Ezra 9 Devotional

Confession Without Excuses

“But now, for a brief moment, grace has come from the LORD our God to preserve for us a remnant and to give us a stake in His holy place. Even in our bondage, our God has given us new life and light to our eyes.”Ezra 9:8 (BSB)

Ezra receives hard news. Many of the returned exiles, priests and leaders included, have married among the surrounding peoples, whose detestable practices are compared to those of the Canaanites (9:1-2). The leaders call it unfaithfulness, and Ezra recalls God's command not to intermarry with those nations (9:11-12). He tears his clothes and sits appalled until the evening sacrifice (9:3-4).

Then he prays, and the prayer contains no excuses. Ezra speaks of the people's guilt as his own, piled above their heads (9:6), and traces it back through generations (9:7). Yet in the middle of the confession he names grace. For a brief moment God has preserved a remnant, given them new life, and not forsaken them in their bondage (9:8-9), punishing them less than they deserved (9:13). He ends admitting that no one can stand before a righteous God in their guilt (9:15). Paul says that through Christ believers have access by faith into the grace in which they stand (Romans 5:2). Confession need not hide anything, because that standing is a gift.

To think about: What have you been explaining away before God that you could simply confess, trusting the grace in which you stand?