Repentance Is The Only Remedy

Ezra pulls language from a number of different passages in verses 10-12,7 and the composite nature of the quotation leaves the impression that many biblical voices testify to the truth that Ezra here asserts:

Note the reference to “the prophets.” That language is pulled from a wide variety of texts, buttressing the idea that this is something on which the prophets agree. The Israelites have done exactly what God told them not to do. They have no righteousness to plead, and they have no excuses to make; there is nothing they can say to defend themselves.

In verses 13-15 Ezra confesses the way that God punished Israel in the past and confesses that God’s righteousness will inevitably result in punishment for sin:

As Ezra makes plain here, the very survival of Israel is at risk. Ezra knows that Yahweh does not owe mercy, and he knows that Yahweh will uphold justice. He knows that Israel is guilty. In verses 10-12, Ezra says exactly what Israel has done, and in verses 13-15 he points to the way that God has punished Israel for this kind of thing in the past. He is weeping and praying now because he does not want God to finish the job of judging Israel completely now that they have sinned the same way again.

I wonder if you identify with Israel at this point. You should! We all should. We are guilty, and God is in the right. We can make no claims on God’s mercy. We have no righteousness to plead before Him. It would take an eternity to pay for all the wrong we have done. But while we were yet sinners, God sent Jesus at the right time to die for the ungodly (Rom 5:8). Do you know that God sent Jesus into the world to save sinners (1 Tim 1:15)? Do you trust in Jesus? If not, what hope do you have?

Ezra 10:1-17

We saw in chapter 7 that Ezra set out to change the world by studying the Bible. Now we have seen in chapter 9 that once the Bible has exposed Israel’s sin, Ezra sets out to bring Israel to repentance by praying and confessing sin before God. Notice that all Ezra does here is pray, and we read in 10:1,

The fact that the people are weeping bitterly seems to indicate that they share Ezra’s priorities and feel the revulsion he feels at what has been done. This is confirmed from what we see in verse 2:

This is in keeping with the other indications in this chapter that a renewed study of the Bible has brought this sin to light. Ezra’s prayer at the end of chapter 9 laid the foundation for repentance as he recited the prohibitions and confessed the transgressions in 9:10-12, and the acknowledgment that Yahweh “punished us less than our sins deserve” in 9:13 seems to inform the final words of 10:2:

God has declared Himself to be merciful and gracious, so there is always hope for those who will turn away from sin, which is exactly what Shecaniah is going to say in verse 3:

Shecaniah proposes a solemn covenant to make a full repentance. This is no partial measure. He calls for a complete separation. No compromise. No provision made for keeping the idolatrous wives they already have with a promise to take no additional ones. No, the practice of intermarriage will stop and the existing idolaters will be excluded from the community. Notice that Shecaniah indicates that this is Ezra’s counsel, along with those who care about the Bible, and he calls for the putting away of the idolatrous wives to be done in accordance with the Torah of Moses. They are bringing their lives into line with the Bible.

Is this what repentance looks like in your life? Do you make a frank and full confession, with sincere sorrow for sin in full awareness of God’s justice and His mercy, followed by a clean break with the sin you have committed?

Did you notice that neither Ezra nor Shecaniah offered explanations as to why Israel fell into this sin? Did you notice that they didn’t say anything that would excuse Israel’s guilt or seek to make the crime less severe? No excuses, no explanations, and no consideration of particular circumstances. Did you notice that they fully acknowledge human responsibility for sin? What I mean is that they didn’t treat this as though90 it wasn’t sin but was merely symptomatic of The Attraction to Canaanite Idolaters Disorder.

Is this what repentance looks like for you? This is what repentance looks like for people who know God. People who know God understand that God is just and God is merciful. God is not merciful because we can talk Him into being merciful by explaining away our behavior. No, God is merciful because He is merciful, and He shows mercy to whomever He pleases. So we come with full and frank confessions, and we hope for mercy because we know God.

Look at what Shecaniah says to Ezra in verse 4: “Arise, for the matter is upon you, and we are with you. Be strong and act” (my trans.). Everyone has sinned. Believers confess their sins and experience God’s mercy. If you are an unbeliever, I call you to heed this word from Shecaniah. Repentance is your task. You have sinned, and you must repent. We who are believers will be with you, but you must be strong and act.

Shecaniah, of course, is calling Ezra to be strong and make the covenant he has articulated in verse 3, and we see that Ezra does just that in verse 5:

The priests, Levites, and all Israel have to take the oath because, as we saw in 9:1, “The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites” have all committed the sin.

In 10:6-8 we see how serious Ezra and the others are about following through. Ezra fasts about the situation in verse 6. The proclamation for all to gather is described in verse 7, and the consequence for not appearing within three days is stated in verse 8.

Are you harboring sin in your life, or are you repenting and following through on your repentance the way Ezra and Israel do here? Maybe your sin is one of hopelessness and despair. You need to repent, and you should follow through in your repentance by memorizing and meditating on Scripture. Are you repenting of your use of pornography on the internet? Follow through on your repentance by cutting off your access to it with a program like Covenant Eyes. Are you repenting of laziness and sloth? Follow through on your repentance by communicating your desire to be more disciplined to a friend who will pray for you, and 91figure out a course of action to be a better steward of the time God has given you.

The people appear in verse 9, and this would be December, so as it rains the people tremble from the cold and wet as well as from the matter of their sin. Ezra denounces their sin in verse 10 and calls them to confess and repent in verse 11. They agree to do so in verse 12, but ask for time to accomplish the great task in verses 13-14, with the leaders standing for the rest of the people. The opposition in verse 15 is not explained.

The sin is addressed in verses 16-17, and it took three months to work through all the cases. One year after his departure from Babylon, seven months after arriving in Jerusalem (cf. 7:9), they have dealt with all the men who married foreign women.

Ezra 10:18-44

Those who married foreign women are listed. First are the priests in verses 18-22, then the Levites in verse 23, the singers in verse 24, and all Israel in verses 25-43. The book ends with the sad note that some of these women had even borne children.

This account illustrates the way that one’s devotion to Yahweh must take precedence over even one’s wife and offspring. If your children are more important to you than God, you are an idolater. If your spouse is more important to you than God, you are an idolater. You have exchanged the Creator for a creature.

I would assume that the foreign women willing to identify with Israel and worship Yahweh would not be put away. The text does not address that circumstance, though 6:21 spoke of those non-Israelites who joined the returnees by separating from the uncleanness of the peoples of the land celebrating the Passover. Here Ezra merely notes that the foreign wives who practice abominations are put away.

Look at how abruptly the book of Ezra ends. The author does not reflect on what he has described. He shows us the scene, and he concludes. In part this may be due to the fact that in the ancient world Ezra and Nehemiah were treated as one book. So it may be that Ezra concluded his work, and then sometime later he was involved in putting his work together with what Nehemiah had written. If this is the case, he 92might not have seen Ezra 10:44 as the final word, since Nehemiah 1:1 would be the next. Either way, this episode ends abruptly.

What matters is that here the people repented. Have you repented?

And so we come to the end of the book of Ezra. The book seems to indicate that the greatest threat facing the returned community is not the one that comes from the outside, detailed in chapters 1-6. Rather, the greatest threat to Israel is the one that comes from her own sin. We know this to be true in our own experience as well, don’t we? We can do our best against the external opposition that we face, and the Bible teaches that God will accomplish all His purposes. Even if we are slain by those who oppose the gospel, God triumphs and we will be raised and God will get glory as we die the honored death of the martyr. Jesus taught His disciples not to fear those who could only kill the body, but to fear the One who could cast both soul and body into hell (Matt 10:28).

Our greatest challenges are not those that come from the outside. The greatest challenge we face is the challenge to be faithful to God. Ezra teaches that God can overcome every external difficulty and that God keeps His promises. But God’s people who are unfaithful to Him bring shame, disgrace, and pain down on their own heads. O, how much better to die a martyr than to live as a traitor to the living God and His saving gospel! Ezra also teaches that when God’s people fail to be faithful, they should respond in repentance, believing that God will keep His word, and hoping that He will again show mercy. Be encouraged by the repentance of even David, even Peter, who though shamed by their sin, were saved by faith and repented of sin to live for God’s glory.

These themes are well illustrated in Andrew Peterson’s On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness. When the external enemy, a Fang of Dang, is killed, the snake-man’s body almost immediately turns to dust and ashes, and becomes like chaff, which the wind drives away. The real challenge the children face is to overcome the more pernicious internal enemies by being faithful to each other, loving one another, and trusting the Maker.