Ezra’s Prayer of Repentance

Transcript

But for tonight's considerations, we will be looking at Ezra's Prayer of Repentance. This prayer is going to be found in Ezra 9, and the

original, essentially reason for this deep dive on this prayer was in Monroe, we've been going through different prayers in Scripture for Wednesday night class, as well as Psalms in conjunction. Maybe we flip-flop every week, one prayer, one Psalm, and I've particularly been fascinated as of late by Ezra and Nehemiah, and what we have is post-exile Israel, the post-exilic Israel, because it really is a fascinating and a unique time in Israel's history, and one that I think we can glean just so many lessons from. And so tonight, we're looking at Ezra's Prayer of Repentance and an intercessory prayer on behalf of the people, and I'm hoping that we can model some lessons for ourselves about prayers of repentance. And also, what really sticks out to me in this study is we see a responsibility to the otherhood here that does not come naturally to us. It's something that I think we can spend our whole lives maybe learning to perfect, and we should, because as we'll see with what Ezra does and other Bible characters throughout Scripture, all the way leading up to Jesus himself, what they're doing in interceding on behalf of the other people is truly something that we should strive for. And I think, I know for myself, their actions, like in this prayer that we're going to dive into, is just not something I've ever thought to do. And let me elaborate what I mean by that. So to begin our considerations, I'll just have everyone think of a time for yourself where you were just utterly ashamed and defeated, ashamed of something, some action or just something in life, and you needed to bring it to God. You really needed a personal prayer of repentance, maybe frustrated, you haven't made progress something you thought you moved past, something like that. Now let's go around, everyone turn on their mics and we'll share your deepest, I'm just kidding, you don't have to do that, but I'm sure you might have something in mind. Now imagine having these deep emotions of shame and regret, but you're bringing it to God on behalf of other people, in full humility, approaching God with the same shame and defeat, but you aren't the one who has missed the mark or who is struggling. And there's no presumption in this, there's no pride in this, you mean it as genuinely as if you are complicit. And that's what I'm talking about when I say this isn't something that I'm familiar with, like an intercessory prayer in this manner. And so in looking at Ezra's prayer of repentance, it's possibly one of the most dramatic and powerful scenes of prayer in all of scripture, if I can make that claim. This is a prayer that gathered a massive crowd around him and it led the faithful that were around him to be so moved that this crowd of Israelites began crying and weeping as he continued to pray. Like the people were so moved by being in his presence for this prayer that this prayer itself was actually the catalyst, like the turning point that led them to repent and change course. And just imagine in a modern ecclesial setting, a brother in the ecclesia being so moved by a sin that the rest of the brethren were caught up in, that he fell to his knees with his arms out to God weeping and praying on behalf of the ecclesia for forgiveness and for help changing course, that then the rest of the brethren just couldn't help but weep too in reflection of their actions. I mean, we can hardly imagine such a scene, but that is precisely what happens in Ezra 9 and Ezra's prayer for the people. And so this is what we'll be considering and our structure tonight is

very straightforward. We'll first look at the background and the context of Ezra, you know, the context of story that led to Ezra feeling so overwhelmed with emotion. Then we'll read the prayer and we're going to read it twice and really try and internalize it. We'll read it in two different, slightly different ways. And then finally, of course, we'll break it down and we'll discuss some of the different parts, pull out some themes. We'll discuss repentance, intercession and what was going on in Ezra's mind. And so we'll see how it goes. I sincerely hope that that something stands out and is useful and edifying to you. So with that, let's dive in and we need to talk about Ezra now and the background leading up to this prayer. And I have a guilty pleasure and that is historical context for a story and I can get too caught up. And so I sincerely will be trying to not spend all of our time building up the background of Ezra. But as I mentioned, I do really love this section of scripture. I find it very fascinating and profound. And so please, everyone get your minds into this book for the next hour and we'll just quickly re-familiarize ourselves with what's happening. Part of why this section of scripture captivates me so much is because it's essentially post-apocalyptic. This is a small remnant of people that is returning in waves from far away lands of captivity. And an entire generation has passed and only some who are now coming back to Israel were even alive to remember Judah before being conquered. And so it feels like a survival story because it is. These people are so vulnerable and they're at a constant threat through Ezra and Nehemiah from hostile neighbors around. And so they're just trying to get established and find some sort of identity again. And you get the sense as you go through this part of Israel's history that these are not the glory days of Israel. They have leaders and very good ones at that, but they don't carry the influence or the glory or the admiration of David or Solomon. And I love to take the perspective of Israel at this time as an Ecclesia. You know, it's an Ecclesia that feels very young. It's very susceptible to distraction. It's sincerely in need of strong leadership. You know, they're finding their Ecclesial identity again, and it carries this feeling of almost meeting God for the first time or in a serious time of recommitment. That's what just jumps out throughout all of these chapters. And again, to understand this time from the top down, we're kind of looking at Ezra and Nehemiah together as one book, which in the Hebrew Bible, I understand that it actually was one book. And to be fully honest, I'm no expert on why we've split them or what the story is there, but to all intents and purposes, it's one story of Israel post exile in Babylon and elsewhere. And so across this one combined book, it's really actually the story of three different waves of returning Israelites or three groups. And so the first is going to be found in Ezra chapters one through six. And so this is the initial return. It's the first wave back from captivity. And it begins with this amazing story of Providence, the foreign king, King Cyrus of Persia. Not only he sends a bunch of his subjects back to their homeland, but he also sends with them these precious vessels from the first temple and he supplies building materials. And so it's over forty two thousand people led by Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest who returned and they rebuilt the temple. That was their big project in Ezra one to six. And they had to ward off opposition from their neighbors. And they eventually do finish restoring the temple in Ezra six and it ends. And there's such commotion with some weeping from those who remember all the way back to what Solomon's temple was like. But unfortunately, it was not going to have the same glory that it did. And I think it was coincidentally about eleven months ago, actually, we talked about Joshua the high priest, who was the core spiritual leader during this time. That was a Bible class. I think about back in November. But then wave two, you know, section two of the of the whole story is now there's another wave of Israelites. And this is actually where Ezra himself enters the story. So Ezra is commissioned in another amazing story of Providence by the foreign king, Art Xerxes. He's going to go back to the land and take with him again, vast amounts of resources from the Persian treasuries on his way. And so this is all starting in Ezra seven. And to just summarize this section, Ezra is going to return with about fifteen hundred men plus women and children. And he has his commission letter from the king and he seeks to organize the priests. And then he encounters a massive issue, which is that the people of Israel and the priests and the Levites, they were intermarrying with the nations that were around. This was the big challenge that Ezra had to deal with. And so the subsequent prayer that we're going to be going through and all of his actions, they're spent dealing with this issue of the people intermarrying with the nearby nations. And then finally, just for added context, the third wave, the third section of this whole story is the book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah one through thirteen. And so thirteen years after Ezra's return, Nehemiah has his amazing story of Providence, where again, a foreign king is, you know, commissions him and allows him to go back with a bunch of fine building materials. And with that one, we're not told how many people go back with Nehemiah. It reads as more of a personal journey almost for Nehemiah. But then he's going to lead the rebuilding of the walls against opposition. And he is going to struggle throughout this whole story to sway the people's full hearts to God. And so looking at these three waves, this whole section, if there's one key takeaway from this context that really informs our prayer in Ezra 9, it's that nothing is normal in Israel. Like things are not settled in the slightest. Like the Ecclesia is so young and vulnerable, not young in age, but it's young in cohesion and it's very spiritually immature. And so much of the emphasis within these three narratives is how much teaching is being done by people like Ezra and Joshua the High Priest and the rest of the priests who were available. It's all about teaching the people. And so it's a part of the story that priests are in extremely high demand because the people needed teachers, like they needed guides and influences to lead them to a knowledge of God. And so it's this very fact how crucial the priests and the teachers, the spiritual guides, the role models were for this group, that it makes the sin of those people, those priests and teachers and their complacency just so devastating and it tears Ezra up inside. Like this is why he's so deeply emotional and frustrated in this section. I mean leaders were so crucial now more than ever and

of course you know the influence of leaders both good and bad, it's always a defining part of the narrative following Israel throughout the world.

You know they needed good leaders and so do we. Like in our first century style ecclesia in our modern day like we of course are very clear that we don't have specific elected officials or a central body but we of course have appointed brethren serving the ecclesia and the brotherhood at large and you know the conduct if that applies to you, your conduct matters a lot and past just those who are you know in roles of service we have elders in the meeting and your conduct matters. You know parents in the meeting, fellow brethren of any kind, all of your conduct like affects one another and can push or pull for the better or worse and so just right off the bat just in considering very broadly the needs of this ecclesia young or old male female teacher server listener you know you have a very profound impact on everyone else in the room even if you don't necessarily feel it and I just it strikes me that we can never underestimate our responsibility to lead our brethren by good Christ-like conduct like whoever you are and in whatever position you're in. And so now let's consider Ezra and let's put a little bit of a profile on this guy and so if you can please turn with me to Ezra seven and we're going to pull out a number of different pieces of information to help us understand further his context because he is a pretty incredible individual and now timings and chronology and relating to specific kings and stuff it's actually very difficult to do in this section. Brothers have done whole studies just trying to put a good timeline and get factual information on how we to understand where this falls in history but just to suggest a little something as a baseline brother HP Mansfield he puts Ezra as at least 73 years old in this story if not older and and this is the story when he's going to return and so in Ezra seven versus eight and nine we have Ezra's actual journey and he traveled from like March and April to July and August ish there's about a four month journey from captivity and it lasted about 900 miles over those four months so there's a 73 year old man making quite the journey. Also he is the uncle of Joshua the high priest we've alluded to before and we talked about last year and he is a descendant of Aaron and of Eliezer and Phineas so he's a Levite and he's of course a scribe Ezra the scribe and it really comes out throughout all of this section Ezra's sheer faith I mean he is a man of incredible faith he is extremely um what we describe kind of more in modern terms God conscious like truly in in chapter seven and eight here and down in front of us everything was brought to God or otherwise attributed to him and it is an incredible example and practice for us to get into all successes all highs and lows decisions are either given glory to God or you know inquired with him about what to do and not only is he a scribe in the law of Moses but he's marked as a ready scribe and this word here is a Hebrew word meaning diligent skilled and quick as a ready scribe and that means he was ready in God's law he was ultra familiar with the scriptures he's marked as such and so this is a man who's extremely well studied and had his his mind

um in the history of Israel and in God's commands and it allowed him to be such an influential and God-fearing leader and so now uh what's actually happening in the story so Ezra is going to arrive with a decree in hand from the king in chapter seven uh in chapter eight it's going to be all about the priests and it's interesting because he actually has trouble finding any Levites so he's what he does he sends out this huge search brigade back to this region in the Persian empire where he knows there's Levites and temple servants that had settled and he appoints priests to guard the huge amounts of gold and silver and temple vessels that they had brought and

so then also later in chapter eight after this the newly returned exiles they're uh they're going to offer a huge burnt offering to commemorate their return to Israel you know things are good everything is very very positive up to this point in chapter seven and eight but in chapter nine the big problem of the hour is introduced and some of the Israelite officials approach Ezra I'm just going to read now starting in chapter nine at verse one it says 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 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 so the people and in particular the officials the administrators the priests themselves and the Levites we find they've not been following God's law and they've been intermarrying and blending cultures and worship and traditions and livelihood you know the principles of separation and diligence for God and for Israel they're not being lived out here and we don't have to go very far back throughout Israel's history and in God's commands to know that there is a very clear calling for separation for the Jewish people it's one of the most fundamental things that would allow them to stay pure in their worship and their devotion to God and so them failing to do this was a one-way ticket to complete cultural assimilation to nations around and the loss of dedication to Yahweh and

so we see what Ezra does when he hears this in verse 3 of Ezra 9 it says and when I heard this thing I rent my garment and mantle and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard and sat down astonished then were assembled unto me every one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel because of the transgression of those that have been carried away and I sat astonished until the evening sacrifice and at the evening sacrifice I arose up from my heaviness and having rent my garment and my mantle I fell upon my knees and spread out my hands unto the Lord my God and now we have our prayer our main focus for the evening now this is a really powerful section of scripture the emotion is is real and raw and profound and I really tried to set up you know where this emotion is coming from and I really do want everyone to connect with this passage and get a sense of what Ezra was feeling you know as best we can and and just to be honest with you I'm I'm really open to ideas of how to get get a room to emotionally connect with a passage that maybe you haven't been been studying or or just best practice for trying to have connection with these words because it really is an amazing thing and we'll try and make it as real as possible but if everyone could please follow along in your Bibles let's really just focus on these verses for a few minutes so this is Ezra 9 and the prayer is in verses 6 through 15 and we're actually going to read it twice but the first time through let's just kind of read it more superficially and I'll be reading from the King James so this is Ezra 9 starting at verse 6 and Ezra said oh 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 onto the heavens since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day and for our iniquities have we our kings and our priests been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands to the sword to captivity and to a spoil and to confusion of face as it is this day and now for a little space grace hath been showed from the lord our god to leave us a remnant to and to give us a nail in his holy place that our god may lighten our eyes and give us a little reviving in our bondage for we were bondmen yet our god hath not forsaken us in our bondage but hath extended mercy unto us in a sight of the kings of persia to give us a reviving to set up the house of our god and to repair the desolations thereof and to give us a wall in juda and in islam and now oh our god what shall we say after this for we have forsaken thy commandments which thou hast commanded by thy servants the prophet saying the land unto which ye go to possess it is an unclean land with the filthiness of the peoples of the lands with their abominations which have filled it from one end to another with their uncleanness now therefore give not your unto their sons neither take their daughters unto your sons nor seek their peace or their wealth forever that ye may be strong and eat the good of the land and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever and after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass seeing that thou our god has punished us less than our iniquities deserve and has given us such deliverance as this should we again break thy commandments and join in affinity with the people of these abominations what is not thou be angry with us till thou had consumed us so that there should be no remnant nor escaping oh lord god of israel thou art righteous for we remain yet escaped as it is this day behold we are before thee in our trespasses for we cannot stand before thee because of this so it's a very very very powerful section here and while ezra is praying you know the people are going to begin to take note and and begin weeping alongside him and and are trembling at reality like this was a true turning point for the people who were hearing this prayer and again i i want to read it again but differently this time so a little bit different perspective and i'm actually i've never forgotten i got the original idea for this from uncle jim boiko years ago i remember he he advocated for reading from the message bible uh and i have ever since then thought well if if jim can do it so can i uh so we'll go ahead and actually i'm just going to read it now in this kind of modern paraphrase right because uh i think we might be able to emotionally connect with more modern language so just again put yourself in this large crowd of people this young ecclesia outside around the

ezra that the leader of the people is absolutely torn apart by the knowledge that there is great sin and iniquity being done in israel and this is what ezra says so we're going to go through it one more time so the message reads as my dear god i'm so totally ashamed i can't bear to face you oh my god our iniquities are piled up so high that we can't see out our guilt touches the skies we've been stuck in a muck of guilt since the time of our ancestors until right now

we and our kings and priests because of our sins have been turned over to foreign kings to killing to captivity to looting and to public shame just as you see us now now for a brief time god our god has allowed us this battered band to get a firm foothold in his holy place so that our god may brighten our eyes and lighten our burdens as we serve out this hard sentence we were slaves yet even as slaves our god didn't abandon us he has put us in the good graces of the kings of persia and has given us the heart to rebuild the temple of our god to restore its ruins and to construct a defensive wall in juda and jerusalem and now our god after all this what can we say for ourselves for we have thrown your commands to the wind the commands you gave us through your servants the prophets they told us the land you're taking over is a polluted land polluted with the obscene vulgarities of the people who live there they've filled it with their moral rot from one end to the other whatever you do don't give your daughters in marriage to their sons nor marry your sons to their daughters don't cultivate their good opinion don't make over them and get them to like you so you can make a lot of money and build up a tidy estate to hand down to your children and now this on top of all we've already suffered because of our evil ways and accumulated guilt even though you dear god punished us far less than we deserved and even went ahead and gave us this present escape yet here we are at it again breaking your commandments by intermarrying with the people who practice all these obscenities are you angry to the point of wiping us out completely without even a few stragglers with no way out at all you are the righteous god of israel we are right now a small band of escapees look at us openly standing here guilty before you no one can last long like this so there you have it i i i hope you know that you were able to kind of appreciate the the depth of israel's words it is a very powerful prayer and and there's plenty that we can consider now and just a quick quick reflection i mean you really get the sense here from israel's words that he's so excited and relieved to be back and to be able to live in the land again and and worship god and he feels that the entire captivity that they

no rehabilitation while locked away that they're better off if they had just stayed in captivity because they're they're not doing the the things that the people of god should be doing so it's just immense frustration and it's it's leading to all of this in his prayer so if you are one to mark sections in in your bible and and try and annotate a little bit i this is how i'd recommend you do it for the prayer this is the structure and we can kind of see the flow of thought now so and one and two israel considers the problem and states it and three and four he kind of prepares the mind for repentance and five and humiliation is expressed and then seven the sin is really confessed and so we have this just raw outpouring of here's what's happened and then it kind of switches gears so then in eight and nine we have yahweh's mercy recalled in verses 10 through 14 it gets very specific on israel's negligence and what went wrong and then finishes off by expressing how helpless israel is especially without yahweh yahweh is the only one who can help them at this time and so right off the bat we have to acknowledge one of the most powerful and glaring features of this prayer and if you if you remember nothing else from this this is truly like the main idea that i find so profound which is that ezra makes it sound like he was complicit it he makes it sound like he was doing the thing that

he's asking for repentance like if you read that and don't have any of the context you think that ezra had another wife from the nearby nations there's it's full of we have done this we are guilty before you we we we we we very french we we if you look at verses six and seven like just listen to this it says i am ashamed and blushed to lift up my face to thee for our iniquities are increased over our head and our trespass is grown up into the heavens this is not what's on the the screen this is still in ezra nine and he continues it's just our trespass over and over and so if you're bible marking and you know i recommend doing some underlining on this just the sheer volume of where he takes ownership with the people for the sin that he's confessing especially verses 10 14 and the very end in verse 15 but then the question we have to ask is why you know why is ezra using this language because it's not just a formality and it's also not false humility one ezra knows full well that he didn't do this he's not guilty but he's not trying to appear as such per se this is also not appeasement this is not ezra trying to be so apologetic and just be so humble and get on his knees and say things that aren't even true that god would like soften that's ridiculous that's not what this is either but to keep unpacking this i actually want to bring in another prayer of a very very similar nature because a very useful cross reference to this section is daniel nine i highly recommend you have that in your margin if you don't already and this is a prayer by daniel with extremely similar sentiments to ezra and so then in this in daniel nine daniel's in captivity still and this is actually where he's discovering that their captivity would last a total of 70 years and essentially he's reviewing the reasons for their captivity and so daniel is very very moved by this as you can imagine and the faithful man he turns to god in prayer and just listen to the beginning of this prayer this is what's on the

and have committed iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled even by departing from my precepts and from my judgments neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets again if there's someone who's at fault for israel being in captivity it's certainly not daniel he had very little to answer for in this time but you wouldn't know that by reading his prayer would you and the same goes for ezra so we're just left asking why are these men actually speaking in this way and well uh to answer that both of their minds ezra and daniel they're going back to the law of moses and remember ezra was a ready scribe and he knew the law backwards and forwards and where their minds are likely going is back to leviticus 26 which is again a reference i'd encourage you have if you don't and this is the part of the law that foretold national punishment and disbursement and essentially what to do to be restored so i'll read from this now i don't have it on the screen there just the just the reference but leviticus 26 starting in verse 39 it says and they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemy's lands and also in the iniquities shall they pine away with them if they shall confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers with their trespass which they trespassed against me and that also they have walked contrary unto me and that all i also have walked contrary unto them and have brought them into the land of their enemies if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled and they then accept of the punishment their iniquity then will i remember my covenant with jacob and also my covenant with isaac and also my covenant with abraham will i remember and i will remember the land and so that's exactly what daniel was doing when he was in captivity huh and same with ezra and so god here is requiring confession and humbling from the nation in order to receive remembrance and forgiveness and this could absolutely be offered by like a faithful leader or a remnant or a representative on behalf of the whole you might be seeing where we're going with this and uh it's kind of neat i hadn't really heard this before but this concept can be referred to as a corporate confession and that simply means prayer on behalf of the body uh body is corpus in latin i i don't speak latin but found that interesting and uh scripture is absolutely filled with this um and if this is seems like a confusing idea like i get it because culturally as both westerners and as cristalfians uh we are very aware of our individual responsibility and i i think the idea of intersection intercession excuse me uh it's actually quite hard to grasp but it's of course a very biblical principle and you know thinking of james 5 verse 16 confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much moses is another prime example of this acting as a mediator and he makes atonement for the wicked people in exodus 30 and verse 32 it says yet now if thou wilt forgive their sin and if not blot me i pray thee out of thy book which thou hast written and what they're doing as written daniel is they're acting as mediators they're acting as redeemers on behalf of the people and to do this they had to identify with the people's sins as their own and we don't have to think too hard to make a connection to the perfect example of mediator who did this right reading from first timothy 2 and verse 5 it says for there is one god and one mediator between god and men the man christ jesus and first peter 2 and 24 the more doctrinal exposition on this it says he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness by his wounds you have been healed for you were straying like sheep but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls and you know we can never forget the words of christ while he was on the cross in luke 23 34 it says and jesus said father forgive them for they know not what they do this is intercession on behalf of others this is a prayer of repentance on behalf of other people christ being the head of the ecclesia the of the body like he bore our sins and our nature on his body when he died for us of course this is very first principle idea you know despite himself not being complicit in those sins and so it's a powerful and a humbling thing when we see these examples of of great men you know of leaders that humble themselves to serve the people that they take care of there's there's not an ounce of separation or disdain in ezra or daniel or christ you know when they humble themselves

on behalf of of those that they're caring for they're not saying oh my if you could just be like me i've been great but these people have been terrible please forgive them it's not that it's true humility ezra had no guilt daniel was not the reason the israelites went into captivity christ we know was certainly not guilty or deserving of the death that he died and so as far as a takeaway from these ideas like never forget the power that we have of praying for and on behalf of others and to try and cut a little deeper like remember the responsibility that we have to one another salvation is absolutely an individual process but that doesn't mean that we also aren't deeply interconnected with one another the entire nation of israel is so often treated as one unit as one ecclesia and you know i think we would do very well to take on that attitude in our own minds as one body to pray on behalf of brother and sister brother or sister who's struggling as if we ourselves connected to them in the body are bearing are bearing that burden we're struggling with that issue like the pain of other members of our own body it's meant to hurt the challenges and temptations and struggles they're meant to be our challenges and temptations and struggles you know how much more powerful it is to approach god on your brethren's behalf while you identify with that struggle or sin as your own you know pray for your ecclesia pray for the brotherhood and align yourself with it that's what jumps out at me from this align yourself with your brethren before god and bear one another's burdens again just just to to restate we are very comfortable with the fact that we as individuals have our own individual responsibility and so it's this concept that has been at least to myself quite foreign quite foreign to genuinely with full humility take on the iniquity essentially of a brother or sister and approach it to god with that kind of attitude i'd

love to hear further thoughts afterward or you know you know in any any future discussion but just food for thought and it's really what has

mentioned the connection to daniel and i want to focus on that now a little bit and dissect it further because if you look at verse seven verse seven says from the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt this is ezra nine verse seven and it says and for our iniquities we our kings and our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands to the sword to captivity to plundering and to utter shame as it is today and so this is the section of the prayer that is ezra's call back before god and the people around him that this disobedience and disregard for god's commands you know it's a tale as old as israel itself that's what ezra's saying like ezra had just come out of captivity and he came with a task at hand it was to establish the nation and lead the people towards god and an adherence to his commandments and so when he's made aware of this deeply rooted sin that's happening his mind is very naturally going back to the long history of israel and i would argue to you i think we can quite confidently say that ezra's mind is fixated actually on this specific prayer by daniel that ezra is thinking uh to this prayer in daniel nine specifically i don't i i think the the connections to daniel's personal intercession i don't think it's a coincidence it was deeply influential on ezra's language and just let's consider some similarities here and here's a little table i hope i can present it as as clearly as possible there um but in terms of awareness

daniel's prayer of intercession and repentance it was triggered by coming to a new knowledge of israel's sins and the punishment that they were under by god that's that's what triggered daniel's prayer in daniel nine ezra freshly departed from bavalon he's painfully aware of that iniquity that led to the disaster and now he's made aware of the serious problem and he immediately got to intercession so it's the same kind of trigger for the prayer uh daniel prepares his mind and his appearance to approach god with fasting and sackcloth and ashes and he prepares himself for the somber repentance it's it's a very humbling thing that he did there before going to prayer and that's precisely what ezra did remember after ezra became aware of this problem what he does is he tears his garment and his mantle and he sits down in the dirt until the evening and he essentially prepares his mind and the minds of those around him for the repentance and the prayer we already mentioned the personal confession um daniel says you know we have sinned ezra starts his prayer by saying our iniquities have increased over our head uh

daniel there's there's also overlap in daniel references that the sin of the people has brought shame to the rulers of the land um ezra also makes a reference that the rulers of the people had been brought to shame both during captivity and now due to their current sin both are going to appeal to god's righteousness both recognize and call to mind god's mercy both are earnest confessions and you know prayers of or they're acting as intercessors and finally at the end of daniel's prayer the angel gabriel comes to him and just look at what it actually says in daniel 921 yay whilst i was speaking in prayer even the man gabriel whom i had seen in the vision at the

end and that word there oblation is the evening offering as the strong's hebrew 4503 and if we can call to mind ezra ezra nine and four and five ezra sat down in the dirt with clothes torn what he does what is he sat there and considered the transgression of the people until the evening sacrifice the same word the evening offering

brother hp mansfield writes the following about this this idea daniel's practice was to engage formally in prayer three times each day the final prayer at the time of the evening oblation points forward to the lord's offering at the end of the mosaic dispensation hebers 9 as the complete and sacrifice provided for salvation ezra likewise pleaded at the time of evening sacrifice concerning sins of his people in mingling themselves with the people of those lands

and to read from hebers 9 26 to 28 which discusses christ's offering it says for them must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself and as it is appointed unto men once to die but after this the judgment so christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that looked for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation and so in this we have the special reasoning behind ezra's waiting until evening to offer this prayer his mind was very likely on daniel and in seeking to be a mediator and intercessor for the people and it was pointing forward to the sacrifice of christ just with every element of this prayer both of them and for daniel and ezra to wait till the evening sacrifice it's worth noting that christ died at the hour of the evening sacrifice is an unbelievable connection so these are the models for true atonement and intercession on behalf of the people it's absolutely amazing in this section coming to our our last point which we will consider this evening as relates to this prayer is

let's consider now repentance because this prayer itself it's certainly a model for our own repentance before god

now repentance of course it means to have another mind you

know to turn and to have another mind and i love just thinking it thinking of it in that very simple definition and i don't want to stoop to too simple a concept here but we are called to repentance quite earnestly this is a very fundamental part of our walk and our commandments from our lord jesus you know luke 13 verse 3 i tell you nay but except you repent you shall all likewise perish luke 5 i came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance to have another mind in acts 2 and 38 then peter said unto them repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of jesus christ for the remission of sins and repentance in the new testament you know it's typically marked by the turning point in one's life where you repent and you're baptized and you proceed into a new life in christ but we know very well as believers that repentance is a continual process of course so first john 1 verse 9 says you know if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness that's very continuous in james 5 16 we're confessing our faults one to another and praying for one another that you may be healed this is long after our repentance and baptism and

so the first step in the model that really jumps out from this prayer and from as was example is that awareness of the problem comes first it's ultra relevant for one's initial repentance and it's required in our regular cadence of life where we recognize that we've made mistakes and this is exactly what ezra and daniel both did they acted so swiftly when they identified that there was a problem it's hard to find godly conduct in the bible that is not swift and instant or rising early in the morning we really have to take action eagerly when we realize the problem at hand the next that's quite fascinating is the preparation of mind and body that comes and this is what ezra and daniel did right of course they they physically prepared themselves essentially to be able to say this prayer and brother harry tenet he writes the following on this idea he says how then do we come to repentance how can we have another mind the answer is to allow the word of god to have free and welcome access to the mind we already have the word of god is divinely adapted to achieving a change of mind and the one who hears understands and keeps the message those three steps are vital hearing the word of god is more than merely reading it bible hearing is listening humbly with the intention of being instructed and the old testament is often described as inclining the ear as though when we're listening to someone who has a message for him personally anyone who reads the bible in this way will soon discover that the whole book is designed for the personal reader the one who wants to know and further harry shares the verse isaiah 55 and verse one ho everyone that thirsteth come ye to the waters and he that hath no money ye come ye buy and eat ye come buy wine and milk without money and without price and so we do lead on the word for that ability to prepare our mind for repentance and to be that guide as we seek to have a new mind and then finally to again pull from our examples and ezra it's all about full rich confession with no excuses no personal merit and no blame ezra exclusively puts the fault in the decisions of the people and the righteousness and the grace is with god and this is the only way to truly repent and truly confess our sins both on a personal level and when we're identifying with someone else have that deep deep humility and no excuse to be found so it really stands out to me three good steps for repentance and so now just to bring our considerations to a conclusion let's consider very briefly what happens after this prayer takes place in chapter 10 the final chapter of ezra it gets very interesting to say the least because ezra's prayer was so influential and powerful to those that nearby that they made this huge vow a very decisive vow to repent to change their ways and actually put away their foreign wives and their family ezra 10 verse one it says now when ezra had prayed and he had confessed weeping and casting himself down before the house of god there assembled unto him out of israel a very great congregation of men and women and children for the people wept very sore so the people are so distraught and they're so moved by these words that actually a representative is going to come forth and admit fault and will want to take decisive action so this is ezra 10 and verse 2 it says and shekinah the son of jaheel one of the sons of elam answered and said unto ezra we have trespassed against our god and have taken strange wives of the people of the land yet now there is hope in israel concerning this thing now therefore let us make a covenant with our god to put away all the wives and such as are born of them according to the counsel of my lord and of those that tremble at the commandment of our god and let it be done according to the law now i'm actually not going to comment on this covenant that the people make and you know the course of action i think it deserves far more time than we have for the rest of our evening and i honestly don't entirely know what to make of it just yet this decision to put away their wives in response to this iniquity this is definitely an area of consideration i'll happily put the let's talk about it after stamp because i actually really appreciate hearing other people's thoughts on what the people choose to do whether that was the right move or not but what i will say about this response is that without repentance a prayer of repentance is pretty useless like this is the most humble and beautiful prayer but if the people stayed completely hardened and rejected god

it would have been for nothing or largely for nothing and a distinction to make here is that this is particularly true when we're in the process of repentance for our own sin you know we are responsible to heed our own regret and humility to take action to change but in the case of intercession for others it's

not a biblical requirement that we wait for change and repentance to pray on their behalf like this wouldn't make sense abraham prayed to spare lot and his family while they were still in sodom moses acted as an intercessor and prayed while god's anger was still burning hot daniel did not first go and affirm that the nation had come to a collective repentance like first before praying on their behalf ezra actually used his prayer to bring about repentance in the people the prayer came first and if there's if that wasn't enough our lord jesus said father forgive them for they know not what they do while they indeed still did not know what they had done you know and of course while we are still sinners christ interceded for us and gave his life for us and for our sins that we might have a way to live so just food for thought on having that that mind for intercession towards others and praying earnestly on behalf of others who might be struggling in some way and just the concluding thought to leave you with we're one minute past truly think on these things on what it means to pray for others in the ecclesia in your family and around maybe that's extremely common practice for you and and maybe it's it's not so much but it's it's certainly something i've tried to i'm trying to wake up to more because it's such a fundamental concept in scripture and we're told that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much