Repentance In The Rain (Ezra 10:1-17)
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
A. Preliminaries
A. Preliminaries
Good morning. We continue and will conclude our sermon series on the book of Ezra this morning, and we find ourselves in Chapter 10 today. The first half of the chapter is narrative, and the second half or so is a list of names, so I will focus mainly on the first seventeen verses. Let us read them now.
B. Sermon Text
B. Sermon Text
Ezra, Chapter 10, beginning at verse 1 can be found on page 466 in the Bibles that are in your pews.
While Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, a very great assembly of men, women, and children, gathered to him out of Israel, for the people wept bitterly. And Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, of the sons of Elam, addressed Ezra: “We have broken faith with our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land, but even now there is hope for Israel in spite of this. Therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all these wives and their children, according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God, and let it be done according to the Law. Arise, for it is your task, and we are with you; be strong and do it.” Then Ezra arose and made the leading priests and Levites and all Israel take an oath that they would do as had been said. So they took the oath. Then Ezra withdrew from before the house of God and went to the chamber of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib, where he spent the night, neither eating bread nor drinking water, for he was mourning over the faithlessness of the exiles. And a proclamation was made throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the returned exiles that they should assemble at Jerusalem, and that if anyone did not come within three days, by order of the officials and the elders all his property should be forfeited, and he himself banned from the congregation of the exiles. Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin assembled at Jerusalem within the three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month. And all the people sat in the open square before the house of God, trembling because of this matter and because of the heavy rain. And Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have broken faith and married foreign women, and so increased the guilt of Israel. Now then make confession to the Lord, the God of your fathers and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives.” Then all the assembly answered with a loud voice, “It is so; we must do as you have said. But the people are many, and it is a time of heavy rain; we cannot stand in the open. Nor is this a task for one day or for two, for we have greatly transgressed in this matter. Let our officials stand for the whole assembly. Let all in our cities who have taken foreign wives come at appointed times, and with them the elders and judges of every city, until the fierce wrath of our God over this matter is turned away from us.” Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahzeiah the son of Tikvah opposed this, and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite supported them. Then the returned exiles did so. Ezra the priest selected men, heads of fathers’ houses, according to their fathers’ houses, each of them designated by name. On the first day of the tenth month they sat down to examine the matter; and by the first day of the first month they had come to the end of all the men who had married foreign women.
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God!
C. Textual Walkthrough
C. Textual Walkthrough
It’s been a couple of weeks since we’ve been in Ezra, so permit me to give you an overview of what’s going on in the text.
Four months after Ezra arrives in Jerusalem, he discovers that some of the children of the original returnees had married non-Jewish women. Remember what Ezra had come to do: establish the rule of God’s law in Jerusalem. And in Deuteronomy 7:3 they were told:
You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons,
So Ezra uncovers this sin of the people and is weeping and confessing and prostrating himself in front of the temple in Jerusalem, and a large crowd gathers: men, women, and children. And all of them are weeping bitterly with broken hearts (v1).
A fellow named Shecaniah speaks up and speaks for the people. Now, this guy is relatively unknown. But he steps forward to be a powerful catalyst for Reformation.
He proposes that a covenant be made. The terms of the covenant are to put away their foreign wives and children. (v.3). More on that in a moment. And he tells Ezra to get up and do it. Arise. Be strong. We are with you (v.4). Probably because this will be very hard.
So Ezra has the leading priests and Levites and all Israel (probably said that way to highlight the unfaithfulness of the leaders) take a vow. They take an oath to do this. That’s the first step of this covenant (v. 5).
But interestingly enough, Ezra’s grief is not over. After they take the oath, he gets up and leaves and goes to the room/home of Jehohanan. He fasts for the night. He’s still mourning over the faithlessness of the exiles (v.6).
A proclamation is made that all the returned exiles should assemble at Jerusalem (v.7). You must come within 3 days. If not, your property is forfeit, and you are banned from the congregation of the exiles (v.8).
The returned exiles respond to the proclamation--all the men of Judah and Benjamin assemble at Jerusalem. And all the people are trembling. For two reasons: the heaviness of the matter and the heaviness of the rain (v.9).
So Ezra stands up, and he calls on them to make confession and to bind themselves to obedience to the Lord. The assembly answers with a loud voice a great amen--It is so. We must do as you have said (v. 12).
But there’s a follow up. They say it is so and we will do. BUT, the people are many and the rain is heavy. This isn’t something that can be “knocked out” in a day or two. We can’t stay around here, so we can’t just stand out here in the rain until this is done. There’s deep involvement in the sin, so this will take some time (v.13).
So the people propose a plan to get this sorted. The plan involves elders and judges of every city, and they’re going to keep it up until the work is done (v.14).
There is some opposition to the plan, but apparently those four guys are outvoted, because we are simply told that the returned exiles did so.
It takes about 3 months. But they do finish dealing with everyone. And then after that, we get a list of the guilty. That’s what the list at the end of Chapter 10 is, a list of all those who have violated Deuteronomy 7:3 and have married foreign, pagan women.
D. Transition to Sermon
D. Transition to Sermon
So with that, I want us to examine at least three things this morning from this text.
I. The Complexity of the Problem
II. The Courage of Repentance
III. The Call to Holiness
Let’s Pray.
O heavenly Father: Your law is indeed perfect, converting the soul; a sure testimony, giving wisdom to the unlearned, and enlightening the eyes. Enlighten our blind intellect by your Holy Spirit, so that we may truly understand and profess your law and live according to it. You have revealed the mysteries of your will only to the little ones; and you look to him who is of a humble and contrite spirit, who has reverence for your Word. So grant us a humble spirit and keep us from all fleshly wisdom, which is enmity against you. We ask this from you, most merciful Father, in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
(Based on a Prayer by Martin Micronius)
I. The Complexity of the Problem
I. The Complexity of the Problem
So what we have noted in this latter part of the book of Ezra is that the central feature of this Reformation was the rebuilding of the temple and the restoration of biblical marriage. And we come up against some real challenges in this text because it seems like in Chapter 10 what they are commanded to do is to divorce their pagan wives.
Now, that is confusing for more reasons that you might think. You might have heard of another short Old Testament Book by the name of Malachi—it’s the last book in our Old Testament Book order before you get to the New Testament. And the prophet Malachi was a contemporary of Ezra and Nehemiah and was living in Judah at this time, and Malachi has one of the strongest denunciations of divorce in the Bible!
“For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”
And to make matters more confusing, Nehemiah—a few decades after this—specifically forbids intermarriage with pagans, but does not insist that the existing unions be dissolved.
So what’s going on here?
The first question that might come up is “Does this text give license to divorce when a believer has married and unbeliever and the answer is, “No.”
If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace. For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?
So Paul’s apostolic advice in 2 Corinthians 7 is that an unequally yoked marriage should remain together because, mysteriously, the Christian spouse has a sanctifying effect on the home, including the children. But at the same time Paul notes if the unbeliever wants to divorce, then it can be permitted.
So let’s get back to Ezra—what’s going on?
Well let’s look at verse 2 for a moment, which is going to get the most references in this sermon. It is easily one of the most important verses in the whole chapter:
And Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, of the sons of Elam, addressed Ezra: “We have broken faith with our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land, but even now there is hope for Israel in spite of this.
The solution to our confusion is probably found in the reality that the Hebrew word translated “married” in verse 2 is not the typical word for marriage. It can mean marriage, but the term literally means “to dwell together.” So it is possible (and I think even likely) that this could be a reference to people shacking up, perhaps people who were already married, but were taking on additional wives. But I want to also note that the word translated “foreign women” in verse 2 is the same word that gets translated “adulteress” in the book of Proverbs at least six times.
So I think it most likely that what was happening is that men in Jerusalem were taking on let’s say girlfriends from the nations and treating them as wives.
Now, to send them away would have been a terrible heartbreak. And their children with them, I trust you didn’t miss that. And they would not have just cast them out, most likely, these foreigners would have returned to their families of origin, given that family structures in the ancient near east were pretty well intact.
But this gets us back to the point that we have covered before: The health of marriages in the Covenant Community is at least one biblical starting point for reformation and revival. But I wanted to begin by addressing the apparent problem in the text, and reassert that the only circumstances for a biblically permissable divorce are adultery or such wilfull desertion that fails to be remedied by the process of church discipline and the work of civil authorities.
So, that is an attempt to get at the complexity of the problem. Next, I want to talk to you about
II. The Courage of Repentance
II. The Courage of Repentance
Ezra starts weeping and confessing in verse 2, and this grows into a corporate confession. Authentic biblical revival begins in tears. And this is also true of reformation. If there are problems in a church or in several churches or in churches across America, we will have to deal with our sin and unfaithfulness, and our passive toleration of all of it.
To quote Derek Thomas,
“Before lasting reformation can come, sin must be faced and acknowledged.”
And we know this in our bones because it shapes how we do ministry, right? The Gospel is good news, but it is only good news once you know the bad news about your own sin. The Good news is that the sinless Son of God died so that you might be saved. The bad news is that’s what it took.
So Ezra’s repentance leads to others around him repenting, and that’s when we meet this guy named Shecaniah. He speaks up and puts forward a word of repentance, and he speaks in the covenantal “we.”
And Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, of the sons of Elam, addressed Ezra: “We have broken faith with our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land, but even now there is hope for Israel in spite of this.
This is ownership. He steps up and he says “We have sinned.” He says we have broken faith. We have married foreign women. But there is hope even now for us, in spite of this. This is a great picture of the terrible weight of sin, with the glorious power of the grace of God.
Yes, we have sinned, but oh, praise God, there is hope for us. This can be one of the hardest things for a Christian to believe sometimes. Yes I have sinned, but there is hope for me. This is a central promise given to us at the cross. Yes you have sinned, but there is hope for you.
So he says we have sinned.
Now what makes that interesting is that the “list of offenders” at the end of the chapter—27 verses of offenders—Shecaniah’s name does not show up. But verse 2 says he is the son of Jehiel, and guess what. That guy’s name is on the list. He could be questioning or rather, he is probably owning the sin in his own family.
Now let me speak to that for a moment. Because one of the burdens that comes to all of us as we move from youth to adulthood is the responsibility to own the sin in our own family as something that has affected us and will likely tempt us.
If there’s a history of drug abuse in your family, you should be aware that that will be a temptation and weakness for you. If there’s a history of adultery or use of pornography in your family, that will probably be a temptation and weakness for you. If there’s a history of relational brokenness and dysfunction in your family, that will probably be a temptation and weakness for you. If there’s a history of despising authority or arrogant rebellion in your family, that will probably be a temptation or weakness for you.
We call this generational sin or generational curses, and it’s a hard reality of life. But the greater reality is that Jesus Christ has come as the curse-breaker. But it has to start with repentance. And it can start with you. It starts with earnest repentance before the Lord—Lord, this is who we have been. This is who my family, my people have been, and we will be this way for another ten generations, unless you put a stop to it now.
And my brother, my sister, by the grace of Jesus, it can stop with you. But only if repentance starts with you. So own the reality that you inherit the sin patterns of your ancestors, and decide today that by the grace of God, your family will have a different story that will begin with you, and all the help you can stand. Don’t fight it alone—this repentance was corporate because they needed each other’s help to find their way out.
III. The Call to Holiness
III. The Call to Holiness
Chapter 10 is a call to the people to return to the Lord, to his ways, to his designs, to his good way. And we get the sense that this was quite the process.
They come to the Lord in repentance, and they cry out, acknowledging their sin together, in the pouring rain. Verse 9 sets quite the picture:
Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin assembled at Jerusalem within the three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month. And all the people sat in the open square before the house of God, trembling because of this matter and because of the heavy rain.
This is a dramatic scene fit for a movie. And it’s why I titled this sermon “Repentance in the Rain” a title I borrow from Derek Thomas.
Because they can’t stay out their in the rain, they know this whole process is going to take too long. But they do start a process and it ends up with a long catalogue of names that stretches through to verse 44 at the end of the chapter.
So I’ve waited until now to talk about the concluding 27 verses of chapter 10, which is a list of names of all the people who were guilty of marrying pagan women.
The whole process of adjudication lasted three months, and it would have been emotionally painful, no question. A survey of the concluding verses of the chapter reveals we’re dealing with about 110 cases over three months, roughly one and a half cases per day.
And the list of names tells you why Ezra was so broken over this. There were offenders at every level. Included in that list is
Seventeen priests (including relatives of the high priest)
Six Levites
One Temple Singer
Three Gatekeepers
Eighty-Four of the laity.
When put that way, it leaves you in place of saying “Wow. This sin was like a cancer that had worked its way into the bones. This was really serious.”
Until you do the math. And you realize that the total number of offenders ends up coming to about 100 men. In a community of 30,000.
What?! Are you serious?!
Yes.
That is basically one third of one percent. Not even one percent.
Ezra...dude.
What are you worried about? You made such a big deal about less than one percent of the people? You even ended this book that bears your name with barely any resolution, with this one issue ringing in our ears?
This shocks us because we don’t think and reason the way that the Bible does.
We don’t believe that a sin of low representation has much affect on the community. But biblically, sin has consequences for the entire community, and quiet, secret, ongoing disobedience to God, perhaps especially concerning how he has designed marriage will destroy churches and it will destroy nations. And that is why Ezra cares about it so much.
We all know that Paul teaches in 2 Corinthians that believers should not be unequally yoked with non-believers. What we sometimes forget is that in that same passage, right after saying “Don’t be unequally yoked,” Paul quotes the from the Old Testament about God making his dwelling among us and how we can touch no unclean thing.
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”
Do you see the connections there? God is saying how you build and keep your closest relationships is a matter that impacts the Lord’s very presence among the body. Brothers and sisters, take the health of your relationships seriously, and especially take your marriages seriously.
I quote again from Derek Thomas:
“When husbands and wives are not in spiritual union, sitting alongside each other in church, praying together in the home, and of one mind in the rearing of their children, the marriage is horribly compromised. When such spiritual unions exist, we should be profoundly grateful, but we cannot take these unions for granted. They must always be nurtured and protected. Satan will do his utmost to destroy them.”
So receive this with sober joy. Take the godliness and the love and the respect and the laughter and the joy and the security and the sanctification of your marriages with deadly seriousness, but pursue it with hope. With glad-hearted hope. In the words of Shecaniah,
...but even now there is hope for Israel in spite of this.
And we can bank hard on that hope. Because look how Ezra, speaking by the Spirit, refers to the people.
Look at verse 7
And a proclamation was made throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the returned exiles that they should assemble at Jerusalem,
Underline “all the returned exiles”
And look at verse 16, after they are called to begin these councils to obey the Lord
Then the returned exiles did so. Ezra the priest selected men, heads of fathers’ houses, according to their fathers’ houses, each of them designated by name. On the first day of the tenth month they sat down to examine the matter;
Underline “the returned exiles.”
That’s who they were. That was their identity. Not the ones the Lord had given up on. But the returned exiles. The restored lost boys. The forgiven sinners.
That’s the hope in the story. And it’s the hope in our story too. The story that God writes for us, dear saints, is not the story of people who will one day be worthy of his love. It is the story of the beloved ones. The forgiven ones. The transformed ones. The justified ones. The holy ones, because of the Lord Jesus Christ. Who by his holy marriage to the church, which includes countless foreigners and those who were far off and have not been sent away but have been brought near by the blood of his cross. These will persevere by grace to the very end.
In the name of Jesus, Amen.
