Introduction

Good day to you all. Let us continue our study in the Book of Ezra, chapter nine. This chapter marks a sharp turn in events. Consider the immense grace bestowed upon Ezra when God sent him back to Jerusalem! How did the Israelites who returned with Ezra live their lives? Let us first examine how those whom Zerubbabel brought back eighty years prior fared.

Zerubbabel's return to Jerusalem with the Israelites was a momentous event, a testament to God's grace. He brought back not only tens of thousands of people but also a great deal of wealth. However, eighty years later, in Ezra's time, they once again began to provoke God's wrath. This chapter is truly worth studying repeatedly, with the theme: "Returned from Captivity, Yet Still Sinning Against God."

Christians have a peculiar trait: they provoke God's wrath, encounter disaster, and then confess, repent, and pray fervently! But once times improve slightly, guess what happens? They revert to sinning against God! Why is this so? I then thought: God, have mercy on me, and never let me be such a person.

Let us analyze this matter of "Returned from Captivity, Yet Still Sinning Against God." It is a profoundly serious issue. If you merely seek to live a comfortable life, you are bound to fail! If one's vision is limited to the pursuit of a comfortable life, that is the root of sin. We have given it a name: "Living for Petty Comforts."

God Never Ceases to Save Us

How much God desires for us to live prosperous lives, like the Davidic dynasty in its flourishing state! But people do not believe, living according to human logic. Yet God never ceases to save us.

In Jeremiah's time, the Kingdom of Judah was destroyed by Babylon. More than a century earlier, the Kingdom of Israel was destroyed by the Assyrian Empire. This was truly tragic! Whether it was the Kingdom of Judah or the Kingdom of Israel, the people of both nations cried out to God, but to no avail! Judah not only became a colony but also had its elite taken captive. What a cruel state of affairs!

In the blink of an eye, the seventy years prophesied by Jeremiah passed. In 538 BC, God raised up Cyrus the king, who then sent Zerubbabel with tens of thousands of Israelites to return to Jerusalem. They encountered many difficulties in Jerusalem and delayed the rebuilding of the temple for sixteen years, as described in the Book of Haggai.

In fact, the Israelites were not so willing to rebuild the temple. They kept saying, "The time to rebuild the temple has not yet come." So the prophet Haggai and other prophets encouraged the Israelites to begin rebuilding the temple. Later, after King Artaxerxes ascended the throne, he not only decreed that they should resume building the temple but also forbade anyone from hindering them. God never ceases to save people!

Eighty years passed in the blink of an eye. Those whom Zerubbabel brought back, with the priests and Levites leading the way, began to sin. Perhaps some other Israelites also wanted to sin but lacked the opportunity. This sounds somewhat heartbreaking!

Why did God raise up Ezra? Because there was no one in that place who could lead Israel to live a God-centered life. They were all "good-for-nothings." God raised up Zerubbabel in the past and then Ezra, to bring the Israelites back on the right path.

About fourteen to sixteen years later, in Nehemiah's time, God saw that the problems Ezra had solved had all returned! In fact, Ezra was still in Jerusalem at that time but was powerless to reverse the situation.

Why did God raise up Nehemiah? You see, God raised up Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah separately. God truly never ceases to save us! He disciplines us, wounds us, and then has compassion and binds up our wounds. But as soon as we recover, we sin again. This truly fulfills the saying, "There is only blessing one cannot enjoy, no sin one cannot endure." People must suffer for their sins!

If you observe carefully, once people live comfortably, they feel they no longer need God. This is the same as the Israelites. Can such a life last long? Certainly not. Then they begin to provoke God's wrath! However, God's wrath does not come in a single day, but when it comes, it is basically impossible to reverse. So I am particularly moved.

Like some people who get cancer, I lead them in prayer, and when they get a little better, they start thinking about money again, and then their illness gets worse again. I lead them in prayer again, and when they recover again, they start thinking about money again. Oh my goodness!

Some people get a life-threatening illness, I lead them in prayer and they get better, and then they say, "Teacher, I want to leave the church." I say, "Then leave!" Doesn't this happen around us every day? I think, God's work is not easy!

God looks at these people, and He knows in His heart: Alas, they will still forsake me in the future. But God still wants to save us. Don't you find it very interesting? So brothers and sisters, truly thank God for His grace!

Some people say, "Why didn't God crush me to death?" In fact, God doesn't want to crush you to death. Although it would be easy for Him to crush you, God wants to save you! Our God is truly full of grace and mercy. Even when people are in captivity, God still does not forget to save them. This is our God!

Those Returned from Captivity Still Sin Against God

Whether in Ezra's time, Zerubbabel's time, or Nehemiah's time, God never ceased to save. God hopes that we can have a slight revival in our bondage, that is, "to grant us favor in the sight of the king of Persia, to revive us, to rebuild the house of our God, to repair its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem." It is always like this! God has never changed.

But those who returned from captivity and suffered for their sins forget after a few decades! Are these people living well? They are living very well! They are eating and drinking luxuriously, and they are also intermarrying with foreigners. Why are they intermarrying? Only those who are well-matched can intermarry, because the foreigners in that place are "local snakes," they have influence. So the priests and Levites of Israel intermarry with them and gain mutual benefits.

In our current era, many people envy those who gain benefits, because they have power and can abuse it for personal gain. But if you look closely, you will find that few of them have good endings!

These intermarrying priests and Levites are probably in the same situation. When they begin to be corrupt, seeking their own interests, intermarrying with foreigners, holding shares in each other's businesses, and making their businesses "bigger and stronger," earning more money, how can their lives not be good?

But if you say to them, "You must believe in the Lord, you were once returned from captivity," they will say, "My grandfather was returned from captivity, are you out of your mind? If I don't marry her, what will happen to my shares? How can we do business together?" People's vision is so short, their eyes are full of money! Do they know God's wrath? They don't know! So we must learn a deep lesson from this: people have experienced God.

Some people have experienced God from the brink of death, but later they have great "faith" that these things will not happen again, and then they boldly pursue whatever they want. These people who returned from captivity forget in the blink of an eye! Zerubbabel returned to Jerusalem only eighty years ago. In Ezra's time, he would have been only thirty years old. The people of Zerubbabel's time were his grandfathers, but he knew nothing about his grandfather's return from captivity.

For example, in 1960, there was a three-year natural disaster, which was a combination of natural and man-made disasters. How many people starved to death! But if you ask the post-2000s and post-1990s generations, they will say, "There was such a thing? People starved to death?" They know nothing!

It's the same as in Ezra's time, except that they are descendants of Aaron, naturally born priests! Not to mention that era, when I was a child, I often saw dead children in the ditches, I don't know if they died of illness or starvation!

Who doesn't want to live a good life? But there must be a way to live a good life! People either live a God-centered good life or a self-centered good life. How long can you maintain a self-centered good life? What if God sends down disaster from heaven?

Later, in the time of Nehemiah and Haggai, God decided to do one thing: there were no more prophets, and the temple was not rebuilt. From the time of Nehemiah to the time of Malachi, until the coming of Jesus Christ, there were more than four hundred years in between. The Israelites passed from generation to generation, but they suffered a lot.

Brothers and sisters, we must know that experiencing God's grace does not explain anything, but we must not forget experiencing God's grace! But I see many people forgetting! Let me remind you again: do not offend God!

In the past, when we offended God, it was enough for us to suffer a lot. Later, we turned back to God, called on God, and turned things around, but then we turned back to our own affairs. We all feel that we love God very much, although we go to church, our hearts are not in the church.
There is a brother who is very interesting. He is the husband of one of our sisters. This couple believed in the Lord at first, but later they became more and more indifferent. In 2022, this brother had a serious illness and brushed shoulders with death, so he asked us brothers and sisters to pray and serve him, and finally he survived. After surviving, he could barely go to church in 2023, but in 2024, forget it! He feels that going to church is too troublesome!

Some time ago, this sister saw that her husband had no memory, so she reminded him, "Have you forgotten what it was like back then?" As a result, he had a very bad temper and replied, "What? Are you still going to use my illness in 2022 to threaten me?" Just a few days ago, he had another cerebral infarction or myocardial infarction. Perhaps God will have mercy on him again, but I keep thinking: what kind of brain is this? How dare he be so bold?

But I have heard this kind of "Why do you keep talking about my last illness?" countless times. I remind these people, "Turn back to God, don't provoke God's wrath again." As a result, people say, "What? Are you still bringing it up?" Oh my goodness, I was so choked up! Our brothers and sisters must know that people's lives are in God's hands! Do you think your life is not in God's hands? Some people are really arrogant.

Our God is full of grace. Does God know that he is such a person? He knows. Then why does He still heal him? Because He really hopes that he can turn back to God and be saved. How can you live without God? How dare you think that this disease will not come back?

I tell you, being returned from captivity and still sinning against God is no joke. If you live long enough, you will see God's severe judgment. Do you think God can be treated like this? People treat God like this, and the ending will not be good. Some people say, "I just said that yesterday, why am I okay now?" Don't worry, wait and see!

The Root of Sin

Brothers and sisters, let's analyze carefully, how did these people who returned from captivity sin against God again? Where is the root of sin? Where is the root of provoking God's wrath? The root lies in people's view of living, which is completely worldly, not knowing that there is a God in the world, nor fearing God.

Think about it, from Zerubbabel to Ezra, eighty years have passed. People have been intermarrying for more than a day or two. His grandfather's generation began to intermarry when they returned to Jerusalem. His father married a foreign woman, and by the time it was his turn, he was the third generation, so he married another foreign woman, and then he said, "What? My grandfather and my father did the same!

Well, nothing has happened in eighty years, everything is fine! Our mansion is bigger than Wang Lin's storefront, we have plenty of money." Can you explain it? Anyway, I was so choked up by him that I couldn't say anything.

Some people say, "Teacher, Jack Ma doesn't believe in the Lord, but he's doing pretty well, isn't he?" I said, "Those people in prison used to be doing pretty well," but people can't hear it. The Grand View Garden in "Dream of the Red Chamber" was very good, and Wang Xifeng was very rich! She was eloquent, but how miserable was she later? The better you are, the more miserable you will be.

Brothers and sisters, we must know that the root of sin lies in people's short-sightedness, not knowing that people cannot control their own destiny. I tell you, you can't decide when you will fall or when you will break a bone. But they will say, "It shouldn't happen to me, right?" But you can't decide, who can decide?

Brothers and sisters, lend me your ears. Perhaps you are not a believer, merely sitting beside your family listening to me. But we must understand that the course of a person's life is not determined by our "three meals a day and a comfortable rest," nor by the quality of our studies, but by a sudden event.

When a sudden disaster strikes, it is all over! Some people were fine yesterday, but suddenly they are killed in a car accident, or suddenly diagnosed with an illness! None of those cancer patients ever thought they would get cancer. If they knew that doing this would lead to cancer, why would they do it?

Recently, there was news of an entrepreneur, not yet fifty, who paid great attention to his health and had a very regular schedule. Unlike me, I have no schedule at all! I go to sleep at 3 a.m. if I say so, or at 2 a.m. if I say so. Sometimes I stay up until 4 or 5 in the morning, and I don't take care of myself.

But he suddenly had a stroke and died, leaving everyone puzzled! He was doing so well, worth hundreds of millions, but even tens or hundreds of millions are useless. Someone even sent a message: a music conductor in New York was changing a tire on the street and was hit and killed, only in his thirties.

The root of sin is shortsightedness, too much confidence in being alive, thinking that one can determine one's own destiny with one's own hands, thinking that one must make money. As the saying goes, "Man dies for wealth, and birds die for food." But when Jerusalem was captured by Babylon, what use was all your money? You were taken captive whether you liked it or not. What kind of thinking is that?

Their family had not experienced the exile and return, so they did not know. But their family personally experienced it, and after a while, they knew nothing. Who knows which tire will hit you? Observe carefully, I tell you, it is not money, marriage, or shares that keep people alive, but the spirit. "Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God!" This is the worldview, the outlook on life, and the values.

Why do some people think money is good? Because they think: I plan to travel to Nepal. Oh, Nepal is south of the Himalayas, with beautiful scenery, so beautiful! But you need money to go. What's the use of having the spirit? Can the spirit take me to Nepal? This is the root of sin.

So once a person loves the world, they are finished, thinking that they can live well by loving the world. How can they live well? Let's look at those who once had power and influence, what happened to them later? Not to mention being struck down by God, even the political struggles alone made them dizzy.

Years ago, a man had many large courtyards, and he brought his parents to live with him. After they came, he asked me to minister to his parents, who both had mental illnesses. Why did they have mental illnesses? Because they had been defeated in political struggles. Oh, it was so desolate! Before, his house was bustling with activity, with a constant stream of people bringing gifts. Now, no one cared about him. Others looked at him like dog droppings. How could he bear it?

So the root of sin is that the Israelites did not know how to live a God-centered life. Their lives were all in God's hands, but they thought the things of the world were so good! What use is beautiful scenery? I saw on the news that a very famous CCTV host went to the United States to treat cancer and died at the age of fifty. People spend their lives desperately heading towards destruction. This is the root of sin.

So we say that a person's values must be correct. What is the meaning of life? Living is a spiritual matter. What happens in a person's life is determined in the spiritual world, not because of this or that reason.

In fact, the treatment for cancer is also quite evil. If one grows, cut one off. If it grows again, cut it off again. If it continues to grow, continue to have surgery. You spend your whole life having surgery. What do you do? Because you can't solve the problem of why it grows.

The root of human sin is values, not knowing that the world we live in is governed by God, that a person's life is governed by God, and that many things in a person's life are vanity of vanities. But some people live very realistically because their eyes are only on the next three to five years. This is the root of sin.

After the Israelites were exiled and returned, eighty years passed. By the time of Ezra, they were living a very prosperous life. But God was particularly angry with these people, so he sent Ezra back to straighten them out. Later, he sent away all the foreign wives they had married. Not only the twenty-year-olds, but also the fifty- and sixty-year-olds who had married them. Ezra cleaned house one by one, clearing them all out.

What was the situation? It was wailing and heart-wrenching. Good families were broken up by Ezra. Of course, they were broken up now, but after a while, they might move back. Could Ezra watch their door every day? Don't think Ezra is making a big fuss now, but it's "much ado about nothing." After a few days, people will live their lives as usual.

In the blink of an eye, more than ten years passed. By the time of Nehemiah, people were living their lives as usual! Nehemiah was too lazy to break them up again. So there is not much use in launching movements. But this shows one thing: God is working very hard to save people!

## Provoking God's Wrath

If our brothers and sisters get a deadly disease, it is because the root of sin is still there. A carnal person is an enemy of God. Some people say, "Is there anything wrong with me? Can't I take care of my body?" There is nothing wrong with taking care of your body, but the underlying logic is carnality. You might as well take care of your spirit rather than your body.

If your spirit prospers, everything prospers. If your spirit does not prosper, and you take care of your body all day long, then go ahead and take care of it! Didn't someone just pass away? He ran five kilometers every day, a very energetic person. But what are you exercising your body for? Why did he die so quickly? To remind the world: exercising the soul is better than exercising the body, and practicing godliness is better than physical training.

Always remember that the carnal is enmity against God. If you are a carnal person, you will feel that you need money to live. Even if your body gets a little better after praying, the first thing you think about is money, thinking: I need money to live. What kind of thinking is that? You already have a deadly disease, and you are still carnal. Why don't you know that the carnal reaps corruption and is enmity against God?

If you are at enmity with God, try it and see! How much ability do you have to dare to be at enmity with God? Some people say, "I'm doing pretty well now." Don't worry, it's only a matter of time. Can those who are at enmity with God be well? Why are hospitals crowded with people? Do you think it's the virus? No, it's being at enmity with God!

What Ezra saw when he returned to Jerusalem were these people who were at enmity with God. God could have done it himself, but these people couldn't handle it. God would have killed them with a slight touch, so he sent Ezra back to deal with it. But Ezra could deal with marriage, but he couldn't deal with people's hearts. People still had these things in their hearts, and it couldn't be solved. Later, Ezra led the Israelites to read the Bible, but it was useless after reading it.

Many of our brothers and sisters always want to solve some unsolvable problems. The most difficult thing to solve is when a person is at enmity with God. When a person is at enmity with God, they will have many illnesses.

Some people also say, "I want to preach the gospel to him." If you can preach it, then preach it! The things in their bones have already been shaped, especially the elderly. "In one ear and out the other," they have that energy in their bones. If you have that enthusiasm and want to waste some time, then waste it, but it's useless.

Then he says, "How do you know it's useless?" If it were useful, it would have been useful long ago! It's difficult to dismantle a person with a carnal logical system when they are young. How can you dismantle it when they are old? Oh, I am really filled with emotion! Some people are not so stubborn, and it's okay to talk to them. They can still listen. When they see a ghost, they say, "I remembered this. Quickly lead me to believe in the Lord." There are also such things.

## Ezra's Repentance

Ezra led the Israelites to repent there, saying things that made people feel uncomfortable. I will read it to you:

**And at the evening sacrifice I arose from my fasting; and having torn my garment and my mantle, I fell on my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord my God. And I said: “O my God, I am too ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God; for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has grown up to the heavens. From the days of our fathers to this day we have been very guilty, and for our iniquities we, our kings and our priests have been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plunder, and to humiliation, as it is this day. (Ezra 9:5-7)**

We are like this now!

**And now for a little while grace has been shown from the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a peg in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and give us a measure of revival in our bondage. For we were slaves. Yet our God did not forsake us in our bondage; but He extended mercy to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us revival, to repair the house of our God, to rebuild its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem.**

**“And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken Your commandments, which You commanded by Your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land which you are entering to possess is an unclean land, with the uncleanness of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations which have filled it from one end to the other, and with their impurity. Now therefore, do not give your daughters as wives for their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons; and never seek their peace or prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land, and leave it as an inheritance to your children forever.’**

**And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, since You our God have punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us such deliverance as this, should we again break Your commandments, and join in marriage with the people committing these abominations? Would You not be angry with us until You had consumed us, so that there would be no remnant or survivor?**

**O Lord God of Israel, You are righteous, for we are left as a remnant, as it is this day. Here we are before You, in our guilt, for no one can stand before You because of this!” (Ezra 9:8-15)**

This is Ezra's repentance. Ezra was a prophet and a priest. He saw with his own eyes the future disasters that were in front of him, "exile, plunder, being killed, and being humiliated, just like today." Our brothers and sisters, if you are humiliated, exiled, and deceived, what is the reason? Because you have provoked God's anger.

Let us begin to readjust and change the things inside us. If the thing inside you is carnal and loves money, you cannot but pay the price for it, because people really do not live by these things. Living is originally a very simple thing, but it has been ruined by people. We, especially those who have been exiled and returned, if we do not change now, when will we change? Do we have to wait until the things of killing, plundering, and exile come upon us?

I tell you, there is nothing that is not deserved. There is a saying, "And You have punished us less than our iniquities deserve," which means that such punishment is actually less than what we deserve. What we deserve is much heavier than this, but God has mercy. Do you want to despise God's grace and mercy?

I tell you, sometimes I feel very sad and helpless. Why? A sister has a serious illness, and all she thinks about is money. You say, "Listen to what the teacher is saying." But she didn't hear anything. She thought, "How can I live like you say?" Then the illness gets worse and worse. How can I lead her to pray? It's not that I don't like to spend time, but I don't know how to spend time because she doesn't believe in this.

I hope that our brothers and sisters can deeply learn a lesson. Why do you want to walk the path of the Israelites? Why do you think the same way they do? I don't know, but if we can listen, we must know that living a God-centered life is the best grace. Amen!

We will end our Bible study sharing here. May God bless everyone!

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