Ezra 9:3

Horror seized him. Tearing his garments was how he showed his anger and grief (Genesis 37:29; Leviticus 10:6; Judges 11:35; Esther 4:1). The pulling out of the hair is also a sign of sorrow (Job 1:20; Ezekiel 7:18). But how his heart must have felt the dishonour done to Jehovah's holy Name! How deeply the sins of the people affected him!

It is easier to feel for God's people when their sinful conduct shames them in the eyes of the world. Only some can measure their sin as it affects the holy Name by which they are called. Only they can go down, take up and make the sin their own, and tell it all out before God. These are the people who, by the power of the Holy Spirit, are in communion with the mind of God. They share His affections for His own. So they are first and foremost filled with zeal to guard His glory. Moses, Nehemiah and Daniel are examples of this in their own measure, as well as Ezra. But all of them are only faint pictures of Him who joined Himself so closely to His people that He confessed their sins as His own. He said, "O God, you know my folly; the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you." (Psalm 69:5.)

Here was a man with no part at all in the evil now uncovered before him. Yet he struck himself, instead of setting out to strike the guilty parties. As the custom was in those days, he tore his clothes. That was not enough for him. He also hurt himself by pulling hair out of his head and beard — a painful process. Having done so, he sat down "appalled", or "overwhelmed". He began with himself in humiliation before God.

The first thing, then, is that one person humbles himself, while he waits for the people to recognize their fault and humble themselves as a whole. This must always be so. When the sin of God's people comes to light, our first call is not to take action. It is to humble ourselves. We may be alone in this, like Daniel and other faithful men of the past, and like Ezra here. Even then, let us not fail to take this place before God. He looks on the heart that is humbled and broken, and He answers its cry.

And so you see, Ezra takes a place of deeper humiliation than that. It was not just a fast now. There is this sign of a deeper humbling: he tears his garments, he sits appalled right up to the evening sacrifice, and only then does he spread out his hands to the Lord — to pray for his people as well as to confess.

Ezra is devastated. He tears his garments, pulls out his hair and sits down "overwhelmed". Only at the time of the evening sacrifice does Ezra find the courage to turn to God. That hour reminds us of the value of the sacrifice of Christ, and that God sees His people in Him. He turns to God not to accuse others, but to confess failure. And in this confession it is always "we" have sinned, not "they".