Ezr 9:5-15 | Clarke | STEP | Verse 5 Fell upon my knees - In token of the deepest humility. Spread out my hands, as if to lay hold on the mercy of God. We have already had occasion to explain these significant acts.

Ezra 9:5-15

Verse 5

Fell upon my knees - In token of the deepest humility. Spread out my hands, as if to lay hold on the mercy of God. We have already had occasion to explain these significant acts. Verse 6

I am ashamed and blush - God had been so often provoked, and had so often pardoned them, and they had continued to transgress, that he was ashamed to go back again to the throne of grace to ask for mercy in their behalf. This is the genuine feeling of every reawakened backslider. Verse 8

And now for a little space - This interval in which they were returning from servitude to their own land.

Grace hath been showed - God has disposed the hearts of the Persian kings to publish edicts in our favor.

To leave us a remnant to escape - The ten tribes are gone irrecoverably into captivity; a great part even of Judah and Benjamin had continued beyond the Euphrates: so that Ezra might well say, there was but a remnant which had escaped.

A nail in his holy place - Even so much ground as to fix our tent-poles in.

May lighten our eyes - To give us a thorough knowledge of ourselves and of our highest interest, and to enable us to re-establish his worship, is the reason why God has brought us back to this place.

A little reviving - We were perishing, and our hopes were almost dead; and, because of our sins, we were sentenced to death: but God in his great mercy has given us a new trial; and he begins with little, to see if we will make a wise and faithful use of it. Verse 10

What shall we say after this? - Even in the midst of these beginnings of respite and mercy we have begun to provoke thee anew! Verse 11

Have filled it from one end to another - The abominations have been like a sweeping mighty torrent, that has increased till it filled the whole land, and carried every thing before it. Verse 13

Hast punished us less than our iniquities - Great, numerous, and oppressive as our calamities have been, yet merely as temporal punishments, they have been much less than our provocations have deserved. Verse 15

Thou art righteous - Thou art merciful; this is one of the many meanings of the word צדק tsedek; and to this meaning St. Paul refers, when he says, God declares his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, Rom 3:25 (note). See the note there.

We remain yet escaped - Because of this righteousness or mercy.

In our trespasses - We have no righteousness; we are clothed and covered with our trespasses.

We cannot stand before thee because of this - The parallel place, as noted in the margin, is Psa 130:3 : If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? Every man must stand before the judgment-seat of Christ: but who shall stand there with joy? No man against whom the Lord marks iniquities. There is a reference here to the temple service: the priests and Levites stood and ministered before the Lord, but they were not permitted to do so unless pure from all legal pollution; so no man shall stand before the judgment-seat of Christ who is not washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb. Reader, how dost thou expect to stand there?