Ezra 9

Ezra 9:1

D. Mixed Marriages and Ezra’s Prayer of Confession (Chap. 9)9:1, 2 Ezra had not been in Jerusalem long when some of the leaders approached him with the disturbing news that the rulers and the people were intermarrying with the heathen. This was one of the sins for which Israel had been punished in days past. The law was clear (Exo_34:16; Deu_7:3); God’s people must be holy. He wants them to separate themselves from the world and every other form of evil. 9:3, 4 Ezra was astonished when he heard about these mixed marriages. He was plunged into deep mourning until the evening sacrifice. With robe torn and patches of hair missing from his head and beard, he sat in silence while others who feared the Lord gathered around him. 9:5-15 As the blood of the evening sacrifice was being poured out before Jehovah for the iniquities of the people, Ezra fell to his knees and lifted his voice in confession. Making the people’s sin his own, he was humiliated that they had responded so wickedly to the grace which had preserved them as a remnant through past judgments and had given them a peg in His holy place (v. 8). This “peg” speaks of the security of anyone or anything that depends on God. Some, such as Ironside, believe that ultimately it refers to Christ Himself: The reference to the “nail” [peg, NKJV] is doubtless a recognition of Isaiah’s prophecy of the “nail in a sure place,” upon which Jehovah’s glory was to hang, which is, in the full sense, Christ Himself (Isa_22:21-25). The prophets had spoken clearly on mixed marriages, so the men were without excuse, especially in light of the recent favors God had granted them. “Here we are before You, in our guilt.” There was nothing else to say.