The Path to True Restoration

Introduction

We finish our sermons in and through Ezra by looking at these last two chapters. We have been talking about what it takes to rebuild from the ruins that we find ourselves in. as I have mentioned, the only way we will see God move and work is through the church. It will not come as we are seeing this week, through politics or anything else. And it’s not supposed to. As much as I am proud to be American and thankful to live here, I recognize and understand the limitations of the country, and know that we will not see revival break out through our patriotism and our government.

It will come through the church. But the question becomes, what is the key? We’ve talked about several of them, namely restoring the priority of worship, of standing despite opposition, and, as we’ve mentioned last week, of devoting ourselves to the priority of studying and applying God’s Word in our lives.

But there is another key, just as important, just as vital as anything else we’ve mentioned. And that is the issue of repentance. That is, a willingness as Christians, as the people of God, to repent and turn from our sinfulness.

The fact is, there can be no restoration, there can be no revival, if we as the church, if we as the people of God, are not willing to repent and change direction in our lives.

The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, Volumes 1–5 2. Repent, “To Turn” or “Return”

The term שׁוּב, shūbh, is most generally employed to express the Scriptural idea of genuine repentance. It is used extensively by the prophets, and makes prominent the idea of a radical change in one’s attitude toward sin and God. It implies a conscious, moral separation, and a personal decision to forsake sin and to enter into fellowship with God. It is employed extensively with reference to man’s turning away from sin to righteousness

The only way we will see the hand of God move is if we are willing to repent and change our life directions. That is the point of this passage.

I. Ezra Discovers a Big Problem.

As Ezra and his colleagues are setting up shop in Jerusalem, getting used to the new life, the rebuilding of their relationship with God, they discover a massive problem that they have to deal with.

Ezra 9:1–2 ESV

After these things had been done, the officials approached me and said, “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their abominations, from the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. For they have taken some of their daughters to be wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands. And in this faithlessness the hand of the officials and chief men has been foremost.”

What is the problem? The problem is that there are people who have returned from Babylon and other nations, from the exile, and while they were there, they intermarried with the women of the nations they were exiled to. This is in violation of

Deuteronomy 7:1–2 ESV

“When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you, and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them.

Deuteronomy 7:3–4 ESV

You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.

This was a clear command from God. Don’t intermarry, don’t take the foreign women to be your wife. And the reason is clear. They will turn your sons away from following me.

God had called the Isaelites, the Jews, to be his holy people. He called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees and Moses out of Egypt, and His desire was that they would be a holy people. And yet, as was said, when they were in exile, when they were scattered, they wound up taking on these marriages.

Now, intermarrying was not explicitly, expressly forbidden. Several times in the Bible we read of Jews having married outside the race. Most notable is the story of Ruth, who was a Moabitess. She marries Boaz and becomes the great-grandmother of David. She has a child named Obed, who has a child named Jesse, who has a child named David. But, the principle needed to be followed, and that was, intermarrying with those outside of the race would cause serious problems.

So, Ezra discovers a big problem and then

II. Ezra’s Response to the Problem.

Look at how Ezra responds to the problem of his people intermarrying withe the Gentile peoples. He does not cover it up, but rather confesses. He’s bothered, he’s ashamed of his nations’ sinful behavior.

Ezra 9:3–6 ESV

As soon as I heard this, I tore my garment and my cloak and pulled hair from my head and beard and sat appalled. Then all who trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the faithlessness of the returned exiles, gathered around me while I sat appalled until the evening sacrifice. And at the evening sacrifice I rose from my fasting, with my garment and my cloak torn, and fell upon my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord my God, saying: “O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens.

In other words, Ezra did not sugarcoat the issue at hand. He did not merely excuse it, or ignore it, or wish it away, but he understood and recognized the problem head on. he falls to his knees in fasting and prayer, seeking God and making confession of his sin.

But even in the midst of confessing his sin, he recognized the hand of God, the mercy of God that was there in the midst of their sinfulness.

Ezra 9:8–9 ESV

But now for a brief moment favor has been shown by the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant and to give us a secure hold within his holy place, that our God may brighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our slavery. For we are slaves. Yet our God has not forsaken us in our slavery, but has extended to us his steadfast love before the kings of Persia, to grant us some reviving to set up the house of our God, to repair its ruins, and to give us protection in Judea and Jerusalem.

Ezra’s prayer is really remarkable to read and meditate upon. He does not cover over their sin, he fully confesses it, he points out the error, and yet he recognizes the mercy of God in not punishing them as their sins deserved.

But Ezra does more than just confess their sin and plead for God’s mercy, he also does something difficult, and yet necessary to do.

Ezra 10:1–5 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. 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.

Ezra 10:9–12 ESV

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.

in essence, the people came to him and said, we need to make this right. They set up a time of prayer and join together, where Ezra tells them their sin. This leads to a counsel where they attempted to determine who needed to divorce and put away their Gentile wife.

And if you will think about that action, that is not at all an easy thing to do. To go to someone and say, you need to break off this marriage, you need to separate yourself from this spouse would not have been easy at all. And yet, a fundamentally necessary step in order to align their lives with the Word of God.

It was a long and slow process, and yet, they went through with it, and finally the separation was made, the marriages were dissolved, and the return back to God took a closer step to fruition.

III. What we can learn from this problem.

The question obviously becomes, what are we to learn from this story. We believe that all Scripture is given by God, and so we ask, what is it that we learn here? Let me give you a few things.

A. This is not a story about marriage.

We can not take away from this story, these chapters, anything pertaining to marriage for the most part.

This is not a warning against interracial or intercultural marriage. There are two requirements for marriage in the Bible. Be a believer, and be of the opposite gender. And, if you want to marry a person from another country, or another skin color, go ahead. You can not say that Ezra made them break up their marriages, so we must have this happen.

In fact, this story does not tell us to break up our marriages if we are married to an unbeliever. We balance this with the totality of Scripture. In fact, Ezra may have been a contemporary of Malachi, who prophesied these words,

Malachi 2:16 ESV

“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 we know that Paul stated this,

1 Corinthians 7:12–14 ESV

To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. 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.

this is not to say that divorce is never an option. Sometimes it is when unfaithfulness or abandonment occurs. And if you’re here and in a troubled marriage, I would encourage you to talk to me. Let’s try to get things figured out.

3. If there is something to take from this passage regarding marriage, it is this. Christians should only marry other believers. If that person you are considering is not a believer, you are headed for trouble. You must consider those in the faith. That’s hard in a smaller church such as ours, but we do have the internet and the possibility of meeting other

B. This is a story that reminds us of the necessity of dealing seriously with sin in our lives.

this is the takeaway from this account. What are we willing to do to confront the sinfulness in our own hearts and lives? That’s the issue here. That’s the struggle here. What are we willing to do to confront to deal with the sinfulness that exists in our lives?

The fact is, all of us, even as Christians, struggle with sin in our lives. We are often unfaithful, we grumble and complain, we treat others in disrespectful ways, we allow our words to be spoken in anger and resentment.

1 John 1:8 ESV

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

I began to look up a list of sins mentioned in the New Testament. I came up with one site that had 124 listed. Some of them were disputable, debatable, what have you. However, some sites had ten listed, being the ten commandments. And others had only 2. Love God, love your neighbor.

The fact is, it would take too long to go through all of the sins. But most of us know when our lives don’t measure up. We know when we get angry out of turn, we know when we’re speaking mean, vile, hateful words. So, what are we doing about it? What are we doing with it? Are we doing what we can to eliminate these sinful behaviors?

Jesus said these words that seem outrageous.

Matthew 18:8–9 ESV

And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.

There is not a call to literally remove our eye, but rather a call to deal seriously with the sinfulness in our lives. When we are willing to take that step, as radical as it seems, it will show, it will reflect our willingness to live a God honoring life.

Conclusion

This was not an easy job for Ezra. Nor is it an easy thing for us to consider the sin in our lives and remove it. But there is one way to think about how to kill this sin in our lives.

Colossians 3:2 ESV

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

Philippians 4:8 ESV

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

As we focus our attention on Christ, on things that are good, lovely, we will find ourselves destroying the power and stronghold of sins in our life.