Joy In Repentance (In Ezra)
17 Sep 2019
I've just finished preaching through Ezra on Sunday evenings. The opening chapters were exciting to preach. The book begins on a high. We see the Lord drawing his people back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. However the final chapter appears to leave us discouraged. The failure of God’s people is on full display as they face up to the fact they have been faithless to the Lord by marrying women from the surrounding idolatrous nations. It ends with a list, which seems to name and shame those responsible. And it is all played out to the background of heavy rain, adding to the sense of gloom and foreboding.
But is this final chapter as discouraging as it appears at first? Just consider Ezra’s role. He was sent back to Jerusalem to teach and apply the law of God to God’s people (see chapter 7). And what happens in chapters 9 and 10? The people turn and start living in the light of God’s law. Ezra’s mission succeeds! It would be a mistake to rejoice at the successful rebuild of the temple at the end of chapter 6, and not rejoice at the success of the re-establishment of God’s word in the life of the people at the end of chapter 10.
Yes, it is messy and feels unpleasant. But when the Lord is at work he doesn’t only do one thing. We long for conversions and church activities to be successful - as we should. But he is also doing his work sorting out the mess of sin even in the lives of those who have professed faith in him for many years.
But we can say more about this when we consider the list of names at the end. The ESV titles the section “Those guilty of intermarriage”, and that is technically correct. The final verse of the book makes that clear.
But is that all they are? A quick reminder of what is going on in chapter 10 tells us “no”! They are also men who are guilty AND repent. They confess their sin and separate themselves from the foreign women they married (verse 11). I realise there is some disagreement about whether it was right for them to separate from their wives, but I think most of that discussion is wrongheaded. The text seems to make it clear that this was the right thing to do - this was true repentance, a turning away from sin.
And so, realising this, it should change the way we read those names. Jesus’ words should be ringing in our ears as we read them -
“Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” Luke 15:7
Why do we often just think this is only talking about conversion? Of course it applies there. But it is also true of the professing believer who turns from sin daily, and the backslidden believer caught in a pattern of sin who confesses and turns back.
So what if that list of names isn’t so much a blacklist, as a list of moments when heaven rejoiced? That is what the other two lists in Ezra have been. In both chapter 2 and chapter 8 we have lists of names of people who have turned back. They are people who made the costly decision (enabled by the Lord, see 1:5) to move from Babylon to Jerusalem. The list at the end of the book is no different. Names of people who, enabled by the Lord and convicted by his word, turn away from living as the nations do and return to holiness.
Imagine the scene - Eliezer confesses to his sin, and takes radical action to deal with it. His name is recorded, and heaven rejoices! And as the records fill up and God’s people are again the holy people they should be, there’s joy and delight in the heavenly realm.
Seeing Ezra 10 that way does not for one moment take away from the seriousness of sin. Anyone who says “God loves to forgive, we like to sin, everybody's happy” has never truly experienced the reality of conviction of sin, understood the holiness of God, or experienced true repentance.
But it does give an added motivation to our repentance. One thing that can happen when the Lord convicts us of our sin is that we grieve desperately, but we doubt that repentance is possible - or that the Lord is good. Confession - owning our sin and bringing it to the Lord for forgiveness - can feel scary as we can think it means having a black mark against us in his sight. Putting sin to death can feel like a terrifying prospect as it may involve taking radical action. This may include getting help from others, and changing our lifestyle in some way. So we can shrink from that because of what we feel it says about us. But what we need to be assured of is the Lord’s love and kindness, and his delight in our repentance.