author: Ryan Hayden Take your Bibles with me and turn to Ezra 9. Ezra 9. We are going to finish the book of Ezra tonight and we will start right in next week with the book of Nehemiah.

The book of Ezra ends with a revival. That's what we are going to look at tonight and I'm warning you - this is kind of a tough passage of scripture. So buckle up.

Let's get started by reading Ezra 9:1-4

1 Now when these things were done, the princes came to me, saying, The people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, [doing] according to their abominations, [even] of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. 2 For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons: so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of [those] lands: yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this trespass. 3 And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down astonied. 4 Then were assembled unto me every one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the transgression of those that had been carried away; and I sat astonied until the evening sacrifice.

I'm not going to read all of these two chapters - but we will read a lot of it and discuss first what happened, then we'll talk about what we can learn from it.

So let's start with:

What Happened

What happened in these first verses is the occosion for these chapters, it is:

1. The People's Sin

Ezra came back to Judah. He spent his first few months in Judah traveling around, doing the tasks the King of Persia had commissioned him to do.

After those few months are over, the leaders come to him with a problem: the problem is that the people have "not separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations."

In other words, as Ezra is teaching the law to the people, it becomes clear that they are in trouble. Because the law says pretty clearly that God wanted His people to be Holy and separate from the people of Canaan - and the returning people haven't done that. They are together with the Canaanites and taking part in their wickedness.

Why? Because they have taken their daughters to themselves. What the jews had done is started marrying heathen women or at least taking heathen concubines.

And maybe the worst part of it is that it wasn't just some of the people, it was the princes and rulers who have been chief in this trespass.

So what's going on? The people have come back from captivity, and they have started marrying the Canaanite woman and intermingling with the Canaanites and even worshipping their gods.

2. Ezra's Reaction

You can see Ezra's reaction in verse 4:

He's frozen, and he rips his close and rips out some of his hair and his beard and just sits down "astonied." He's stunned. He's stupefied. He's horrified by this news.

So he just sits there with his clothes ripped in a state of shock for several hours. Then, after several hours, he gets up and starts praying. (His prayer starts in verse 6)

6 And said, 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. 7 Since the days of our fathers [have] we [been] in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, [and] our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as [it is] this day. 8 And now for a little space grace hath been [shewed] from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage. 9 For we [were] bondmen; yet our 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 in Jerusalem. 10 And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? for we have forsaken thy commandments, 11 Which thou hast commanded by thy servants the prophets, saying, The land, unto which ye go to possess it, is an unclean land with the filthiness of the people of the lands, with their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with their uncleanness. 12 Now therefore 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. 13 And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities [deserve], and hast given us [such] deliverance as this; 14 Should we again break thy commandments, and join in affinity with the people of these abominations? wouldest not thou be angry with us till thou hadst consumed [us], so that [there should be] no remnant nor escaping? 15 O LORD God of Israel, thou [art] righteous: for we remain yet escaped, as [it is] this day: behold, we [are] before thee in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before thee because of this.

Now, notice a few things about this prayer:

First, Ezra takes this personally. Ezra is a faithful man. We know Ezra hasn't taken a heathen wife. This is news to him. But his people have, and he feels shame for his people.

Ezra's prayer basically says three things

1. "We know that it was our iniquity and our sins that led our people into captivity"
2. "We know that it was only by your mercy that you allowed us to come back here"
3. "And now, despite your mercy, we are doing the same kind of sins."

Notice this: It is one hundred percent a prayer of confession. Ezra doesn't ask God for a single thing in this prayer. All he does is state Israel's sin in the realest possible terms.

He ends the prayer by saying:

15 O LORD God of Israel, thou [art] righteous: for we remain yet escaped, as [it is] this day: behold, we [are] before thee in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before thee because of this.

And that ends chapter 9. Then in chapter 10, Ezra weeps and throws himself down before the Temple, and the whole congregation around him weeps.

3. Shechaniah's Confession

Then a random guy named Shechaniah stands up. He's not someone who has committed this sin, but he is the son of one of the people who has. He stands up and makes a confession.

Look at chapter 10 verses 2-4:

2 And Shechaniah the son of Jehiel, [one] of the sons of Elam, answered and said unto Ezra, We have trespassed against our God, and have taken strange wives of the people of the land: yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing. 3 Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them, according to the counsel of my lord, and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law. 4 Arise; for [this] matter [belongeth] unto thee: we also [will be] with thee: be of good courage, and do [it].

This one brave man stands up, confesses "yes, we have done this thing" and then proposes a solution "let's put away all the wives and all the people born of them - and if people won't do that, let them be handled according to the law."

(That means killed by the way.)

Then Shechaniah encourages Ezra to do it and says we will be with you.

4. Judah's Revival

So Ezra goes into the Temple, fasting and praying, and commands that all of the remnant come together in Jerusalem in three days. If they don't come, they will lose all of their possessions and they will be cast out from the people.

When everyone comes together, Ezra stands up before them in the middle of a great rain storm and lays it out: (verse 10)

10 And Ezra the priest stood up, and said unto them, Ye have transgressed, and have taken strange wives, to increase the trespass of Israel. 11 Now therefore make confession unto the LORD God of your fathers, and do his pleasure: and separate yourselves from the people of the land, and from the strange wives.

And the people answered Ezra and said "As thou hast said, so must we do." So Ezra setup a bunch of leaders to take care of this, and in a few months the people came to these leaders and officially put away their pagan wives and the kids they had by these pagan wives.

Verses 18-44 list all of the families who had been involved in this sin. I'm not going to read all of it, but I do want to read verses 18-19.

18 And among the sons of the priests there were found that had taken strange wives: [namely], of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren; Maaseiah, and Eliezer, and Jarib, and Gedaliah. 19 And they gave their hands that they would put away their wives; and [being] guilty, [they offered] a ram of the flock for their trespass.

I wanted to read those verses because this is what stood out to me: Jeshua the son of Jozadak was one of the spiritual leaders in the beginning of Ezra. He's the high priest who came back with Zerubabbel to setup the land and the Temple. And here, it is his sons that are the first ones listed who are involved in this wickedness. It's very sad.

Now, that's what happens at the end of Ezra, let's talk now about...

What it means to us

There are several lessons I think we can learn from this story. Let me give you four of them.

The first thing I think we need to be reminded of is that...

1. God wants a pure and separated people.

In Israel's case - God gave them special rules about what they could wear, what they could eat and who they could marry because God wanted them to be a distinct and holy people.

In Leviticus 20:7 it says this:

[Lev 20:7 KJV] 7 Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I [am] the LORD your God.

Deuteronomy 14:2 says:

[Deu 14:2 KJV] 2 For thou [art] an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that [are] upon the earth.

So God wanted Israel to be holy, to be peculiar, to be His own special people.

And that carries over to the New Testament. In fact, these same phrases are used again for us Christians.

1 Peter 1:15-16 says:

[1Pe 1:15-16 KJV] 15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; 16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

And 1 Peter 2:9 says:

[1Pe 2:9 KJV] 9 But ye [are] a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:

This is what God wanted from Israel - but this is not what He got. They were following after the idolatry of the Canaanites.

Now, the reason they did that was because they married the Canaanites. They had these pagan marriages. Which leads me to the second thing I think this story teaches us:

2. God demands religious purity in marriage.

Now, how this works is a little different in the Old Testament and the New Testament - but the idea is the same. God wants His people to marry His people and only his people.

This was very plain in the Old Testament.

In the Old Testament

In fact, Ezra was probably thinking of Deuteronomy 7:1-6 when he rent his clothes and pulled out his hair.

Let's read that.

[Deu 7:1-6 KJV] 1 When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, 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 thou; 2 And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, [and] utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them: 3 Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. 4 For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly. 5 But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire. 6 For thou [art] an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that [are] upon the face of the earth.

So the law was very clear - no pagan marriages. It's possible that as Ezra taught the law after his return, that this is the thing that stuck out to people.

And actually, there was a contemporary prophet with Ezra who wrote about this same subject. The prophet Malachi talked about this. Let me read a couple of verses:

[Mal 2:11 KJV] 11 Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.

It wasn't just Ezra - it was Malachi dealing with this problem of intermarriage and if you read Malachi - it was actually worse than just marrying pagan women - the jewish men were divorcing their jewish wives so they could marry these pagan women.

listen to chapter 2 verse 14:

[Mal 2:14 KJV] 14 Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet [is] she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.

And so, in this context, in this specific instance - God's answer was actually for these men to divorce these pagan woman. They went back to their father's house.

Now, before I move on to what the New Testament says, I do want to make one important point: God was not against Israel marrying women from these countries, he was against them marrying pagans.

We have Bible example of this: Rahab the Jerichoite. Ruth the Moabitess. Both of these women left their old gods behind and became believers and were accepted in Israel.

So even in the Old Testament, this wasn't about interracial marriage - it's about marrying outside of the faith.

But let's talk about what we see in...

In the New Testament

Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 6. This is probably the most important passage on this subject. 2 Corinthians 6:14-15.

[2Co 6:14-15 KJV] 14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

I want to make this very plain: God is 100% against Christians marrying non-Christians. It is not good. It will not work out well.

This morning after the service, Dylan came up to me (He waited about 20 minutes) and he was so excited and he said "Pastor, I have a girlfriend."

Do you know what my first question was: "Is she a believer?"
He assured me she was and that she attend church and they talk about God all the time together.

My second question was "When are you bringing her to church?"

Listen: You need to find and marry a Christian husband or wife. A believer. Someone who loves God and wants to serve him.

Now, the New Testament lays out what you should do if you happen to be married to a non-believer. I don't have time to go through all of it, but it's found in 1 Corinthians 7. It's very clearly NOT what happened in Ezra.

If you are married to a non-believer, and you he or she is ok with it - you need to stay married. If they want to leave because of your faith, that's ok, but don't force it.

So

1. God wants a pure and separated people.
2. God demands religious purity in our marriages.

There is a third lesson we see in this revival from Ezra and it is:

3. Accepted sin is still sin.

You see, the fact that Israel's leaders were doing this. Leading in this. Shows that this sin had become an accepted sin.

All in all, over 100 families had married pagan wives. This sin touched many, if not most of the people in Israel.

It was a true "everybody's doing it" kind of situation.

But here is the thing: just because everyone is doing something, doesn't mean it jives with the Bible.

Nowadays, the vast majority of people are shacking up before marriage. Even in churches, this is common. Everybody is doing it. But that doesn't mean God is for it. God still calls it fornication.

Accepted sin is still sin.

Social drinking and bar hopping is very popular today. Everybody is doing it. But the Bible still calls it drunkeness and forbids it for Christians.

Romans 13:13 says this:

[Rom 13:13 KJV] 13 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.

Ephesians 5:3 says:

[Eph 5:3 KJV] 3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;

Just because a sin is accepted, doesn't mean we should do it as God's people.

So...

1. God wants a pure and separated people.
2. God demands religious purity in marriage.
3. Accepted sin is still sin.

One more point and I'm done tonight:

4. Sin must be mourned, confessed, and dealt with.

That's what we see here in Ezra 9-10.

The sin is brought to light and the leaders and then the people mourn over their sin.

They confess their sin. They don't try to make excuses for it. They name it for what it is.

Then they put the sin away.