Boy, for such a short book, the Lord sure packs a whole lot into Ezra! I've learned so much studying it, and got so involved today, especially knowing I was close to the end, that I just couldn't stop. It really hits home hard though, especially considering what's going on in our day. It's like it was written just for our time. (which of course it was, but it was also written for all believers in all times lol)
Ezra brings the second group of people back to Jerusalem from Babylon, and once they arrive, he discovers that the people who came back in the first wave, have already broken the covenant with God! Worse, they broke it for one of the very same sins that they'd been sent into exile for! Of course that really shook him up, as it should have. Seeing him so shaken by the news, caused others to realize just how awful this sin was and they too became heart sick about it.
What really got to me about this though, is the sin itself, because it's something that happens all the time. The Jew's had once again intermarried with the pagans around them and had even had children with their new wives. Remember, God had specifically forbidden them from any intermarriage with anyone who didn't also worship Him and obey His law. It wasn't about race, or anything else, it was about Him. They were free to marry anyone of another race or culture as long as that person had totally and wholeheartedly committed themselves to Him first. But these folks hadn't done that. They'd married pagan women who still worshiped their pagan gods. Even some of the priests had done this and God's laws for who they could marry were even stricter, in order to keep them pure in their devotion to Him.
I can't even imagine being in Ezra's shoes at that point. He was the leader and he was going to have to confront them with their sin. It's horrible to have to tell someone you care about that they're sinning against God, because the vast majority of people haven't grown to a point where they can simply accept rebuke or correction, no matter how gently done, without getting really angry and going off in a huff, adding more sin to the one they were being rebuked about. I absolutely dread it when the Lord lets me know that it's something I need to do and tend to put it off as long as humanly possible, hoping to get out of it I suppose.
Poor Ezra had to tell the entire community though. Maybe because they saw how heartbroken and upset he was about it, or maybe the Lord sent His Spirit into their hearts to convict them, but for some reason the people actually supported what Ezra said. Well, all but 4 of them did anyway. That just goes to show us though that there's always bound to be some who won't want to hear what God thinks about something, especially if it means they have to change.
The vast majority though, confessed their sin and repented of it by divorcing their foreign wives and sending them and the children by them away. (I'm sure they provided for them financially first though)
Considering how much sin is going on freely in the Church these days though, can you imagine what would happen if a godly man were to stand up among any congregation and confront them about this sin? Because the Lord also tells us not to become yoked together with unbelievers and it's for one of the same reasons We take it as a suggestion, but it's not. It's a commandment, and it's one I broke just like so many others have. So please don't think I'm being "holier then thou" when I speak about this.
Today if that happened, the man wouldn't tell us to divorce our spouse though, because unlike the Israelites at that time, Jesus has already been born, so there's no longer any danger of the messianic line being corrupted. Plus, the Lord made it clear through Paul that if a believer was married to an unbeliever that they were to stay together unless the unbeliever wanted out of the marriage. Of course that only applied to someone who became a believer after the marriage, not before it. Now however, we don't have a covenant as a nation with God, instead we have a new covenant. The sin is just as serious, just as ugly as it was then, as God is the same, yesterday, today and always. However, we have forgiveness when we confess our sins and repent of them. (I'll get into what happens if we're married to an unbeliever later)
When I think of someone standing up in a church today and confronting the people about being married to unbelievers, I see total bedlam! Yelling and swearing, and telling the man to get out because he shouldn't be judging them....etc. and once they'd thrown him out, they'd all sit around feeling very self righteous and congratulating themselves and each other for not allowing some outsider to ruin their nice little church. Their pastor would probably even be leading them in this. There might be 3 or 4 people that would have slid to their knees in repentance and sorrow over bringing dishonor to God by their sin, and determining to obey His Word, but the vast majority today, I think would react in the way I just described. That's the total opposite of what happened in Ezra's time., but that's how sick the church has become for the most part.
On the other hand, what if that man confronting them had wound up in a church like Leigh's? (It really sounds awesome!) In that kind of church, maybe it would turn out like it did in Ezra's time, with the vast majority humbling themselves before God, repenting of their sin and determining to obey His Word from then on with the Lord's help. I get very excited just thinking of what kind of awesome things the Lord could do with a people like that! There's be no end to the possibilities! It's one of the reasons I can't wait for Heaven and even the Millennial Kingdom, because we'll finally be able to see what God can do with people who are wholly devoted to Him.
Now days though, it's rare to hear someone take responsibility for their sin, or having the understanding that all sin is against God, regardless of what person has been hurt by it. Even more rare is to hear anything about how ugly and nasty even what we might consider the smallest sin is. We've allowed the world to so completely desensitized us to sin, that we don't see it anywhere near what it really is. If we did, we'd react the way Ezra did every single day. We'd be heartbroken and sobbing over our sin. It would be totally abhorrent to us! We'd do what His Word says and ask Him to help us search our hearts daily to find any sin so we could be rid of the filth of it. We'd welcome anyone as friend who told us of a sin because then we could be rid of it's filth, so we'd be thankful to them instead of angry at them for finding us out.
Instead though, we tend to do what comes naturally to our sin nature. We blame other people, our leaders, our parents, our kids, our bosses, the president, our pastor, and anyone we can think of for why we've sinned. (as though that somehow takes the blame off us). We make all kinds of excuses for our sin too. We'll sometimes even suggest that it really isn't all that bad, because after all, it's not like we murdered someone. We'll tell the messenger that they're being self righteous, a goody two shoes, or that they're acting "holier then thou" by telling us about our sin, instead of being thankful and repenting. We'll look for ways to prove them wrong, even if it means changing the subject and telling them about some sin of theirs that we've suddenly noticed. We'll go off in a huff, leaving behind the impression to others that the messenger was dead wrong and we're little angels. It's really amazing what we'll do to get out of admitting our sin, when you get right down to it.
I wish the churches now days would go back to preaching about how deadly sin is, how contagious it is, how ugly and nasty it is, and how filthy it is. Those days seem to be long gone though, so we're only likely to learn about that when we read and study our Bibles with the Lord.
I’ll put a divider here for those who need to take a break before finishing this.
We need to recognize that by marrying an unbeliever we've basically placed ourselves smack dab in the middle of a spiritual war zone that's going to be constantly active. Therefore we will have to deal with twice as much temptation as we would have had to normally. Our enemies, the world, our flesh, and Satan, and even our spouse will make growing in our faith much more difficult for us. There will be twice as many marital problems and issues that we'll have to deal with because of our marriage as well.
Basically by disobeying God we've put ourselves in a very dangerous position no matter how much we love our spouse or how wonderful they are. We've married "the enemy". (Remember, the Lord says that all who aren't saved are His enemies, and that we were His enemies before we were saved too. Romans 5:10; Colossians 1:21; James 4:4). We will have to be on high alert constantly until the day comes when our spouse is finally saved.
Not only will we have all these extra problems, but we won't have the wonderful fellowship and the kind of love that the Lord wanted for us to have in our marriage. When we're saved, the Lord pours His love into our hearts so we can know what love really is and He tells us what real love is in His Word, in places like 1 Cor 13. But the unsaved can only love in a more superficial way, the world's way. So we miss out on the deep, personal, intimate real love and fellowship that we could have had if we'd only obeyed God.
Praise God though that His mercy is new every morning and all that we could have had, we still can when our spouse is saved! Therefore our most important and very first job will be to pray for them and keep praying for them, and to tell them about the Lord and salvation constantly until they are saved.
Of course, we know that some Christian marriages aren't all that great, either and sometimes console ourselves with that. But the Truth is that the reason they're not that great is because one or more of the partners isn't as dedicated to Christ and His Word as they should be, because if they both were, their marriage would show it.
I remember when I had to face this sin so many years ago. I praise God for His mercy in bringing me to repentance and forgiving me. I especially thank Him too for saving my husband in spite of me! So often though, we're like children and think the Lord's rules aren't important and are only ruining our fun because we think there's no good reason for them. The truth is that God's laws are for us, not against us. They're to help us have the very best life possible here, if only we would trust and obey.
You know what would have helped me back then though? What I wish for? I wish we had good godly men like God had back in the "Bible days" or even back a hundred years ago. Men who weren't afraid to stand before their congregation and tell them that God means it when He tells us not to marry an unbeliever. I know that even today there are pastors who won't marry someone to an unbeliever, but I haven't heard of many that will tell the couple "why" he won't. (other then that it's because God says so) Nor have I heard of many that will go a step further then just saying "No, I won't marry you to them", and tell them that it's a sin.
It's really amazing how good we are at deceiving ourselves. When we're told "no", we generally don't realize it's a sin. Well, it's not so much that we don't realize it as that we don't put one and one together and don't allow ourselves to think about it at all. Instead we focus on how we're going to get what we want, which is to be married, instead of why the pastor won't do it. That's why I think it would help so much if a pastor went that one step further and stated right out front that it is a sin against God and that it's even worse when we are knowingly sinning against Him. To hear that, for most of us, would have been like a slap in the face, and just might have brought us to our senses!
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