Old Testament: Ezra 10.6

To read the Bible in a year, read Ezra 9–10 on June 15, In the year of our Lord Christ 2024

By Don Ruhl 

One thing that you will notice when you read the Book of Ezra is the extreme reaction of Ezra to the presence of sin among the Jews who had returned from captivity. 

When he discovered that some of the returned captives were engaging in some of the same sins that moved the Lord to send the Babylonians against Judah and Jerusalem, to destroy everything, it hit the man of God hard. 

The record says that, “he ate no bread and drank no water, for he mourned because of the guilt of those from the captivity” (Ezra 10.6). 

It was not even his sin that made him mourn so strongly, but the sin of his brethren. His mourning came not only from fear of the Jews again repeating the sins of the generation before Babylonian captivity, but he loved his fellow Jews and did not want to see them offending the God of heaven with their impenitent sin. 

Questions: 

• How does the sin of others affect you? 
• Have you been so moved by bad news that you could not eat? 

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Don preaches with the Savage Street Church of Christ in Grants Pass, Oregon. 

Listen to his sermons here: GrantsPassChurchOfChrist.com