Page 762 - The MacArthur Daily Bible

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JULY 24
too ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face Now while Ezra was praying, and while
to You, my God; for our iniquities have risen 10 he was confessing, weeping, and bowing
higher than our heads, and our guilt has grown down before the house of God, a very large
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up to the heavens. Since the days of our fathers assembly of men, women, and children gath-
to this day we have been very guilty, and for our ered to him from Israel; for the people wept
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iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have very bitterly. And Shechaniah the son of Jehiel,
been delivered into the hand of the kings of the
lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plunder, and
to humiliation, as it is this day. And now for a
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little while grace has been shown from the LORD 10:1 praying…confessing, weeping, and
our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and bowing down. Ezra’s contrite spirit before the
to give us a peg in His holy place, that our God people was evident and they joined him.These
may enlighten our eyes and give us a measure extreme expressions of contrition demonstrat-
of revival in our bondage. For we were slaves. ed the seriousness of the sin and the genuine-
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Yet our God did not forsake us in our bondage; ness of their repentance.
but He extended mercy to us in the sight of the
kings of Persia, to revive us, to repair the house
of our God, to rebuild its ruins, and to give us a one of the sons of Elam, spoke up and said to
wall in Judah and Jerusalem. And now, O our Ezra, “We have trespassed against our God,
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God, what shall we say after this? For we have and have taken pagan wives from the peoples
forsaken Your commandments, which You of the land; yet now there is hope in Israel in
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commanded by Your servants the prophets, spite of this. Now therefore, let us make a
saying, ‘The land which you are entering to pos- covenant with our God to put away all these
sess is an unclean land, with the uncleanness of wives and those who have been born to them,
the peoples of the lands, with their abomina- according to the advice of my master and of
tions which have filled it from one end to anoth- those who tremble at the commandment of our
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er with their impurity. Now therefore, do not God; and let it be done according to the law.
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give your daughters as wives for their sons, nor Arise, for this matter is your responsibility. We
take their daughters to your sons; and never also are with you. Be of good courage, and do it.”
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seek their peace or prosperity, that you may be Then Ezra arose, and made the leaders of
strong and eat the good of the land, and leave it the priests, the Levites, and all Israel swear an
as an inheritance to your children forever.’ And oath that they would do according to this word.
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after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds So they swore an oath. Then Ezra rose up
and for our great guilt, since You our God have from before the house of God, and went into
punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and the chamber of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib;
have given us such deliverance as this, should and when he came there, he ate no bread and
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we again break Your commandments, and join drank no water, for he mourned because of the
in marriage with the people committing these guilt of those from the captivity.
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abominations? Would You not be angry with us And they issued a proclamation throughout
until You had consumed us, so that there would Judah and Jerusalem to all the descendants of
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be no remnant or survivor? O LORD God of Is- the captivity, that they must gather at Jerusa-
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rael, You are righteous, for we are left as a rem- lem, and that whoever would not come within
nant, as it is this day. Here we are before You, in three days, according to the instructions of the
our guilt, though no one can stand before You leaders and elders, all his property would be
because of this!” confiscated, and he himself would be separated
from the assembly of those from the captivity.
So all the men of Judah and Benjamin gath-
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ered at Jerusalem within three days. It was the
ninth month, on the twentieth of the month; and
9:5–15 Ezra’s priestly prayer of intercession all the people sat in the open square of the house
and confession is like Daniel’s (Dan. 9:1–20) of God, trembling because of this matter and
and Nehemiah’s (Neh. 1:4–11), in that he used because of heavy rain. Then Ezra the priest
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plural pronouns that identified himself with stood up and said to them, “You have trans-
the people’s sin, even though he did not par- gressed and have taken pagan wives, adding to
ticipate in it. The use of “we,” “our,” and “us” the guilt of Israel. Now therefore, make confes-
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demonstrates Ezra’s understanding that the sin sion to the LORD God of your fathers, and do His
of the few is sufficient to contaminate the many.
will; separate yourselves from the peoples of the
land, and from the pagan wives.”
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