Ezra 9
In this chapter Ezra is greatly shocked and saddened. After dealing with the King of Persia's orders Ezra is approached by the princes in Jerusalem. They informed him that all the people and the priests, and the Levites and especially the princes and rulers had been intermarrying with the Canaanites, something which God had strictly forbidden.
Ezra is so shocked and ashamed that he rips his clothes, pulls out his hair and sits down, astonished and silent, until the time of the evening sacrifice. He is joined by those who also trembled before God. At the evening sacrifice Ezra falls on his knees before God and with great shame pours out a confession of the people's sins, which seems to him the worse because it is a repeat of the sins which caused God to send them into captivity. He acknowledges God's great mercy in returning them from captivity and that they are yet able to come before him in confession.
This chapter is very moving - we can feel the shame that Ezra expresses as he prays. But what caused my heart to soften this morning were the words in his prayer in verse 15, 'for we remain yet escaped, as it is this day: behold we are before thee in our trespasses'.
What mercy this shows us! As Ezra noted despite all their great sins, the fact that he was alive and able to confess them before God showed God's patience and mercy to them. So today, the fact that you and I are still alive on this earth and can come to God in prayer demonstrates God's great mercy and patience with us.
The depth of this mercy is seen even more when we think that it was God that made the King's heart willing to send Ezra to Jerusalem and with all that was needed - not in the least begrudgingly, but as it were with the King's blessing, that Ezra may teach the people God's laws. And God did all this knowing that the people who had earlier returned from their captivity were sinning against his commands already.
Does this remind you of anything? Does it make you think how the Lord Jesus came to suffer and die for the sins of his people before some of us were even born! Knowing what we would do and our need of a Saviour, he loved us before time. Romans 5:8 says, 'God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us'.
Do you feel your sins, dear reader? Do you feel like Ezra, that you 'cannot stand before' God because of them? (Verse 15). Perhaps you have known what it is to receive forgiveness for your sins only to return to them again and now you really feel the sense of what Ezra says in verse 6, 'I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God'.
I wonder if part of the reason that Ezra did not speak until the evening sacrifice was because he felt their sin so much that he could not enter into conversation or activity about it until it had been confessed with that evening sacrifice for sin - he could not approach God without it.
We too cannot approach God on our own terms - we cannot stand before him as we are. It is right that we should be ashamed and fall before him. But we can approach him through the name, merit and sacrificial love of the Lord Jesus.
Let us come before God, and with shame and blushing confess our sins, praising God for his mercy and patience. Let us be like the man Jesus tells the story about recorded in Luke 18: 9-14 - 'a publican' (tax collector), the type of man known to be corrupt and despised, he came to the temple, couldn't even look towards heaven, beat his chest and pleaded with God to have mercy on him, confessing he was a sinner. He didn't make any attempt to stand up for himself, or say, 'Look, I'm not so bad, I do this, I do the other, in fact I live a pretty moral life', he didn't make excuses and say, 'Well I only did wrong because of such and such', or compare himself to others and say he is better than them (unlike the other man in the story, the Pharisee), no, he just cried for mercy.
And what happens when we confess all our wrongdoing before God, when we ask for his forgiveness, when we brokenly confess our need for his mercy with all of our heart? Does God say, 'You need to suffer a bit longer, you need to feel your guilt more, you need to pray harder!?' No! That would be telling us we need to earn our salvation! He may not answer us immediately if he can see we are still trusting in our own efforts, or not truly meaning it, or perhaps wants to test us, but when he gives us real belief in him, and gives us real prayer to him - then as he promises through the word of John,' he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness' (1 John 1:9); then, like the publican, who Jesus says got up and went to his home, 'justified', we are totally forgiven of our sins as if they had been blotted out from existence.
May we each be given a true heartfelt confession of our sins before God, and be given belief in his promises to hear and forgive us.
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