Ezra was preaching the Word of God faithfully. He was expounding the law of the Lord faithfully; and it was that that then exposed the sin. And now Shecaniah comes and he says, there are those that have trembled at the command. We have heard it and some of you know exactly what that is like.
You will be going in one direction and have your mind set on something. Your actions are moving in a certain direction, and then the Word of the Lord comes to you—whether you are reading it in your devotions or you hear it preached. Then all of a sudden,
Brian Borgmanboom!you realize that you are going in the wrong direction. You are thinking and doing the wrong things. At that very minute, there is a battle that is taking place and that is: are you going to respond to the Word of God with faith and obedience, or are you going to reject what God has to say and continue to go your own way? Shecaniah was absolutely clear: we are going to be faithful to the Word of God.1
2 And Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, of the sons of Elam, addressed Ezra: “We have broken faith with our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land, but even now there is hope for Israel in spite of this.