Ezra's Prayer of Confession

Take your Bible and turn to Ezra chapter 9. Ezra chapter 9, I'm sure most of you are there because of our earlier scripture reading. And like I said earlier, we will be in verses 5 on down to verse 15. We're going to continue, finish out the chapter. And if you look at your scripture, if you look, we've got one more chapter there in the book of Ezra. And Ezra chapter 10 really builds on what we're looking at in chapter 9. Now, tonight's message is really the second part of last week's message. Last week we covered verses 1 through 4. You'll notice sometimes we'll take just a few verses, excuse me.

Sometimes we take more, we do that to be careful of our time and also, this is not a true verse by verse study. But last week's message we saw Israel's great sin. Remember, this was a terrible situation that was brought to the attention of Ezra, the great man of God, the prophet of God who was there to lead the people. He led that second delegation back, not near as large as that first delegation. There were several months between when he came back and when this serious situation was brought to his attention. It wasn't that Ezra was slothful.

There's a lack of information and details when it comes to this, but most Bible commentators that I read, and I would have to agree, I believe that this was just flying under the radar and he didn't know it until some of those princes, those government leaders who had not fallen into these sins had brought this to the attention of Ezra. So it was Israel's great sin that was reported to Ezra. Remember, we saw the report of the sin in verses 1 through 2. We saw Ezra's reaction in verse 3, "Nothing more than brokenness, humiliation." Before God he was horrified. He was mortified. There were great outward acts of brokenness.

That was the meaning of the tearing of the clothes and the pulling of the hair and the beard. So he was outwardly, visibly very horrified and broken. And then we saw the people's reaction. They were some that the Lord had touched and moved. They were fearful because of the revelation of the Word of God to them and their great sin. They gathered around Ezra. Remember, I gave you a quotation by John Piper. He was talking about, he was giving a description about a great Christian from history. His name was Robert Murray McShane. And he was talking about how he had a following, how God used him.

And I liked how he described it, he said, "Just men like that have a force about them. And men and women and people follow them." They're not following the man, they're following the work of God in the man, but they're following that man. That's exactly what was taking place here. These people were gripped by the force, the work of God, the Spirit of God that was in Ezra. Now, as we look at verses 5 through 15, you might notice that this is a prayer. Earlier I read verses 1 through 5, and Ezra is praying. Verse 6 starts out in this prayer, and then if you look on down to verse 15, you will notice that this is still part of a prayer.

What we have is one long prayer, one continuous prayer. Now, we will see what type of prayer that we have when we proceed. And I want to say something, it's important for you to understand what kind of prayer this is. And we will see what kind specifically of prayer this is when we get to the end of the message. Now, the title of the message is before you. It is Ezra's Prayer of Confession. Ezra's Prayer of Confession. You might say, "Well, Pastor, that's the type of prayer that it is.

You've given it to us in the title of the message." Yes, that's true, but there's something more to this type of prayer than I'm going to share with you at the end. So we see Ezra's Prayer of Confession. You see how we've broken these verses down? Ezra's Reaction. I have in my notes Ezra's Reaction, Ezra's Heart in this matter. Verses 5 through 7 is understanding and his humility in verse 15. Ezra's Reaction, verses 5 through 7, Ezra's Understanding. And then his humility. Ezra's Understanding covers quite a few more verses, verses 8 through 14. So it's a little bit of a lengthy passage, but I do want to read it.

When I go back and break the verses down, I might not refer to the verses because of time. Sometimes we don't read all of these verses in this study because I do want to be careful of our time and our ability to retain what we're looking at. So let's start in verse 5 again. "But at the evening offering," this is at the end of the day, verses 1 through 4, where one particular day, "at the end of the day, end of the evening, at the evening offering, I rose from my humiliation, my prayer, my fasting, even with my garment and my robe torn.

And I fell on my knees and I stretched out my hands to the Lord my God, and I said." Now this is where his prayer starts. "Oh my God, I am ashamed that I'll embarrass to lift up my face to thee. My God, for our iniquities have risen above our heads and our guilt has grown even to the heavens. Since the days of our fathers to this day, we have been in great guilt. And on the account of our iniquities, we our kings and our priests have been given into the hands of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to plunder, and to open shame as it is this day." He's recounting their captivity, the judgment of God that was on them.

"But now for a brief moment of grace, but now for a brief moment, grace has been shown from the Lord our God to leave us and escape remnant, and to give us a peg or a nail," the King James says, "in his holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our bondage. For we are slaves, yet in our bondage, and our God has not forsaken us, but has extended loving kindness to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us reviving, to raise up the house of our God, to restore its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem.

And now our God, what shall we say after this?" See, he's transitioning in the prayer. "For we have forsaken Thy commandments, which Thou hast commanded by the servants, Thy prophets, saying, 'The land which You are entering to possess is an unclean land.' And the uncleanness of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations which have filled it from the end to end, and from their impurity. So now, do not give up your daughters to their sons, nor take their daughters to your sons, and never seek their peace or their prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good things of the land, and leave it as an inheritance to your sons forever.

And after all, that has come upon us for our evil deeds and our great guilt, since Thou our God has requited us less than our iniquities deserve, and has given us an escaped remnant as this. Shall we again break Thy commandments?" He's going back. We've fallen back into these sins and intermarry with the peoples who commit these abominations. "Would Thou be angry with us to the point of destruction, until there is no remnant, nor any who escape?" Verse 15, "O Lord God of Israel, Thou art righteous, for we have been left and escaped remnant, as it is this day.

Behold, we are before Thee in our guilt, for no one can stand before Thee because of this." A lengthy prayer, a lengthy confession, a lengthy time, when Ezra is opening up his heart to God. So let's look at verses 5 through 7. We see Ezra's reaction. Ezra's reaction, he is opening up his heart. This is his reaction in this matter. Verses 1 through 4, he is outwardly expressing this great horror, this great despair that he is in, but what we see is he is starting to move from verses 1 through 4. But what I want you to see is this.

Ezra is a true man of God, and he is a true man of God that is in tune with God, and he is in tune with God concerning the matter. And listen, when a man of God is in tune with God, according to the things of God, things always start off in prayer. And that's exactly what Ezra does. I want us to notice three things about Ezra's reaction, this prayer. First of all, I want you to notice his posture. His posture, verse 5, "The evening offering I arose from my humiliation, my clothes are still torn," and what does it say? "I fell on my knees, and I stretched out my hands, and he cried out, 'Oh my God!'" What do we see? This is his posture.

Now he is still broken before the people. Verse 4 says that the people were gripped with fear, and they gathered around Ezra, and they followed Ezra. Now notice that his clothes are still torn. This is an external sign of an inward sorrow and brokenness. It was common among the New Testament peoples, and now he falls on his knees, and he stretched out his hands before God. So notice his posture. Still broken, still in humiliation, he rose up, and now he falls down. Notice that posture. Second, notice Ezra's brokenness and his humility. What do we see? He's still expressing that outward brokenness. He did not put his clothes back on before.

They're still torn. His hair is still disheveled. Why? Because he is broken, and he is in humility. The New American Standard reads "ashamed." Go back to the verse. "Oh my God, I am ashamed, and I am embarrassed." What do we see? The King James reads "ashamed and blush." These words reflect a great brokenness, a great humility before God. What is he doing? He's saying, "God, I'm embarrassed. I'm ashamed. I am humiliated before you. I don't want to look up to you because of this shame." So we see his posture. We see his brokenness and his humility, and he expresses that in his words before God.

And then third, notice Ezra's identification with the sin of the people. Look at verse 6. "Oh my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to thee. For our iniquities have risen above our heads, and our guilt has grown even to the heavens." Then verse 7. "Since the days of our fathers to this day, we have been in great guilt and on account of our great iniquities." So what do we see here? Ezra is identifying with the sin of the people. Now, in the New American that I'm reading from, just in these verses, Ezra uses personal pronouns four times. Let me go back. This is the New American.

It could be a little different in your translation. Verses 6 through 7. "Our iniquities, our guilt, we have been in great guilt, our iniquities." See those personal pronouns? "Our, we." But if you follow the rest of the verses, we see that he uses personal pronouns 10 times. All through verses 6, 7, 10, 13, 14, 15. "Our iniquities, our guilt, we have been in great guilt, our iniquities. We are forsaken thy commandments." Our deeds are evil deeds. Our great guilt, our iniquities. We again break thy commandments. We are before thee in our guilt. You see? He is identifying, this is his identification with the sin of the people.

Now, what do we see here? Ezra is moving from this time of great heaviness, brokenheartedness in verses 1 through 4. Remember what he did. The report was brought to him. He tore his clothes. He pulled out his hair and he sat down appalled, right? Mortified of the situation. Now he moves into a time of heavyheartedness, but he's standing before God on behalf of the situation. You see? He's standing before God on behalf of the people and the situation as he understands it. Now I want to ask you a question. Is it this true intercession? We're going to answer that as we get to the end.

I want to read you a rather lengthy quotation by Matthew Henry. Matthew Henry is one of the old Puritans. He's one of the most well-known Bible commentators. He's very solid. His works are easy to find. I enjoy reading them. As a matter of fact, any of the message preparation I use, I usually refer to Matthew Henry, although I don't always use his information. But notice what he says about this. The address itself, talking about Ezra. It is not properly to be called a prayer, for there is not a word of petition in it. But if we give prayer its full latitude, it is the offering up of pious and devout affections to God.

And very devout, very pious, are the affections which Ezra here expresses. He addresses, his address is a penitent confession of sin, not his own, but the sin of his people, from a gracious concern from the honor of God and the welfare of Israel. Now do you get what Matthew Henry is cluing us into? Ezra is not confessing his sin, but the people's sin. Look at his reaction. Look at his heart. His heart is, he is identifying with the sin of the people, and he is innocent. You see? That's his reaction. That's his heart. His posture, he is on his knees, hands stretched to heaven. He's broken. He's in great humility before God.

And he is identifying with the sin, and all through these verses, our, we, we, our, our, we, and he hasn't done a thing. Some of you would say this has got to be true intercession, but it's more than intercession. Now, how can we learn from this? What can be said, what can we say of this situation that we can learn from? How can we make application? One of the first mistakes that people make in the life of the church today is they begin to point their finger at sin rather than embrace the sin of their brothers and sisters.

Our first reaction is, is to look at the sin of someone in the life of the church, maybe the deacon body in the life of the church, or the church staff, the pastor, or whoever's leading us. Or we look at the Sunday school teacher, or we look at people around us, and our first reaction is to notice their sin and point at their sin. Ezra doesn't do that. Now, Ezra was the prophet of God, sent by God, and he had great authority given by God, and we'll see him exercise that authority, but that's not the way he reacts. He doesn't point, he identifies, he embraces.

It's like he goes and gathers up all of their sin, and he brings it into his own life, and it brings about great, a great brokenness, great humility, and it literally turns him inside out, and when he goes before God, he is broken. If Ezra would have reacted like us today, he would have stood up and said, "You need to get on your face before God. You need to humble yourself before God. You need to tear your clothes. You need to pull the hair out of your beard. You're the ones that have done this. I didn't do it." But haven't we made that mistake? Haven't we said you, you, you, instead of we, we, we?

Could it be that maybe the sin that haunts some of the churches, that plagues some of the churches? Could it be that some of the sin that is in the lives of the leadership of the church could be eradicated if they were yet men of God who would address the sin and the life of the church like Ezra? It's a very interesting question. Let's move on. I want us to see Ezra's understanding. Ezra's understanding. There's a little transition here. You might not have noticed it in verse 8. But now for a brief moment, grace has been shown to us from the Lord. And he gives us some understanding in verses 8 through 12.

What I mean is, now Ezra, he exhibits great humility. He identifies with the sin of the people. This we see is done in great brokenness and humility. Now in his prayer, we see that he reveals that he has a great understanding about the situation at hand. He has God's understanding. He views the circumstances in its totality the way God does. And I want to pause there and I want to tell you, this is rare. Most leadership, most ministers, most men in the church today do not see the church and the work of the church the way God does. They see it with man's understanding, especially with church problems. That's why you see so few churches.

They are brought to reform. They are brought to true biblical reform according to the biblical standard. Because so few people understand the church and the life of the church and the problems of the church the way God does. And Ezra did. So let's look at a couple of things. Two things. First, he saw that they had a window of grace. Verse 8 through 9. But now for a brief moment of grace. You see that? It has been shown from the Lord our God to leave us and escape remnant. To give us a peg, a nail in his holy place. That our God may enlighten our eyes to grant us a little reviving from our bondage. For we are slaves yet in our bondage.

And he goes on to talk about how they had received loving kindness from the kings of Persia. But notice what he saw. He saw that they had a window of grace. The King James reads little space of grace. I like that. I think probably because it rhymes. The new American reads brief. Ezra is stating that he knows that this opportunity is short. But it is short in compared to the time which God had extended to those men in the past. If you study the patriarchs, those who came before them, God gave Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. He gave those great men of God in the past a window of opportunity. A little space of grace. And that's what we see.

He is recognizing that they have one chance. A little window of opportunity. But notice this little phrase here. But now for a brief moment of grace. But notice. It has been shown from the Lord our God to leave us, escape and to give us a peg in this holy place. That might seem strange to you. What do we see here? This is a phrase, a figure of speech. This is a figure of speech. The King James uses the word "nail." The English Standard says, "Give us a secure hold within this holy place." He is speaking of an opportunity to have a place of permanence. He is saying, "We have a window of opportunity and you have nailed down this time of grace.

You have fastened this time of grace with a nail, with a peg." This speaks of the security of this open window. The kings of Persia could not interrupt it. No one could interrupt it except the people of Israel in their sin. That is why Israel was so mortified. He saw they had a window of grace. Also, he saw that they had broken the commandments of God. It really encompasses quite a few scriptures. Verses 10 all the way down to verse 14. "And now, O God, what shall we say after this?" What is he saying? We have got this time. We have got this window. We have forsaken your commandments.

And he goes on and all of these verses pertain to the commandments of God. All the way down, verse 14. "And shall we again break thy commandments and intermarry?" He goes on earlier in verses 12 to talk about how they were not supposed to intermarry. And all this is dealing with the fact that they had broken the commandments of God. Here Ezra is not necessarily quoting specific commandments, but he is summarizing the verses that God had given them. He is summarizing them in prayer. Specific verses that he was referring to come out of Exodus 34, verses 15 through 17. Deuteronomy 7, verses 1 through 6. I referred to those verses last week.

But notice that in this acknowledgement of their breaking of God's commandments, he mentions again their specific sin of taking foreign wives, foreign husbands, marrying their sons to their women and taking their daughters for their sons. And we see that in verses 12 through 14. So Ezra had an understanding of the situation. He saw the window of grace and he saw that they had broken the commandments of God. So here Ezra is showing his great understanding. Having the heart of God, which is always in line with the will of God, enables the man of God to understand the situations of God exactly like God does. And that's exactly what we have here.

He was a man of God with the heart of God. And because he had the heart of God, he understood the will of God from the word of God concerning this situation. So what does this say to us? How does this apply to us? Just like we need to deal with sin in the life of the church properly, we must have an understanding of the total work of God. Let me illustrate this. Let me explain this to you. This is some language that I've used with Brother Keith lately. I said to Brother Keith here lately that we have to realize that as ministers of the gospel, pastors, overseers, that we are multitaskers. What do I mean by that?

You know that we are building the church on what we have called the 10 pillars of the church. Conversion, the church, center of God's activity here on earth, the gospel prayer, the word of God, evangelism, missions, God and leadership, church discipline, church membership. But in our workings these things out, we are multitaskers. We're preaching the word, preaching the word and praying. It's not about just praying. It's about teaching the word. We are beginning to engage in evangelism in the life of the community outside of the work of the church, but we also must be involved in missions around the world.

We must be dealing with proper church membership, proper church discipline. We must hold high the standard of biblical conversion, and we must be building the church. What am I showing you? We are multitaskers. We have a lot of things to do, and we must understand. Now listen, in its totality, the work of the church. And Ezra understood this work of coming back from captivity, and he understood it in its totality.

And we must have men of God who identify with sin in the life of the people, identify with sin in the church, but we must have men of God leading this church who understand the total work of the church, and they will not rest if one area of the church is unhealthy. I'll never forget years ago, I knew a man who was involved in the life of a church. He was a leader, a deacon, and he began to brag about how their church was very healthy in certain areas, and he acknowledged that they are very weak in other areas.

But he went on to say that, "Yes, because we are strong in evangelism, I believe God will bless us and enable us to be fine, even though we're weak in these areas." That is wrong. Ezra understood the work of the church in its totality. Let's move on. Verse 15, Ezra is really closing this prayer, and still we see Ezra's great humility. He never says, "You, you, you, they, they, they." He says, "We, we, we, we stand before thee." Now, I want us to just touch on four things out of this verse real quickly. First of all, he acknowledged God as their God. What does he say?

"O Lord, God of Israel." They were the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God was their God. And in that phrase, he is saying, "O Lord, the God of Israel." He is acknowledging that God is their God. Second, he is acknowledging God's righteousness. What does he say? "Thou art righteous, for we have been left and escaped remnant." What is he saying? "We are wrong and you are right." Third, he acknowledged God's grace. What does he say? "We are a remnant. We are a few." And then fourth, he acknowledged, he acknowledged their guilt. That is a great summary of everything that he says.

Because Ezra maintains this great humility before God in the whole matter. He is humble before God, broken before God, and identifying with this situation in its totality. So what do we see? We see Ezra's reaction. We see his heart. We see his understanding of the situation. He deals with the sin of the people properly. It's not you, you, you. It is us. It's we. And then he is humble through the whole thing. Now, as I begin to conclude, I want to make some remarks about Ezra. And then I want to move into some application, some further application. Just in summary, notice how we can describe Ezra. He identified with the people of God.

You might say, "Yeah, that's true." These were sinful people. He identified with the people of God. He said, "We, us." Listen, this was not a successful people. They had fallen into grievous sin, the sin that their forefathers had committed that had brought about God's judgment. And still, he identified with the people of God. Doesn't seem like men do that today. Seems like ministers today, rather than identifying with the sinful and sick church, they look for a new church. Second, he identified with the work of God. What was the work of God? To clean up the mess. To deal with the sin. To find out who was it thought. It was a dirty mess.

He identified with the work of God. God had called him to plant his life there, not to go back to Babylon to a life of ease and luxury. Listen, he stayed with the work even when it was in the bad and the ugly. We don't seem to have ministers who are good at that today. When it usually gets bad, when it gets bad, they usually head out for another and better church. Third, he identified with the purpose of God. Basically, he refused to give up on Israel being Israel. You see that? What was the purpose of God with these people? To be Israel. God's chosen people. To be a light to the Gentile world.

So these few remarks really, really encapsulate who Ezra was. He identified with the people of God. He identified with the work of God. And he identified with the purpose of God. Now, an application. Should we not have this heart about the church today? As leaders of the church and men, I'm speaking to you men. Should we not have this heart about the church today? And how does this contrast with people and how they deal with the church today? How does this contrast with ministers of the gospel today? Listen, if we had ministers of the gospel who were exactly like Ezra, what kind of condition would the church be in today?

Now, excuse me, I want to look at this message. And I want to look at last week's message, combining the two and make some observations. Because the two messages go together. Chapter nine is really one message. First, Ezra's reaction when the news of such sin came to him was what? Verses one through four. How did he react? He sat before God, horrified for an entire day. And he was not at fault. How would we do things today? How would most ministers and preachers deal with the situation like this today? Just think about it in hypothetical terms.

So you have a church and there's grievous sin in the life of the church, and it's brought to the attention of the pastor. I'll never forget years ago was a layman in the life of our church. Was a pretty famous man in the community, very wealthy. He just kind of had a reputation. A lot of people knew about him. And he had a reputation of being immoral. He had multiple wives. And I'll never forget he was involved in the life of the church, not active, because our pastor had standards. I'll never forget being with the pastor and there were some men, and someone made the comment about some of his lifestyle habits.

And I remember Brother Dennis looked up and said, "What?" We said, "Brother Dennis, you didn't know how this man lived?" He said, "I did not." And he said, "Boys, you got to remember a lot of people don't come to the pastor and just say things like this. But lest you say, you have a church and there's sin in the life of the church." And then all of a sudden, the sin of the life of the church, the sin in particular families, it's brought before the pastor. And in hypothetical terms, hypothetically, how does he deal with it? Most pastors would immediately preach a sermon series, wouldn't they?

Most pastors would immediately deal, or some might possibly deal, with church discipline immediately. Many churches might appoint a committee together, appoint several people in the life of the church to deal with the situation. Many famous preachers, the first thing they do is write a book or start a blog. What am I trying to show you? Is there anything wrong with a book or a blog? Is there anything wrong with preaching a series of sermons? No. I'm trying to contrast how we react today to Ezra's reaction. Because when the situation was brought to Ezra's attention, he simply stood before God broken.

I wonder how God would change our heart if we simply stood before God broken until he changed us and enabled us to deal with circumstances. Second, Ezra's second reaction about the situation was what? He prayed. You see? First, he stood before God, horrified, mortified for a day, and then he prayed. And listen, this was not a pure, by definition, a pure prayer of intercession. It was a pure prayer of identification. Because listen, through the whole prayer, he identified with the sin of the people, the purposes of God, the Word of God, the plan of God. You see what I mean? Now, he's standing before God on behalf of the people.

So in one sense, it is intercession. But he never brought a petition. This is purely a prayer of identification. Go back on your own and look at all of the things that he identifies with and brings them before God. He identifies with their sin. We, our, we, us, we. He identifies with the Word of God. He identifies with the purposes of God, the past work of God among the people. He identifies. You see? That's his heart. And he identified with the situation exactly the way God did. So what do we see in these messages? His first reaction was to be broken before God, not a word. And notice how he moved men.

Look, if ministers today could move men the way God and Ezra moved men in verse 4, they would pay good money for it. And he didn't say a word. Torus closed, pulled out his hair, and humiliated himself before God, and God moved the people. And then the second thing was just prayer. Prayer of identification. So what do we see? Ezra humiliated himself before God for a day, and he prayed at the end of the evening sacrifice with all the people who trembled at his words. This is the kind of man that God uses. So now, do you see Ezra's prayer of confession? Maybe that title rings a little different. So what do we see?

The people of God, they've come home. Great success, great blessing. I've been really blown away by God's provision. God gave them all that they needed for the temple. They've come home, they've rebuilt the temple, started rebuilding their lives, renewing and rebuilding, reinstituting worship. And now we see that they are right in the middle of a situation where they are in desperate need of repentance and renewal and reviving. And God is using a man. The instrument for that is Ezra. So Ezra's prayer of confession. Lord Jesus, thank you for these messages. Thank you for this book.