And at the evening sacrifice I rose from my fasting, with my garment and my cloak torn, and fell upon my knees and spread out my hands to the LORD my God,
Ezra has just heard that the returned exiles have intermarried with the surrounding nations. He tore his clothes and sat stunned. Verse 5 is the moment he moves. The timing of that move, at the evening sacrifice, is the key to the whole scene.
Why He Waited for the Evening Sacrifice
Ezra did not pray the moment he heard the news. He waited in the dust until one particular hour. That delay was faith: he needed a ground on which to come to God about sin at all.
Edward DennettEzra kept his place in the dust — crushed by his unspeakable sorrow — until the evening sacrifice. If on one side he was heartbroken over the people's sin, on the other he saw, by faith, the only ground of approach to God about it. He took hold of the power of the sacrifice. It was the foundation on which he could come before God and spread out before Him the wrongdoing of the children of Israel. The evening sacrifice was a burnt offering. The altar consumed all of it, and it went up as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. Once Ezra stood before Him in the value of this — in all the value of what Christ was to God in His death, pictured in advance — his intercession was certain to succeed.
Humbling First, Fixing Later
Ezra's first response to the failure of God's people was not a plan of action. It was self-humbling — and writers take that order as the pattern for us.
H. L. RossierWhen the sin of the people of God comes to light, we are not called first of all to take action. We are called to humble ourselves. Even if we should be alone — like Daniel and other faithful men of former days, and like Ezra here — let us not fail to take this attitude before God. He looks on the heart that is humbled and broken, and He answers its cry.
A Prayer That Asks for Nothing
What follows in verses 6–15 is unusual. Ezra asks God for nothing, and the sins he pours out were not his own doing.
F. B. HoleThe evening sacrifice was a small picture of the sacrifice of Christ. At that hour Ezra got up with his torn garments and fell on his knees to approach God. The prayer that follows, in verses 6-15, is remarkable. He asks for nothing in it. From beginning to end it is humble and heartbroken confession of sins that he had not shared in.
"Our", Not "Their"
Ezra rises, kneels, and begins to speak. He does not stand apart from the guilty as their judge.
Michael HardtOnly 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 does not accuse others; he confesses failure. And in this confession it is always "we" have sinned, not "they".
The Shadow of a Greater Intercessor
Ezra could take the guilt of others as his own because he shared God's own feelings about His people. Writers see in that a faint outline of Someone else.
Edward DennettIt is easy enough to feel for God's people when their sinful conduct dishonours them in the eyes of the world. It is another thing to weigh their sin as it touches the holy Name by which they are called. Only those in communion with the mind of God by the power of the Holy Spirit can do that — those who share His affections for His own, those who are first and foremost filled with zeal for the keeping of His glory. Only they can go down, take up and make the sin their own, and tell it all out before God. Moses, Nehemiah and Daniel are examples of this in their various measures, and so is Ezra. But all of them are only faint foreshadowings of Him who so identified Himself with His people that in confessing their sins He said, "O God, you know my folly; the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you." (Ps. 69:5.)
The Bended Knee
The verse records his body as carefully as his words. That detail is not filler.
Frank WallaceKneeling in prayer is a physical action that shows recognition of the supremacy and greatness of the eternal God. And we have good examples — above all the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, as we see Him kneeling in the garden of Gethsemane. Bowed down with the weight of the approaching cross and all it meant, He knelt and He prayed (Luke 22:41). Paul (Acts 20:36), Solomon (2 Chr. 6:13), Ezra (Ezra 9:5) and many others bowed their knees in the presence of God or of Christ.
Summary
- Sat — his first move against sin among God's people was not a plan but grief and self-humbling, even if he stood alone.
- Waited — he stayed in the dust until the hour of the burnt offering. Sin comes to God only on the ground of a sacrifice.
- Rose — he stood in the value of that offering, which pictures what Christ was to God in His death. So his prayer was sure to be heard.
- Knelt — the verse records the bent knee and open hands on purpose. Posture shows the reverence the heart owes to God.
- Owned — his prayer asked for nothing. It was all confession, and always "we": sins he had not committed, owned as his own.