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Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Tuesday, 6 January 2025:
Ezra 9:1-2 — 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…. 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….”
The crisis emerges immediately after visible success. The temple stands, worship has resumed, offerings have been made, and God has clearly protected the return. Yet beneath the surface of religious order lies covenant compromise. The issue is not ethnicity but fidelity. God had repeatedly warned Israel that intermarriage with idolatrous peoples would not be neutral; it would reshape loves, loyalties, and worship (Deuteronomy 7:3-4). Holiness was never about superiority but about devotion. To be “holy” meant to be set apart for God, and what is set apart cannot be shared without loss. The tragedy is intensified by leadership failure. Priests and Levites, those meant to guard holiness, have led the way in compromise. When leaders blur boundaries, the people follow. Sin is rarely contained; it spreads through influence.
We cannot partner with unbelievers. Holiness is a requirement.
Israel’s worst sinners were the political and religious leaders. Israel’s leaders were leaders in sin.
Ezra 9:3 — As soon as I heard this, I tore my garment and my cloak and pulled hair from my head and beard and sat appalled.
Ezra’s response reveals a heart still tender to God. He does not minimize, rationalize, or reframe the sin as understandable or culturally inevitable. He grieves. His physical actions are not theatrics; they are the outward manifestation of inward devastation. Ezra feels the weight of covenant betrayal personally, even though he did not commit the sin himself. This is the mark of true spiritual leadership: identifying with the guilt of the people rather than distancing oneself from it. Ezra does not say “their sin”; he feels it as “our sin.” Godly leaders are wounded by what dishonors God, even when it costs them personally.
What is appalling today is what no longer appalls us. Ezra was shocked, appalled, and greatly distressed by sin. Are you?
Ezra 9:4 — 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.
A faithful remnant still exists. Not everyone is hardened. Some still tremble at God’s Word. In an age of unfaithfulness, the faithful will unite.
Trembling is the opposite of casual obedience. It reflects reverence, humility, and awareness of God’s holiness. These are the people God always works through, those who take His Word seriously even when the culture does not. Notice also the timing: until the evening sacrifice. The problem of sin is being weighed in the presence of atonement. God is already pointing forward to the only solution that can truly address covenant unfaithfulness, not denial, not reform alone, but sacrifice.
– Psalm 2:11 — Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
– 2 Corinthians 7:15 — And his affection for you is even greater, as he remembers the obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling.
– Philippians 2:12 — Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling….
Ezra 9:5 — 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.
Ezra moves from grief to intercession. He does not rush to correction before prayer. He kneels. He opens his hands, an embodied confession of dependence. True repentance always moves Godward. Ezra understands that structural obedience cannot heal relational rupture. Only mercy can. Leadership begins on its knees.
Our response to sin should be humiliation, shame, confession, mourning, fasting, and prayer. Then, we should rejoice in the grace we have received through Jesus, never continuing in the sin in which we have repented.
Ezra 9:6 — 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.”
What makes today’s generation blush?
Ezra’s prayer begins with shame, not toxic shame that hides from God, but godly shame that acknowledges truth. He does not blame Babylon, trauma, loneliness, or pressure. He names sin as sin. Guilt is not minimized; it is measured against heaven. This is repentance that refuses self-defense. Ezra models the posture God promises to receive: “a broken and contrite heart” (Psalm 51:17).
Ezra 9:7 — From the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt….
Ezra places present sin in historical context. This is not an isolated failure; it is a pattern. Israel’s story is not one of occasional mistakes but repeated unfaithfulness met by repeated mercy. Ezra understands that unconfessed patterns become generational strongholds. Repentance requires honesty about history, not nostalgia.
God’s people were called to be a holy kingdom among the kingdoms, “a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation (Exodus 19:6).” God commanded His people to “take possession” of the land, to subdue it and control it for God’s glory. God expected His holy people to be a “city on a hill,” a light among the nations. However, rather than conquerors, they had become slaves to the world. They had been “given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plundering, and to utter shame.” Both figuratively and literally, God’s people had “inter-married” with the ungodly around them – the bride of Christ had committed adultery. God had given the “remnant” an opportunity for “reviving,” and opportunity to rebuild the “church.” However, immediately, God’s remnant began compromising its holiness for the sake of friendship with world. Today, the Church is largely guilty of the same sin, that of syncretism. We have too often compromised the Kingdom for the sake of the American dream. It is time for us to “separate [ourselves] from the peoples of the land.”
– Matthew 6:24 — No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
– Luke 11:23 — Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
– Revelation 3:16 — So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.
Ezra 9:8-9 — But now for a brief moment favor has been shown by the Lord our God… to give us a secure hold within his holy place….
Here grace is acknowledged as undeserved interruption. “A brief moment.” Ezra recognizes that restoration itself was mercy, not entitlement. The return from exile was not proof of faithfulness but proof of grace. God did not restore Israel because they had changed; He restored them so they could change. Grace precedes obedience, but grace must not be presumed upon.
Ezra 9:10–12 — And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken your commandments…
Ezra admits the heart of the problem: knowing God’s will and choosing otherwise. This is not ignorance; it is defiance. God had been clear. The commands were protective, not arbitrary. They were meant to preserve life, love, and faithfulness. Sin always reframes God’s commands as restrictive when they are actually redemptive.
Ezra 9:13-14 — Seeing that you our God have punished us less than our iniquities deserved and have given us such a remnant as this… shall we again break your commandments…?
This is the most piercing moment of the prayer. Ezra acknowledges restrained judgment. God has been merciful beyond measure. The question is rhetorical and devastating: How could grace be met with renewed rebellion? Grace misunderstood becomes license; grace rightly understood produces repentance. Ezra sees clearly what later Scripture will affirm: continuing in sin after grace is not freedom — it is contempt (Romans 6:1-2; Hebrews 10:26-29).
Ezra 9:15 — O Lord, the God of Israel, you are just… behold, we are before you in our guilt, for none can stand before you because of this.
Ezra ends not with solutions but surrender. He does not propose a plan; he places the people fully in God’s hands. This is true repentance — owning guilt, affirming God’s justice, and trusting God’s mercy. The prayer ends unresolved because repentance is not yet complete. Confession must lead to transformation.
Ezra 9 is devastating because it exposes a truth that runs through all of Scripture and reaches its climax in the gospel: external obedience without internal holiness is insufficient. Religious activity can coexist with compromised love. That is why the law alone cannot save. That is why a new heart is required (Ezekiel 36:26). That is why Jesus came — not to enforce better rule-keeping, but to fulfill the law, cleanse the heart, and restore love as the motive for obedience. Ezra feels the weight of sin but cannot yet see the cross. We can. And because we can, repentance is not despair — it is hope.
– Mark 2:22 — And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”
– Matthew 23:27 — “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.”
– Matthew 12:43-45 — “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.”
“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) — 6 January 2025: Ask God to search your heart for areas where outward obedience has masked inward compromise. Confess without excuse. Tremble at His Word. Return to Him not with performance, but with repentance, trusting that grace is meant to transform, not excuse.
Pray: “Holy God, You are just and merciful beyond measure. Forgive me where I have settled for outward obedience while guarding inward compromise. Give me a heart that trembles at Your Word and grieves what grieves You. Thank You that Your grace is greater than my sin and that repentance is not rejection but invitation. Cleanse my heart, renew my loves, and shape my obedience to flow from love for You. I place myself fully in Your hands, trusting Your mercy to do what I cannot. Amen.”
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