Ezra Chapter Nine | Bible Study Wednesday

Welcome back to another Wednesday Bible study session here on the blog. We are in the book of Ezra, chapter nine. We are nearly through this study and I have learned so much from this book! If you have not taken the time to read through the chapter, please do so. This is a very short chapter, only 15 verses. As you may recall, I am not doing a line by line study. If you have already read through this small chapter but it has been a while, you may want to glance over it again to refresh your memory. I am going to break the chapter into two parts. Let's begin.

Verses 1-4 Israel's Sin

The first four verses of chapter nine is gripping. The princes came to Ezra and told him what the people of Israel had done. They had sinned and it was not a small slip-up. God had told them to stay to themselves, and not intermarry with other cultures. God knew that when they began to mingle with the people of other cultures, they would easily become influenced by their ways of doing things and how they served idols and false gods. The only way to prevent this was to stick to marrying within their own selected people. The princes reported to Ezra how the Israelites, the priests, and the Levites were mingling with the pagan people: Canaanites, Hittites, Perizites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and the Amorites. This news was so shocking to Ezra he tore his clothes and holy mantle as he pulled out his hair and ripped his beard from his face. He sat down completely overwhelmed by the graveness of this great transgression.

It was not just that they disobeyed God; they dishonored Him by marrying pagans and accepting their immoral, unethical practices, and no longer prioritized a relationship with God. Friends, we see this today. The culture we live in is so loud and in our faces all of the time, that we have to find time to spend with God. We have to literally carve out part of our day to be with Him. The ways of the world have crept into churches all across this country and it is sometimes very hard to tell who is in the world and who belongs to God. We must wake up. This is a dangerous time to be in. Jesus said, in 2 Timothy 3:1, "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come." We are living in those perilous times today. If we study the world, listen to the world, do as the world does, before long we will forget what God has told us and we will give in to fear, doubt, and disbelief. Our hearts belong to God but when we look around us and see the bad, the scary, the dangers we will pull away from the only source of Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace we have.

Verses 5-15 Ezra Confesses Israel's Sin

Please note that these last verses of the chapter is how Ezra reacted to the news about the sins of God's people. Next week we will take a look at what Israel does, but I want to emphasize something here. We all have to give a personal account for any sin we encounter. What does sin do to us? What does it make us feel like? What actions do we take? We can see very clearly that Ezra took it seriously. He is not playing when he tears his clothes and pulls his hair from his head and his beard. He is mourning. He is grieving. He knows how serious this is and what it means to God to have His chosen people lusting after pagan nations that refuse to know or serve the one true God.

Ezra starts out in humility. He is so embarrassed to even face God with this issue. He starts recounting the history of God's people. He admits they have been a sinful nation from the beginning. Everyone, other nations, heathen people, royalty, you name them, they have witnessed the shameful way the children of Israel behaved year after year through the ages. Now, Ezra says, God gives grace so that they are not all destroyed, a remnant escaped, and a place was given to them in His holy place so that their eyes would be enlightened. Ezra says that God granted them a little reviving in the midst of slavery. With gratitude he rehearses to God how they were in bondage but even as slaves, God never left them. Instead God extended mercy to them and opened doors of opportunity through the king of Persia to rebuild the holy house of God, the resources and provisions necessary to fix the broken places, and to give them a wall in Judah and Jerusalem. 

Ezra just gets real honest here. He says, "What can we say to You, our God? We have forsaken Your commandments. You told us how unclean and impure these people were. You told us to keep our children from marrying their children. You told us to never desire their peace or wealth so that we would be strong, eat the good of the land, and leave an inheritance to our children forever. You didn't even give us the punishment that we deserved, and now after delivering us from slavery, we did this to You again? You should be so angry with us that You consume us until we are utterly destroyed and none survive!"

And then he brags on God who is worthy of all praise. He addresses the LORD God of Israel. He calls Him righteous because He is. Ezra's last sentence to God in this chapter is, "We are before You in our sin: for we cannot stand in front of You because of this."

Such humility. Do you hear the sorrow in his voice as you read through this chapter? Ezra runs back through all the grace and the provision and protection they have had all along this journey. He thinks of every single time God had His hand on them and they won the favor or kings and others in authority. They were freed from slavery and they were a small community of men, women, and children: no longer the great nation they once were. Yet they were still being blessed and encouraged by God and now all of this was thrown back in God's face with the abominations of the children of Israel.

What areas are you facing in your life right now that you need to repent of? Has God shown a light into your heart to help you see hidden sins you forgot? I am allowing Him to show me where I need to repent. God has been so good to me. He has opened up doors of opportunity I never dreamed of and I know it's only the beginning of what He is going to do. I don't want to end up like the children of Israel, lost in my own sick selfish desires, forsaking the laws of God in an effort to indulge my flesh. I want to be humbled, upset, distraught, and disgusted by my sins. I want to repent and say I am sorry and turn from the wicked ways. I want to draw close to Jesus.

Friends, this is such a sad passage to read, but it is so much like what we experience today in this cancel culture we live in. We do not have to follow the crowd. Remember strait is the gate and narrow the way that leads to heaven. Wide is the gate and there is a broad way to hell and many find that path. We must choose what is going to help us get closer to Jesus. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Follow the path to Jesus.

MATTHEW 7:14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. 

I hope you walk away from today's study with a deeper understanding of the heart and character of God. He is a loving Father, only wanting His children to recognize Him, honor and love Him. Let's be careful to not slip into the ways of the world. It's okay to be different. It is okay to not do what everyone else is doing. Only try to please God and leave the rest. It doesn't matter in the end. I hope something I have shared encourages you. I hope that I have given you strength for your journey and light for your way. God bless you.

~Bridgett Owens