Scripture Daily

Context No. 1968 of 4322 · Ezra

Context · Reflection

Ezra 9:10-15: in context

10“Now, our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken your commandments, 11which you have commanded by your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land to which you go to possess is an unclean land through the uncleanness of the peoples of the lands, through their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with their filthiness. 12Now therefore don’t give your daughters to their sons. Don’t take their daughters to your sons, nor seek their peace or their prosperity forever, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever.’ 13“After all that has come on us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, since you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us such a remnant, 14shall we again break your commandments, and join ourselves with the peoples that do these abominations? Wouldn’t you be angry with us until you had consumed us, so that there would be no remnant, nor any to escape? 15LORD, the God of Israel, you are righteous; for we are left a remnant that has escaped, as it is today. Behold, we are before you in our guiltiness; for no one can stand before you because of this.”

Ezra, grieved at the people's sin, pours out a confession to God. What shall we say, he prays, for we have forsaken your commandments. He acknowledges the whole history of their unfaithfulness. And he says something striking about God's dealings with them: after all that has come on us for our evil deeds, you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserved, and have given us a remnant that has escaped. He confesses their guilt plainly, and marvels that God has dealt with them more mercifully than they deserved.

The remarkable note in Ezra's confession is his recognition that God had punished them less than their sins deserved. Ezra does not complain that God has been harsh; he marvels that God has been merciful, that even in judgment God gave them far better than their iniquities warranted, sparing a remnant when they deserved to be consumed entirely. His confession is marked not by a sense of being treated unfairly, but by gratitude that God's dealings, even his discipline, were more merciful than they had any right to expect. There is a spirit here worth learning for our own confession and our own view of God's dealings with us. When we suffer the consequences of our sin, or undergo God's discipline, the temptation is to feel hard done by, to complain that God has been severe, to focus on the pain rather than the mercy. Ezra's confession runs the other way. He looks at what he and his people have suffered and says, this is less than we deserved; God has been merciful even in this. And this is, in truth, how it stands with all of us. If God dealt with us strictly according to our sins, we would be undone; that we are spared at all, that a remnant escapes, that we are still standing, is mercy, not our due. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, the psalm says, nor repaid us according to our iniquities. It is because of the LORD's mercies, Lamentations says, that we are not consumed. To see our situation as Ezra saw his, recognizing that whatever we suffer is less than our sins deserve, and that God's dealings with us, even in discipline, are more merciful than we have any right to expect, transforms our confession from complaint into gratitude. Instead of feeling hard done by, we marvel that God has spared us; instead of focusing on the pain, we recognize the mercy. Ezra confessed the people's guilt and thanked God for punishing them less than they deserved; and the same humble gratitude, seeing God's mercy even in his discipline and confessing that we are treated far better than our sins warrant, is the spirit of a true confession and a right view of God's dealings with us.

When I suffer the consequences of my sin or undergo God's discipline, do I feel hard done by, complaining that God has been severe, or can I confess as Ezra confessed, recognizing that whatever I suffer is less than my sins deserve, and that God's dealings with me, even in discipline, are more merciful than I have any right to expect?

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