November 08, 2024 | Be God's Light
Ezra Opposes Intermarriage
Scripture: Ezra 9(NIV)
1 After these things had been done, the leaders came to me and said, “The people of Israel, including the priests and the Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the neighboring peoples with their detestable practices, like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians and Amorites. 2 They have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, and have mingled the holy race with the peoples around them. And the leaders and officials have led the way in this unfaithfulness.”
3 When I heard this, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled hair from my head and beard and sat down appalled. 4 Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of this unfaithfulness of the exiles. And I sat there appalled until the evening sacrifice.
5 Then, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self-abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn, and fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the Lord my God 6 and prayed:
“I am too ashamed and disgraced, my God, to lift up my face to you, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens. 7 From the days of our ancestors until now, our guilt has been great. Because of our sins, we and our kings and our priests have been subjected to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation at the hand of foreign kings, as it is today.
8 “But now, for a brief moment, the Lord our God has been gracious in leaving us a remnant and giving us a firm place in his sanctuary, and so our God gives light to our eyes and a little relief in our bondage. 9 Though we are slaves, our God has not forsaken us in our bondage. He has shown us kindness in the sight of the kings of Persia: He has granted us new life to rebuild the house of our God and repair its ruins, and he has given us a wall of protection in Judah and Jerusalem.
10 “But now, our God, what can we say after this? For we have forsaken the commands 11 you gave through your servants the prophets when you said: ‘The land you are entering to possess is a land polluted by the corruption of its peoples. By their detestable practices they have filled it with their impurity from one end to the other. 12 Therefore, do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters for your sons. Do not seek a treaty of friendship with them at any time, that you may be strong and eat the good things of the land and leave it to your children as an everlasting inheritance.’
13 “What has happened to us is a result of our evil deeds and our great guilt, and yet, our God, you have punished us less than our sins deserved and have given us a remnant like this. 14 Shall we then break your commands again and intermarry with the peoples who commit such detestable practices? Would you not be angry enough with us to destroy us, leaving us no remnant or survivor? 15 Lord, the God of Israel, you are righteous! We are left this day as a remnant. Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in your presence.”
Devotional
Some 2000 families were part of the second remnant of Jews who returned to Jerusalem from Babylon. Eighty years earlier about 50,000 Jews were in the first wave of returning exiles. Add to these numbers the Jews who had remained in Judah when the Babylonians exiled their family and friends. There were many Jews living in the land.
Ezra’s mission was to reestablish worship and obedience to the Law of God. If the nation of Israel was going to be restored, it would have to be from the inside out. But the idolatry of the surrounding nations was always looming. The very pagan practices that led Israel astray in the past were always ready to snag them again. When Ezra arrived, he saw that leaders, priests and people had intermingled with “the neighboring peoples with their detestable practices.” Here we go again.
In the New Testament, the city of Corinth was a place of ungodliness. Still, Paul and others led some of the Corinthians to Christ. However, they still lived in Corinth, and intermingled themselves and their faith with those practicing pagan idolatry.
As a gut punch, Paul wrote to the Christians there, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and [Satan]? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God” (2 Corinthians 6:14-16).
What does all this mean? Are we to form holy huddles and hide from the world? Paul answers that in his first letter to the same people of Corinth: “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?” (1 Corinthians 5:9-12).
We are to be in relationship with people who don’t believe in God or who do ungodly things. That doesn’t mean we should marry them. Jesus knew that He was leaving His followers in the world. But He said, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of it” (John 17:16).
How is God calling you to be in the world but not of it?
Poem
Confession
I have sinned against heaven and earth
But more so
I have sinned against you, O God
I have defiled your holy temple
Allowing your enemies to enter
They have ravaged your holy places
And stolen your priceless treasures
I have joined myself to that which was forbidden
I have been unfaithful to your covenant
Running after other lovers
I am ashamed and disgraced
I cannot stand in your presence
I cannot seek your face
I am unclean and live among an unclean people
You know our guilt
Our stench has reached the throne room of your grace
You are justified in your righteous holiness
To abandon us to our enemies
To send us to a far off country
To let us die
Feeding upon pig slop
Dirty, torn and ragged
Alone and outside the gates
Skin and heart being eaten away
By leprous necrosis
We are no longer worthy to be called your people
Your children
Your inheritance
By your grace and mercy
Look upon us
And save
Plant us once again in a firm place
Bring light to our eyes
And relief to our bondage
Rebuild us
Repair us
And protect us
By the wall of your sanctuary
For your name’s sake
