Study the Word

Guest (Male): Reminding us of what can happen when the Bible is read, here's Pastor Thom Keller.

Pastor Thom Keller: Ezra stands up and reads the word from probably very early in the morning until noon. As he's reading it, there weren't PA systems, so people would have been very quiet, very hushed in a large crowd.

As he's reading, you start hearing these sobs—people weeping, people sniffling, people sobbing. It's because they realize how much they have broken the law, how much they've offended God, and how much they've broken the heart of God.

Guest (Male): There's no other book in the world like the Bible. It's a mirror and shows us our true condition. It's a sword to battle the enemy with, and it's bread to nourish us. It's all of those things, yet so much more because it's God's word.

Hello and welcome to Study the Word with Thom Keller, pastor of Calvary Chapel Lebanon. We're in the Old Testament book of Ezra. We pick up in chapter nine with a reading of the Bible and the response of the people who truly heard it. It's an exciting reminder of the power of God's word. Again, we're in Ezra 9, and we invite you to join us there as Pastor Thom begins with a brief story.

Pastor Thom Keller: A wife sat down with her husband and said, "The car won't start. I think there's water in the carburetor." "How do you know?" said the husband scornfully. "You don't even know what a carburetor looks like." "I'm telling you," repeated the wife, "I am sure there's water in the carburetor." "We'll see," mocked the husband. "Let me check it out. Where's the car?" "It's in the swimming pool."

I went on the internet to find pictures of a car in a pool. You'd be surprised how many pictures there are of cars in pools. It must be some magnet or something. Here's the point: a car in a pool is certainly a problem for this couple, but there is one problem in a marriage that is by far the greatest problem any marriage will ever face. We discover what that is today in our chapter nine of Ezra.

As some background, we talked about this. In the divided kingdom in 722 BC, a little over 700 years before Jesus came, the northern ten tribes of Israel were conquered by Assyria and they were dispersed. They were carried out of Israel into the rest of the Assyrian Empire. Then 136 years later in 586 BC, the southern two tribes, which were Benjamin and Judah, were then conquered by Babylon, and they were carried off into the land of Babylonia. At that same time, the temple was destroyed.

In 540 BC, 46 years later, Persia conquered Babylon and King Cyrus became the king. King Cyrus decreed that the temple could be rebuilt. So this man by the name of Zerubbabel, acting as governor, leads some 42,000 Jews back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.

As we've said, the book of Ezra has ten chapters. Chapters one through six are the story of Zerubbabel going back and rebuilding the temple. Then chapters seven through ten is the story of Ezra going back and rebuilding the spiritual fiber of the people. Zerubbabel rebuilt the building, but Ezra took the Bible and taught the people the Bible. Remember, and I'd suggest you write this in your Bible, that between chapters six and seven, there's a 60-year spread where we know nothing about that 60 years in between, although we get a little glimpse of it this morning.

Picking up in Ezra 9, verse one, it says, "But then the Jewish leaders came to me and said, 'Many of the people of Israel—this is Ezra speaking, this is what Ezra encountered—many of the people of Israel,' he is told, 'and even some of the priests and Levites have not kept themselves separate from the other peoples living in the land. They have taken up the detestable practices of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites. For the men of Israel have married women from these people and have taken them as wives for their sons. So the holy race has become polluted by these mixed marriages. To make matters worse, the officials and the leaders are some of the worst offenders.'"

In chapter 10, we will learn that this event we're reading about today takes place only five months after Ezra comes to Jerusalem. This is very early in his tenure as priest in Jerusalem. But remember, Ezra is a newcomer. The vast majority, over 42,000 of the Jews, came back from Persia with Zerubbabel 60 years before this. 42,000 sixty years ago. How many does 42,000 grow into after 60 years? Well, substantially a larger number. But it would appear that during this 60 years, there's been intermarrying going on. The Jews were marrying non-Jews; Jewish men were marrying women who were from other religious beliefs.

Note that there are two completely separate issues here. It skirts over the first one, but I think it's pretty significant. It says this: "They have taken up the detestable practices of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites." Key: they have taken up the detestable practices. It doesn't say specifically here, but almost every time in the Bible, in the Old Testament, when it talks about taking up the detestable practices of these nations, they're almost always referring to the worship of Milcom or Molech.

Again, what they would do is they would practice child sacrifice. This was a bronze statue, hollow. They would build a fire down in behind in an opening, and then the fire would make that statue red hot. They would put the baby in the hands of that God. Many believe the arms were mechanical and the arms would lift up. The fire would come out of the mouth of Molech and consume the baby in flames. This was common for all of these people that they worshiped this God.

So when it says they worshiped at the detestable practices of, almost every other place in the Old Testament, this is spoken of specifically. It's not said here, but it's inferred that that is what they were doing. So that's the first issue: they took up the detestable practices. But the second issue, it says, "For the men of Israel have married women from these people and taken them as wives for their sons."

This is exactly what God warned the people not to do through Moses 1,000 years before this. In Deuteronomy 7, God said this to Moses: "When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are about to enter and occupy, he will clear away the nations ahead of you. Here they are: Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, Jebusites. These seven nations are greater and more numerous than you. You must not intermarry with them. Do not let your daughters and sons marry their sons and daughters, for they will lead your children away from me." He didn't say they might; they will lead your children away from me to worship other gods. Then the anger of the Lord will burn against you, and he will quickly destroy you.

Also, note in our study this morning how Ezra finds out about this. He says, "When these things had been done, the Jewish leaders came to me and said..." The Jewish leaders are the ones that bring this information to Ezra. He's been there five months, and they bring this information that there's all this intermarriage going on. So then these leaders told Ezra. But how did they know this was wrong? After 60 years, is there something going on that's making them realize that this is wrong?

Well, the reason is because Ezra, if you remember, had taught them the law. Remember, this is when he came back. It says this was because Ezra had determined to study and obey the law of the Lord and to teach those decrees and regulations to the people of Israel. Apparently, after five months of doing this, they fell under conviction for what was going on.

The next book in the Bible after Ezra is the book of Nehemiah. Both Ezra and Nehemiah were in Jerusalem at the same time. They were contemporary. They didn't arrive at the same time, but their time there overlapped. In the book of Nehemiah, we're told how Ezra taught the people, at least initially. Nehemiah 8:1, really kind of get this picture in your mind. It says all the people assembled with a unified purpose at the square just inside the Water Gate.

They asked Ezra the scribe to bring out the book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had given for Israel to obey. So on October 8th, Ezra the priest brought the book of the law before the assembly, which included the men and women and all the children old enough to understand. He faced the square just inside the Water Gate from early morning until noon and read aloud to everyone who could understand. All the people listened closely to the book of the law. That's what you're doing here this morning. You're to be commended. Same thing's taking place.

Ezra the scribe stood on a high wooden platform that had been made for the occasion. Then it lists the Levites, a bunch of names. Then it says they instructed the people in the law while everyone remained in their places. Verse 8: "They read from the book of the law of God and clearly explained the meaning of what was being read, helping the people understand each passage."

Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were interpreting for the people said to them, "Don't mourn or weep on such a day as this, for today is a sacred day before the Lord." For the people had all been weeping as they listened to the words of the law. Do you get the significance of that? It's been 60 years since they had the temple. Sixty years without being taught the law. Ezra stands up, reads the word from probably very early in the morning until noon.

As he's reading it, people would have been very quiet, very hushed in a large crowd. Like I said, there's probably 200,000 people at this time in this area. Very hushed and quiet. As he's reading, you start hearing these sobs—people weeping, people sniffling, people sobbing. It's because they realize how much they have broken the law, how much they've offended God, and how much they've broken the heart of God.

That's how this story takes place. They were convicted by their sin and disobedience. Again, five months in is when this chapter takes place. They're convicted of how wrongly they have done in taking these women. Now, question: wouldn't Ezra have already known this—that they had married these women? Or did he know but turned a blind eye, acted like he didn't know about it? Observing Ezra's response, as we're going to see in a moment to this news, apparently he had no idea that this was going on.

If we look at Ezra, starting at verse 3, it says, "When I heard this—when Ezra heard that the people had taken foreign wives—when I heard this, I tore my clothing, pulled hair from my head and beard, and sat down utterly shocked. Then all who trembled at the words of the God of Israel came and sat with me because of this unfaithfulness of his people. And I sat there utterly appalled until the time of the evening sacrifice."

Now, you ask: after five months, how could he have not known? Well, maybe the people worked really hard not to let him know it. It's possible. I was in business for years, and people worked very hard not to let me know things that were going on. Very hard. Sometimes I was the absolute last person to know. It happens sometimes when you're a leader.

But secondly, remember in Ezra 2, as we said, 60 years earlier, 42,000 Jews came back. So 60 years later, what could that have grown into? 150, 200, 250,000 people. As an example, the city of Lebanon has a population of 24,000. The county of Lebanon has a population of 120,000. So if you would have moved to Lebanon five months ago, do you think you'd know all that's going on in the city or the county in five months? You wouldn't know the half of it. You wouldn't know a tenth of it. You wouldn't want to know all of it, probably. So did he know what was going on? By his response, almost certainly not.

His response is pretty extreme. Look at this. He says, "When I heard this thing—this is New King James—when I heard this thing, I tore my garment and my robe and plucked out some of the hair in my head and beard and sat down astonished." King James says, "I rent my garment and mantle," an outer and inner robe, the robe that you wear next to your body and then the outer garment as well. The outer and inner garment, it was a great sign of grief and act of sorrow. It's frequently mentioned among the Bible and was common among all ancient peoples, not just the Israelites.

Plucking off the hair, they would shave the head, which was a sign of excessive grief. They would shave the head and the beard to show grief. But how much more this excessive response of Ezra's—not just shaving it, but plucking it out. Can you imagine the pain that would go with that? Again, this was common to other peoples.

Egyptian tombs contain a wealth of mourning scenes. Mourning women would bare their breasts, cover their faces with earth. They would wrap black and torn sackcloth around their hips. They would put ropes around their necks and they would raise their clasped hands above their heads and wail. The tomb of King Ahiram of Byblos in Phoenicia, as an example, who lived the 10th century BC, has a picture on the tomb of four bare-breasted women, two with their hands over their heads, two beating on their sides.

In front of the king stand men with their right arm bared. This was a custom both in Egypt and Palestine. Rabbinical or Jewish literature refers to the baring of the arm and the shoulder. Pre-Islamic Arab women would bare their breasts, beat on them, tear their hair and their flesh, and mourn for the dead for seven weeks. The men would shave their heads and their faces, leaving their hair and beards on the tomb that was pre-Islamic. So again, when you read this, this was not just an Israelite response to mourning; it was typical of people in the area.

There's also something interesting here. We want to note the difference between Ezra's response to this news that they had intermarried and Nehemiah's response to the same news. We find in Nehemiah 13:23, same story but from Nehemiah's perspective. "At the same time, I realized—this is from the book of Nehemiah—at the same time I realized that some of the men of Judah had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. Furthermore, half their children spoke the language of Ashdod or some of the other people and could not speak the language of Judah at all."

"So—this is what Nehemiah did—so I confronted them and I called down curses on them. I beat some of them and pulled out their hair. I made them swear in the name of God that they would not let their children intermarry with the pagan people of the land." It's really interesting. Ezra plucks out his own hair in sorrow; Nehemiah plucks out the offender's hair in sorrow. One is in the spirit, and one is in the flesh.

Ezra's reaction here of his mourning turning internal is typical of him and typically of a godly man or woman because Ezra's inaction, the obvious sorrow that he is feeling, his personal grief was more potent than any flurry of anger that he could have done in throwing around swings and pulling other people's hair. It allowed God to bring conviction to others through his grief, not through the hurt that he inflicted. One more point before we read Ezra's prayer. It says, "For the men of Israel have married women from these people and taken wives as their sons."

The prophet Malachi was living in Jerusalem along with Ezra at this time. Malachi is the last book in our Old Testament. Malachi is a contemporary with Ezra and Nehemiah. Malachi adds a very important and key understanding to what God was angry about in this setting concerning these men marrying foreign wives. Many of you know this. Judah has been unfaithful. Again, Malachi speaking, same time, prophesying the same time Ezra and Nehemiah are going through this.

Judah has been unfaithful, and a detestable thing has been done in Israel and Jerusalem. The men of Judah have defiled the Lord's beloved sanctuary by marrying women who worship idols. May the Lord cut off from the nation of Israel every last man who has done this and yet brings an offering to the Lord of Heaven's armies.

Now, what's interesting about this is he has more to say about this. Malachi says that it's not just that they married foreign women, but that in addition to this, they first divorced their Jewish wives who had been faithful to them through all of their years. Malachi 2:13: "Here's another thing you do: you cover the Lord's altar with tears, weeping and groaning because he pays no attention to your offerings and he doesn't accept them with pleasure. You cry out, 'Why has the Lord abandoned us?' I'll tell you why: because the Lord has witnessed the vows you and your wife made to each other on your wedding day when you were young. But you have been disloyal to her, though she remained your faithful companion, the wife of your marriage vows."

So what God is saying here through Malachi is two issues: one, you've married foreign women—that's a huge no-no—but the second thing that made God very angry is that these Jewish men were taking their wives who had been faithful to them through all the years and just discarded them and were marrying these younger foreign women. Two issues. We discover that in Malachi.

One of the greatest joys in Bible study—maybe the greatest—is as you get to know the Bible a little better, you start connecting the dots between books of the Bible, between Old Testament and New Testament. From Deuteronomy to Isaiah, you start remembering that I read something about this, and you start connecting the dots. That is where the real joy in Bible study comes because when we get to heaven, we're going to discover that the Bible, I really believe, when we get to heaven and have a perfect knowledge of the Bible, we're going to discover that every verse is connected to every other verse in some way.

Every verse is connected to Jesus, so just by virtue of that, every verse must be connected to one another. So the pure joy is in discovering these pieces. Here's my point: when you connect the dots in your own Bible study, what I suggest you do is like here, where Ezra 9, at the top of the page, put Malachi 2:13. And then where Malachi 2 is, put Ezra 9. Because you're going to like that in the future.

I've done this for years, and it's really cool to go back and I think, "Now, what's the tie-in there?" And then you go, "Oh, yeah." Also, if any of you ever teach, you're going to find that really an aid because a lot of those connecting the dots you won't find in commentaries anywhere. You just won't. It's just something that God has shown you, and you'll be glad you did that.

Anyway, from Malachi's position, there are two issues: divorcing loyal Jewish wives and then marrying foreign women. So Ezra's told about the problem, as we saw, and he literally tears up his clothes and pulls his hair out in sorrow. Then he prays this absolutely beautiful prayer, a prayer that we can learn a lot from. This picks up in verse 5. We're going to read this to the end. Ezra 9:5, this is his prayer. Remember, he's broken down in sorrow. The people are around him. He's utterly shocked.

I sat there until the time of the evening sacrifice, and now he prays this prayer. "At the time of the sacrifice, I stood up from where I had sat in mourning with my clothes torn. I fell to my knees, lifted my hands to the Lord my God. I prayed, 'O my God, I am utterly ashamed.'" Now, as we read this, I want you to notice the transition from using the word "I" to "we." Listen, this is his prayer.

"O my God, I am utterly ashamed. I blush to lift my face to you." Here's the transition. "For our sins are piled higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens. Our whole history has been one of great sin. That is why we and our kings and our priests have been at the mercy of the pagan kings of the land. We have been killed, captured, robbed, and disgraced, just as we are today. But now we have been given a brief moment of grace, for the Lord our God has allowed a few of us to survive as a remnant. He has given us security in this holy place."

"Our God has brightened our eyes and granted us some relief from our slavery. For we were slaves, but in his unfailing love, our God did not abandon us in our slavery. Instead, he caused the kings of Persia—Cyrus starting with him—to treat us favorably. He revived us so that we were able to rebuild the temple of our God and repair its ruins. He has given us a protective wall in Judah and Jerusalem. And now, O our God, what can we say after all of this? For once again we have ignored your commands."

Guest (Male): Pastor Thom Keller concluding our time together with Ezra's prayer, which we'll delve into next time. Trust you'll join us then right here on Study the Word. You can hear the study again by going to ccleb.com. Visit ccleb.com and have a look under resources, and there you'll find our teaching archives. Or call and request a CD copy at 717-507-7862. That's 717-507-7862.

This month, we're pleased to offer you an excellent book by Andrew Murray called *The Blessings of Obedience*. Obedience isn't a popular word these days. We live in a world where people fight for their will and way and consider rules an inconvenience. But obedience to God is much more than just following rules. It's a matter of the heart and a true blessing. Andrew Murray has an eye on God's love behind his commands and the grace the Lord offers us that makes it all possible to obey.

We'll send this to you with our thanks for a gift of any amount to Study the Word. Please remember, your contribution makes it possible for us to present Study the Word on this station. Call 717-507-7862 or you can write to Study the Word, 740 Willow Street, Lebanon, Pennsylvania, 17046. You're always invited to join us for a worship service here at Calvary Chapel Lebanon. Turn to ccleb.com for our service times, church news, directions, and more info.

Please introduce yourself to Pastor Thom after the service. He'd love that. Download our free Android app when you get a chance. Search Calvary Chapel Lebanon in the Google Play Store. We'll pick up where we left off in Ezra next time on Study the Word with Pastor Thom Keller. Until then, keep studying the word.