Ezra 9 – Study

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Ezra 9:1-6

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 neighbouring 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.’

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 round me because of this unfaithfulness of the exiles. And I sat there appalled until the evening sacrifice.

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: ‘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. 

A. Find Out:

1. Then what was Ezra told and by whom? v.1,2
2. What did he do? v.3
3. Who gathered with him? v.4a
4. How long did he sit there and in what state? v.4b
5. What did he eventually do? v.5,6a

B. Think:

1. How would you summarise the news that was given to Ezra?
2. How would you describe his response?
3. Why do you think that was?

C. Comment:

      Ezra has just arrived and presumably indicates why he has come, and enquires from the leaders already there of the state of the people. He is told that the people there have settled with the people of the land and intermarried with them. This is not just the ordinary people, this is also the priests and Levites and the leaders as well. Having gone back to the land, they have been casual about who they were. The Law of God had decreed that they were to be a separate and distinct people who did not marry others. Deut 7:1-4 had been very clear about this and the reason given was that their hearts would be turned away from God by the foreign idols. Tragically this people disdained their heritage and were casual about who they were. Are we fully appreciative of who we are, the holy children of God?

       Ezra’s reaction is one of total dismay. His tearing his clothes and pulling out his hair was a cultural sign of utter distress. So much did this dismay him that he just sat there, unable to do anything for hours. Why was he so moved? He was a man of God who is steeped in the word of God. The more the word fills us the more we understand it and the more we feel with God. Ezra understood the awfulness of what had happened. Potentially this was the end of the holy people. He prays.

D. Application:

1. Are we fully appreciative of who we are “in Christ”?
2. Are we those filled with the word so that we are moved deeply by sin as  we feel with God when things go wrong?

Passage: Ezra 9:6-15 

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:

‘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. 7 From the days of our ancestors until now, our guilt has been great. Because of our sins, we and our kings and our priests have been subjected to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation at the hand of foreign kings, as it is today.

8 ‘But now, for a brief moment, the Lord our God has been gracious in leaving us a remnant and giving us a firm place in his sanctuary, and so our God gives light to our eyes and a little relief in our bondage. 9 Though we are slaves, our God has not forsaken us in our bondage. He has shown us kindness in the sight of the kings of Persia: he has granted us new life to rebuild the house of our God and repair its ruins, and he has given us a wall of protection in Judah and Jerusalem.

10 ‘But now, our God, what can we say after this? For we have forsaken the commands 11 you gave through your servants the prophets when you said: “The land you are entering to possess is a land polluted by the corruption of its peoples. By their detestable practices they have filled it with their impurity from one end to the other. 12 Therefore, do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters for your sons. Do not seek a treaty of friendship with them at any time, that you may be strong and eat the good things of the land and leave it to your children as an everlasting inheritance.”

13 ‘What has happened to us is a result of our evil deeds and our great guilt, and yet, our God, you have punished us less than our sins have deserved and have given us a remnant like this. 14 Shall we then break your commands again and intermarry with the peoples who commit such detestable practices? Would you not be angry enough with us to destroy us, leaving us no remnant or survivor? 15 Lord, the God of Israel, you are righteous! We are left this day as a remnant. Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in your presence.’

A. Find Out:

1. What does Ezra acknowledge to start with? v.6
2. How does he enlarge on that? v.7
3. Yet how is the present a time of hope? v.8,9
4. But what does he confess? v.10-12
5. What does he acknowledge? v.13
6. How does he conclude his prayer? v.14,15

B. Think:

1. How does Ezra cover the sin of Israel in his prayer?
2. What element of hope if there however?
3. How is the prayer more an acknowledgement than a plea?

C. Comment:

      Having sat for some time in a state of miserable shock, Ezra now prays. His prayer is not so much a plea for forgiveness as rather a simply acknowledgement of their sin. Ezra knows that here is a situation where words are inadequate, and it will require action before he can ask forgiveness. We need to learn this lesson: sometimes we need to show our repentance by a change of action before we come running to God asking for forgiveness. He is more concerned with what we do than with our mere words. Let’s consider the prayer.

       First Ezra acknowledges their present sinfulness in general, recognising that that was how it had been throughout Israel ‘s history. From the time of the judges on, Israel had fallen into sin and then, as a result, fell under the domination of others. God had come again and again and given them deliverers when they had cried out in repentance. From this he recognises there is a ray of hope in that the fact that they are back in the land is a sign of God’s grace and mercy. But having said that he recognises they are in a place of sin where they, as a people, have disregarded God’s commands in respect of staying holy and distinct. At the end of his prayer it seems he can’t bring himself to ask for forgiveness, he can only acknowledge their state. Action is needed.

D. Application:

1. Repentance is best shown by a change of action.
2. Sometimes words should be few and actions many!