(REFLECTIONS ON Ezra 9:1-15)

I. WHAT HAPPENED?

1 After these things had been done, the leaders came to me and said, “The people of Israel, including the priests and the Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the neighboring peoples with their detestable practices, like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians and Amorites. 2 They have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, and have mingled the holy race with the peoples around them. And the leaders and officials have led the way in this unfaithfulness.”

Israel, the holy race, married and had children
with other nations creating a mixed race.

II. WHAT WAS EZRA’S INTIAL REACTION?

3 When I heard this, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled hair from my head and beard and sat down appalled. 4 Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of this unfaithfulness of the exiles. And I sat there appalled until the evening sacrifice.

Ezra responded emotionally and was appalled, shocked, and disgusted.

III. WHAT DID EZRA DO ABOUT IT?

5 Then, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self-abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn, and fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the Lord my God 6 and prayed:

Ezra responded faithfully and prayed.

“I am too ashamed and disgraced, my God, to lift up my face to you, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens.

Ezra didn’t pray as someone that was innocent, but took personal responsibility for Israel’s sins.

IV. WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

When we see or hear about the abuses, oppression, legalism, immoral acts that happen within the church or our faith community we also perhaps first have an emotional reaction. We know that church is not a perfect place, because it is filled with people that are still learning how to say no to the ungodliness of the world, and say yes to Jesus Christ.

Sometimes we see people lose faith in the church because they come in thinking that it should be paradise, but then they see the ugly things happening in society and in the world happening right in front of them in God’s house. The emotional response may be anger, disgust, and perhaps even disappointment.

However, what happens after the initial emotional response? Do we give up on the church and ultimately on God? Or, do we rise up from our anger, disgust, and disappointment, and fall at the feet of Jesus and pray? Yes, Ezra could have packed up his bags and gone back to Babylon (Persia), he could have separated himself out and started a new “church” called the “real holy ones.”

Rather than doing that, however, Ezra prayed, and he prayed, and he prayed. He prayed not just praying judgment on those that did wrong, but he prayed as one of them. One of things about this prayer that moved me the most, is that he prayed as one of those that did wrong, even though he did not do wrong. That is because Ezra knew that they were a faith community, and if one was lost, then all were lost.

May we rise up from disappointment, and kneel down before Jesus and pray. May we pray not just for “them,” but for “us,” because we are one church, one faith community, and the body of Christ. What are we going to do about it? We are going to pray, together, for “our” community.

Pastor Michael Lu
Enduring Word Bible Commentary: Ezra 9