My Face to You, O My God

"My Face to You, O My God" - Ezra 9:3-6 (Ezra 7:6) He was a diligent scribe (quick, resolute, prompt, or light in action), that is, well-versed (learned, knowledgeable, wise) in the Law and a well-defined good connoisseur of the Law. That was to say, the best at what he knew. Reason, his dedication to the Law and style (mode, manner, form); this made him extremely suitable. He was of great piety and holy zeal: "He had prepared his heart to inquire (search, investigate, question) the Law of Jehovah and "to fulfill it."

I. Ezra had his face to God.

A. For then he knew God through what was known by the Law, which he managed to have with eagerness (effort, work).

1. Someone like him could teach and perfectly go to God by his knowledge of God.

2. He was a diligent scribe in the Law of Moses that Jehovah God of Israel had given; and the king granted him all that he asked, because the hand of the Lord his God was upon (near something else, higher than it and dominating it) Ezra.

3. (1) Ezra is informed that not only did the people fail, but even the priests and Levites had married women of gentility (paganism, idolaters).

4. Yes, by associating in business, customs, and in taking their daughters for themselves and their sons.

5. Disobeying God's commandment that forbade all union with Gentiles, in marriages.

6. Exposed to danger of idolatry, the sin that had justly brought about the ruin of the nation.

7. Many of the priests and the common people who could be considered ignorant of the Law; the priests and Levites that the office was to teach the Law, and in whom, consequently, the sin was much more grievous.

8. (1) The princes brought Ezra, who, together with his dignity, had preserved his integrity (wholeness, completeness).

9. They appealed to Ezra in the hope that his wisdom, authority, and "zeal" would remedy this situation.

10. (3) That impression that Ezra made: He tore his garment and his cloak, plucked hair from his head and beard, and sat down in extreme distress.

11. He was deeply grieved that a people called by the name of God should dare to violate God's law so grossly.

12. "Ezra's sorrow was that which corresponded to the gravity of the sin."

13. It was not for less.

14. We had to fear what could happen when God is abandoned, as had happened to them.

15. They were almost arriving, and they are back to the same thing, much to fear the consequences.

16. (4) But I was greatly distressed.

17. The influence that Ezra's sorrow had on others.

18. The people soon realized this, and all those who "had true devotion” came to join him.

19. Brother, when someone takes a stand for the cause of God against evil and profanity (it is not sacred), all the good should take his side and do all they can to strengthen his hands.

20. (5) At the time of the evening sacrifice, when the devout people used to come to the courts of the temple to offer their prayers to God.

21. For this reason, Ezra chose this hour to make this public confession, so that those present would become aware of the sins of the people.

22. Ezra had faith in this penitential way (punishment, penalty) of addressing God.

23. He arose from his affliction, as if to shake off the sorrow (annoyance, heaviness and disgust in the physical or moral) necessary "to lift up the heart to God".

24. "He fell on his knees, in a penitent posture, representing the people for whom he was about to intercede.

25. He "stretched out his hands", as if offering to God what he was going to say, and in a priestly posture of intercessory mediation to obtain the atonement (suffering the punishment for sins and the repentant past can be reconciled with God) of sin and the reconciliation of the people.

26. (6) Our iniquities have multiplied over our heads.

27. He includes himself among sinners, even though he was not guilty of this.

28. They had not been abandoned in their slavery, for even in Babylon they had signs of God's presence: they were the remnant of the Israelites, a few, who had escaped by the righteous hands of their enemies, thanks to the favor of the kings of Persia.

29. God has now given them a safe place.

30. (8) The temple was the support that sustained the nation of Israel.

31. Therefore, they had built up the house of God (9).

32. This gave them light and "life".

33. Let us appreciate what this wise people, that the "blessing" was in the temple. Amen.