Ezra's Confession - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in Ezra 9:15,

"Lord, the God of Israel, you are righteous!... Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in your presence."

Here is a clear, unequivocal, unadulterated confession of sin. When Ezra returned to the homeland from the seventy year captivity Israel experienced in Babylon, he found that some of the people, together with priests and Levites of the earlier returnees had taken heathen spouses to themselves. They inter-married with those who maintained "detestable practices" of these surrounding nations. "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." Verse 2.

We read in verses 3-5, "When I [Ezra] heard this, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled hair from my head and beard and sat down appalled. Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of this unfaithfulness of the exiles. And I sat there appalled until the evening sacrifice. 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 and prayed..."

The words in verse 16 are those that ended Ezra's prayer. Ezra's prayer is a heart-wrenching confession of the sins of the nation, together with the acknowledgment of God's just response to those sins. "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. 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." Verses 6-7.

This prayer of confession ought to be required reading for all who would educate themselves in the things of the Lord. We have all sinned and we have great need of learning how to address that with God. Ezra's plea is devastating: "But now, our God, what can we say after this?"

Not much can be said following sin, but Ezra shows us the way. The following chapter will reveal why Ezra was God's chosen man to be used in a mighty way to help prepare the nation for the eventual coming of her Messiah. The sin will be dealt with.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

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