Watch on October 9, 2022 Worship/Communion service. It includes prayers, singing, announcements, special music and a sermon by Tom Cantor from Ezra 10.
Tom Ezra 10 and then reviewed chapter 9. He pointed out that all sorts of people, men, women, children, joined Ezra in his mourning. Then he showed Shechaniah stood up and speaks, we have sinned (trespassed), and called out the specific sin. Shechaniah then added “yet now there is hope in Israel.“ An interesting point Tom made was that Shechaniah was the son of one of the men who had taken a foreign women who practiced idolatry for a wife. Ezra 10:2, 26
Tom pointed out this is a model of sin and hope for the world through the atonement of Messiah Jesus (John 1:29). The sad event pivoted at the time of the evening sacrifice (Ezra 9:4). He made the point that salvation is from the Jews, but there is no hope in the traditions of the rabbis as there is no hope in the Roman Catholic traditions. The hope is in the Jewish Messiah – Jesus. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the truth for all, Jews and gentiles. He connected the hope here with Hosea 2:15 “door of hope“ and noted that Jesus is “the door“ (John 10:9). Tom then made a connection of this hope in Jewish evangelism and gave an example from Japanese evangelism, too.
Finally, he addressed the difficult situation in this chapter regarding divorce, noting this was not the norm (I Corinthians 7:12).