Ezra 10:11

And Ezra stands up again, and now plainly charges them with their sin. "You have transgressed," he says, "and have taken foreign wives." For an Israelite this was the great mark of apostasy, as far as the people were concerned. It was apostasy from God in taking a foreign god, and apostasy from the people in taking foreign wives. It was a complete giving up of their holy place of separateness to the Lord.

Ezra speaks to them. He no longer says, as in Ezra 9:7, "We have been in great guilt." Now he says, "You have broken faith and married foreign women… separate yourselves" (vv. 10, 11). It is now a matter of reaching the conscience of those who have sinned.

Ezra rose and addressed them. First, he charged them with their sin (v. 10). Then he urged them to confess to the Lord God of their fathers, and to do His will (v. 11). So his first thought was about what was due to the Lord. But if they confessed to Him, they must submit themselves to His will.

These two things appear in verse 11. It is sadly possible to confess wrongdoing and yet continue in it in more subtle and unseen ways. It is also possible to realise that wrongdoing of a certain sort is not profitable and to give it up, but without any confession of wrong in the matter. But when the conviction of sin is genuine, there is first confession of the sin, and then a forsaking of it, as Proverbs 28:13 plainly shows.

The order of the separation is most instructive — "from the peoples of the land, and from the foreign wives." Since marrying the foreign wives had been the sin, you might think the wives would be mentioned first. But what had led to these marriages? Association with the people of the land. This was the root of the mischief, and Ezra deals with it first. So in every departure from God, nothing is gained until you reach the root, and restoration is impossible.

We know what this must have been. The wives would appeal to their husbands' love, and the poor children would be on their knees asking why their fathers should disown them. It was a time of agony for many a father and mother in Israel who had been found out in their sin. But the truth is that there is no real repentance without deep grief and pain.

Sometimes material difficulties stand in the way of immediate cleansing. This could not be "a work for one day or two." The evil was widespread, and as everyone confessed, "there are many of us who have transgressed in this thing." In this way God makes them understand that it is harder to repair evil than to commit it. But He is full of patience and mercy, and He takes account of the heart's decision. He knows that the guilty ones are not looking for loopholes and that they truly want to obey.

The apostasy of Israel and then of Judah led to the world-power of the Gentiles. It did not cancel God's will for faithful men, and still less does the ruin of Christendom cancel it for the Christian now… Separation to God now is not merely outward and of the flesh. It is in the Spirit's power, as taught in the word… We are called to do His will in obedience to His word, and this is binding, whatever the cost. The danger is using the state of ruin as an excuse for slackness.