Corporate Sin and Confession

Ezra 9:1-15

¹ 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. ² 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.” ³ As soon as I heard this, I tore my garment and my cloak and pulled hair from my head and beard and sat appalled. ⁴ 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. ⁵ 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, ⁶ 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. ⁷ From the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt. And for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plundering, and to utter shame, as it is today. ⁸ 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. ⁹ 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. ¹⁰ “And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken your commandments, ¹¹ which you commanded by your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land that you are entering, to take possession of it, is a land impure with the impurity of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations that have filled it from end to end with their uncleanness. ¹² Therefore do not give your daughters to their sons, neither take their daughters for your sons, and never seek their peace or prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever.’ ¹³ And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, seeing that you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserved and have given us such a remnant as this, ¹⁴ shall we break your commandments again and intermarry with the peoples who practice these abominations? Would you not be angry with us until you consumed us, so that there should be no remnant, nor any to escape? ¹⁵ 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.”

As Ezra moves to reestablish the worship life of the Jews, he is confronted with a serious problem. The people (more specifically some of the leadership) are giving their sons and daughters to the pagans living in the area in marriage. This undermines the entire nation and opens the door to a continuation of the behaviors that led to 70 years of captivity in Babylon. Incorporating idol worshipers into the culture will lead only to accepting and practicing those idolatrous and sinful religions rites themselves. These rites included child sacrifice, sexual immorality, and bowing before other gods; all of which are abhorrent in the eyes of the Lord.

When the Children of Israel had been given The Promised Land under the leadership of Moses and Joshua,

God was very clear in His instructions; chase the people who live in the land away or destroy them. He specifically warns them against entering in marriage with those who do not worship Him.

Deuteronomy 7:1–11

¹ “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 . . . ³ You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, ⁴ 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.

What they Hebrews actually did was try to live side by side with them and that was the beginning of the end for them. Since the leading families were involved, it is likely that many of these marriages were arranged in order to enhance their political and economic status through association with prominent families among other peoples in Palestine.

The motive for banning marriage with the people of Canaan was not racial, but religious. The Israelites had been set aside as God’s chosen people, not because of any superiority on their part but so that the true worship of God could be preserved in at least one little corner of the world until the promised Savior would come and deliver the gospel to the whole world. God called Israel “the holy race,” or literally “a holy seed,” because the promised Savior was to be born as the descendant of Abraham and David. Mixing with the heathen was like playing with fire because of the temptation to follow the abominable practices of the Canaanite religion. Not only did this idolatrous religion lack any knowledge of the true God, but it embraced the grossest kinds of immorality as part of its worship. Sexual immorality and human sacrifice, especially of children, were acts of worship in the Canaanite religion. The Canaanites practiced every form of sexual immorality.

Brug, J. F. (1985). Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther (p. 50). Milwaukee, WI: Northwestern Pub. House.

Ezra is rightly appalled at this turn of events and his reaction is immediate and dramatic. He exhibits all of the signs of someone who is in deep mourning. These choices for marriage partners was going to bring ruin to the nation once again. Why can we never seem to learn from the mistakes of the past?

We face similar circumstances in our day as well. How many of our young people take the faith-life their dating partners into account before they become deeply emotionally (and physically) involved? The Apostle Paul sounds the same warnings in his letter to the Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 6:14

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

It is arrogance to believe we can succeed where others have failed when it comes to maintaining our spiritual lives while tap dancing on the trap door of temptation. And yet I believe we all do so on a regular basis. We over-estimate our ability to resist temptation and fall into sin. Graciously, God hears our cries of confession, as He did for Ezra and in the blood of Jesus is found our salvation.