What if seeing your community realign with its core values started with just one person's heartache and fervent prayer? In our latest episode, "Empowered for This Generation," we walk through Ezra chapter 10, where Ezra's profound sorrow over Israel's unfaithfulness sparks a powerful wave of communal repentance. Gathered in Jerusalem under the somber skies of cold and rain, Ezra inspires the people to confront their sins of intermarrying with pagan women and adopting foreign customs, guiding them through a process of repentance and renewal. This chapter underscores the necessity of strong, decisive action to restore the community's commitment to God's laws and the invaluable role of spiritual leadership.
Next, in "Called to Know and Make Known," we delve into the empowerment we receive through Jesus to make a lasting impact on our generation. Begin with us in a heartfelt prayer of gratitude, acknowledging the lessons from Ezra and the crucial importance of prioritizing our relationship with God. Drawing inspiration from Ezra 7:10, we emphasize the significance of studying, obeying, and teaching God's laws, just as Ezra did with unwavering dedication. As we conclude, we set our sights on continuing our scriptural journey, eagerly anticipating the insights awaiting in 1 Timothy, chapter 1. Join us for this transformative exploration that promises to deepen your faith and inspire you to make God known in your own life.
What if seeing your community realign with its core values started with just one person's heartache and fervent prayer? In our latest episode, "Empowered for This Generation," we walk through Ezra chapter 10, where Ezra's profound sorrow over Israel's unfaithfulness sparks a powerful wave of communal repentance. Gathered in Jerusalem under the somber skies of cold and rain, Ezra inspires the people to confront their sins of intermarrying with pagan women and adopting foreign customs, guiding them through a process of repentance and renewal. This chapter underscores the necessity of strong, decisive action to restore the community's commitment to God's laws and the invaluable role of spiritual leadership.
Next, in "Called to Know and Make Known," we delve into the empowerment we receive through Jesus to make a lasting impact on our generation. Begin with us in a heartfelt prayer of gratitude, acknowledging the lessons from Ezra and the crucial importance of prioritizing our relationship with God. Drawing inspiration from Ezra 7:10, we emphasize the significance of studying, obeying, and teaching God's laws, just as Ezra did with unwavering dedication. As we conclude, we set our sights on continuing our scriptural journey, eagerly anticipating the insights awaiting in 1 Timothy, chapter 1. Join us for this transformative exploration that promises to deepen your faith and inspire you to make God known in your own life.
Well, everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown podcast with your host, pastor Brandon. Today, ezra, chapter 10, the grand finale, and today's title is Empowered for this Generation. Empowered for this Generation. We're going to jump into that in just a moment, but, as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you're leaving us comments on both the YouTube channel and the podcast. I love engaging with you back and forth. And also make sure you're going to the Bible Breakdown discussion on Facebook. That's where we go together to get the devotions and the more we dig, the more we find, and I would encourage you to go to the website, thebiblebreakdowncom. We're in the extremely slow process of creating a hub out of that where eventually, it's going to be the one-stop shop where you can access YouTube podcasts, the devotionals, all the things, and I am very, very slowly working on a commentary of the entire Bible. It is going to be my life's work and I really am trying to start the genesis of it right there, because I love when we go back and forth and do God's word, and so if you want to watch that very slow process, you can see the beginnings of that at thebiblebreakdowncom, because, man, the more we dig, the more we find, all right.
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Well, if you have your Bibles and open up with me to Ezra, chapter 10, as we were finishing God's word remember, yesterday was a day of mourning. Ezra gets there. They dedicate the things to God. They made it there, everything is great. And then he finds out that the people did exactly what got them in trouble in the first place. Back before the 70 years of captivity, they just continued to just do detestable things in the sight of God and they had married with the other tribes and other people outside of Israel. And remember, it was more than just having a wife, it was the customs and the paganistic worship and all that kind of stuff. That's what that represented. And Ezra knew, because he was a historian and a scribe. He knew that that's what got them in trouble to begin with, right? And so he's just mourning over the fact that, man, we're doing it again. God blessed us and we're already messing it up right. And so now we have chapter 10, and I love what is said to him and I think it's a wonderful message for all of us as we finish Ezra, chapter 10. So if you're ready. We're going to dive into God's word with verse one, and it says this 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.
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Then Shekiniah, son of Jehiel, a descendant of Elam, said to Ezra we have been unfaithful 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 by you and by the others who respect the commands of the law of our God. Let it be done according to the law of God, and I love this. So 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 would do as Shekinah had said, and they all swore a solemn oath. Then Ezra left the front of the temple of God and went to the room of Jehonan, son of Eshelah, and he spent the night there without eating or drinking anything, for he was still in mourning because of the unfaithfulness of the returned 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 the elders so decided, forfeit all their property and be exiled from the assembly of the exiles.
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Within three days, all the people of Judah and Benjamin had gathered in Jerusalem. This took place on December 19th and all the people were sitting in the square before the temple of God and they were trembling, both because of the seriousness of the matter and because it was raining. So pause for a moment. They were like, hey, this is a big deal, but, dude, it's raining too. So I love how they kind of put that in there. It wasn't just because they were afraid of God, it was also straight up cold. All right, verse 10,.
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Then Ezra the priest 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. And the whole assembly raised their voices and answered yes, you are right, we must do as you say. Then they added this isn't something that can be done in a day or two, for many of us are involved in this extremely sinful affair. This is the rainy season, so we cannot stay out here much longer. In other words, we freeze into death Ezra. So let our leaders act on behalf of all of us. Let anyone who has a pagan wife come at a scheduled time, accompanied by the leaders and the judges of his city, for the fierce anger of our God concerning this affair may be turned away from us. Only Jonathan, son of Asahel, and Jehaziah, son of Tikviah, opposed this course of action, and they were supported by Meshulam and Shophbethah, the Levite. So this was the plan they followed. Ezra selected leaders to represent their families, designating each of the representatives by name.
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On December 29th, the leaders sat down to investigate the matter. By March 27th, the first day of the new year, they had finished dealing with all the men who had married pagan wives. These were the priests that had married pagan wives. So notice, he didn't just say they dealt with it. They named them, they wrote their names down and they told everybody exactly who these jerks were.
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Here we go From the family of Yeshua, son of Jehozadak, his brothers, meserah, eleazar, jerib and Getaliah. They vowed to divorce their wives and they each acknowledged their guilt by offering a ram as a burnt guilt offering. From the family of Emer, hananiah and Zebediah. From the family of Harim, masarah, elijah, shemaiah, jahil and Uzziah. From the family of Pashur, elihonai, masaiah, ishmael, nathanael, jezebed and Elisa. From the Levites who were guilty Jezebed and Elisa. From the Levites who were guilty Jezebel, shemaiah, kelahiah, who also is called Kelita, pethaliah, judah and Eliezer this is the singers who were guilty, just the one Elashiah. These are the gatekeepers who were guilty Elishuam, telim and Uriah these were the people of Israel who were guilty.
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From the family of Perosh, ramaiah, isaiah, machijah, majim, eleazar, hashabiah and Benahiah. From the family of Elam, mataniah, zechariah, jahil, abdi, jeromoth and Elijah, elijah, excuse me. The family of Zetu, elanai, elishab, mataniah, jermoth, zeban and Eziah. From the family of Babai, jahanan, hananiah, zebi and Ataliah. From the family of Banai was Meshulam, maluhach, adonai, adonai, excuse me. Jahum, zeo and Jemaath. From the family of Pahath Morab, adonai, kelal, benaiah, meshaniah, mataniah, bezalel, banui and Manasseh From the family of Haram, eleazar, ashijah, makijah, shemaiah, shemion, benjamin, malush and Shemaiah From the family of. From the family of. From the family of. From the family of Nebo, jael, mataniah, zabad, zabiniah, jadiah, joel and Benaniah.
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Each of these men had a pagan wife, and some of them had even had children by these wives. So that is one of those things where it was like we have done a bad thing and now we have to make it right. Now we have to be careful that we understand this, because that can almost sound unfair. You can almost say well, why is it that, god? Isn't it right that two wrongs don't make a right? Isn't that right? Wouldn't that be terrible? Well, let me put it a different way. Let's say that a husband and wife were married and that husband started to be unfaithful to, he started to have a mistress and he and his mistress started hooking up on the weekends and that mistress ended up getting pregnant and having a son. Would it be right for this man to divorce his wife and now marry this other person because something bad had happened? Absolutely not. That other relationship shouldn't have happened to begin with. Now that doesn't mean that he doesn't get to support that lady and support that child. But he doesn't forsake what he was supposed to do because of a sin he had committed. And so these people moving here, they had been told don't do this. They had done it anyway and because of that they had completely sinned against the Lord, and so they should have never been in this position to begin with. And so what they had to do now is they had to fix what was wrong. And it never says that they did not then support these children. It just says they could not continue in these unholy situations and a lot of times that radical amputation is what we have to do. But first people have to know it's wrong before we can do anything about it.
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And as we finish up Ezra chapter 10, it's important to remember that the goal of Ezra is to keep the main thing, the main thing. And if you remember, all the way back to the beginning, cyrus had told the Jewish people I want you to go back to Israel, go back to the city of Jerusalem, and I want you to build a temple and I want you to start worshiping the Lord. Well, from that moment to Ezra chapter 10, a whole lot of water went under that bridge and they finally get there and they realize we can't even worship God, right, because we're already in sin. And so then the hard decision had to be made to say you know what? We've done bad things here. We've gotten in a bad way, and so we've done bad things here. We've gotten in a bad way, and so we've got to make some hard decisions to turn our hearts back right with God. Some things we should have never got involved in, yeah, but I'm involved now. Well, you got to get uninvolved now.
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And here's the thing it takes a lot of courage to step up and say that's wrong, you need to stop doing that Now. It didn't say unkindly, but they still had to do it. And you know what? I think that that's what God has called us to do as Christians today, with as much love and kindness as we can, that we step up and we say I love you and I love you enough to tell you that Jesus wants to be your Savior and your Lord. Why would he do that? Because you're in sin, because you have sin in your life and somebody's got to pay for it. Well, I don't know how to pay for it Exactly. I can't pay for it Exactly. Jesus wants to, but you got to do it his way. But here's the thing there's so many people who don't think they need Jesus because they don't think they're doing anything wrong. And that doesn't mean horrible. I'm not that guy.
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I do think it's important that we stand up for what's right and we stand up for what's true, and then, when people realize that they're the ones that are in sin, we don't throw them away. We say but you're the exact person that Christ came to die for. When Jesus was on the earth, the Bible said he got in trouble scare quotes by the priest and all the other ones because he was constantly going and eating with sinners, but at the same time he would say you are a sinner, but you're the exact person I came for. I think that's what we need to do is to not be ashamed of what's right and what's wrong, but then say you're the exact person that Christ came for. I'm not mad at you, I am you. I'm just saved by the grace of God. And now I want to share the news with somebody else. And so, as Christians, we're not salesmen, we're satisfied customers, and it's because of what God has done in our life that we boldly proclaim there's healing.
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In the name of Jesus, we have been empowered to do something about this generation. Let's pray together. God, thank you so much for the book of Ezra. Thank you that it reminds us to keep the main thing, the main thing, and that if we will do that, god, you have called us into your kingdom for just a time as this. We celebrate all you're doing in our lives. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen. Amen. God's word says in Ezra, chapter 7, verse 10,. How is all this possible? This is because Ezra had determined to study and obey the law of the Lord and to teach those decrees and regulations to the people of Israel. His goal was to know God and to make him known. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow. For 1 Timothy, chapter 1.
