The Bitter Roll Call
Introduction: When Repentance Has a Name
We live in an age that loves abstractions and detests particulars. We prefer our sins to be vague, our repentance to be private, and our grace to be cheap. We are quite comfortable talking about "human brokenness" or "societal failings," but we squirm when someone puts a name and an address to a specific sin. Our modern sensibilities are offended by the long lists of names we find in Scripture. We treat them like the "begats" in the phone book, something to be skipped over to get to the "real story."
But in doing so, we miss the point entirely. God is not a God of abstractions. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He knows His sheep by name. And in our text today, we find that sin and repentance also have names. This is not a generic confession; it is a public roll call of covenant-breakers. It is a list that was read aloud, a list where every name belonged to a man standing in the crowd, a man whose wife and children were watching. This is not a story about "the problem of intermarriage." It is the story of Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, Gedaliah, and hundreds of others. It is specific, personal, public, and costly.
This chapter is a bucket of ice water thrown on the face of our therapeutic, individualistic, easy-believism. It teaches us that sin is corporate, that repentance must be tangible, and that obedience can be heartbreakingly difficult. This is not a list of statistics; it is the record of a revival. It is the bitter but necessary medicine for a people who had forgotten who they were. And it is a lesson we desperately need to relearn, because the same spirit of compromise that plagued post-exilic Israel is running rampant in the modern church. We too have married foreign wives, and we have named them Tolerance, Relevance, and Personal Autonomy.
The Text
Among the sons of the priests who had married foreign wives were found of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib and Gedaliah. They gave their hand in pledge to put away their wives, and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their guilt. Of the sons of Immer there were Hanani and Zebadiah; and of the sons of Harim: Maaseiah, Elijah, Shemaiah, Jehiel and Uzziah; and of the sons of Pashhur: Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethanel, Jozabad and Elasah. Of Levites there were Jozabad, Shimei, Kelaiah (that is, Kelita), Pethahiah, Judah and Eliezer. Of the singers there was Eliashib; and of the gatekeepers: Shallum, Telem and Uri. Of Israel, of the sons of Parosh there were Ramiah, Izziah, Malchijah, Mijamin, Eleazar, Malchijah and Benaiah; and of the sons of Elam: Mattaniah, Zechariah, Jehiel, Abdi, Jeremoth and Elijah; and of the sons of Zattu: Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, Jeremoth, Zabad and Aziza; and of the sons of Bebai: Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai and Athlai; and of the sons of Bani: Meshullam, Malluch and Adaiah, Jashub, Sheal and Jeremoth; and of the sons of Pahath-moab: Adna, Chelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezalel, Binnui and Manasseh; and of the sons of Harim: Eliezer, Isshijah, Malchijah, Shemaiah, Shimeon, Benjamin, Malluch and Shemariah; of the sons of Hashum: Mattenai, Mattattah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh and Shimei; of the sons of Bani: Maadai, Amram, Uel, Benaiah, Bedeiah, Cheluhi, Vaniah, Meremoth, Eliashib, Mattaniah, Mattenai, Jaasu, Bani, Binnui, Shimei, Shelemiah, Nathan, Adaiah, Machnadebai, Shashai, Sharai, Azarel, Shelemiah, Shemariah, Shallum, Amariah and Joseph. Of the sons of Nebo there were Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Jaddai, Joel and Benaiah. All these had taken up foreign women as wives, and some of them had wives by whom they had children.
(Ezra 10:18-44 LSB)
The Rot at the Top (vv. 18-24)
The list begins exactly where it must, with the spiritual leadership.
"Among the sons of the priests who had married foreign wives were found of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib and Gedaliah. They gave their hand in pledge to put away their wives, and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their guilt." (Ezra 10:18-19 LSB)
This is a staggering indictment. The very first names on the list are the grandsons and relatives of Jeshua, the high priest who returned with Zerubbabel. The men responsible for teaching the law, for guarding the holiness of the Temple, and for leading the people in worship were the ones leading the charge into apostasy. This is a profound illustration of federal headship. When the shepherds wander, the sheep are scattered and devoured. The corruption of a nation always begins in its pulpits and its leadership.
Their repentance had to be as public as their sin. They "gave their hand in pledge," which was a formal, solemn oath. This was not a quiet, private decision. It was a public covenant renewal. Furthermore, as priests, their sin carried an additional ceremonial weight. They were "guilty," and so they had to offer a ram for their guilt. Their sin had not just broken a rule; it had polluted the holy things of God. Atonement was required. This shows us that their sin was not primarily a social problem, but a theological one. They had violated the holiness of God.
The list continues through the other priestly families and then to the Levites, the singers, and the gatekeepers. The entire spiritual infrastructure of the nation was compromised. Before there can be any reformation among the people, there must be a cleansing of the Lord's house. This is a principle that never changes.
The Pervasive Compromise (vv. 25-43)
After dealing with the clergy, the list moves to the laity, the men "Of Israel."
"Of Israel, of the sons of Parosh there were Ramiah, Izziah, Malchijah..." (Ezra 10:25 LSB)
And so the list goes on, name after name, family after family. The sheer length and detail of this list is the point. It is meant to be overwhelming. It demonstrates that this was not a minor issue affecting a few fringe families. This was a systemic, deeply rooted, national sin. The leaven had worked its way through the whole lump. The people had returned from exile in Babylon only to create a new, voluntary exile for themselves by assimilating with the pagans around them.
We must be clear about what the sin was. It was not racism. God has never been concerned with ethnicity. Rahab the Canaanite and Ruth the Moabitess are both in the line of Christ. The issue was idolatry. God's command in Deuteronomy 7 was explicit: do not intermarry with the pagan nations, "for they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods." This was a matter of spiritual survival. Israel was called to be a holy nation, a peculiar people, set apart for the worship of the one true God. These marriages were a direct assault on that calling. They were an act of spiritual adultery, a yoking of the holy seed with the seed of unbelief. This created households where Yahweh was worshipped on Saturday and Baal was worshipped on Sunday, and the children were caught in the middle, destined for confusion and apostasy.
The Agony of Obedience (v. 44)
The final verse of the chapter lands with the force of a physical blow.
"All these had taken up foreign women as wives, and some of them had wives by whom they had children." (Ezra 10:44 LSB)
Here is the cost of true repentance. This was not a neat and tidy affair. This involved dissolving marriages. This involved separating fathers from their children. This was radical, painful, and heartbreaking. Imagine the scene. Imagine telling your wife that she has to leave. Imagine your children crying, not understanding why their mother is being sent away. This is not the cheap grace of the modern altar call. This is the costly grace of genuine reformation.
Why was such a drastic measure necessary? Because the covenant itself was at stake. The survival of Israel as the people of God was on the line. This was a moment of national crisis, and it required a form of radical surgery to save the life of the patient. The cancer of paganism had to be cut out, no matter how close it was to the heart. This is a hard providence, and it should drive us to our knees. It teaches us that obedience to God is paramount, even when it costs us everything. God's holiness is not negotiable, and our comfort is not the highest good.
Conclusion: The Unequal Yoke
So what are we to do with this bitter roll call? We are not Old Covenant Israel. The wall of partition between Jew and Gentile has been torn down in the flesh of Christ. The gospel has gone out to every nation, tribe, and tongue. But the underlying principle of covenantal purity remains, and it is restated for us in the New Testament.
Paul tells us, "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?" (2 Corinthians 6:14). The command is the same, even if the application has changed. A Christian who knowingly marries a non-Christian is committing the same foundational sin as these men in Ezra. They are yoking the temple of the Holy Spirit to an idol. They are creating a home with two different gods, two different lords, two different faiths, and two different final destinations. This is not a recipe for marital bliss; it is a recipe for mission drift and generational apostasy.
The church today needs its own Ezra. We need to be called to account for the ways we have yoked ourselves to the world. We have married the world's philosophies of education. We have married the world's definitions of sexuality and marriage. We have married the world's obsession with entertainment and materialism. And the fruit has been a weak, compromised, and worldly church, with children who do not know the Lord.
The solution is the same: radical, costly repentance. We must name our sins, confess them publicly, and cut them out of our lives, our homes, and our churches. This will be painful. But the grace of God in Christ is sufficient. The good news is that our ultimate acceptance is not based on our own covenantal fidelity, but on Christ's. He is the faithful Israelite who never compromised. And because of His perfect obedience, there is a new roll call, a new list of names being read out. It is the Lamb's Book of Life. If your name is written there, it is not because you were strong enough to put away your foreign wives, but because Christ has put away your sin and clothed you in His perfect righteousness.