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Episode 695: In this episode, we dive into the biblical account of Ezra. We reflect on Ezra's deep sense of repentance for the sins of the Israelites, who had compromised their faith by marrying pagan women. Ezra's heartfelt prayer and confession resonate with us, illustrating how one person's brokenness can inspire a collective response from a community. We emphasize the significance of genuine repentance, which goes beyond mere feelings of sorrow to include actionable steps toward restoration.
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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Well we're back, Wesley. Yeah, here it is. It's Friday, Yes, everybody's favorite day. And so we are going to preserve Chris's personal role in what made Chris mad this week. We don't need to jump into that because you're a happy guy. Look at your big smile on your face. And I'm always a happy guy. There's something about when Chris does that, that part. Well, he's doing it on behalf of all the rest of us, you know what I mean? And I think when you and I get mad, where is mad for us? But he is. So magnanimous and generous humanity, And it's just different. It's a different thing. So I don't know we can we can execute on that very well. So instead we're going to do a new one. We've never done this segment before. Desiree wants us to talk about the anti bucket list. What we want to put in the bucket. That's right, that's right. So if our listeners don't know what a bucket list is, this idea is it's really fun to have a list of all the things you'd like to try to accomplish, the adventures, the things that just make life full. Yeah, make this list and it's like it'll fill your bucket before you die. That's what you're trying to do. And so I've mentioned before on here that I have a bucket list. I got like one hundred and ten things on my bucket list. Yeah, and I've been just kind of checking them off. I've got a bunch of them we've done, but I've got a bunch more I want to do, and it kind of gives me something to look forward to. It's fun. Yeah, if you never saw the movie The bucket List, Yeah, that's what comes from. So instead of creating a list of things you want to do, in this one, we need to create a list of things we hope we never have to do again. Let's do let's do five things we hope we never have to do again. That is tough. So what's tough about this? I'm a pretty adventurous person. Yeah, So I'm like, you like to do I guess so like I will. Just three weeks ago, four weeks ago, my wife and I it was Saturday morning. I'm like, you want to go to Lansing. So we just hopped in the car drove to lands So I'm pretty so that's gonna be Now. I could quickly name like a food item, Okay, I hope I never have to have say it. It would be guacamole. What guacamole should be banned from the planet Earth? Get out, just get out. I need that kind of negativity in my life. You know what. You know what ruined it for me was I got a burrito once from Taco Bell put guacamole on it. It was the worst substance I've ever. That's fake guacam That's not Taco Bell. You're gonna try the real stuff, like when you go to a Mexican restaurant. Just after that Taco Bell experience, I just don't want the green and stuff. I can't do. This could happen to you. Don't go to Taco Bell game. I would also do a food item for I think of all the things in my life that I hope I never ever have to do again. Liver and onions. Yeah, my mom used to cook it all the time, but. I yeah hate it. I have friends who love it, yeah, and I hate it. So that that's the top of my list, just a y okay, what else do you have? So we will have one. Else that I would never want to do again. Yeah, this is a tough one, Jeff. There's not a lot but I can think of. I got a bunch. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. I don't ever want to go back to middle school. Oh yeah, now but wait, here's a catch to that. If you could go back to middle school with today's knowledge. Still not middle school. High school? Yeah, but not middle school. Yeah yeah, so I guess I could agree with that. I might say certain grades in elementary school. I don't want to go back and repeat like that. Let me see, I've got another one. I hope I never have to fly Air France again. Oh I hate their friends. Customer service is bad, the planes are bad, the seats are hard. Everything about Air France is bad. The food isn't even good. Man, they're French, for kind out loud, it should be good food. No, everything is bad. No, I will say. When we were on that one flight together on Air France, they didn't translate anything in English. It was French or nothing. So the pilot got on like halfway through the flight said something. We don't know what he. Said, if you fly a lot, most airlines have somebody who is designated to be able to make top level decisions, like behind the counter or whatever. With Delta, it's somebody wearing a red coat. So if they're wearing a red coat or red vest, they can stop a plane if they need to. So Air France has people like that, So I know that. And the French, normally, the French workers for Air France normally don't want to be bothered by an American. And so what I always like to ask is do you have the power to help me? Because people like having power. They're wearing that vest on purpose and so you know, appeal to that. That's a nice thing. Hey, you're powerful. I'm not. So I asked this lady, and I really needed help, really needed help, and I'm in Paris, and I said, uh hey, I I was wondering, do you have the power to help me? And she goes, yes, I do. And I said, okay, great, would you help me do this? Do you have the power to help me do this? She says yes, I do. And I said would you help me? She says not today? Walk away? Oh no. She told me twice she had the power to help me could do. But now she's on her iPad and she turns it and she just walks like three steps away from me. Where her to me? That is a lyric. So then one of the other gate people called me over, Hey, can I help you? And I said, wow, she said I can't do that, like I know you can't. I need her to do and she. Wouldn't come and help me. Whoa, I'm telling you man, So I have to fly air France next week. I'm already dreading it. Okay, let's just make it three to three things we hope anti bucket list air France. I should have said air France first, liver on on in, second in middle school. Third for me, wack them only number one the only. Okay, well, there you go talking about things people never want to do. Again, there we go. That's a that's actually a good one. So ezra Is has realized, you know, worship has been restored in Jerusalem after all these years of being in exile. And but he realizes very with me, the people have compromised and they've begun adopting the practices of the pagan gods, and they married into pagan families. And we talked briefly in one of the other episodes about some of the behaviors of these detestable practices. It's not just like, oh, they have a little buddhis statue on the shelf, although you shouldn't have that, but it was, you know, temple prostitution and sacrificing humans and just all kinds of horrific. Things that go along with that. So Ezra is a priest, he's from the direct family of Aaron, and he falls to his knees and he begins to repent on behalf of the people. And then that's in chapter nine. In chapter ten, Ezra is praying. While he's praying, the people come and they see what's going on. And so Ezra chapter ten says, while Ezra prayed and made this confession, weeping and lying face down on the ground in front of the temple of God, a very large crowd of people from Israel, men, women and children gathered and wept bitterly with him. Then schek and Ayah, son of Jehiel, a descendant of Elam, said to Ezra, we have been on faithful to our God, for we have married these pagan women of the land. But in spite of this there is hope for Israel. Let us now make a covenant with our God to divorce our pagan wives and to send them away with their children. We will follow the advice given you, given by you and by the others who respect the commands of our God. Let it be done according to the law of God. Get up, for it is your duty to tell us how to proceed in setting things straight. We are behind you, so be strong and take action. So Ezra stood up and demanded that the leaders of the priests and the Levites and all the people of Israel swear that they should do as shek and Ayah had said. And they all swore us while a solemn oath. Then Ezra left the front of the Temple of God and went to the room of jeh jehohanan son of Eliahship. He spent the night there without eating or drinking anything, and he was still in mourning because of the unfaithfulness of the return to exiles. Then a proclamation was made throughout Judah and Jerusalem that all the exiles should come to Jerusalem. Those who failed to come within three days would if the leaders and elders so decided, forfeit all their property be expelled from messembly the exiles, so you better show up. Yeah, we ain't playing. This is an optional, that's right. Within three days, all the people of Judah and Benjamin had gathered in Jerusalem, and this took place on December nineteenth, and all the people were sitting in the square before the Temple of God. They were trembling, both because of the seriousness of the matter because it was raining. Then Ezra the priests stood and said to them, you have committed a terrible sin by marrying pagan women. You have increased Israel's guilt. So now confess your sin to the Lord, the god of your ancestors, and do what he demands. Separate yourselves from the people of the land and from these pagan women. Then the whole assembly raised their voices and answered, yes, you were right. We must do as you say. Then they added, this isn't something that can be done in the day or two, for many of us are involved in this extremely sinful affair, and this is the rainy season, so we cannot stay out here much longer. Let our leaders act on behalf of us. All. Let everyone who has a pagan wife come at a scheduled time, accompanied by the leaders and judges of this city, so that the fierce anger of our God concerning this affair may be turned away from us. Only Jonathan's son of Asahl, and jaza Aya, son of Tikva, opposed this course of action, and they were supported by Meshalum and Shabbathai the Levite. So this was the plan they followed. Ezra selected leaders to represent their families. Designated each of the representatives by name. On December twenty ninth, the leaders sat down to investigate the matter. By March twenty seventh, the first day of the new year, they had finished dealing with all the men who had married pagan wives. Wow, well that's an extreme response. Yeah, there you go. Yeah. I know Pastor Kevin at Heritage Church where we where we were part of, he always says, when you mess up, fess up. Yeah. Then he says, fess up fast, Yeah, fest up fast. Yeah. So when you mess up, just come clean. God knows what you did when you did it, so it's not like you're hiding anything. He saw it when you did it. So just fess up, come clean, ask for forgiveness. Hey. So we talked yesterday about why this was such a big issue right with God, and Ezra had confessed. But then this revival begins to spread. Ezra realized what he was doing, and it says while he was praying that people saw what he was doing, and he was weeping and lying face down on the ground in the front of the Temple of God. A large crowd from Israel, men and women and children gathered and wept bitterly with. Him, and they begin to realize we did the wrong thing. So revival often it just starts with one God breaks one person. One person's heart is broken for the loss, broken over sin, and God begins to change them, and others begin to see it. Others are aware, they're just waiting for the one. I think it was. John Wesley said, you know, when you set yourself on fire, people. From all around will come and see you burn, right, And he's talking about for God. And there is something about that that when you are completely sold out, you are completely dialing and others will be inspired by it, and so you don't have to be alone. And I think this is one of the beauty of what's happening here is Ezra's realizing we have done a terrible thing. I don't even know how to fix it, and just his broken heart and his repentance before God, his sincerity. He's not blaming other people, you shameful people. He's saying, I'm a part of it. Because I'm a part of these people. That was enough to capture the attention of some. And they also began to weep, and it begins to spread. Revival spreads, and so he's still on his face praying, and then check and Ayah steps up. He's the next one, right, So one goes to two and then he goes to three, and then it spreads to so many. He says, we've also been unfaithful. But I love it because he said there's still hope, right, there's still hope for us. And so if it's not revival, if we're just sorry, yeah, right, it's revival when we're done with our sin and we're ready to walk a clean life. And that's I think what you hear from Check and Aya is, Hey, we're done and we're willing to make radical decisions in order to prove that we're done with this the sin. Yeah. I don't know why, Jeff. What comes to mind with this passage is that video from Simon Sinek, and he's talking about that one person and that one person I think it's dancing or something. It's like a silly example. But the point is that one person is able to get everyone around them going doing the same thing. That can be for good or for evil, you know, in the context of what we're reading today. So yeah, I think it's amazing how one person can make other people catch on fire, so to speak, to do the right thing. So they don't just apologize here. They're not just like, oh, we're sorry and go on about their life. They make a covenant that that that's like a contract with God. They make a promise with God to separate from these these families that they had begun, you know, these marriages that they had begun to go into. And it says and they're children. So this hasn't been years and years and years. I don't know that these are the children of the of the Israelites. Necessarily with these women, it could have been that they married women with children, right. So so that's part of it. But whatever it is, it was very painful, it was very costly, but it was necessary to restore this this walk with God. Right they had they had gone down. They needed to get get away from all this. So repentance isn't just about feelings. It's not just about how you feel about your sin. It also has it includes follow through. So it begins with me changing my mind. That's the beginning of repentance. It is me going I was going this way and I realized this the wrong way. God, it changed my mind. I'm going to go your way. But the going is what got me there, and the going is what's going to get me away from there. Right, So it's not just a mental agreement with God. It's not just feeling sorry. It's also the follow through of it that Hey, God, I am repenting and I'm going your way. And sometimes this obedience hurts, Yeah, sometimes it really does hurt. But compromise. Ultimately it's going to hurt way more. It's going to cost far more. And so the earlier we can cut these things out of our lives, the better. Yeah. But I really love the act of just circling back to that, the act of being a representative, you know, having that repentant heart. Other people seeing that makes them say, you know what, maybe I need to get my act together. And I think about that in terms of our family units. When that one person in the family decides to give their life to Christ, and you know, I'm going to start reading my Bible, I'm going to go to church. It's like, huh, what are they doing over there? And then a wildfire starts to spread. So I see all that to say, maybe this change that we're kind of reading about starts with you, the listener, whoever is listening to us today. Maybe you're the to be the catalyst to cause the wildfire, so to speak, to spread in your family. Or where you work or wherever. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, so and I believe that that's that's how revival starts. Yeah, is with one or two and it just spreads. So then the leadership really matters in hard moments. Yeah. And so he he rises up when sheek and Aya challenged him, Hey, move with us. I think while he's on his face praying, he. Thinks he's the only one that recognizes their sin. Yeah. And then shek and ayah and he gets. A hold him, Hey, man, rise up, show us what to do next. And he stands up and he rises, Hey, there's a lot of people here that are grieving over the sin and repenting, and so there is I have this this leadership, I've learned it from mentors. But move with the movers, yeah right, don't be worried about what everybody else is going to say. Yeah, who's moving with you? And move with them? Right. So he has this group that's willing to go down this path. And so what happens is when leaders take sin seriously, or take anything seriously, the people. Follow a lot of times, right. And so they show up in the cold rain, they're trembling, partly because of the rain, partly because of their sin, and he's like, hey, you have to be here. If you're not here, you're going to lose your land. So we're not messing around. This is serious. And so he's all in. He's leveraging everything in his influence to make sure that everybody comes stands accountable for God. And here's you know, here's the results. And there's something about that at that point, this bold leadership, now that he realizes, hey, I've got some people that are going with me. Yeah, and they went along with it, so to speak Verse twelve, the whole assembly. It doesn't say two people or four people or one family. All that says everybody out in the rain yes. Raise their voices and answer, yes, you're right, we must do as you say. So I think there's something about everyone coming together corporately and saying, you know what, we were wrong. We missed the mark. So we have to separate from these people. And it takes three months, by the way, so this is careful. It's case by case. And so it looks like there were somewhere around twenty nine thousand families that had moved back to Israel, and it looks like there were one hundred and thirteen of these situations. So you're not talking about the whole nation. It's talking there's one hundred and thirteen of them in a relatively short amount of time. And even then with those on hundred three, it took three months to navigate all of this, right, So it's not a reckless purge. Lot oftimes people decide they're gonna make some big decision and they just go rip it and tearing, And this is pretty surgical. Right there. There's a hey, we're gonna meet with the elders, We're gonna sit down, we're gonna s thort through these things. We're gonna come up with a legal solution in this case, probably there was some kind of support and all those things that also went along with this, these separations. But it's not reckless, and I think that godly correction. God's ways aren't just drive by. Yeah right. Sometimes it can be painful. It's usually slow and careful, but it's worth it. And I think that's that's what you see here is these one hundred and thirteen Because by the way, we were laughing about this before we came on chapter ten. We're not going to read it. But chapter ten is just a list of names of the one hundred and thirteen men who getting cold out. So we think the next episode of the Bible, guys, we're gonna start naming all of our listeners. Sin No, that's what we're gonna. Do, like Bomb, you know what you did, Fred? You know you did right? Yeah? Fred did it twice, you know. So they list out these these hundred and thirteen people. These are the ones. So it's not twenty nine thousand families, it's one hundred and thirteen. And they're very intentional about it. And so Scripture doesn't hide their failure, it just records it. And you know they're not looking away. They're all acknowledging and admitted there were four people who fought back against Yeah, but the rest Paul said. You know what we did and God forgives. But the funny part about that is on what grounds were you going to fight against this? Yeah? Yeah, you know what I mean? And like did you not disobey God? Like what were your grounds for this? So the book of Ezra doesn't end with celebration. It ends with this really sober repentance. It's not super flashy, but it is holy. Yeah, And sometimes the greatest move of God is just when God's people get clean, right, and there's no spotlight. Needed, You're just getting clean. And then this begins to establish this great remnant, this great foothold in Israel without compromise, because all of these things need to stay pure and clean, heading towards the day that the son of David, right the Messiah, would be born, and so they can't have ruined. So where Esther needed to rescue the people from annihilation, Ezra rescued the people from watering down the line of David until Christ could come. So it's very important. So I want to make a distinction here as we wrap up, And we did the other day. But if this is your first episode that you're listening and you find yourself in this situation where you're a Christian and you're married to a non Christian or whatever, what we know in the New Testament, Paul says in First Printians, chapter seven, stay as you are right, don't leave. As a matter of fact, it, Peter says, it can be your humble testimony. It can be the change of God in your life. You pray for them, you love them, you serve them, even though you're walking two different paths spiritually on them. So Paul says, under grace, you stay with them in this situation. This was a unique one time event in the Bible, specifically for in the same way that God used Esther to save the entire blood line of Jesus someday and now here, Ezra is doing the same thing, only it's on the spiritual side. Esther saved the physical lives. Now Ezra is saving the spiritual blood line of Jesus because the line of the King of Israel David had to go all the way to Jesus. And if they were so rapidly, I mean they're only just a few months in here, and they're so rapidly marrying off to everybody and just a very short amount of time. It's already one hundred and thirteen. It wouldn't have taken long for the rest of the remnant to have ruined this. And so that's why this happened. God is not telling our listeners, go divorce your spouse. Yeah, and that's. Not what he's saying. This was a unique situation in that moment, God says in one Chrintien seven, stay with them, love them, and lead them to Jesus. That's the answer there. But I think that the lesson is radical repentance leads to radical blessing. Right halfway repentance doesn't lead I don't think to any blessing. Yeah, and so you know that's it, strad like we talked about the other day. Yeah. Yeah, So it's very very powerful. Wesley. I'm glad that you've got to come and spend the week with me. This was great. You missed Chris this week. He's out of town. He's doing some really great work with Transform One. You've heard him talk about that before. It's a ministry we work with in Dominican Republic, rescuing uh trafficked miners, and it's just a phenomenal mystery. He's helping raise some money and do some stuff down uh South, and uh so be praying for him while he's doing that. He's gonna join us again. Uh yeah, he'll next week. So yeah, it'd be great. Well, thank you for joining us today and we look forward to joining you again next week as we continue the Bible. Guys, mhm hmmm