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Thoughts of a saint and slave
by Sam Isaacson
Ok, here it is. Only chapters nine and ten left, when this happens: Ezra is told that the Israelites have started marrying people who are not Israelites. This appalls Ezra so much that he literally just sits in shock until the evening, when it is time for the sacrifice. When the sacrifice happens, he prays quite a substantial prayer! That's the high level view anyway. Let's look at this passage a little more in depth.
Ezra's initial response (Ezra 9:1-4)
As soon as Ezra heard that 'the people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have...taken some of their [unbelieving] daughters to be wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands' (Ezra 9:1-2), he pretty much went crazy, ripping up his clothes and pulling his hair and beard out. Is this response not a little extreme? Clearly the answer must be, 'perhaps not'. I have chuckled in the past at the Christian dating agencies that local churches seem to have become; young men and women attend a church, where their primary concern is to meet a spouse. But is this such a bad idea? In preparation for our marriage, my wife and I read a rather useful book. The first chapter, however, seemed to be essentially trying to convince us not to have high expectations for one another because, after all, there are another 3 billion ladies out there in the world - the chance that you have picked the right one for you is reasonably small . . . suffice it to say, we disagreed with that chapter. God has a wonderful plan for marriage, and I think it is clear that that plan is for Christians to wed other Christians. This means that if you are dating an unbeliever, you should stop until they become a believer! And it means that if you are an unbeliever, you shouldn't even be thinking about getting married until you are a Christian! If you are married to an unbeliever, I'd encourage you to read 1 Corinthians 7:12-14 but I don't particularly want to go there this week - e-mail me :-)
This is because marriage is a picture, given by God, of His relationship with the church. As Jesus laid aside His divine attributes, lived life as a man and took torture and death for the church, so should a husband love his wife so much that he would go to the absolute extremes in order to save her if in any way possible. Similarly, a wife should joyfully submit to her husband's godly leadership, just as the church submits to Christ (see a previous article for more information on this entirely not controversial topic). How could an unbeliever in either situation possibly understand why or how to be a good husband or wife? I think it would be a good idea for us to cultivate inside us the same shock that Ezra experienced when hearing the statements that some Christians have been marrying unbelievers.
Ezra's shame (Ezra 9:5-9)
Ezra's prayer is wonderful, and should make us pause for thought. His humility is, in itself, humbling. And there are two things we will take out of it this week:
Firstly, Ezra is a leader, and as such takes responsibility for his flock. He has not married unbelievers - he had no idea until today that others even had yet begins his prayer to God by saying, 'O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God.' (Ezra 9:6) If you are a leader, when was the last time that you were ashamed on behalf of your sinning flock? I know that I, too often, am aware of sin among those I lead yet do nothing - it seems to fuel my own pride rather than my desire to discipline and lovingly bring those who follow into a realisation of their sin and need for repentance.
Secondly, Ezra sees, by recognising the sin of his people, God's amazing grace. He says that 'favour has been shown by the LORD our God' (Ezra 9:8). How often do we stop and reflect upon our sin? And I mean really reflect upon it? We are horrific. We commit adultery against our God every day, I'm sure. Yet our normal response is to sin even more, become proud and pretend like it's ok. Do we ever realise that if any blessings we experience were anything to do with us that there would be no hope for any of us? It is only by God's grace that we have breath and life, family and friends, possessions and a home to keep them in. His grace is lavish and wonderful.
Ezra's secondary response (Ezra 9:10-15)
In recognising this, Ezra's response changes. Now, instead of simply sitting, appalled at his people, he turns to action, thinking, 'what should we do, in light of our sin?' I adore the phrase in Ezra 9:13-14, in which Ezra's rhetorical question is '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, shall we break your commandments again?' He recognises God's magnificent grace, and realises on behalf of the people that being forgiven so wonderfully does not give them a blank cheque to sin as much as they desire. The response to grace must be thankfulness, and a willingness to live our entire lives 'as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God' (Romans 12:1).
How about, right now, we just spend some time thinking about our own sin, repenting, asking for God's forgiveness, and gratefully receiving it before committing our lives to follow Him. He is wonderful, and His grace is so sweet.
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