Now when these things were done, the princes came to me, saying, The people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.
For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons: so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands: yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this trespass.
And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down astonied.
Then were assembled unto me every one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the transgression of those that had been carried away; and I sat astonied until the evening sacrifice.
And at the evening sacrifice I arose up from my heaviness; and having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the LORD my God.
A HEAVY-HEARTED LEADER
‘My Heaviness.’
Ezra 9:5
I. On Ezra’s arrival at Jerusalem complaint was made to him of the failure and sin of the people.—What an appalling story it was, that during these sixty years, even though there had been no return to heathen idolatry, there had been the wilful breaking of God’s law about inter-mixture with the people of the land, and the chief offenders had been the princes and the rulers. The picture of Ezra in the presence of this confession is very fine. It is that of a man tempest-tossed with righteous indignation. As the storm of his passion subsided, in which he had rent his garments and plucked off his beard, he sank into silent astonishment until the evening oblation.
II. Then he fell upon his knees before his God and poured out his soul in prayer.—It was a wonderful prayer. Beginning with confession of his personal shame, he at once gathered into his outcry the whole of the people, identifying himself with them as he spoke of “our iniquities … our guiltiness,” and so forth. He went back over all the history in imagination as he knelt before his God, and clearly saw that it had been one long story of failure and of consequent disaster. He then spoke of his consciousness of the grace of God manifest in the making possible of the return of the remnant through favour of the kings of Persia. Then the surging sorrow of the new failure found expression in free and full confession, until at last, without any petition for deliverance, he cast the people before God with a recognition of His righteousness, and of their inability to stand in its presence. It is a fine revelation of the only attitude in which any man can become a mediator. The passion of the whole movement is evidence of its reality. No man can really know the righteousness of God, and in its light see sin, and be quiet and calculating and unmoved.
Illustrations
(1) ‘Ezra speaks as the true priest. During the years which had passed since the first detachment of exiles had returned, though there had been no return to idolatry, there had been a large amount of intermarriage between the Jews and the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had settled on the land, as well as with neighbouring peoples. And, sad to say, “the hand of the princes and priests had been chief in this trespass.” Ezra’s behaviour when these tidings were brought to him was very remarkable. He seemed almost distraught.’
(2) ‘They are most ill-matched who have not common interests in the deepest concerns of the soul. Then it needs to be remembered in these days, when ease and comfort are unduly prized, that there are occasions on which even the peace and love of the home must be sacrificed to the supreme claims of God. Our Lord ominously warned His disciples that He would send a sword to sever the closest domestic ties—“to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother,” etc., and He added “He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.” ’
And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.
Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day.
And now for a little space grace hath been shewed from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage.
For we were bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.
And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? for we have forsaken thy commandments,
Which thou hast commanded by thy servants the prophets, saying, The land, unto which ye go to possess it, is an unclean land with the filthiness of the people of the lands, with their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with their uncleanness.
Now therefore give not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor seek their peace or their wealth for ever: that ye may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children for ever.
And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hast given us such deliverance as this;
Should we again break thy commandments, and join in affinity with the people of these abominations? wouldest not thou be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor escaping?
O LORD God of Israel, thou art righteous: for we remain yet escaped, as it is this day: behold, we are before thee in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before thee because of this.
