BIBLES NET. COM
Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
on the Whole Bible
Back to Biblesnet.com Home Page
|
[Previous] [Next] |
Matthew Henry |
E Z R A
CHAP. IX.
The affairs of the church were in a very good posture, we may well
suppose, now that Ezra presided in them. Look without; the government
was kind to them. We hear no complaints of persecution and oppression;
their enemies had either their hearts turned or at least their hands
tied; their neighbours were civil, and we hear of no wars nor rumours
of wars; there were none to make them afraid; all was as well as could
be, considering that they were few, and poor, and subjects to a foreign
prince. Look at home; we hear nothing of Baal, or Ashtaroth, nor
Moloch, no images, nor groves, nor golden calves, no, nor so much as
high places (not only no idolatrous altars, but no separate ones), but
the temple was duly respected and the temple service carefully kept up.
Yet all was not well either. The purest ages of the church have had
some corruptions, and it will never be presented “without spot or
wrinkle” till it is “a glorious church,” a church “triumphant,”
We have here,
I. A complaint brought to Ezra of the many marriages that had been made
with strange wives,
II. The great trouble which he, and others influenced by his example,
were in upon this information,
III. The solemn confession which he made of this sin to God, with godly
sorrow, and shame,
| Ezra’s Reformation. | B. C. 456. |
|
|
|
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.
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.
3 And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle,
and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down
astonied.
4 Then were assembled unto me every one that trembled at the
words of the God of Israel, because of the transgression of those
that had been carried away; and I sat astonied until the evening
sacrifice.
Ezra, like Barnabas when he came to Jerusalem and saw the grace of
God to his brethren there, no doubt was glad, and exhorted them
all that with purpose of heart they would cleave to the Lord,
Acts xi. 23.
He saw nothing amiss (many corruptions lurk out of the view of the most
vigilant rulers); but here is a damp upon his joys: information is
brought him that many of the people, yea, and some of the rulers, had
married wives out of heathen families, and joined themselves in
affinity with strangers. Observe,
I. What the sin was that they were guilty of: it was mingling with
the people of those lands
(v. 2),
associating with them both in trade and in conversation, making
themselves familiar with them, and, to complete the affinity, taking
their daughters in marriages to their sons. We are willing to
hope that they did not worship their gods, but that their captivity had
cured them of their idolatry: it is said indeed that they did
according to their abominations; but that (says bishop Patrick)
signifies here only the imitation of the heathen in promiscuous
marriages with any nation whatsoever, which by degrees would lead them
to idolatry. Herein,
1. They disobeyed the express command of God, which forbade all
intimacy with the heathen, and particularly in matrimonial contracts,
2. They profaned the crown of their peculiarity, and set themselves
upon a level with those above whom God had by singular marks of his
favour, of late as well as formerly, dignified them.
3. They distrusted the power of God to protect and advance them, and
were led by carnal policy, hoping to strengthen themselves and make an
interest among their neighbours by these alliances. A practical
disbelief of God’s all-sufficiency is at the bottom of all the sorry
shifts we make to help ourselves.
4. They exposed themselves, and much more their children, to the peril
of idolatry, the very sin, and introduced by this very way, that had
cone been the ruin of their church and nation.
II. Who were the persons that were guilty of this sin, not only some of
the unthinking people of Israel, that knew no better, but many of
the priests and Levites, whose office it was to teach the law, and
this law among the rest, and in whom, by reason of their elevation
above common Israelites, it was a greater crime. It was a diminution to
the sons of that tribe to match into any other tribe, and they seldom
did except into the royal tribe; but for them to match with heathen,
with Canaanites, and Hittites, and I know not whom, was such a
disparagement as, if they had had any sense, though not of duty, yet of
honour, one would think, they would never have been guilty of. Yet this
was not the worst: The hand of the princes and rulers, who by
their power should have prevented or reformed this high misdemeanour,
was chief in this trespass. If princes be in a trespass, they
will be charged as chief in it, because of the influence their examples
will have upon others. Many will follow their pernicious ways.
But miserable is the case of that people whose leaders debauch them and
cause them to err.
III. The information that was given of this to Ezra. It was given by
the persons that were most proper to complain, the princes, those of
them that had kept their integrity and with it their dignity; they
could not have accused others if they themselves had not been free from
blame. It was given to the person who had power to mend the matter,
who, as a ready scribe in the law of God, could argue with them,
and, as king’s commissioner, could awe them. It is probable that these
princes had often endeavoured to redress this grievance and could not;
but now they applied to Ezra, hoping that his wisdom, authority, and
interest, would prevail to do it. Those that cannot of themselves
reform public abuses may yet do good service by giving information to
those that can.
IV. The impression this made upon Ezra
(v. 3):
He rent his clothes, plucked off his hair, and sat down
astonished. Thus he expressed the deep sense he had,
1. Of the dishonour hereby done to God. It grieved him to the heart to
think that a people called by his name should so grossly violate his
law, should be so little benefited by his correction, and make such bad
returns for his favours.
2. Of the mischief the people had hereby done to themselves and the
danger they were in of the wrath of God breaking out against them.
Note,
(1.) The sins of others should be our sorrow, and the injury done by
them to God’s honour and the souls of men is what we should lay to
heart.
(2.) Sorrow for sin must be great sorrow; such Ezra’s was, as for an
only son or a first-born.
(3.) The scandalous sins of professors are what we have reason to be
astonished at. We may stand amazed to see men contradict, disparage,
prejudice, ruin, themselves. Strange that men should act so
inconsiderately and so inconsistently with themselves! Upright men are
astonished at it.
V. The influence which Ezra’s grief for this had upon others. We may
suppose that he went up to the house of the Lord, there to
humble himself, because he had an eye to God in his grief and that was
the proper place for deprecating his displeasure. Public notice was
soon taken of it, and all the devout serious people that were at hand
assembled themselves to him, it should seem of their own accord, for
nothing is said of their being sent, to,
v. 4.
Note,
1. It is the character of good people that they tremble at God’s
word; they stand in awe of the authority of its precepts and the
severity and justice of its threatenings, and to those that do so
will God look,
Isa. lxvi. 2.
2. Those that tremble at the word of God cannot but tremble
at the sins of men, by which the law of God is broken and his
wrath and curse are incurred.
3. The pious zeal of one against sin may perhaps provoke very many to
the like, as the apostle speaks in another case,
Many will follow who have not consideration, talent, and courage,
enough to lead in a good work.
4. All good people ought to own those that appear and act in the cause
of God against vice and profaneness, to stand by them, and do what they
can to strengthen their hands.
5 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,
6 And said, O 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 unto the heavens.
7 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.
8 And now for a little space grace hath been showed from the
LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, 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.
9 For we were bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in
our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us in the 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 Judah and in Jerusalem.
10 And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? for we
have forsaken thy commandments,
11 Which thou hast commanded by thy servants the prophets,
saying, The land, unto which ye go to possess it, is an unclean
land with the filthiness of the people of the lands, with their
abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with
their uncleanness.
12 Now therefore give not your daughters unto their sons,
neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor seek their peace
or their wealth for ever: that ye may be strong, and eat the good
of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children
for ever.
13 And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and
for our great trespass, seeing that thou our God hast punished us
less than our iniquities deserve, and hast given us such
deliverance as this;
14 Should we again break thy commandments, and join in affinity
with the people of these abominations? wouldest not thou be angry
with us till thou hadst consumed us, so that there should be
no remnant nor escaping?
15 O 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.
What the meditations of Ezra’s heart were, while for some hours he sat
down astonished, we may guess by the words of his mouth when at length
he spoke with his tongue; and a most pathetic address he here
makes to Heaven upon this occasion. Observe,
I. The time when he made this address–at the evening sacrifice,
v. 5.
Then (it is likely) devout people used to come into the courts of the
temple, to grace the solemnity of the sacrifice and to offer up their
own prayers to God in concurrence with it. In their hearing Ezra chose
to make this confession, that they might be made duly sensible of the
sins of their people, which hitherto they had either not taken notice
of or had made light of. Prayer may preach. The sacrifice, and
especially the evening sacrifice, was a type of the great propitiation,
that blessed Lamb of God which in the evening of the world was
to take away sin by the sacrifice of himself, to which we may
suppose Ezra had an eye of faith in this penitential address to God; he
makes confession with his hand, as it were, upon the head of that great
sacrifice, through which we receive the atonement. Certainly
Ezra was no stranger to the message which the angel Gabriel had some
years ago delivered to Daniel, at the time of the evening sacrifice,
and as it were in explication of it, concerning Messiah the Prince
and perhaps he had regard to that in choosing this time.
II. His preparation for this address.
1. He rose up from his heaviness, and so far shook off the
burden of his grief as was necessary to the lifting up of his heart to
God. He recovered from his astonishment, got the tumult of his troubled
spirits somewhat stilled and his spirit composed for communion with
God.
2. He fell upon his knees, put himself into the posture of a
penitent humbling himself and a petitioner suing for mercy, in both
representing the people for whom he was now an intercessor.
3. He spread out his hands, as one affected with what he was
going to say, offering it up unto God, waiting, and reaching out, as it
were, with an earnest expectation, to receive a gracious answer. In
this he had an eye to God as the Lord, and as his God, a God of power,
but a God of grace.
III. The address itself. It is not properly to be called a prayer, for
there is not a word of petition in it; but, if we give prayer its full
latitude, it is the offering up of pious and devout affections to God,
and very devout, very pious, are the affections which Ezra here
expresses. His address is a penitent confession of sin, not his own
(from a conscience burdened with its own guilt and apprehensive of his
own danger), but the sin of his people, from a gracious concern for the
honour of God and the welfare of Israel. Here is a lively picture of
ingenuous repentance. Observe in this address,
1. The confession he makes of the sin and the aggravations of it, which
he insists upon, to affect his own heart and theirs that joined with
him with holy sorrow and shame and fear, in the consideration of it,
that they might be deeply humbled for it. And it is observable that,
though he himself was wholly clear from this guilt, yet he puts himself
into the number of the sinners, because he was a member of the same
community–our sins and our trespass. Perhaps he now remembered
it against himself, as his fault, that he had staid so long after his
brethren in Babylon, and had not separated himself so soon as he might
have done from the people of those lands. When we are lamenting the
wickedness of the wicked, it may be, if we duly reflect upon ourselves
and give our own hearts leave to deal faithfully with us, we may find
something of the same nature, though in a lower degree, that we also
have been guilty of. However, he speaks that which was, or should have
been, the general complaint.
(1.) He owns their sins to have been very great: “Our iniquities are
increased over our heads
(v. 6);
we are ready to perish in them as in keep waters;” so general was the
prevalency of them, so violent the power of them, and so threatening
were they of the most pernicious consequences. “Iniquity has grown up
to such a height among us that it reaches to the heavens, so very
impudent that it dares heaven, so very provoking that, like the sin of
Sodom, it cries to heaven for vengeance.” But let this be the comfort
of true penitents that though their sins reach to the heavens God’s
mercy is in the heavens,
Ps. xxxvi. 5.
Where sin abounds grace will much more abound.
(2.) Their sin had been long persisted in
(v. 7):
Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass.
The example of those that had gone before them he thought so far from
excusing their fault that it aggravated it. “We should have taken
warning not to stumble at the same stone. The corruption is so much the
worse that it has taken deep root and begins to plead prescription, but
by this means we have reason to fear that the measure of the iniquity
is nearly full.”
(3.) The great and sore judgments which God had brought upon them for
their sins did very much aggravate them: “For our iniquities we have
been delivered to the sword and to captivity
(v. 7),
and yet not reformed, yet not reclaimed–brayed in the mortar, and yet
the folly not gone
corrected, but not reclaimed.”
(4.) The late mercies God had bestowed upon them did likewise very much
aggravate their sins. This he insists largely upon,
Observe,
[1.] The time of mercy: Now for a little space, that is, “It is
but a little while since we had our liberty, and it is not likely to
continue long.” This greatly aggravated their sin, that they were so
lately in the furnace and that they knew not how soon they might return
to it again; and could they yet be secure?
[2.] The fountain of mercy: Grace has been shown us from the
Lord. The kings of Persia were the instruments of their
enlargement; but he ascribes it to God and to his grace, his free
grace, without any merit of theirs.
[3.] The streams of mercy,–that they were not forsaken in their
bondage, but even in Babylon had the tokens of God’s
presence,–that they were a remnant of Israelites left, a few out of
many, and those narrowly escaped out of the hands of their enemies, by
the favour of the kings of Persia,–and especially that they had a
nail in his holy place, that is (as it is explained,
v. 9),
that they had set up the house of God. They had their religion
settled and the service of the temple in a constant method. We are to
reckon it a great comfort and advantage to have stated opportunities of
worshipping God. Blessed are those that dwell in God’s house,
like Anna that departed not from the temple. This is my rest for
ever, says the gracious soul.
[4.] The effects of all this. It enlightened their eyes, and it revived
their hearts; that is, it was very comfortable to them, and the more
sensibly so because it was in their bondage: it was life from the dead
to them. Though but a little reviving, it was a great favour,
considering that they deserved none and the day of small things was an
earnest of greater. “Now,” says Ezra, “how ungrateful are we to offend
a God that has been so kind to us! how disingenuous to mingle in sin
with those nations from whom we have been, in wonderful mercy,
delivered! how unwise to expose ourselves to God’s displeasure when we
are tried with the returns of his favour and are upon our good
behaviour for the continuance of it!”
(5.) It was a great aggravation of the sin that it was against an
express command: We have forsaken thy commandments,
v. 10.
It seems to have been an ancient law of the house of Jacob not to match
with the families of the uncircumcised,
But, besides that, God had strictly forbidden it. He recites the
command,
For sin appears sin, appears exceedingly sinful, when we compare it
with the law which is broken by it. Nothing could be more express:
Give not your daughters to their sons, nor take their daughters to
your sons. The reason given is because, if they mingled with those
nations, they would pollute themselves. It was an unclean land, and
they were a holy people; but if they kept themselves distinct from them
it would be their honour and safety, and the perpetuating of their
prosperity. Now to violate a command so express, backed with such
reasons, and a fundamental law of their constitution, was very
provoking to the God of heaven.
(6.) That in the judgments by which they had already smarted for their
sins God had punished them less than their iniquities deserved,
so that he looked upon them to be still in debt upon the old account.
“What! and yet shall we run up a new score? Has God dealt so gently
with us in correcting us, and shall we thus abuse his favour and turn
his grace into wantonness?” God, in his grace and mercy, had said
concerning Sion’s captivity, She hath received of the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins
(Isa. xl. 2);
but Ezra, in a penitential sense of the great malignity that was in
their sin, acknowledged that, though the punishment was very great, it
was less than they deserved.
2. The devout affections that were working in him, in making this
confession. Speaking of sin,
(1.) He speaks as one much ashamed. With this he begins
(v. 6),
O my God! I am ashamed and blush, O my God! (so the words are
placed) to lift up my face unto thee. Note,
[1.] Sin is a shameful thing; as soon as ever our first parents had
eaten forbidden fruit they were ashamed of themselves.
[2.] Holy shame is as necessary an ingredient in true and ingenuous
repentance as holy sorrow.
[3.] The sins of others should be our shame, and we should blush for
those who do not blush for themselves. We may well be ashamed that we
are any thing akin to those who are so ungrateful to God and unwise for
themselves. This is clearing ourselves,
2 Cor. vii. 11.
[4.] Penitent sinners never see so much reason to blush and be ashamed
as when they come to lift up their faces before God. A natural
sense of our own honour which we have injured will make us ashamed,
when we have done a wrong thing, to look men in the face; but a
gracious concern for God’s honour will make us much more ashamed to
look him in the face. The publican, when he went to the temple to pray,
hung down his head more than ever, as one ashamed,
[5.] An eye to God as our God will be of great use to us in the
exercise of repentance. Ezra begins, O my God! and again in the
same breath, My God. The consideration of our covenant-relation
to God as ours will help to humble us, and break our hearts for sin,
that we should violate both his precepts to us and our promises to him;
it will also encourage us to hope for pardon upon repentance. “He is my
God, notwithstanding this;” and every transgression in the covenant
does not throw us out of covenant.
(2.) He speaks as one much amazed
(v. 10)
“What shall we say after this? For my part I know not what to
say: if God do not help us, we are undone.” The discoveries of guilt
excite amazement: the more we think of sin the worse it looks. The
difficulty of the case excites amazement. How shall we recover
ourselves? Which way shall we make our peace with God?
[1.] True penitents are at a loss what to say. Shall we say, We have
not sinned, or, God will not require it? If we do, we
deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Shall we say, Have
patience with us and we will pay thee all, with thousands of rams,
or our first-born for our transgression? God will not thus be
mocked: he knows we are insolvent. Shall we say, There is no
hope, and let come on us what will? That is but to make bad
worse.
[2.] True penitents will consider what to say, and should, as Ezra, beg
of God to teach them. What shall we say? Say, “I have sinned; I have
done foolishly; God be merciful to me a sinner;” and the like. See
(3.) He speaks as one much afraid,
“After all the judgments that have come upon us to reclaim us from sin,
and all the deliverances that have been wrought for us to engage us to
God and duty, if we should again break God’s commandments, by
joining in affinity with the children of disobedience and learning
their ways, what else could we expect but that God should be angry
with us till he had consumed us, and there should not be so much as
a remnant left, nor any to escape the destruction?” There is not a
surer nor sadder presage of ruin to any people than revolting to sin,
to the same sins again, after great judgments and great deliverances.
Those that will be wrought upon neither by the one nor by the other are
fit to be rejected, as reprobate silver, for the founder melteth in
vain.
(4.) He speaks as one much assured of the righteousness of God, and
resolved to acquiesce in that and to leave the matter with him whose
judgment is according to truth
(v. 15):
“Thou art righteous, wise, just, and good; thou wilt neither do
us wrong nor be hard upon us; and therefore behold we are before
thee, we lie at thy feet, waiting our doom; we cannot stand
before thee, insisting upon any righteousness of our own, having no
plea to support us or bring us off, and therefore we fall down before
thee, in our trespass, and cast ourselves on thy mercy. Do unto us
whatsoever seemeth good unto thee,
Judg. x. 15.
We have nothing to say, nothing to do, but to make supplication to
our Judge,”
Thus does this good man lay his grief before God and then leave it with
him.
|
[Previous] [Next] |
Matthew Henry |
|
Back to Bibles Net . Com – Online Christian Library Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary – Free Download |
Copyright 2008. Bibles Net. Com. All Rights Reserved.