Going native
Day 287, Sunday, May 25
Ezra Chapters 8 – 10
The final chapters of Ezra are difficult and sound harsh to modern ears as Ezra deals with a problem almost as old as Israel itself: intermarriage between the Jews and the people who already lived in the land.
The problem is not racial or ethnic and is not with the marriage itself, but with the inevitable dilution of religious faith and practice that comes as a result.
Leaders of the people report to Ezra that “The people of Israel, including the priests and the Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the neighboring peoples with their detestable practices.”
Ezra is appalled and responds with great grief, tearing his clothes and pulling hair out.
At the evening sacrifice, he prays a prayer of confession and mourning for the sins of the people
Even though it is the rainy season and public gathering is difficult, he calls the people together and they communally repent. He then orders that all of those who have intermarried divorce their wives and leave wife and family so they can again be obedient to God’s law.
Ezra concludes with a list of the men who are required to divorce their foreign wives.
As harsh as this sounds, even in the New Testament divorce appears to be acceptable (though not required) if an unbelieving spouse is unwilling to accept a newly converted Christian (1 Corinthians 7:12-15). In saying that, Paul notes that “God has called us to live in peace,” suggesting that a religiously mixed marriage is likely to not be a peaceful one.
Where the New Testament is more similar to our situation in that it accepts we will live in a world where we deal daily with people who are not believers, Ezra still serves as a caution against allowing nonbelievers to draw us away from faithful service to God.

Sunday meditation

Proverbs 28:19-20
Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies will have their fill of poverty.
A faithful person will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished.

Prayer focus
Lord, protect us from being corrupted by the world around us.

-Rev. Mark Fleming