Ezra - Study 4
Ezra 9-10
Study 4 of 4
Ezra returned to Jerusalem to teach the law; it was said that, “He was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses, which the LORD, the God of Israel, had given…Ezra had determined in his heart to study the law of the LORD, obey it, and teach its statutes and ordinances in Israel” (7.6, 10). The returned exiles needed him. Upon arrival Ezra was confronted by syncretism among the people; their lifestyle resembled the previous generations whose sin led to the exile! In fact, the returned exiles had fallen into the same specific form of syncretism their fathers had committed as early as the days of Moses—when Israelite men intermarried with Moabite women, and the LORD’s anger burned against them (cf. Num 25.1-15; 31.13-17). At that time the LORD sent a plague amongst the people, and Phinehas rescued them from the LORD’s wrath; now it was Ezra’s turn.
Ezra was crushed when he heard the words of the leaders; the people—led by the priests and officials—had taken foreign wives (9.1-2)! Ezra was not alone in his despair; “Everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me, because of the unfaithfulness of the exiles” (9.4). Ezra’s prayer was remarkable; he acknowledged that:
- The behavior of the returned exiles was no different than in previous generations—the punishment of which had resulted in the exile (9.6-8)
- The guilt of his generation was weighty because the people had neglected the time of God’s grace upon them, and the new life they enjoyed under the rule of Persia (9.7-9)
- The people had sinned against the law of Moses, which warned the people of the dangers of intermarriage (9.10-13; cf. Dt 7.1-4)
- God’s punishment upon them was less than they deserved; they were without excuse before Him (9.4-15)
Shecaniah joined Ezra in mourning, but recognized that God had not yet sent a plague amongst the people, nor commanded that the people be executed for their infidelity; perhaps the “brief moment” of grace had not yet expired! Ezra led the people to covenant themselves anew, saying, “You have been unfaithful by marrying foreign women, adding to Israel’s guilt. Therefore, make a confession to the LORD God of your fathers and do His will. Separate yourselves from the surrounding peoples and your foreign wives” (10.1b-11). The problem was so pervasive that it could not be settled in a single meeting; Ezra had to arrange a schedule for these men to come before the family leaders and receive their sentence (10.12-17)! The priests, Levites, temple singers, and gatekeepers were the first required to settle the matter, and in turn all the Israelites who had united themselves to pagan women.
The returned exiles took foreign wives because they had forgotten their special place in God’s plan; their sin was vertical before it was horizontal. While the people had erected a new temple, and celebrated the Passover, their moral vision as God’s special people had been lost along the way. Paul confronted the Corinthians along the same lines. They were indifferent to sexual sin in their midst because they had only lightly esteemed their status as God’s special people in Christ (cf. 1 Cor 16-17)—and he challenged their behavior in light of the sacrifice of Christ, their Passover. In the storyline of Scripture, the ethical exhortations are consistently from the lesser to the greater; since Christ—the greater Passover sacrifice—had come, should not the lifestyle of those who know Him be of a higher standard than those of old? Paul’s argument to the Corinthians concerning the immoral brother among them is thus grounded in the storyline of Scripture; he wrote:
“Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast permeates the whole batch of dough? Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch, since you are unleavened. For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us observe the feast, not with old yeast, or with the yeast of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Cor 5.6-8).
*For a complete list of references, please see scripturestoryline.com