1. Ezra 9:6–7 (ESV)
  2. Application

Sin is a weighty matter

Ezra 9:6–7 (ESV)

6 saying:“O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens.

I think the fundamental reason why we are so flippant about sin is that we just do not know God. We do not know him like Ezra knows him. We do not know that God wants to be feared. We do not know that God is a Holy God. That He is one who is compassionate and gracious, as Moses wrote years before—slow to anger, yes; abounding in loving kindness and truth, yes; but he is one who will by no means clear the guilty—visiting the sins of the fathers on the children and the grandchildren to the third and the fourth generation. Our sins are against God. God is not to be trifled with. We are not to be flippant about our sins. We have offended the Almighty and that is a matter of consequence, that is a weighty matter.1

Terry L. Johnson