I
like Ezra, he's a pretty cool dude. If he were still alive, we'd definitely be
homies.
The
book of Ezra (after the book of 2 Chronicles and before Nehemiah) is short and
sweet. Israel has been through a lot at this point, and they have a period of
good years. The Kings of Persia, rather than oppressing the Children of God,
are on the Israelite's side and the Persian Kings are trying to get the city of
Jerusalem rebuilt.
Ezra
the prophet, "set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and
to teach His statutes and rules in Israel." He loved God's word, studied
it, and wanted other people to know about it. Sounds like he was a passionate
guy. But hold up here, there’s a wrench in the cogs becauase a bunch of
Israelites have intermarried with the peoples of Canaan, the Hittites, the
Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, Egyptians, and
Amorites.
Tangent:
so this intermarriage thing is like superbad in God's eyes, and Ezra knows it.
But what's the big deal about intermarriage? Why is that a sin? In my personal,
very humble, opinion, it's not necessarily the intermarriage itself, but the
morality of the act they committed with marrying other races.
You
see, after the Israelites left Egypt, God gave them promises, and told them
that they were His people and He would be with them wherever they went. He's
pretty repetitive in stating that He is Lord, and to love Him they must follow
His commands. He chose the Israelites to be His chosen people, and through that
lineage came Jesus, who saved the entire world. The laws that God set for the
Israelites in their wilderness wandering were (again only in my opinion) set so
that the Israelites could be holy and set apart. Granted, the Israelites messed
up, sometimes pretty badly. They were still far, far, far, far from perfect,
but in the imperfections God demonstrates that we can be used by Him to carry
out His perfect will. So this intermarriage that some of the Israelites were
doing wasn't bad because they were marrying people of another race - it was bad
because God had told them that they were His people and didn't want them to do
that, but they did it anyway.
Off
the tangent and back to Ezra. He realizes what's going on, and cries out to
God. In His prayer to God, you can simply feel the love that he has for his
people, and his desire to plead on their behalf. Also he wants the best for the
Israelites, in that they’ll be able to know God and keep his commands.
Ezra 9:6-15:
“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. 7 From the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great
guilt. And for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been given
into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to
plundering, and to utter shame, as it is today. 8 But now for a brief moment
favor has been shown by the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant and to give us
a secure hold within his holy place, that our God may brighten our eyes and
grant us a little reviving in our slavery. 9 For we are slaves. Yet our God has
not forsaken us in our slavery, but has extended to us his steadfast love
before the kings of Persia, to grant us some reviving to set up the house of
our God, to repair its ruins, and to give us protection in Judea and
Jerusalem.
10 “And now, O our God,
what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken your commandments, 11 which
you commanded by your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land that you are
entering, to take possession of it, is a land impure with the impurity of the
peoples of the lands, with their abominations that have filled it from end to
end with their uncleanness. 12 Therefore do not give your daughters to their
sons, neither take their daughters for your sons, and never seek their peace or
prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land and leave it
for an inheritance to your children forever.’ 13 And after all that has come
upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, seeing that you, our God,
have punished us less than our iniquities deserved and have given us such a
remnant as this, 14 shall we break your commandments again and intermarry with
the peoples who practice these abominations? Would you not be angry with us
until you consumed us, so that there should be no remnant, nor any to escape?
15 O Lord, the God of Israel, you are just, for we are left a remnant that has
escaped, as it is today. Behold, we are before you in our guilt, for none can
stand before you because of this.”
I
don’t know if there’s necessarily a lesson we can learn from here, because the
story ends with the transgressors sacrificing a ram for their guilt, and Jesus
has since died for our sins and abolished the Old Covenant and established the
New. But I think anyone can take a page from Ezra’s book (haha, punny) and
strive to be passionate about God’s Word, and desire for the friends and family
the same.
