent garments. The intervening hours of silence had not diminished his view of the seriousness of this sin. His attitude is instructive: "I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the Lord my God," Ezra 9.5. On the value of the evening sacrifice Ezra will confess the sins of the people. His posture indicates the genuine humiliation, dependence, submission and earnest supplication of one who can intercede for his brethren.
Then Ezra began to speak to God. He held nothing back! "O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to Thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens," Ezra 9.6. Even though innocent personally, he identifies himself in priestly exercise with the people he represents before God. He then reviews God’s dealings in the history of His people and acknowledges the sin of each succeeding generation.
Ezra also considers the grace of God, particularly over the past 80 years since the decree of Cyrus, "to leave us a remnant to escape," Ezra 9.8. A remnant! The exiles that remained in Babylon were not accorded this title. This is a new word, for those who have escaped from danger, which occurs in Ezra 9.8,14,15; Neh.1.2. Also, in dependence upon God they were given a position as "a nail in His holy place," that is as a secure fixture in the restored sanctuary, Ezra 9.8. They could have links with One of whom we read, "And I will fasten Him as a nail in a sure place; and He shall be for a glorious throne to His father’s house. And they shall hang upon Him all the glory …," Isa.22.23,24.
Were they prepared to jeopardise those links with the Temple and Messiah, which had given them recent encouragement? "That our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage," Ezra 9.8. What made their eyes to shine again, giving them vigour and joy? The mercy shown in bringing them back to Judah and the building of the Temple! This was a pledge as to their place in Divine purpose. But that reviving was partial. Only a remnant of the Jews had returned. Therefore there is a fullness, as yet unrealised, which was put in jeopardy by the present sin of illicit relationships.
He also recognises base ingratitude as "God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem," Ezra 9.9. They had sinned in the face of God’s protecting care, which enclosed them more effectively than a physical wall.
Ezra concludes with a short and honest prayer, Ezra 9.10. He acknowledges that the remnant have nothing to say in their defence. Ignorance of the law could not be pleaded. They had sinned against light. They had no excuse. He knew that the nation’s history gave abundant testimony that breakdown in national separation, leads to idolatry, which occasions Divine chastisement. Ezra’s conclusion, therefore, is "give not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor seek their peace or their wealth for ever: that ye may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children for ever," Ezra 9.12. Again, Ezra uses the word for "taking up," which he used in Ezra 9.2. Ezra was a skilled scribe. He is specific in his terminology. He is not dealing, as will become clear in chapter 10, with lawfully contracted marriages. And that which is unlawful in the sight of God cannot be legitimised by human sanction or ceremony.
He then acknowledges that God did not punish to the level that the nation’s iniquities deserved, Ezra 9.13. This is borne out by the preservation of a remnant. However, past sins were being revived. There was great danger that Divine wrath would be justly repeated, and the remnant obliterated, Ezra 9.14. He justifies God and is explicit that the actions of the princes and rulers in relation to the foreign women constitute "trespasses", Ezra 9.15. Moral sin unjudged will threaten the very existence of the testimony. "Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump," 1Cor.5.6. As a leader of God’s people, he must judge the evil and not temporise. A principle that remains valid today!
— to be continued (D.V.)