Recovering the biblical vision of God (Ezra 9:5-15)

Reading Ezra’s prayer, I am struck by how different his approach to God is compared to what we are used to today. For some from a toxic Christian background, guilt is a constant companion exaggerating every sin, every wrong thought and making it into the final straw that would unleash God’s anger. For others, guilt as a sentiment is banished altogether as something unhealthy that has no place in a Christian’s life since God loves us. For many in the Western world, shame over how we are perceived by others or ourselves has become the dominant emotion. However, what we judge by are the cultural expectations of our societies, like young girls’ body shame compared to social media’s airbrushed perfection.

Guilt and shame for sins before God

In comparison, Ezra feels both guilt and shame over the exiles’ sin (Ezra 9:6). These two, guilt over what we have done and shame over what we have become, belong together and both are meant to be in response to what God considers sin. Neither is the issue a minor mishap, but at the heart of the covenant with God: unfaithfulness in the form of idolatry (Deut 7:3-4). It is like adultery in a marriage, the very thing that threatens to tear the fabric of the relationship. So often, our conscience is more attuned to what our culture considers wrong and is numbed to what God judges as foul because secular society sees it as normal. It was no different in the ancient world, where worshipping other gods was common practice and altars and shrines abounded.

God’s judgment

Ezra understands what is at stake, that such sins of idolatry led to the exile (Ezra 9:7). While Israel was in the land and had the temple and sacrifices, they could believe that all was well, that their relationship was going on all right. But eventually, God tore the veil of self-deception and once removed from His presence and without the opportunity of external worship, they could no longer pretend. While the exile was God’s judgment, it is also a reminder that idolatry destroys our relationship with God and distances us from Him. We may hang onto the trappings of faith, but it is like the marriage where the spouses no longer talk, engage, or grow together, so our relationship with the Lord can become emptied out of content.

God’s grace

On the other hand, Ezra also understands God’s grace. Despite Israel’s unfaithfulness, there was a remnant that returned from exile, and just as a peg secures the tent so it does not collapse, so the returnees could have security and reassurance of God’s presence with them in the temple (Ezra 9:8). While they were still under political domination, their lives were revived and God’s protection was like a hedge or stone wall around the vineyard, Israel (the sense of gader ‘wall’ in the Hebrew; Ezra 9:9, Isa 5:5-7). It is against this background of God’s amazing faithfulness that Ezra feels even more the weight of sin. How can they turn to the very things that almost destroyed them (Ezra 9:13-14)? It is like committing adultery, being forgiven and given a new start, only to repeat the same sin again. Would God’s patience run out?

What captures our heart?

As then, so now, it is important to have a clear vision about the shape of our lives in a spiritual sense, to internalise what matters to God, so that our conscience responds to what He considers sin. Our hearts are captured by many things that take priority over everything else, and because these are often good and even needful, it is hard to recognise when they become idols. The question to ask is, how does it affect our relationship with God? It can be an obsession with healthy living, a dulling of pain with food, a preoccupation with the internal workings of our self, a drive for achievement or security, the accumulation of possessions and so on. What marks these out as idolatrous is the way they take over our lives, our imagination, our heart, so that spending time with God feels dull in comparison. Yet when we understand both God’s justice and His mercy, we can come to Him in repentance and entrust ourselves to Him no matter His decision (Ezra 9:15).

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