Ezra's Prayer. Ezra 9

 

Ezra 9 – Ezra’s Prayer

 

The Jews let down their guard and intermarried with the surrounding heathen and enemies of God and Israel. That led to a practice of abomination of the heathen. The lack of separation plunged them into immorality and idolatry. Even the leadership were involved in this.

Ezra was overwhelmed and chagrined that God’s people would drop to such a low level. He tore his clothes and tore out his hair. He sat astonished “until the evening sacrifice” because of the transgression of those who had been carried away. He went to God with his hands outspread. He held nothing back from God. He says, “For our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.

 

Today’s church is in a bad state. It is not their sin; it is our sin.

 

Ezra says, “We have had just a little space grace.” The seventy years of captivity was over. God had permitted His people to return to the land, and once again they follow the heathen, doing the very same thing that had sent them into captivity in the first place.

How wonderful God was to these people. They confessed their sin, and God would bless them. They did not get all that was coming to them. They deserved more punishment for their sins than they received. Only the mercy of God, the confession of sin, the sacrifice of Christ, and the grace of God could make it possible for Him to save these people, restore and revive them. God did all these things because of the prayer of Ezra.

 

When we take that position, God is ready to hear us.

 

Please read the chapter listed so that you can understand God’s Word better.

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J. Vernon McGee Commentary and New King James Bible. Nelsons Quick Reference Commentary.