Ezra 9-10

Proverbs 24:30–34 ESV

I passed by the field of a sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense, and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns; the ground was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down. Then I saw and considered it; I looked and received instruction. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.

Proverbs 24:

Ezra 10:1–3 ESV

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.

“As God led his people toward the Promised Land in Canaan, trouble awaited them there. Canaanite culture was a moral sewer, and Israel was a dry sponge. So before God threw that sponge into that sewer, he soaked the sponge in the oil of a culture of holiness. He gave Israel their own culture, defined by the books of the law, Exodus-Deuteronomy. By soaking in the laws of purity and diet and sacrifice and worship and all aspects of holiness, the people could be set apart to God and protected from moral pollution in Canaan- in theory, anyway.”

Richard Lovelace

Ray Ortlund, referencing Richard Lovelace

Psalm 139:23–24 ESV

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

Psalm 129

Ezra 9:15 ESV

O Lord, the God of Israel, you are just, for we are left a remnant that has escaped, as it is today. Behold, we are before you in our guilt, for none can stand before you because of this.”

“Repentance causes a holy bashfulness. If Christ’s blood were not at the sinner’s heart, there would not so much blood come in the face. Blushing is the colour of virtue.” Thomas Watson

Non-repentance says, “What matters to me is my own comforts and preferences.”

False repentance says, “What matters to me is loss of face.”

True repentance says, “What matters to me is that I’ve hurt Jesus.”

“If God had given us a hundred-volume set of rules for every situation, we would have relied on the book and our diligence. But when we see what wisdom truly is, we will be driven to look to Jesus of whom it was said, ‘What’s this wisdom that has been given him?’ ‘Lord, I love to think I know the truth, but even when I do, I don’t know how to use it.’”

Isaiah 1:18 ESV

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

“God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood--to be received by faith.” (NIV)

Last Recorded Words

Buddha: “Strive with earnestness.”

Jesus: “It is finished.”

Isaiah 1:18 ESV

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.