Wise Master Builder #9 | Sin Piled Higher Than Our Heads

Introduction 

A healthy body needs an immune system. Without that, it will be easily overrun by every germ. The fever is not the enemy, it is the proof that an enemy is being fought. Confession of sin is like that.

https://youtu.be/EMtx_x3ew8M

The Text

Now when these things were done, the princes came to me, saying, The people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons: so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands: yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this trespass.  […]
Ezra 9:1ff

Summary of the Text

It didn’t take long after Ezra’s arrival for the sword of the Word to cut the people deeply (v1). The Jewish princes came to Ezra to report that the laity, along with the priests and Levites, had done what God had prohibited them from doing (Cf. Due. 7:1-8). They had taken wives from amongst the Canaanites, and this was a problem from the top down (vv1-2). Ezra, likely already aware of this sin (Cf. Ez. 2), is still deeply aggrieved by this news, perhaps by the sheer extent of it, and responds like Joshua had done when it was discovered that Achan had taken the consecrated plunder of Jericho (v6. Cf. Jos. 7:6). But we see glimmers of the efficacy of this ministry of the Word, for an assembly of those who “trembled at God’s Word” gathered with Ezra in this conviction and grief (v4).

Having sat all day in astonishment, Ezra then arose to kneel before God (v5). Ezra does not distance himself from the sin, but expresses his own shame over this sin that wasn’t his. His prayer begins with “I” and then moves to “we”. Ezra is once more exemplary; here he gives a clinic on how to confess sin. He doesn’t downplay it (v6). Reaching back through history, he repents of the sins of Israel’s fathers, he sees the various devastations as the clear consequences of Israel’s sin (v7). But not only does he see the sin, he sees God’s grace. This grace is manifested by the completion of the temple, even in the midst of their bondage to Persia (vv8-9).

But this makes the sin even more shameful. God had granted a ray of light, and the Jews went and sinned in that light (v10, Cf. 8:22). This prayer of confession does not neglect to note that God had send the prophets to faithfully warn against this sin (v11). But not warnings only, promises were held forth; by resisting the temptation to mingle with the idolaters in marriage or treaty, God promised strength and abundance, so as to leave a lasting inheritance (v12). So then, though the sin was great and high-handed, Ezra acknowledges that God has given them less than they deserved (v13). By this sin the people deserved to be entirely consumed by the just anger of God, and not one should escape (v14). Nevertheless, by faith Ezra discerns that God’s righteousness must be joined with mercy. God’s righteousness demands the complete obliteration of the Jews; yet a remnant still remained. Not only had this remnant escaped, but now they are kneeling before Him in contrition (v15). What could this mean?

Interracial Marriage

There is renewed zeal amongst many conservatives to strive towards a Christian America. This is a good thing to aim our efforts at. However, we must guard against those who join the effort but whose thinking is muddled, and not founded on the Scriptures. Our efforts at reforming our nation to act in accordance with Scripture has no mixture with those who idolize racial purity.

Quite recently the debate has erupted within Christian circles whether interracial marriage is sinful. The text before us is often pointed to as favoring those who say that different people groups ought not to mix. But that argument is built on spindly exegesis. The prohibition against marrying the peoples of the lands, was not on the basis of a paradigm that “birds of a feather should flock together”. Rather, the paradigm was covenantal faithfulness pitted against idolatry. After all, God made explicit provision for how an Israelite soldier could lawfully marry a heathen woman captured after defeating an enemy nation (Deu. 21:10-14). There are numerous examples––most prominently Rahab of Jericho and Ruth the Moabite––of foreign women who renounced the idolatry of their pagan heritage. This renunciation was in order to be bound to the covenant blessings and curses of Israel’s God.

Deciding who to marry is a profoundly significant decision, and of course that decision must be undertaken with great wisdom. But we must draw stark lines where scripture does, not where neo-pagans want us to draw them. Christians are commanded to marry in the Lord (1 Cor. 7:9), and not to be unequally yoked with an unbeliever (2 Cor. 6:14). The sin contemplated in this passage has to do with the idolatry and covenant compromise, not a complete prohibition of inter-tribal/ethnic marriages. We should seek to establish a Christian nation, and this can be done without insisting upon more than Scripture and our Confession teaches.

Numbered with the Transgressors

Ezra, though innocent of the particular transgression, as a representative, as a priest, he brings the sins before God as if they were his own. In this, Ezra foreshadows Christ. The suffering servant would be numbered with the transgressors, their sins would be placed upon Him (Is. 53:6,12). “The Lord Jesus, too, became one with us. He took our sins upon Himself and was appalled, particularly when He came into the garden of Gethsemane and began to be filled with a feeling of horror and deep distress. On the cross He suffered the horror of our sins when God forsook Him.”

When we consider our own nation, we can be assured that we are in the midst of revival when confession of sin is commonplace. Sin really is shameful, but we have become quite good at softening the edges of our sin. But Ezra exemplifies the sort of confession of sin which pleases God. 

First, Ezra doesn’t point fingers, or lay the blame on anyone else. He takes responsibility. It was Israel’s shepherds (the priests) who had failed in their task of teaching God’s people. Widespread rejection of God’s particular commandments is downstream from widespread ignorance of the goodness of God’s Law and Gospel. 

Secondly, Ezra sees the sin to be as bad as it really is. He doesn’t try to soften the edges, he acknowledges that marriages with idolatrous people groups will only lead the Jews back into the idolatry that God had so recently judged them for. So, he repents of the sins in the past that led to these great transgressions. He acknowledges, as one Puritan put it, the exceeding sinfulness of sin. 

Lastly, he lays hold of God’s righteousness and grace. God must judge sin, but Ezra also knows the character of God: “And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation (Ex. 34:6-7).”

Confession of Sin

Confess your sin as sin. Confess it to those you have wronged as quickly as you can. Don’t blame others for your sin. Husbands should take responsibility for the sins in their marriage and family. Pastors are to do so for their congregation. Rulers for their citizens. CEOs for their companies. Principals for their schools. Christians for their country.

These United States are full of iniquity. God’s people are to look at it all and say, “That’s ours.” These are our national sins. These are our cultural transgressions. Then we should hold tightly to the promise that God delights to show mercy. You might think that confessing your sin will be miserably embarrassing. But God says that in forsaking our sin, in confessing it, we find strength. A clean conscience is strength.

God’s Grace to a Sinful People

Here is hope for sinners. No matter how badly the church has abdicated or backslid, God is not stymied in His purposes. He always preserves a remnant. Where is that remnant? It is those that tremble before God’s Word. God’s grace, as described here by Ezra, is likened to a nail in the holy place. This surely fastened nail makes it certain that God would lighten the eyes and give reviving to dead people. Ezra leads God’s people in confession of both their sin and God’s righteousness and mercy. He knows that they shall find mercy even in the midst of their bondage. The reason for this certainty is also the reason for your certainty: a nail is fastened securely in the house of God. The body and blood of Christ, the true temple, is your everlasting security (Heb. 9:11-12, 10:10). You have sinned greatly, the flood of God’s wrath would sweep you away. But the Nail holds fast.

Charge and Benediction

In learning to rightly confess our sins we need to stop placing the blame for our sins on other people. However, the irony is that God invites us to put all our guilt upon Jesus, and He gladly takes it away from us. To lay hold of Christ is to admit all the damning guilt of your sin, and then wonderfully know that all your guilt has been forgiven. This Gospel really is the nail which holds the whole tabernacle, the whole tent, in place.

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.
Numbers 6:24-26