Before we even go into the the book of Ezra, you know, as we
were singing, I was reminded of an interesting phrase that Paul
the Apostle made to the Galatians.
He rebukes them. I mean, Galatians is an intense
book because usually when Paul writes his letters, he commends
the believers no matter what their situation is.
He thanks God for them. He highlights certain things
about them. But when it came to the
Galatians, he went straight for the jugular.
He didn't waste any time because they were tampering with the
gospel. They were messing with the
fundamentals of the faith. And so he went straight to
correction. And he says something so
interesting later on in that book.
He says, was not Christ crucified before you?
Do you know that phrase? Do you remember that phrase?
I always wondered what Paul meant by that because there was
no way that the Galatians were there on Calvary witnessing the
crucifixion of Christ. But he states it as though they
did. And the only explanation for
that is that Paul preached the gospel to the Galatians so
clearly, so accurately, so powerfully.
It was as though the Galatians witnessed the crucifixion.
And walking up to this platform, I said, Lord, please may that
same grace rest upon our services here, that when Christ
is preached, when these truths from his words are declared, it
would be so real to us. It was, it would be as though it
was happening right before our eyes.
That's possible. And the only way we can access
that as we're about to learn is through prayer.
And so I hope you didn't come here just to hear a lecture.
I hope you didn't come here mechanically understanding how
the order of service functions on these evenings.
But let's pray with expectation and believe that God can open
our eyes really and make Christ so vibrant and so actual to our
reality. Lord, we thank you for this
night. We pray that you would purge us
from any obstruction to the truth, anything that would
hinder us from receiving your voice.
Lord, please rescue us. We pray that you would relieve
us of any distractions, anything that would sabotage what you
want to do this this night, Lord, all the cobwebs of
indifference and compromise. We just pray that you would blow
it all off and that we would be clean vessels, empty vessels,
ready for a fresh filling of truth and of your Spirit.
And Lord, as Paul even mentioned over and over again the
necessary power to deliver the Word, We pray for that same
grace. Let this be more than just
words. Let this be more than just
interesting connections and scripture quotations.
Let there be. True power.
And we believe that you will
meet us here because we believe you're the living Christ.
We ask these things in the precious name of the Lord Jesus,
Amen and Amen. You came to a very important
Bible study tonight because we have reached the final chapter
of the book of Ezra. And so I invite you now in your
Bibles to turn with me to Ezra chapter 10.
And as we approach this final text, I I think it will help us
to be reminded of why Ezra left Babylonia to return to Jerusalem
the way he did. It's plainly stated for us in
the very chapter that we are introduced to this man, Ezra.
So you're there in Ezra 10, but take a peek quickly at Ezra
Chapter 7, verse 14 in Ezra 714. It reads, For you are sent by
the king and his seven counselors to make inquiries
about Judah and Jerusalem according to the law of your
God, which is in your hand. Ezra's burning concern and
packing his bags and making his way back to the Holy Land was to
investigate and see if the Exiles who preceded him we're
still abiding according to God's law.
You've heard this before. Allow me to repeat it again
since we have such little time left in Ezra.
When Zerubbabel led the first wave of exiles, his mission was
to rebuild the House of God. When we're going to learn in
Nehemiah about his leadership and his calling, it's going to
focus on the erecting of the city walls to protect the people
of God. But when it comes to Ezra, we
know that his callings to fashion the people of God and to
ensure that they are molded and shaped by the law of God.
You see, Ezra had a revelation that the psalmist had in Psalm
93, verse five. You don't have to turn there,
but listen to this one part of that verse in Psalm 93 is this
holiness benefits your house. Benefits is not a common word
enough vocabulary, but it helps to know the original.
The original word more accurately means beautify, and
that's why some translations re render it.
Holiness adorns your house. In other words, there is
something about holiness that makes the house God, and not
just something about it. It is the very factor that makes
God's house delightful and ravishing and attractive.
So Psalm 93, what? What?
What's essentially being communicated there is.
More than the. Gold embedded in the structure
more than the artistic carvings in the walls, more than the
furnishings. It's the piety, it's the
holiness, it's the purity of those who represent God's house.
And that's what Ezra understood. We can have a building, but if
the people are not holy, then the House of God is not truly
beautiful. And so his mission was to ensure
that God's people were set apart.
That they were. Living according to his precepts
that they were loving his word in a.
In a way that translated into their transformation.
But here's the problem. You know this because you were
with us last week, the last couple weeks actually, after a
little bit of four months being in Jerusalem, Ezra received the
tragic news of the true condition of the people of of
Judah. They were living in compromise.
They were living in deep sin. And the main crime that was
committed was that many of the men had married Pagan wives.
And this was. A grave concern, and we talked
about why that was such a serious problem briefly, but we
spent more time looking at Ezra's response to this.
The man broke down, he lamented, he cried out to God.
He was overcome by pain. He could not believe that even
after all these years in exile, it would be so short of time
before the people would come back to the very sin, among
other sins, that would kick them out of the Promised Land.
And so this man, Ezra, he seeks God, He tries to process it in
his emotional state, and then he goes on to pray about it.
And when he prays about it, it's.
Recorded to us and for us in great detail in Chapter 9.
But what we're going to see in chapter 10 is that Ezra does
more than feel pain and he does more than pray.
He's actually going to act. He's going to do something about
it. And even in that observation, we
have a wonderful example in Ezra.
There's a pattern here that should be replicated because
there's going to be times for the serious Christian where you
will be disappointed. You will be disappointed by the
failures of others. And when that time does come,
whether you're the object of somebody's sin, whether you are
the one who is offended or you're witnessing it, you have
permission to mourn. You have license to sit there
and try to process it, But you can't stay there.
You have to pray. At some point, you have to bring
it before the Lord. And as important as prayer is,
if the situation calls for it, prayer may not be enough.
There might be some kind of intervention on your part.
There might be a time, a moment for you to get up and actually.
Confront it yourself and that's exactly what this man of God is
going to do. And we will not complete this
chapter. We're going to look at the 1st 6
verses together and let's begin by reading it before we look at
it closely. Ezra 10 verse one.
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 Shekinah, the son of jail 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 and 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 the
House of God and went to the Chamber of Jehonan, the son of
Eli Asha, where he spent the night neither eating bread nor
drinking water, for he was mourning over the faithlessness
of the Exiles. You know what's so amazing about
the verses that we just read? That before Ezra said or did
anything directly to the people, the people were stirred with
conviction. We read it since Ezra heard this
tragic news about what the people were doing.
He didn't, He didn't engage with anybody until verse 5, where he
made the nation take an oath that they would obey moving
forward. But before that, Ezra took the
brokenness and the sin and the failure of the people, and he
brought it before God himself. And as he sought the Lord,
something miraculous happened. The hearts of the people were
beginning to be drawn to the Lord.
And it's at this point where I realized something.
That Ezra provides an illustration how it is totally
possible for any of us to make an impact on others indirectly.
There is an influence that we can have as we deal with people,
but there is a way of drawing people to the Lord and for the
Lord, though we may not directly engage with those people.
And in verse one alone, we have three ways that's possible.
Three ways that your witness, your testimony, your walk with
God can be a fragrance unto others to want the God that you
serve and love. 3 and verse one, you ready.
The first one is obvious. It's through our praying.
Look again at the first words of verse one.
While Ezra prayed, while he sought God, he didn't preach A
sermon. Yet he didn't rebuke anybody he
didn't correct. He understood that this was a
time where I must speak to God about men instead of speaking to
men about God. And so he spent this time
looking to the. Lord, and as he was doing this,
we should believe that God is answering the prayer while it is
being prayed because a crowd gathers around this man, Ezra,
and they're hearing his words and they begin to weep bitterly.
They begin to be stirred and realize the sin that is plaguing
the people. God is moving in the spirit.
God is moving in the spirit of these people.
And it is totally because of this main thing Ezra prayed.
And any true man of God, any true woman of God, understands
that prayer contains that kind of power.
Not to say that prayer replaces preaching or that it substitutes
personal confrontation, but what prayer does, and we see this
throughout the Bible, is that it prepares the hearts of God's
people and even the lost in order to accomplish something.
Look at Paul's rare prayer requests throughout his letters.
One that comes to mind is in 2nd Thessalonians 3.
One in that brief verse he says, pray for us.
Listen to these words. Finally, brothers, pray for us
that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored as
happened among you. Pray that there would be some
grace on our preaching, on our evangelism, on our missionary
work. And I love this part as happened
among you. Do you know why I love that
part? Because we know exactly how the
Word of God was received among the Thessalonians.
This is Second Thessalonians 31. But when you go to 1st
Thessalonians chapter 1, you read where Paul says, look, the
Word came to you in the Holy Spirit in full power with
conviction. And then when he comes to his
2nd letter, he goes, I'm asking that that same experience that
you had with the gospel would be copy paste in our next adventure
and preaching the word of God in our next expedition.
But here's the main point. Paul understood that prayer
prepares hearts. Prayer does something
preemptively, even before preaching.
Paul had this conviction and this truth embedded in his
convictions. There has to be prayer.
Ezra prayed and it worked. But there's a second thing.
There's a second observation here in how Ezra indirectly
draws the people to the Lord. It's not through his praying
only, it's also through his passion.
Look again at verse one. While Ezra prayed, yes, and made
confession, absolutely weeping and casting himself down before
the House of God. What is that?
Can you imagine a dignified priest with his garments, this
teacher of the law, this well respected man, weeping, not
crying, not wiping away tears from the corner of his eye,
weeping and more than weeping, casting himself down.
Imagine somebody pounding the ground with their fists, getting
up on their knees and throwing themselves again, doing that
over and over again. Clearly, this display of raw
emotion says something about how he felt, about the sin, about
his deep concern. For the people of God and the
holiness of God. Now we have to be careful here.
Passion is more than emotion. Primarily, it is about
conviction. And there's a difference.
You can be emotional about many things.
It doesn't legitimize your passion.
It doesn't even necessarily mean you're passionate about
something. This is just the manifestation
of something. That is so rooted in this man.
He had conviction. He had this all consuming
understanding of what God deserves and what the people of
God are called to. And so he's broken.
He's broken because he has this conviction and he is reflecting
the sincere concern. And listen, when a man or a
woman possesses this kind of godly ambition and drive, it
will not go unnoticed. It's going to show up in one way
or another. It's going to it's going to be
demonstrated through one's compassion.
It's going to speak loudly through a steadfast commitment
to the work of God. It's going to show up through
bold confession of the truth. It's the same thing that you
find. And anybody who possesses what
Ezra has here, he's the real deal.
This is everything to him. Being a priest was not a job, it
was his calling. Being a teacher was not about
impressing people. It was about helping people
really come to the truth. And when he saw something that
challenged his ministry, that caused people to drift away from
the truth, it genuinely shattered him.
You know, Jesus was the most profound teacher.
He was the most authoritative preacher.
That's what many people said over and over when they heard
him preach. No one speaks like this man.
There's authority. He grips you.
When He speaks, there's power, and that is an indication surely
of a zeal that He had. Do you remember what happened
when Christ entered into the temple for the first time and
flipped tables and made an impression on the disciples?
So much so that they reference Christ's demonstration of a zeal
for the purity of God's house to a verse in Psalms.
This is in John 217 where it says that the disciples
remembered, where it said, Zeal for your house has consumed.
Me. Jesus Christ had zeal.
Jesus Christ had passion, and that passion was contagious.
That passion carried a perfume. And this is something for you
and I to consider as well. Ezra had passion.
But there's one more thing worth highlighting apart from his
praying. Apart from his passion, one more
element that contributed to the hearts of those who are watching
Ezra in this moment and caused them to melt was his piety.
His piety. So what you have here is in
verse one. The subtle part of the verse in
the middle where it says after the people witnessed him doing
this says they gathered to him out of Israel, they gathered to
him. Ezra has been in Jerusalem for
about four months, a little bit more than that, and we should be
absolutely certain that he wasted no time doing what he was
called to do. That was to teach, to teach the
law. And the fact that if you go back
to verse 1 of Chapter 9, the officials approached them, the
leaders approached, it means that he developed a reputation
very early. He was respected and more than
just respected. He was somebody that could be
trusted, somebody that could be relied on, somebody that these
leaders believe could actually deal with this sin problem
rightly. And so Ezra is new to the scene,
but Ezra was somebody who won the admiration of many which.
Speaks about his virtue, which reflects his.
Righteous character. And so the people understood who
Ezra was, and when they saw him weeping and casting himself down
like this, it meant something. You see, it's more than just the
weeping and the wailing and the casting.
It's who is weeping and who is. Broken.
And who is crying out publicly like this?
This isn't a random fellow, this is somebody that they knew.
This is somebody that they understood to be a true priest,
a true man of God, and that gave him authority.
All of us should want authority in our witness and the secret.
To having. A compelling force to our
testimony as followers of Jesus Christ is authenticity.
Let me say it again, Ezra was no fraud.
He was the real deal. Ezra was committed.
Ezra was consistent. Ezra was careful with his walk
of the Lord. And so when he did weep and when
he did cry out, people took it seriously because they took Ezra
seriously, because Ezra took his walk with God seriously.
We damage our authority, our ability to actually compel
people to Christ, when we are not cautious about our
consecration. And as I was meditating on this,
you know who I thought about Lot.
If it wasn't for the New Testament, if I just had
Genesis, I would think that Lot was unsaved.
But Peter comes in by the Holy Spirit and calls Lot righteous
more than once, and it's like, really he is.
So he's a picture of a worldly believer.
Because of Abraham's praying, angels are sent to rescue him
and his family. But Lot still had a choice, and
so the angels tell Lot. Do you have any relatives here?
Do you have any family left here?
Take this time now to warn them of what's to come.
Some of you know where I'm going with this, but listen to these
words in Genesis 19 verse 14. So Lot went out and said to his
sons in law who are to marry his daughters up, get out of this
place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city.
But he seemed to his sons in law to be jesting.
Did you catch it? How did the sons in law
interpret their future father in law's warning?
Oh, the Lord's going to destroy the city, huh?
OK lot, there's a long day at work for you at the gate.
Have a meal, sit down, relax. And many people focus on the
ungodliness of the sons in law for not taking this warning
seriously. And we can't.
Forget to factor in that Lot is partially guilty in this.
Why did they take him as a joke? Because he took his walk with
God as a joke. You're living in Sodom.
You're giving your daughters off to these men who don't fear God,
who don't love God, and all of a sudden now you're serious about
God. All of a sudden now you want to
warn about God. You've lost credibility, lot,
and that's why there's no weight to your warning anymore.
You're a leader in Sodom, and now you're talking about this
Yahweh, and now you're trying to get us to believe this message.
Ezra was no such man. Because of this man's piety,
there was power. There was power behind his
words, behind his praying, behind his concern, and, as
we're about to find out, behind his correction.
And one of the ways that you and I can secure that authority in
our lives is provided in Ezra's example, actually.
If you and I want to evade artificial Christianity, there's
only one thing you have to do. Come back to Ezra.
Look at chapter 10. We read it in verse 6, Ezra 10,
verse 6. This moved me when I understood
the implications of it. Then Ezra withdrew from before
the House of God and went to the Chamber of Jeho Hanan, the son
of Elias ship, where he spent the night neither eating bread
nor drinking water, for he was mourning over the faithlessness
of the Exiles, saying what's the big deal with that?
Here's the big deal. Up to this point, Ezra was
fasting and tearing his garments and seeking the Lord publicly.
And when he had opportunity to get alone, guess what?
Nothing changed. What does that show?
That he wasn't putting on a show?
What does this mean? That who he was publicly, he was
privately. What he said and what he did
before men was totally in alignment with who he was when
he was by himself. That's how you and I possess
authority with our testimony. It's real to us.
It's not something you just flip on and turn off depending on
your environment. No, Ezra was the same whether
people are watching or not. And when people were watching
and when they were listening because of who he was, when
nobody was watching or listening, oh, there was
something behind his praying. There was something behind his
passion. There was something about his.
Piety, it all had authority because he was authentic.
It's not a mystery. Just let this thing called faith
and worship and obedience be your life.
Let it be your life, not a part of your life.
All of your life, and only then. Will you exude the fragrance of
life and people? Will.
There's something. This is real to you, isn't it?
That's one of the greatest compliments you can get from
unbelievers. This is real to you.
Yes, it's real to me because God is real.
And he did a real work of my life, and I love him with a real
love. Oh, Ezra teaches us so much in
verse one alone. But we better hurry up.
The spotlight now shifts from Ezra to someone else, someone
that we've never met before and we know very little about with
what we have of him. Look at verse 2 again, and
Shekinah, the son of JL, of the sons of Elam, addressed Ezra.
We've broken faith, 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 commitment of
our God. And let it be done according to
the law. No detail is wasted.
You know this very well. Here's what stuck out to me.
Evidently the Holy Spirit wants me to know about this man's
family lineage. Shekinah, He's the son of JL, of
the sons of Elam. That's an invitation for us to
explore further, but we'll pause here and consider what we have
first with these verses that we just looked at.
If you were to just work with what we have here, then Sheikh
and I seems to be among the guilty party of those who
married foreign wives. How do we know that?
Because he says it here in verse 2.
Again, we have broken faith with our God and have married foreign
women. So he includes himself, but more
than that, he's clearly repentant.
He's broken about this, and in his brokenness, in his
contrition, he offers a solution.
And more than offering solution, he actually extends
encouragement to Ezra. Look at verse 4.
Arise, for it is your task and we are with you.
Be strong and do it. And you read in verse 5.
Then Ezra arose 3 important words here.
He arose. There was something about
Shekinah's immediate motivation and exhortation that set into
motion a wider repentance in the land.
This is a significant moment and initially, again at face value,
would say, look at the grace of God.
Here's a man who was in sin. He turns from his sin and God
immediately uses him to help others come out of sin.
But there's something deeper going on here.
Can you look at verse 18? It's about the halfway mark of
chapter 10, and don't read it just yet, but look at the rest
of the chapter. What do you find there?
Another list of names in the book of.
Ezra But this list is different. The reason why it's different is
because what we've seen prior to this are the list of names and
families who have left Babylonia to come back to Jerusalem.
That's not what we have here in chapter 10.
This record conveys a different message.
And it's in verse 18. Look at it with me now.
There were found some of the sons of the priests who had
married foreign women. And then he lists the names.
And then there are more names and more names.
What is this list about? It's a list of the names who
have committed this sin of marrying Pagan wives.
It's not a list you want to be on.
And as you read this, you you stumble upon something familiar.
You've been reading this chat. If you've been reading this
chapter carefully, look at verse 26 of the sons of Who Do.
You see it, Elam OK matanaya zechariah jail Abdi.
Jeremiah and Elijah. Does this sound familiar to us?
Scroll back to verse 2. And Shecheniah, the son of JAL,
of the sons of Elam. Who's the Shecheniah?
Shecheniah is the son of a man who was indicted for this very
grievous sin. He's the son of JAL, and JAL is
the son of Elam. And he is mentioned here in this
registry. But at the same time.
Shekinah is not mentioned in it. So Shekinah's father is guilty.
Shekinah himself is not. So how do we make sense of his
word, word choice, though? What does he say early on?
And verse 2, we have broken faith with our God, and I've
married four women. So did he do it or did he not do
it? When it came to the official
list, He's not mentioned there, but he admits to it.
It's no different than what Ezra did in Chapter 9 when he prays
out on behalf of the nation and he says our iniquities and our
guilt. Was Ezra guilty of the sin?
Absolutely not. You see, Sheikh and I had a
revelation just like Ezra, that though this was a sin that some
have committed, it affected the whole nation.
This problem threatened God's blessing from.
Continuing on this people and for this people.
He had this revelation understanding that this is
something that we all play a role in to some degree.
In other words, he's not. He is not speaking about the sin
issue from a place of self righteousness.
Instead, he identifies with the people.
And yes, he identifies with the people, but he also seeks a
solution from a place of humility.
So this man is humble. He dares to say we have, we have
done this. And yet in his humility, he was
not afraid to denounce his family for openly defying God's
word. That's a brave thing to do.
You are calling out this sin, and among those who committed
the sin was your father and your uncles.
And he didn't care because sin is sin and God's word is God's
word. I love this man, Shekinah.
You know why? Because he's standing on the
side of truth, even if it means he has to stand apart from his
own family. You can disagree with me if
you'd like, but that's why I believe God uses this man.
Even though he's a flash in the pan of the story.
He is an important key to what we see in the rest of this
chapter and I'm persuaded because of what I see in the
rest of the Bible. That when a person loves the
truth to the degree that they're willing to stand alone for it,
such a man, such a woman, as a candidate for great things in
the Kingdom of God. Unfortunately, you have too many
people who love mommy and daddy too much.
They love them more than Christ. They love their brothers and
sisters and their events and the invitations and the memories and
the vacations more than what God.
Asks of them the very ABC's of discipleship is you have to hate
your father and your mother, your brother, your sister, your
wife and your own children, yes, even your own life.
That's that's the entry level of discipleship that Christ.
I put you above everybody else. And that doesn't mean that we
actually hate our family that we're hostile towards them and
we're arrogant and we despise them.
Absolutely not. All it means is that your love
for Christ should be so vibrant, so bright, so white hot that it
makes every other relationship look like hate.
This is foreign to American Christianity.
American Christianity says, do you have room in your life for
Jesus? He wants to fit in on a Sunday
afternoon. That's what many, many, many
people preach. That's not gospel.
The Bible shows us over and over again that for us to even have a
a chance one of becoming one of his two to be used by him, you
have to make this determination. Whatever the word of God says,
if anybody's going to stand in my way.
I'm going to choose the word of God.
Perhaps 1 is not persuaded. Here's another example.
Do you know why the Levites became the Levites?
Here's what's so interesting. Reuben disqualified himself as
the first born. Then you have Simeon and Levi
who essentially commit small scale genocide.
And then Judah is chosen to be the royal lineage.
That's another Bible study for another time.
But Simeon and Levi? If you focus on on their
punishment, it's severe. Simeon virtually disappears from
the tribal inheritance. He doesn't have a designated
place in the Promised land as a result of that sin.
Levi also has that kind of same destiny.
But then something changes in the narrative, and it's because
of one decision that Levi made before they even entered into
the Promised land. It was the golden calf incident.
Moses up there, and he's receiving instruction and
revelation from God. And the people are impatient.
They begin to worship a false image and Moses comes down the
scene and he's standing at the gate and he goes whoever's on
the Lord's side. Come to me, who came Only the
Levites, and whatever curse that they inherited was reversed to a
certain degree. Look at Deuteronomy 33.
This is wonderful, Deuteronomy 33.
Look at verse 8 and at Levi. He said, Give to Levi our
Thummim, and your Urim to your godly one, whom you tested at
Massa, with whom you quarrel at the waters of Miraba.
Look at verse 9. Now who said of his father and
mother? I regard them not.
He disowned his brothers and ignored his children, for they
observed your word and kept your covenant.
The tribe of Levi had to make a very difficult decision when
they heard that invitation from Moses.
Take a sword, put it on your side, run back and forth, and
whoever you have to slay, slay. And they did so, and many lost
their lives that evening. But then you come down here and
you realize just how difficult it was.
Among those who were slain under God's judgement was who?
Father and mother, children. And they're commended.
Why? Because they observed God's
Word. It's an illustration of what we
find with Ezra, what we see in Jesus teaching that our
allegiance to Christ is supreme. Shekinah was was he proud?
Was he puffed up? Was he like, not like my father
and his uncle. They're a mess.
They weren't really true. No, we, we, he's broken himself.
He's among those who are weeping.
He's tender. And yet.
There's this rock solid standard.
They're wrong and I will not justify it.
I will not show favoritism. This is an open sin.
This is public. And so I will publicly
acknowledge that they are an error and they must be handled
accordingly. And God use this man for a
moment to speak life into Ezra himself.
It's amazing. Let's come back to Ezra 10 verse
3. This is how God uses this
manshek and I am. Therefore, let us make a
covenant with our God. That happens often in the Old
Testament when there is great public scandal.
They want to renew their covenant.
But more than that, 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. This is a text that has caused
much debate among students of the Word of God throughout the
years. Because it seems to be to our
shock that Shek and I suggesting that the solution to this
problem is widespread divorce. Put the wives away and their
children the children too. More concerning is that it seems
that Shek and I is appealing to the law for this kind of ruling.
We have to ask ourselves, where do we find in the law
instructions or guidelines concerning divorce?
And there are places in the Old Testament that give clear
exhortations of how to deal with divorce and remarriage within
the context of Israelite unions. But this situation is very
unique. What's the problem here?
The problem is these, these men of Judah married foreign wives
who did not abandon their worship of false gods.
They were not like Ruth who said your God is my God.
Now that's a Moabite. This who became a follower of
Yahweh and God blessed her and God blessed her union with Boaz.
That's not what we have here. We don't have converts that were
Gentiles. And now this is a matter of
race. Nothing of the sort.
What you have here are Pagan women who still worship their
false gods and marry these men who are supposed to be men of
God and are now alluring them and drawing them them away into
idolatry. And you'd be very hard pressed
to find anything that speaks into that in the law.
The only thing that speaks into that is a clear prohibition of
such marriages from Deuteronomy 7, verse three, that there is no
option whatsoever for anybody to marry into these foreign peoples
who will not forsake their false worship.
And so if anything, these marriages are not legitimate
from the start. They're not supposed to exist.
They're not viewed as legitimate in God's eyes, and so it's so
important to see this text in that way.
This is not a matter of personal preference.
This is not a matter of severing relationships because there is
this marital tension among. These groups this.
Is a matter of recovering Israel's spiritual identity,
about preserving their distinctiveness.
And listen, this is potentially about to vanish if it's not
dealt with. They just returned from exile.
You're just butting again. And now you're already
intermingling and polluting the holy race.
So when we see it that way, we understand that this is
emergency protocol. This is cutting it at the root.
This is dealing with the spiritual cancer before it
spreads and kills. Now, perhaps in the coming
studies, maybe the next one will be the final one.
We'll we'll talk about it. This is the best approach
because you think about the practicality of it, divorcing
and then the children. What are you going to do with
the children? So that's where the debate
surrounds. But what we?
Can say for now is this under the new covenant?
We do have clear ruling of what to do in this situation.
It's very much clarified. You know this very well in First
Corinthians 7 where Paul tells the believers who had many
questions about. What to do in their
relationships, namely marriage? Once somebody becomes a
Christian, if one party or both parties, what do we do with this
Paul and and Paul is addressing the groups that are believers
after they have gotten married and their spouses did not become
believers and what does he tell them clearly stay, stay.
You don't divorce, you don't walk away.
Let me read it to you in first Corinthians 712.
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. One of the reasons for that is
you as a Christian, even if you're the sole Christian in
that household, carry enough sanctifying power that you can
actually rub off on those in your house that don't love
Christ. So stay.
If they want to leave, be at peace, let them leave.
But if they consent to stay, as difficult as it is, that's your
mission field every morning. So stay.
May the grace of God be with you, Shekinah.
Though this man, he's a lover of the truth, it's obvious, but
he's more than just an enforcer of the law.
This man is a strategic encourager.
The ministry of encouragement is so underrated in the church and
I believe that it holds atomic power for the church if
Christians knew how to exercise it wisely and the way God
designed it to be exercised. The greatest men and women of
God throughout history survive through encouragement.
You have this man, Ezra, he's falling apart.
And it's, it's a very moving scene.
I mean, the people watching this man are weeping and what they're
witnessing here. And Sheikh and I has a
discernment to not just offer a solution, which is helpful, but
he sprinkles encouragement. For Ezra, he needs it and it's
going to do something to Ezra and maybe you can find more.
I settle that two ways that Sheikh and I encourages Ezra
that can inform and equip us to be more effective in our
encouragement for other believers.
Look back at verse 2. Sheikh and I, the son of JAL of
the sons of Elam, addressed Ezra.
We have broken faith with our God and have married foreign
women from the peoples of the lands.
But even now highlight this. Even now there is hope for
Israel in spite of this. Makes you wonder what was
running through Ezra's mind. I mean, I'm not saying Sheikh
and I read his mind, but maybe he thought potentially I can see
why Ezra is so broken now. Maybe Ezra's thinking we really
blew it. I mean, we already experienced
this exile. Is God going to severely
discipline us again? Maybe like we just got a taste
and a sample of this was so complex, like the implications
and and the consequences of how. We were we are going to deal
with this, especially if we go with what Sheck and I recommends
can be so daunting. Now we have to separate families
to try to deal with this, try to purify the people again and and
this is daunting again. This is terrifying, perhaps to
Ezra, who knows what he's wrestling with.
Maybe to him, he thought there is no way out of it.
We're stuck in this and Sheikh Anaya, says Ezra.
There's hope still. It's bad.
It's really bad. It's ugly, it's unthinkable to
certain extents, but it's not beyond hope.
And I'd like to think that when there's a sin issue that
somebody's grieving over, when there's a problem of somebody's
own stupidity brought them to, we should convey a similar
message. It's bad.
It's vicious. There might be long term
consequences, but there's still hope.
Ezra, we serve a God who still offers hope and we need to know
when to offer such a message. Sometimes when people are
sinning, you don't offer them that kind of message, you rebuke
them. But I don't see that appropriate
here, especially because Ezra's so broken and the people are
broke and what they need is relief.
And the relief here is there's a way out.
God is not done with us. It may seem like it, but it's
not the case. And the reason why you and I can
have the confidence to give such a message is because God does.
You know, we're talking about actual marriage here, real
physical relationships that are compromised.
And yet God throughout the Scriptures communicates his
relationship with his redeemed, with his covenant people, like a
marriage. One of the strongest prophetic
books that communicates that is the book of Hosea.
And you open up Hosea chapter 1. It's graphic.
It's, it's really shocking what God says about his people.
And you go into chapter 2 and it doesn't take very long before
the Lord changes his tone and he says something to this people
who are steeped in spiritual adultery.
You know this very well. Listen to these words from Hosea
chapter 2, verse 15. And there I will give her her
vineyards and make the valley of Achor a door of hope, and there
she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time
when she came out of the land of Egypt.
That's God speaking to a filthy and adulterous people who are
harlots in God's eyes, who are committing horrish acts,
spiritually speaking. And in the midst of this, God
lets him know there is a door of hope.
And the Lord is so poetic and he is so brilliant and how he he,
he makes these things known. He says specifically, I will
make the valley of a corridor of hope.
Does anybody know where the Valley of a Corps comes from?
If you know you can actually answer it.
Where does that come from? What's that a reference to the
Old Testament? Do you remember when Joshua and
that generation entered into the Promised Land and after
defeating Jericho, they were told not to take any specific
items but to move on? And somebody did.
What was his name? Aiken.
And Aiken was exposed for his covetousness, for his
disobedience, and both he and his family were killed for it.
And a pile of stones was heaped upon them.
And that valley was called the Valley of Acor.
Acor means trouble. And the Lord uses that as a
reference to say, listen, you, my people in this generation,
you're all in trouble. You've gotten yourself in
trouble. Your sin brought this trouble.
But I want to tell you that because of my grace, I can
change this valley of trouble into a door of hope.
Ezra, I want you to know, Sheikh and I says there is hope for
Israel in spite of this. And from time to time, that's
what somebody needs to hear. That is, they're, as they're
trying to understand how they got themselves into that
predicament, maybe ruining their marriage, their testimony, maybe
stepping outside of ministry because of a foolish scandal.
Whatever the case may be, there's a time for us to be
encouragers in this sense. Listen, God can still change the
story. He can rewrite this.
He's so brilliant in his love that he can transform this.
Don't think it's over. But there's another type of
encouragement that's offered here back in Ezra 10 and it's so
clear in verse 4. He ends his brief exhortation by
saying arise for it is your task and we are with you.
Be strong and do it. So he challenges Ezra, right?
He says, listen, you're a leader.
This is your responsibility. But maybe maybe Sheikh and Naya
perceived that as much of a giant Ezra was spiritually that
this is an intimidating thing that he has to face now, that
you actually now have to confront men and their marriages
and even in some cases their children and you.
Have to tell them this is wrong. This is not even legal what
you're doing. Maybe Ezra wasn't sensing that.
Whatever the case is, Shekinah wants to encourage him in this
way. He says this is your task, but
look at that middle part and we are with you.
We are with you, Ezra. We are with you.
Be strong. Do it.
You want to be an effective encourager.
Do I want to be more fruitful in that ministry?
Discern when to communicate to somebody that you are behind
them and you are supporting them.
And don't just say those words mean it.
I'm with you in the trenches, brother.
I know that you have a difficult season that you're trying to
weather. I know that you have some
choices you have to make. And I want to let you know that
as long as you serve Christ, I will serve Him with you.
You know who especially needs this?
Just like what we have here, leaders.
Ezra is a leader. Ezra has to carry more load than
the average person, and Ezra shows us that even such type of
men need encouragement from time to time.
Here's what that means for us. Do not reserve all your
motivation and all your uplifting words to those who are
frequently weak and cycling in their devotion to Christ.
Keep in mind and be attentive that even the strongest ones
experience moments of weakness. And you'd be amazed to know what
a heartfelt text message can win for somebody who's serving God.
Don't underestimate how 17 to 10 minute phone call with a prayer
in it can boost somebody to be enthusiastic about the ministry
for another three months. Don't think too little of how a
smile and a brief word can breathe life into a brother or
sister. That's what Sheikh and Iya does.
Hey, we're with you in this. You're not in this alone.
You may feel like it. But we're behind you here.
Go do this. You want to know how powerful
that was? You think, what's the big deal?
I'll tell you the big deal. Look at verse 5 again.
Then Ezra arose. The words of Shecheniah picked
this man up from the ground. He probably dried his eyes and
wiped some dust off his garments.
And the natural reading of the text demonstrates that it was
the words of Shecheniah that catapulted Ezra.
It's effacing the situation with courage.
Who would have thought? Here's where I'm ending.
Who would have thought that one of the most inspirational
reformers in Israel's history would himself be inspired by an
obscure man named Shekinah? David was being hunted by his
father-in-law. He thought you had issues with
your. In laws his father-in-law wanted
to kill him. But he had a good
brother-in-law. You read later on there near the
end of First Samuel, where David is going from cave to cave and
he's evading Saul and his intelligence agency.
And there's that one little text that says, and Jonathan,
strengthen David's hand in the Lord.
Why? Because he said something.
What did he say to David? Saul will not find you.
You will be king and I will be with you.
And that gave David life, the ministry of encouragement.
Looking at somebody saying your ministry is a blessing.
I know that if you did not serve God the way you serve God in
this church, we would all feel it.
It's not flattery. Be sincere.
Like, don't fake it because that will have an opposite effect.
But what we find in these opening verses of chapter 10, as
we've been following the steps of this man of God, is that even
men of God need shekinahs from time to time.
You may not be a priest. You may not never be a pastor.
You may never be an evangelist. You may never be a missionary.
You know what? All of us can be a Shekinah.
All of us. And here's how I was convicted
preparing for this Bible study. Lord, help me be generous with
encouragement. Let me not.
Seek it all the time and hope for it to come.
Let me give it because it can save somebody.
It can redirect somebody. I can tell you stories if we had
time. I can tell you stories of how
moments of encouragement have kept ministries alive.
Because of a Good Wife, because of a best friend, because of
another pastor from a different church who has no ties with this
church but are Kingdom minded. Just quick phone call with a
quick word of encouragement. So perhaps this is what the Lord
wants us to hear, just to be reminded how effective
encouragement can be, and that even men like Ezra need it here
and there. Let's pray.
Lord, we thank You that You've reminded us yet again that there
is no portion of Your word that we can ignore.
We admit that most of us in here have never heard of this fellow
Shekinah, and yet He was waiting to be discovered at the end of
this book. Thank You for showing us all
these truths in a handful of verses.
Lord, we pray that we would all have authority with our
testimonies, that we don't have to try to manipulate anything
with our praying, with our passion, with our piety.
As long as we are authentic, the authority will take care of
itself. And Lord, thank you that this
book, Ezra, that's named after one man, shows us that one man
can't do it on his own. And that the ministry of
encouragement can lead to revival.
Oh, we've missed it. Maybe we've heard it so many
times and we forget. So thank you for the reminder.
Thank you for the reminder, Lord, that you can use any
person who has made the decision that I will obey God no matter
what it costs me. No matter who disobeys, even if
it's my own blood, I cherish the blood of Christ more.
Help us know how to stand up for the truth when necessary.
Help us know how to do so in humility, like this man did.
And Lord, give us the discernment and the ability to
know when the weak and the strong need encouragement.
Encouragement for those who have sinned and can't see a way out
of their trouble. Encouragement for those who are
helping people who are in sin and are overwhelmed and can't
seem to understand how they can fix it and to breathe life to
their souls through a simple word.
Brother, I'm with you. I'm praying for you.
I love what God's doing in your life.
I support it, I'm behind it, and I want God to multiply it.
Lord, give. Give us that grace here at this
church. We love you and we thank you and
we worship you now for the wisdom that you've deposited in
our hearts. In Jesus name we pray, Amen and
Amen. Let's stand.
Let's worship the Lord together.