Ezra Chapter 9

Ezra Chapter 9 
Distributed by:  KJV Bible Studies
Website: www.KjvBibleStudies.net
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Introduction:  The final two chapters of Ezra present a difficult situation and the courage of Ezra in confronting it. He learned that the restored remnant had intermarried with pagan people of the nations round about Jerusalem. This was a direct violation of God’s Law (see Deuteronomy 7:3).
 
There is record here of a powerful intercessory prayer on the part of Ezra. He mourns for the Jews’ conduct in verses 1-4); and, confesses their sins in verses 5-15.
 
I.  Ezra Prays About Intermarriage

Ezr 9:1  Now when these things were done, the princes came to me, saying, The people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. 
Ezr 9:2  For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons: so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands: yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this trespass. 

Not long after Ezra’s arrival in Jerusalem and his grant to the Temple, portions of the leadership of Israel came to him with a disturbing problem. “The people of Israel, including the priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the people of the lands.”   In joining into a covenant with God centuries earlier, Israel had agreed to be a separated people. (See Exodus 33:16).
 
Exo 33:16  For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth. 
 
They had directly violated that promise. Specifically, they had begun to intermarry with the “Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians and the Amorites.”  When Israel had conquered the land centuries earlier, God had forbade them to have contact, socially or otherwise, with local inhabitants.  They are noted here as practicing abominations. Not only were they idolaters, they were degenerate in their various immoral sexual practices.

In short, God had commanded His people to be separate from the world and its people. Israel in Ezra’s day had violated not only the spirit but the written letter of God’s Word in this matter as well. 

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