Ezra 9-10: “Ezra Leads Revival & Israel’s Foreign Wives Are Put Away”
By
1. INTRO:
1.1. This graph depicts the timeline of the Old Testament, and note that the book of Ezra is written about a period of history after the Babylonian captivity and beginning in 538 BC, even though Ezra himself doesn’t show up in Judea until around 457 BC.
2. In our last study we looked at chapters 7-8 of the book of Ezra.
2.1. We looked at the life of this man Ezra and how he had used his time wisely in Babylon by becoming a scholar and great teacher of God’s word.
2.2. We saw that because Ezra was such a faithful man of integrity and commitment that he gained the king’s full trust and the king granted him carte blank every request he made for the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem and the wall around the city.
2.3. We saw how Ezra was also a great man of faith and trusted the Lord to get him and his party safely to Jerusalem without any kind of armed military escort, even though they were carrying a huge fortune in silver and gold.
2.4. We saw how that the Lord granted Ezra favor and blessed him wherever he went We saw that the good hand of God was always on his life.
3. In our study today, we are going to look at chapters 9-10 of the book of Ezra.
3.1. We will take a look at what real revival looks like when the children of Israel are discovered to have broken God’s law by intermarrying with the people of the land of Canaan. Ezra will be so grieved and appalled at what the people have done that he pulls out his hair and beard and sits dejected and mourning before the Lord all day, unable to function. Ezra’s actions will spur the children of Israel to confess their sins and repent to the Lord aligning themselves to Him and His will for their lives.
3.2. After the leaders fast and pray with Ezra about what to do with Israel now that they have been found to have sinned so greatly, one of the leaders comes and tells the people that they can make things right with God if they put away all of the foreign wives, as well as the children born to them. The people agree to do just that, and their hands are cleansed of this evil that they have brought upon themselves and the nation.
3.3. We all as Christians desire for a revival of religion to occur in our land, and many supposed revivals in recent times have occurred. Yet, many of these are not genuine revivals for they do not produce real repentance from sin in peoples’ lives, nor do they often even involve the preaching of a gospel message someone could believe in order to come to saving faith in Christ. The type of revival that we need in our country and world is the type of revival that was spawned by Ezra in this study today. We will look at what happened in this revival in Judea that occurred because of this faithful man named Ezra. We will discuss why this revival brought the kind of fruit that has characterized true revival.
3.4. Graph of Persian kings & Jewish companies sent out by them to Judea:
4. VS 9:1-4 - “1 Now when these things had been completed, the princes approached me, saying, “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, according to their abominations, those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians and the Amorites. 2 “For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has intermingled with the peoples of the lands; indeed, the hands of the princes and the rulers have been foremost in this unfaithfulness.” 3 When I heard about this matter, I tore my garment and my robe, and pulled some of the hair from my head and my beard, and sat down appalled. 4 Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel on account of the unfaithfulness of the exiles gathered to me, and I sat appalled until the evening offering.” – Ezra finds out that the people of Israel including even the priests and Levites, have married foreign women from the land of Canaan, and when Ezra heard this news he tore his garment, pulled out some of his hair on his head and beard, and he sad down appalled, then everyone in Judea who trembled at the words of God began to gather around Ezra as he sat appalled
4.1. Ezra had been in Judea for about five months at this point. He had spent his time teaching the people and working towards getting the people back on track rebuilding their city and the wall around their city. Even though he had seen some positive response from his teaching there was something holding back real progress. The people’s hearts were not soft and sensitive towards the Lord, nor were their ears open to hearing His word as they should have been. He could sense things were not right, and yet he couldn’t quite put his finger on the problem. Then, what the difficulty involved suddenly occurred to some of the ‘princes’ of the people, those who were more spiritually minded and trembled at the word of God.
4.2. It had occurred to these men that the Law of Moses had told the children of Israel that they must not associate or intermarry with any of the people of the land of Canaan because those people were wicked idolaters. But, since arriving in Canaan many of the men of Judea in violation of the Law of Moses had taken wives for themselves from the people of the land, for look at what God’s word had said:
4.2.1. Exodus 34:12-16: “12 Watch yourself that you make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, or it will become a snare in your midst. 13 “But rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and cut down their Asherim 14 —for you shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God— 15 otherwise you might make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they would play the harlot with their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone might invite you to eat of his sacrifice, 16 and you might take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters might play the harlot with their gods and cause your sons also to play the harlot with their gods.”
4.2.2. Deuteronomy 7:1-6: “1 When the Lord your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and clears away 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 stronger than you, 2 and when the Lord your God delivers them before you and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them. 3 “Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. 4 “For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and He will quickly destroy you. 5 “But thus you shall do to them: you shall tear down their altars, and smash their sacred pillars, and hew down their Asherim, and burn their graven images with fire. 6 “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”.
4.3. Deut. 20:1-15 and 21:10-14 made provision for a Israelite soldier to take a wife for himself from the nations outside of the land of Israel by her becoming a proselyte and renouncing her previous religion. However, the law strictly forbid intermarriage with any of the people that lived within the land of Canaan.
4.4. The intermarrying with the women of the land had occurred more with the leaders and distinguished people of their land than any: ‘the hands of the princes and the rulers have been foremost in this unfaithfulness.’ Perhaps the people of the land had tried to form alliances with this leading people of the land.
4.5. The Lord knew that if Israelites intermarried with the pagan people within the land there would eventually occur a complete compromise in their worship and dedication to Yahweh, for the word says, “a little leaven leavens the whole loaf.” The people of Israel would in time begin worshipping other gods. The people of the land of Canaan were exceedingly wicked and their pagan worship was the worst that exists and often even involved human sacrifice. King Solomon wrote a lot of good and wise words in the Proverbs which were directed towards making sure that a man didn’t stumble in his faith and be turned away from the Lord. Yet, even he eventually ended up spending his later years worshipping other gods. The reason this happened was because he married hundreds of pagan women and they eventually turned him away from the Lord.
4.6. Ezra was a man who was completely focused upon and dedicated to the Lord and the calling that the Lord had for his life. When he left Babylon and headed for Judea he had a plan in mind to teach and enforce the Law of Moses, and help to rebuild the temple. However, now when he hears that many men from Israel have intermarried with the peoples of the land in rebellion against the Lord, he is in shock and grief stricken. He realizes that his whole purpose and calling in life may not be able to be fulfilled. Further, he recognizes that now there was no easy way for things to be rectified between the returnees and their God. Ezra is so moved by the evil nature of what the people of the land have done in dishonoring the Lord their God, and the far reaching consequences he knows will result from this, he is completely beside himself and cannot even function.
4.7. Just as a person in his day might react at the news of the loss of a loved one, Ezra tears his ‘garment and robe’ and also pulls out some of the hairs on his ‘head’ and on his ‘beard.’ Then, Ezra just sat down ‘appalled’ and did not move.
4.8. Because this man so singularly committed to the Lord was now so dejected and appalled at the sin of the people against the Lord, all of those in Judea who trembled at the word of God began to gather around him as he just sat there all day grieving and appalled, unable to function. Ezra couldn’t even pray for a long time.
4.9. Ezra knew that the sin of just one man, Achan, had caused the entire nation to lose the battle at Ai under Joshua, and now many men in Israel had committed this horrible sin of disobedience: Joshua 7:19, “19 Now Joshua said to Achan, “My son, I beg you, give glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession to Him, and tell me now what you have done; do not hide it from me.’ ”
4.10. What is even worse than the fact that many of the Judean men had taken Canaanite wives for themselves, the prophet Malachi who prophesied to the Judeans at this time, told them that they had sinned great because they had divorced the Jewish wives of their youth in order to marry these foreign women (Malachi 2:13-17: “13 This is another thing you do: you cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and with groaning, because He no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. 14 “Yet you say, ‘For what reason?’ Because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. 15 “But not one has done so who has a remnant of the Spirit. And what did that one do while he was seeking a godly offspring? Take heed then to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of your youth. 16 “For I hate divorce,” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “and him who covers his garment with wrong,” says the Lord of hosts. “So take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously.” 17 You have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet you say, “How have we wearied Him?” In that you say, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delights in them,” or, “Where is the God of justice?””).
4.11. We see here that those who gathered together around Ezra when he had torn his garments and pulled out his hair and beard was, ‘everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel.’ Isaiah prophesied that those whom the Lord would attend to would be those who tremble at God’s word, and oh how we need God’s people today to tremble at the word of God:
4.11.1.Isaiah 66:2: “2 For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,” declares the Lord. “But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.”
4.11.2.Isaiah 66:5: “5 Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at His word: “Your brothers who hate you, who exclude you for My name’s sake, Have said, ‘Let the Lord be glorified, that we may see your joy.’ But they will be put to shame.”
4.12. In 2 Corinthians 6:14-18, we are exhorted as believers that we too are to be separate from the sinful people in this world, at least in regard to their sinful deeds and practices, and we are also not to be bound together to them for various interprizes: “14 Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? 16 Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 17 “Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord. “And do not touch what is unclean; And I will welcome you. 18 “And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,” Says the Lord Almighty.”
4.13. Ezra was a man whom God used to bring a revival of religion in Israel. Because of his pure character and commitment to walk uprightly pleasing the Lord in all that he did, it was his response to the people of Judea in their sin that affected the hearts of all Judea and brought revival. Ezra’s humbling of himself, weeping and mourning and being tormented before the Lord because of the wickedness of the people’s sins opened the eyes and aroused the conscience of an entire nation bringing about confession of sin and genuine repentance. We as God’s people ought to be like this man Ezra and so seek to honor and glorify the Lord that any sin and uncleanness in God’s sight which we detect ought to cause us to mourn and grieve and confess the sins of our people.
4.14. Today, I’m afraid that we have become so used to lawlessness being the rule of the day that we are not moved when we see our nation and world kicking God out of every quarter and calling evil good and good evil. We in the church today are desensitized to sin in our nation. The church has become like the frog that is put in a pan of cold water on a stove in which the water is slowly heated, and then because the heat only grows slowly the frog won’t leap out of the pan (like he would if he were thrown into a boiling pan of water), and thus he is boiled to death. Does it bother you that our nation has disallowed prayer in schools? It should. Does it bother you that we are removing the Ten Commandments from our legislatures and trying to institute law apart from them? It should. Does it bother you that America is today discussed as being a “post-Christian” nation? It should. Does it bother you the filth that is in many of the movies and television shows that are watched and produced in our nation today? It should. When will we truly be grieved in heart by sin and iniquity in our world, our church, and even our own heart? When will we take the fact that our nation is going to hell in a hand basket as our calling to come before the Lord for our nation as Ezra did on this day?
5. VS 9:5-15 - “5 But at the evening offering I arose from my humiliation, even with my garment and my robe torn, and I fell on my knees and stretched out my hands to the Lord my God; 6 and I said, “O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, for our iniquities have risen above our heads and our guilt has grown even to the heavens. 7 “Since the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt, and on account of our iniquities we, our kings and our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity and to plunder and to open shame, as it is this day. 8 “But now for a brief moment grace has been shown from the Lord our God, to leave us an escaped remnant and to give us a peg in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our bondage. 9 “For we are slaves; yet in our bondage our God has not forsaken us, but has extended lovingkindness to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us reviving to raise up the house of our God, to restore its ruins and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem. 10 “Now, our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken Your commandments, 11 which You have commanded by Your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land which you are entering to possess is an unclean land with the uncleanness of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations which have filled it from end to end and with their impurity. 12 ‘So now do not give your daughters to their sons nor take their daughters to your sons, and never seek their peace or their prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good things of the land and leave it as an inheritance to your sons forever.’ 13 “After all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and our great guilt, since You our God have requited us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us an escaped remnant as this, 14 shall we again break Your commandments and intermarry with the peoples who commit these abominations? Would You not be angry with us to the point of destruction, until there is no remnant nor any who escape? 15 “O Lord God of Israel, You are righteous, for we have been left an escaped remnant, as it is this day; behold, we are before You in our guilt, for no one can stand before You because of this.”” – Ezra begins to intercede in confessional prayer for the children of Israel because of their sin of having married foreign women in the land of Canaan, something that was forbidden in the Law of Moses
5.1. After spending a good part of the day prostrate mourning before the Lord in utter dejection, and after those whose hearts trembled at God’s word had joined him for a good period of time, Ezra finally began to intercede in prayer for the children of Israel because of their sin in dishonoring the Lord.
5.2. Like Daniel and Nehemiah in their prayers, Ezra when he prayed owned and confessed the sins of his people as if they were his own. This type of intercessory prayer displays contrition, humility, and sincerity and thus moves the heart of God.
5.3. Ezra confesses to the Lord that he is ‘ashamed’ and ‘embarrassed’ because of the ‘iniquities’ of His people which are over their heads and their guilt has reached the heavens. Ezra confesses to the Lord how that they have always been a sinful and rebellious people, saying: ‘Since the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt.’
5.4. Ezra goes on to discuss the consequences of the sins of the children of Israel all of their days: ‘on account of our iniquities we, our kings and our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity and to plunder and to open shame, as it is this day.’ He realized that all of the major failures of the nation have come about because of their ‘iniquities.’
5.5. Ezra knows that there is no way to rationalize or justify what they have done in intermarrying with the wicked people’s of the lands against God’s commands. Therefore, he says, ‘what shall we say after this?’
5.6. In verse 11, Ezra further quotes the Lord’s words spoken to Joshua before he led the children of Israel in to conquer the land of Canaan, though we cannot find them written in the book of Joshua: ‘The land which you are entering to possess is an unclean land with the uncleanness of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations which have filled it from end to end and with their impurity. 12 ‘So now do not give your daughters to their sons nor take their daughters to your sons, and never seek their peace or their prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good things of the land and leave it as an inheritance to your sons forever.’
5.7. Ezra speaks to the Lord of how the children of Israel had already been punished for their sins by being taken captive, and then because of God’s grace a remnant had been allowed to return to the land, but their wickedness is seen to be so great because they had committed this sin of intermarrying with the peoples of the land: ‘After all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and our great guilt, since You our God have requited us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us an escaped remnant as this, 14 shall we again break Your commandments and intermarry with the peoples who commit these abominations?’
5.8. Ezra confesses that their sin is so great that the Lord could, ‘be angry with us to the point of destruction.’
5.9. Finally, Ezra confesses that they have no place or way to stand before the Lord because of their great guilt in this sin they have committed: ‘this day; behold, we are before You in our guilt, for no one can stand before You because of this.’
6. VS 10:1-4 - “1 Now while Ezra was praying and making confession, weeping and prostrating himself before the house of God, a very large assembly, men, women and children, gathered to him from Israel; for the people wept bitterly. 2 Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, said to Ezra, “We have been unfaithful to our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land; yet now there is hope for Israel in spite of this. 3 “So now let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives and their children, according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law. 4 “Arise! For this matter is your responsibility, but we will be with you; be courageous and act.”” – As Ezra was making his confessional prayer in behalf of the children of Israel, a very large assembly of men, women, and children began gathering to him from all Israel, and the people wept bitterly, and the Shecaniah, the son of Jehiel, recommended to Ezra that all Israel release all of their foreign wives, as well as children conceived by those wives, and do all according to the law
6.1. Notice here the description of Ezra here as he was prostrate and confessing the sins of the nation before the Lord: ‘Ezra was praying and making confession, weeping and prostrating himself before the house of God.’ His heart was rent before the Lord and his prayer was humble but also fervent and from the heart. Ezra’s prayer was the type that the word of God tells us “avails much” with God: James 5:16: “16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”
6.2. There are so many passages of scripture in both the Old and New Testament that tell us that the Lord requires that we acknowledge and confess our sins when we commit them, for it is only in doing so that we can be forgiven and experience that fellowship with the Lord which our sins has squelched:
6.2.1. Proverbs 28:13: “13 He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.”
6.2.2. Leviticus 26:40-42: “40 ‘But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, and that they also have walked contrary to Me, 41 and that I also have walked contrary to them and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they accept their guilt— 42 then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham I will remember; I will remember the land.”
6.2.3. Psalm 32:5 (David wrote this after his sin with Bathsheba): “5 I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” And You forgave the iniquity of my sin.”
6.2.4. 2 Samuel 12:13: “13 So David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.”
6.2.5. Jeremiah 3:13: “13 Only acknowledge your iniquity, That you have transgressed against the Lord your God, And have scattered your charms To alien deities under every green tree, And you have not obeyed My voice,’ says the Lord.”
6.2.6. In 1 John 1:8-2:2 we read the remedy for our sins when we confess and repent of them: “8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. 1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” This word for confess in verse 9 here means “to same the same thing as” and therefore implies not only confession but also repentance. We must confess and repent of our sins and then we shall be completely forgiven and cleansed of our iniquity.
6.3. I find it very intriguing that Ezra himself did not preach to the people of Judea nor even come up with a plan to rectify themselves before the Lord. All he did was react in horror as he was appalled at the evil that the children of Israel had committed, and it was the reaction of this righteous man that brought the revival. It was another man who came up with the acceptable solution and carried out the plans for following through with it: ‘Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam.’
7. VS 10:5-9 - “5 Then Ezra rose and made the leading priests, the Levites and all Israel, take oath that they would do according to this proposal; so they took the oath. 6 Then Ezra rose from before the house of God and went into the chamber of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib. Although he went there, he did not eat bread nor drink water, for he was mourning over the unfaithfulness of the exiles. 7 They made a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the exiles, that they should assemble at Jerusalem, 8 and that whoever would not come within three days, according to the counsel of the leaders and the elders, all his possessions should be forfeited and he himself excluded from the assembly of the exiles. 9 So all the men of Judah and Benjamin assembled at Jerusalem within the three days. It was the ninth month on the twentieth of the month, and all the people sat in the open square before the house of God, trembling because of this matter and the heavy rain.” – Ezra made the leading priests, the Levites, and all Israel take an oath to follow Shecaniah’s oath and put away their foreign wives, and then he arose and went into the chamber of Jehohan and there did not eat bread nor drink water because of his mourning, and thus they made a proclamation all throughout Judea to all of the exiles that they had three days to come and assemble at Jerusalem, and if they did not come they would lose all of their inheritance in Israel, so all of the men of Judah and Benjamin assembled within the three days at Jerusalem
7.1. Ezra made the leading priests and Levites, and all Israel gathered before him, ‘take oath’ that they would put away their foreign wives and the children that had been born to those wives. Then, we read that ‘they took the oath.’
7.2. Ezra’s mourning, prayer and intercession did not end there, no it says here that at this point he went from before the house of God and went ‘into the chamber of Jehonanan the son of Eliashib’ and there ‘he did not eat bread nor drink wine’ because of his ‘mourning over the unfaithfulness of the exiles.’ Ezra probably remained there for many days.
7.3. Ezra left the administration of this oath up to his leaders in the land of Judea, and they took the ball and ‘made a proclamation throughout Judea and Jerusalem to all the exiles’ telling them that they had to ‘assemble at Jerusalem’ and do so within ‘three days.’
7.4. The penalty for anyone not assembling at Jerusalem within the three days was that ‘all his possessions should be forfeited and he himself excluded from the assembly of the exiles.’ One would be lucky to escape with his life if he did not show up in Jerusalem during this window.
7.5. It was winter at this time during the ‘ninth month,’ and thus it was cold with ‘heavy rain’ outside, and thus all those assembled to see what would be determined for their lives because of this sin in Israel were miserable and ‘trembling’ from the cold. Yet, even this was fitting for the sin which they had committed.
8. VS 10:10-14 - “10 Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have been unfaithful and have married foreign wives adding to the guilt of Israel. 11 “Now therefore, make confession to the Lord God of your fathers and do His will; and separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives.” 12 Then all the assembly replied with a loud voice, “That’s right! As you have said, so it is our duty to do. 13 “But there are many people; it is the rainy season and we are not able to stand in the open. Nor can the task be done in one or two days, for we have transgressed greatly in this matter. 14 “Let our leaders represent the whole assembly and let all those in our cities who have married foreign wives come at appointed times, together with the elders and judges of each city, until the fierce anger of our God on account of this matter is turned away from us.”” – Ezra stood up and told the people that they had been unfaithful to the Lord in marrying foreign wives and that they needed to confess their sins to the Lord and then separate themselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives, and all the assembly agreed to do this, then they worked out a plan to go back to their cities and let their leaders preside over them as they spent a couple of days accomplishing this
8.1. Ezra stood up before the people and told them the straight truth. They had ‘been unfaithful’ to the Lord in having ‘married foreign wives,’ and thus they had added ‘to the guilt of Israel.’
8.2. Ezra tells the entire assembly of Israel to ‘make confession to the Lord’ for their sins and then he says, “Separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives.’
8.3. The whole assembly replies heartily to Ezra’s words saying: ‘That’s right! As you have said, so it is our duty to do so.’
8.4. The people then begin to speak back to Ezra and inform him of how big a deal this will be and that it will take a couple of days to investigate all of the families to see who should be put away as a foreign wife or child to a foreign. They ask Ezra if their leaders may act as their representatives in their cities and oversee this process of releasing of wives and children, until all is made right before the Lord and His ‘fierce anger’ is ‘turned away’ from them. .
9. VS 10:15-17 - “15 Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahzeiah the son of Tikvah opposed this, with Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite supporting them. 16 But the exiles did so. And Ezra the priest selected men who were heads of fathers’ households for each of their father’s households, all of them by name. So they convened on the first day of the tenth month to investigate the matter. 17 They finished investigating all the men who had married foreign wives by the first day of the first month.” – The people agreed with Ezra’s words, with only a handful of men who were exceptions, and then the exiles did this, and the heads of the people took two months to investigate all of the families to see who had married foreign wives and thus had to put them away
9.1. Our sins as people can have far reaching consequences. The actions of the men of Israel had been so ingrained into the families in Judea that it ended up taking a full two months to investigate every family and make sure that any foreign wives and the children they had bore had been put away by the Judean men.
9.2. The investigation was handled responsibly and every household was properly reconciled to the oath to put away all of the foreign wives and the children which they had bore.
9.3. Judea had been sent into captivity for worshipping other gods, and there they had spent 70 years because of their sins. They had been slaves in Babylon and should have learned their lesson. Then, they had gotten the chance to return to their homeland and rebuild their temple, city, and the wall around their city, all at Persia’s expense. But, they had stalled due to fear of the peoples in the land, and then they had eventually rebelled against the Lord and His commands by intermarrying with the peoples of the land of Canaan. Their sin had far reaching consequences in their lives, as it sometimes does in our own lives, and in order to get right with the Lord and continue being His people, they had to put away their foreign wives and the children born to those wives. We would have thought that they would have learned their lesson after what they had gone through in doing this. Yet we will see in another ten years or more as recorded in the book of Nehemiah, that the people of Judea are again putting away their foreign wives. We as people are slow to learn from our mistakes. This just shows even more how great is our God’s mercy and grace.
10. VS 10:18-44 - “18 Among the sons of the priests who had married foreign wives were found of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib and Gedaliah. 19 They pledged to put away their wives, and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their offense. 20 Of the sons of Immer there were Hanani and Zebadiah; 21 and of the sons of Harim: Maaseiah, Elijah, Shemaiah, Jehiel and Uzziah; 22 and of the sons of Pashhur: Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethanel, Jozabad and Elasah. 23 Of Levites there were Jozabad, Shimei, Kelaiah (that is, Kelita), Pethahiah, Judah and Eliezer. 24 Of the singers there was Eliashib; and of the gatekeepers: Shallum, Telem and Uri. 25 Of Israel, of the sons of Parosh there were Ramiah, Izziah, Malchijah, Mijamin, Eleazar, Malchijah and Benaiah; 26 and of the sons of Elam: Mattaniah, Zechariah, Jehiel, Abdi, Jeremoth and Elijah; 27 and of the sons of Zattu: Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, Jeremoth, Zabad and Aziza; 28 and of the sons of Bebai: Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai and Athlai; 29 and of the sons of Bani: Meshullam, Malluch and Adaiah, Jashub, Sheal and Jeremoth; 30 and of the sons of Pahath-moab: Adna, Chelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezalel, Binnui and Manasseh; 31 and of the sons of Harim: Eliezer, Isshijah, Malchijah, Shemaiah, Shimeon, 32 Benjamin, Malluch and Shemariah; 33 of the sons of Hashum: Mattenai, Mattattah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh and Shimei; 34 of the sons of Bani: Maadai, Amram, Uel, 35 Benaiah, Bedeiah, Cheluhi, 36 Vaniah, Meremoth, Eliashib, 37 Mattaniah, Mattenai, Jaasu, 38 Bani, Binnui, Shimei, 39 Shelemiah, Nathan, Adaiah, 40 Machnadebai, Shashai, Sharai, 41 Azarel, Shelemiah, Shemariah, 42 Shallum, Amariah and Joseph. 43 Of the sons of Nebo there were Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Jaddai, Joel and Benaiah. 44 All these had married foreign wives, and some of them had wives by whom they had children.” – We are told the names of those who had married foreign women in Israel and thus their names made it to this “Hall of Shame” list
10.1. At the beginning of this book we looked at the “Hall of Fame” list of names of those pioneers who had risked so much to undertake a very difficult and dangerous 900 mile trek through a land filled with robbers, in order to rebuild the temple, city, and wall around Jerusalem. Now, we end the book reading the “Hall of Shame” list of names of those who had married foreign wives and risked the entire work of God for all mankind. Their disobedience was so signally evil that it requited the listing of their names forever in God’s book.
10.2. All in all, it appears that less than 1 percent of the men in Judea had married foreign women from among the Canaanites, however this sin had incurred God’s anger and wrath and brought up all much calamity.
10.3. This story and this list of the names of those who sinned in Judea brings to mind the seriousness of sin that we allow into our lives. One of the things that this book of Ezra does not even detail is the effect upon the foreign wives and their children which being divorced in this way had brought upon them. Perhaps many went back with their children to their father’s household, but we aren’t told what happened. Surely, the sin of the men of Israel included what they brought upon these women and children who are victims in this story. This was a humanitarian crisis of some sorts brought about by the sin of the men of Judean.
11. CONCLUSIONS:
11.1. Our nation is in a very dangerous precipice right now. In a little over a week the national election is going to be held and we are going to elect a president. We as God’s people need to get our hearts right before the Lord, confess and repent of our sins, and come and pray and fast before the Lord for our country. We need to ask God to have mercy on our nation and give us the president we are going to need. But, we need to first put ourselves in the place where God can hear and answer our prayers.
11.2. We as God’s people need to examine our own lives and see if there figurative foreign wives in our lives that need to be put away. We ought to prayerfully seek the Lord to see if there is any compromise in our own lives that we have allowed to exist that is not pleasing to the Lord:
11.2.1.Have you been breaking any of God’s laws, such as stealing, lying, committing adultery by lusting after someone other than your spouse, committing murder to being angry or hating anyone? Have you been loving God with all of your heart, mind, and strength?
11.2.2.Have you been having quiet times every day seeking the Lord in prayer and reading His word?
11.2.3.The scripture says to let no unwholesome word proceed out of your mouth but only such a word as brings grace to the hearer, but have you been letting curse words come out of your mouth?
11.2.4.Have you let your eyes and ears see and hear things that are profane and unholy whether on television, movies, or going to places on the internet that you should not go?
11.2.5.Have you been diligent to pray for opportunities to share the gospel, and have you been taking the opportunities to share as you have been letting the Holy Spirit lead you?
11.2.6.Husbands, have you been living with your wives in an understanding way?
11.2.7.Parents, have you been being harsh or exasperating your children?
11.2.8.Parents, have you been attending carefully to the discipline of your children and teaching them God’s ways as you should?
11.2.9.Parents, have you been being a godly example to your children in all things?
11.2.10.Young people, have you been honoring and obeying your children as the Bible says you are to do?