This is the message that God had already given the people. They knew this. They knew better. He had taught them by his prophets. He had told them about the nature of the land into which they were entering. It was an unclean land. It is as though God would be saying to us, look, you know enough to know that this culture that you are living in, it is poisonous, it is corrupt. Do not mingle with it. Do not toy with it; do not flirt with it. Be realistic about the nature of popular culture. Know the quality of your surroundings. Are you kidding? Look carefully at the songs you are listening to. Do you not think they have a corrupting effect on your soul? What about the programs that you are watching? What about the television that you are viewing? What about what you are encountering on the internet? Do you not realize the poisonous nature of the culture in which you are living? That is what he is saying to them.
Look at the way he describes it: you are going into a land as we are in a land that is characterized by the uncleanness of the peoples of the land. It is an abominable culture, and they have filled it from one end to the other end with their impurity. Is that not describing the world in which we are living? And you know it is impure. Why? Because you have your Bibles, and we have taught you the law of God; we have taught you from the Gospels, the epistles, and from Genesis to Revelation. You know the voice of God's servants, the prophets. You have heard his Word again and again and again. Consequently you know of the uncleanliness that is out there. You know that those abominations are an offence to God. You know the filthiness of it all. So what are you doing flirting with it? What are you doing toying with it? What are you doing engaging it? Why are you pushing the envelope? Why are you getting so close? Why are you pushing closer and closer and indulging more and more with this uncleanliness in the land in which we are living?
Ezra's point is: you know better! You know because you have been taught. You know because the prophets warned you. You know because God's Word instructs you. You know because of your own conscience. Your conscience has told you. Nature has told you about these abominations. So why did you do it? And do not psychoanalyze the answer. Why do we do what we do? We do what we do because we want to. The bottom line is: why does the man go out and commits adultery? Because he wants to. He does not want to deny himself. Why does someone go and steal what they steal? Because they want to have that object. They do not want to deny themselves having that thing. We do what we do because we want to do it. We want that pleasure. We want that privilege. We want that power. We want whatever it is the world is offering, even if it is illicit, sinful, or destructive, we still want it. That is why we do what we do. We are responsible. And on Judgment Day, we will not be able to blame someone else; we will not be able to shift the blame to other people. The fact of the matter is, we knew better! We knew it was wrong. We knew it was an offence to God.1
Terry L. Johnson
10 “And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken your commandments,