I'm not really a negative Nellie

We're ready to dive into chapter nine of Ezra!
In this chapter, we are going to read about the sin of the people, and about Ezra's reaction to it.

Last week, I was pretty tough on y'all. And this week? To talk about sin? Are you thinking I'm a negative Nellie? I'm just following along where the Spirit leads me!
And this is not necessarily negative, either, for when we have agreement with God about sin, we will turn away from it and He will bless us abundantly!
You remember when we talked last week about the society of today, and how the culture is accepting of immorality? If we are not careful about where we turn our eyes, or what we invest our time in, we are liable to be immersed in a sinful environment.
Sexual sin.
Taking God's name in vain.
Greed and dishonesty.
The list goes on. On television and in the movies, and on podcasts (see, I'm up to date!) sin is excused, chuckled at, or overlooked.
It just doesn't shock us anymore.
We've grown desensitized to it. Then we minimize it. And justify it. Or we ignore it.
In fact, when we see someone reacting in a godly way toward sin, do we look skeptically at him or her? Do we mutter about their being extreme, or carried away, or making a mountain out of a molehill? How judgmental! How intolerant! Surely he knows he is a sinner, too. Certainly she must not dream that she's without sin.
So, after casting our own stones at the person, we go back to business as usual.
And we wonder why God doesn't bless our lives more than He does.
Ouch. That got my toes, too.
Got a bandaid handy?

I'd like to ask if we could read the ninth chapter of Ezra before we meet again to study. We should take our time and really picture the events in our minds. If we get caught up in the story and read the following chapter, too, that is OK!
Chapter nine tells us of Ezra's reaction to the sin of the exiles who returned to Israel from captivity in Babylon. After he had led a second group back to the homeland, and returned the vessels to the temple, it was reported to him that many in Israel had sinned by taking pagan wives. Not only the ordinary citizens, but also many priests, Levites, and leaders had done this.

Ezra didn't exactly take this in stride.
He didn't chuckle and say, "Well, people will be people. It takes all kinds to make a world."
He tore his clothes.
He pulled some hair from his head and his beard.
He sat down, appalled.
He was speechless until the time of the evening offering. (By that time, a number of godly people had gathered around him.)
Ezra rose up, then fell to his knees and lifted his hands to the Lord.
He confessed the great sin of the people, and even identified himself with them, even though he'd not personally sinned in this way.
Although we don't hear much about it, his prayer ranks among the great confessions in our Bible. It's similar in some ways to the prayers in Nehemiah and in Daniel, and it shows the reaction of a godly man toward sin.  He recognized the sin; he was grieved by it, and he confessed it to God.

How a person reacts to sin tells a lot about that person. Do we hear about adultery and then tune our ears to hear the juicy tidbits? Do we hear of someone's financial sins of greed or gambling, and listen harder for the details? I believe that if we do, it reveals we do not hate that sin. We may even be vulnerable to it ourselves. Now, I will agree that even as I've repented of sins, I've not pulled out my hair or destroyed my clothing - that part of the equation is in the culture of the Jewish people. We can still learn from Ezra, though, to be so concerned and saddened by sin that we have an overwhelming desire to sweep it from our lives and do better. We can make certain that we don't ignore it, or overlook it, or justify it. We will study this further in our posts this week.

See? I'm not a negative Nellie. But I'm going to keep that box of band-aids handy. (Grin)