A person who studies Truth, knows God is Truth.  One who knows all are created in the image of God, knows the consequences of not obeying God, our Creator. We also know we are given a choice to follow Truth or the Deceiver.

If we choose to follow the Deceiver, he will lead us to all things not of God.  In our disobedience to God; the consequence of our sin filled minds lead us to unsavory and detestable to God behaviors that are not for our good or His glory and ultimately to lead us to our death.  In the meantime, our lives are driven by guilt. Explained fears overcomes us as we cling to shame.  We hold tightly to our guilt and shame, always looking over our shoulders to see if anyone knows we are full of it—sin.

Guilt rains on all we do and rises like a flood as we realize we not only sinned against each other; but we have sinned against God, Himself.  Left unchecked and unrepented, guilt and shame hold us in bondage.  While chained in bondage, we fall for more sin thinking we can out maneuver the Deceiver. But we are digging our own grave. Sin, our chosen lifestyle, has consequences. Guilt and shame becomes an unwanted chronic illness.  But sin is what we chose and these are the consequences. Our brokenness leads to broken relationships with each other.  For when we leave our relationship with God, all other relationships are affected—not for good but for evil. 

Ezra, one who has studied God through His Scriptures with disciplined devotion to God knows the consequences of disobedience to God—called sin.  One who seeks the heart of God seeks to know the heart of God.  Ezra is one knows God’s heart so well that his heart breaks over the sins of God’s people.

Do we know the heart of God?

Do we know what breaks the heart of God and the reason our sins grieve the heart of God?    

Ezra 9

Ezra’s Prayer About Intermarriage

After these things had been done, the leaders came to me and said, “The people of Israel, including the priests and the Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the neighboring peoples with their detestable practices, like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians and Amorites. ² They have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, and have mingled the holy race with the peoples around them. And the leaders and officials have led the way in this unfaithfulness.”

³ When I heard this, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled hair from my head and beard and sat down appalled. ⁴ Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of this unfaithfulness of the exiles. And I sat there appalled until the evening sacrifice.

⁵ Then, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self-abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn, and fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the Lord my God ⁶ and prayed:

“I am too ashamed and disgraced, my God, to lift up my face to you, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens. ⁷ From the days of our ancestors until now, our guilt has been great. Because of our sins, we and our kings and our priests have been subjected to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation at the hand of foreign kings, as it is today.

⁸ “But now, for a brief moment, the Lord our God has been gracious in leaving us a remnant and giving us a firm place in his sanctuary, and so our God gives light to our eyes and a little relief in our bondage. ⁹ Though we are slaves, our God has not forsaken us in our bondage. He has shown us kindness in the sight of the kings of Persia: He has granted us new life to rebuild the house of our God and repair its ruins, and he has given us a wall of protection in Judah and Jerusalem.

¹⁰ “But now, our God, what can we say after this? For we have forsaken the commands ¹¹ you gave through your servants the prophets when you said: ‘The land you are entering to possess is a land polluted by the corruption of its peoples. By their detestable practices they have filled it with their impurity from one end to the other. ¹² Therefore, do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters for your sons. Do not seek a treaty of friendship with them at any time, that you may be strong and eat the good things of the land and leave it to your children as an everlasting inheritance.’

¹³ “What has happened to us is a result of our evil deeds and our great guilt, and yet, our God, you have punished us less than our sins deserved and have given us a remnant like this. ¹⁴ Shall we then break your commands again and intermarry with the peoples who commit such detestable practices? Would you not be angry enough with us to destroy us, leaving us no remnant or survivor? ¹⁵ Lord, the God of Israel, you are righteous! We are left this day as a remnant. Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in your presence.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Habit: They’ve done it before and they’ll do it again!  Israelite men intermarried with women from the surrounding pagan countries which lead to all that is unholy, even practicing the sacrifice of their own children to bonfires made to worship idols! God made a law against marrying women who worshiped idols because He knew the hearts of mankind were/are weak and might fall for the Tempter’s seductions. Alas, the Law only convicts us; it does not save us from sins. God knew the temptation to turn to idols of evil, which leads to death, would occur unless He drew their attention to Him with a law against it.  See Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5) Notice that the first four laws concern our relationship with God:

1. You shall not have any other gods before God.

2. You shall not make yourself an idol.

3. You shall not take the Lord’s name in vain. 

4. Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it Holy.

The final six commandments, written in stone, are concerned with our relationships with each other.  Our relationship with God is first, followed by our relationship with each other, because our relationship with God affects all other relationships!  Jesus spent three years in ministry telling us why!

      5. You shall honor your mother and father.

      6. You shall not murder.

      7. You shall not commit adultery.

      8. You shall not steal.

      9. You shall not testify or bear false witness against your neighbor.

    10.  You shall not covet.

But a law, as we know today, does not necessarily change our inner self talk, attitudes, or behaviors—even if the laws are “written in stone”!  As we recall, God wrote the Ten Commandments on stone tablets and gave them Moses to share with all the Israelites soon after they left captivity in Egypt (Exodus 20:1-26). Moses reiterated them 40 years later in Deuteronomy 5:1-22 as the Israelites neared the Promised Land.

FACT:  Even thousands of years after Moses was given these laws directly from God, they still influence and guide the moral principles of Christianity today.

Let’s talk about Jesus who fulfilled The Law because He was the Law come down from heaven.  Jesus, Son of God, came down to reteach, relate and demonstrate all that is Holy to God. Jesus came to serve; not to be served. Jesus told and demonstrated the love of God as he sought the lost and healed the sick—all so ohers would see the glory of God in Him for their good.  While “showing the full extent of His love”, The Master Teacher, on His last night with His followers, served the Passover Meal to His disciples along with foretelling their futures of service to God!  Then, without warning, Jesus left the Table, wrapped a towel around His waist, like a servant, and bent down to wash their dirty, well-traveled feet.  All of them, even his betrayer!  (John 13)

After the meal, they sang hymns as they walked to the Garden where Jesus passionately prayed to His Father once last time before the Plan was fulfilled according the Scriptures.  Jesus’ final request as Son of Man/Son of God: “Not my will, but yours be done.” 

Immediately after those words of surrender to God’s plan, Jesus, Master Teacher, was was arrested and falsely accused of sin—He who knew no sin.  Jesus knew what was before Him but His love for us compelled Him to do what God said for He was the Plan from the beginning of creation.  Jesus was God’s Plan to save the world once and for all who would believe.  Jesus willingly and obediently laid down His life so evil could nail our sins through Jesus’ hands and feet to the cross in payment for our sins. “Forgive them for they know not what they are doing” was Jesus’ response to evil who worked in His accusers’ hearts. Evil thought he had won; but three days later…God resurrected His Son, scars and all, to full Life, giving us Hope of eternal life for all who would believe.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17

The Law convicts us of our sins.  Jesus was sent to remove us our repented sins. Paul explains to Jews and Gentiles (anyone not a Jew by birth, in Romans 3;

“…whatever is written in these Scriptures is not what God says about others but to us to whom these Scriptures were addressed in the first place! And it’s clear enough, isn’t it, that we’re sinners, every one of us, in the same sinking boat with everybody else? Our involvement with God’s revelation doesn’t put us right with God. What it does is force us to face our complicity in everyone else’s sin.

God Has Set Things Right

But in our time something new has been added. What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all those years has happened. The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this. Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.  God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in him sets us in the clear. Romans 3;19-26, MSG  Read the whole passage to understand truth!

Jesus was the ultimate Lamb of Sacrifice for our sins–the fulfillment of the commandments of God.  King Jesus is our Savior, Redeemer, and Lord of all who believe with a discipline devotion to learn to imitate His ways.

Ezra modeled how believers should hate sin and disobedience, be grieved by sin and the consequences of sin.  He also modeled a heart that grieved for others in sin.  Ezra powerfully demonstrated who God is to all who heard; “Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in your presence”—Ezra  

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” This truth, written by Paul who called himself the “chief among sinners” knew the freedom that comes from repentance of our sin to Jesus.  Because I have felt the weight of guilt for my own sins and the freedom that comes from surrender; my heart aches to see the struggle of those who have not yet surrendered in repentance.  So, I pray almost as passionately as Ezra daily: Cleanse my heart, renew my mind, refresh my soul with your mercies, and restore the joy of your salvation at work within me.  May they see You in me and come to You! In Jesus Name, so be it! Amen

Jesus is Our Hope: Although we do not deserve to stand in His Presence, through surrender of our sins to Jesus, we are given full access to the throne of God!  Jesus is the Way to God.  Jesus is the Truth we seek in a fallen world.  Jesus is Life eternal!  THIS is amazing Love!

Jesus changes Everything

A man is never the same after he simultaneously sees his utter despair and Christ’s unbending grace. To see the despair without the grace is suicidal. To see the grace without the despair is upper-room futility. But to see them both is conversion. —Max Lucado, Encouraging Word Bible

Lord,

I surrender all to you. I repent of all my sins, those known and those I have ignored as sin. Remove them all.  May my guilt and shame of sins repented cease to have a hold on me.  I stand in awe of You, Way Maker, Chain Breaker, Redeemer of my Soul.

In Jesus Name, Amen