Time to Pray: Ezra
We find in Ezra that the people came back from captivity to their homeland as volunteers responding to the call of the king to rebuild the temple. We might think that because they had such a purpose that they would all be dedicated to their calling, that they would not make the mistakes made in the past. Sadly, this was not so. Amongst other things we find that many of them had taken wives who were from the nations surrounding them instead of finding wives from their own people. We know that this should not be so from the law of Moses, but we also know that even for believers in the Lord Jesus Christ it is wrong to take a wife or husband from the world, as Paul puts it, “to be unequally yoked with unbelievers” in business or for any other purpose is wrong.
Ezra was really upset and sad when he realized such things were happening in Israel. For the holy seed to be mixed with unbelievers, even enemies, was a terrible thing. We read that Ezra tore his clothes in anguish. He then began to pray, “he fell on his knees and spread out his hands unto the Lord his God” (Ezra 9:5,6).
When we have a problem, maybe with our own sin, is the first thing we do is pray about it? If the problem involves other people, maybe our brothers and sisters in Christ, our first reaction may be to try to avoid it, ‘This is nothing to do with me. Why should I have anything to do with this?’ We may even say these things out loud. But this was not the way Ezra reacted. Even though he himself did not have a foreign wife (he may not have had a wife), he prays about this as though he was linked together with all those who had.
Read what he says: “O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God. for our iniquities are increased over our head and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens... And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass, seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and has given us deliverance” (Ezra 9:6-15). I have just quoted the verses that I need, but you might like to read it all. Notice how Ezra has linked himself with the sins of his people. He does not say, ‘It was they who sinned, they should sort it out’’; he says, rather, ‘It is our sin and we should sort it out.’
Chapter 10, opens by telling us that Ezra prayed, confessed and wept in front of God’s house, the temple. Having prayed, action was then needed. When we pray, we have to be prepared to go on and act in faith, knowing that God has heard and He will respond. Especially is this so when we pray seeking the forgiveness of our sins. We have to leave the burden of sin and the mercy seat provided by God and go on our way seeking to do the Father’s will in our lives. In the times of Ezra, positive action was needed if the people were to remain in God’s fellowship. Importantly, the action was related to the people’s response to the word of God. Three times in these two chapters, we are told that the people trembled at the words of God. The third occasion their trembling was a mixture of shivering because of the cold and wet and the word (Ezra 10:9). They were out in the cold and rain because of their concern about what was revealed tp them.
Often the answer to our prayers has actually already been revealed by God in the word. It is another reason why we need to give regular attention to reading, meditating upon and studying the word. God through Isaiah had earlier said, “To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word” (Isa 66:2). God is especially interested in those who trouble themselves about what is recorded for our instruction. Such people are unhappy until they have rightly applied their learning to their own lives. So it was with those who responded in Ezra’s day. They agreed to put away the foreign wives who caused them to sin against God’s holy law.
Bro Finley Nkomelah (Lilongwe, Malawi)
