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Ezra the scribe came from Babylon to Judea to restore the Law of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) to the people.
Although not specifically stated his obvious goal was to rebuild the people so that God would bless them and restore the Nation as it was in the days of King David and King Solomon. He was motivated.
He honed in on Exodus 34 and Deuteronomy 7. The people, among other things, had violated the commandment not to intermarry with the peoples of the land (Canaanites, etc.) which led to idolatry and which led to their destruction and captivity.
Then Ezra hears the report that even now the people are repeating the exact same sin of intermarriage and he had a visceral and demonstrable negative reaction.
Keep in mind that the King of the Persian Empire had empowered Ezra to be a Judge and to punish offenders of the Law of Moses and the Persian Law with Death, Banishment, Confiscation and Imprisonment (Ezra 7). And the text sites in the case of intermarriage with gentiles that he threatened those punishments Ezra 10).
The violators responded by vowing to put away their Gentile wives and their half jewish children. Keep in mind that God did not command them to do this, they chose to do this of their own volition.
It looks like Ezra was a book, chapter, verse guy. The Holy Text said no intermarriage and the text didn’t provide any exceptions. It was clear and to the point and that’s the Law that Ezra taught and would impose.
Here are some things to consider…
- Pretty soon after entering the promised land an exception is made for Rahab the Harlot.
- Deuteronomy 10 says that if you are fighting the enemy and capture a beautiful woman you could, under certain conditions, keep her for a wife. Hmmm.
- The scriptures are replete with examples of Jews/Israelites who married non-jewish women and most of them were not seduced to worship Idols.
- No pre-exilic prophet ever condemned the practice of intermarriage. Not even during the day of one of the most prominent violators… Solomon.
- Deuteronomy 23 states that if you make a vow before the Lord God almighty and violate that vow then you are guilty of sin. Presumably that includes a marriage vow made to God and your spouse.
Jesus Christ had 3-4 Gentile women in his lineage.
I respect Ezra for wanting to correct the behaviors of the people but I don’t think he stated the whole case to them (of course I wasn’t there).
I don’t know the motivations of the Jewish men who got rid of their wives and children. It may have been a heart felt conviction but in the back of my head I wonder if they had any concern that Ezra could punish them with death, banishment, confiscation or imprisonment… because if Ezra didn’t then he would have been violating the command of the King of Persia who was inspired by God to restore the people of God.
Ezra is frequently described as the Second Moses because as Moses brought the Law to the Israelites after the Egyptian captivity… Ezra brought the Law back to God’s people after the Babylonian captivity.
In Ezra 7:10-11. Ezra self describes his method.
First he set his “heart” to study the Law.
This is important because with just the brain and not the heart we could just be robotic in our understanding of God’s Law… reciting God’s Law and teaching God’s Law intellectually and without feeling.
Secondly as a teacher Ezra needed to know his material and he “studied” it.
You could spend your life “reading” the holy scriptures and might achieve some superficial understanding of it but true depth of understanding comes with “study”. Reading and thinking. Turning it over in your brain and examining it from all angles.
Thirdly, Ezra “practiced” and lived what he studied.
Some have said that experience is the greatest teacher. A teacher without experience is a pretender. Depth is achieved through a lifetime of putting scriptures into practice. A teacher who has never been married or raised children (for example) is scarcely qualified to teach on those subjects.
Fourthly, with his heart in the right place and with knowledge achieved through study and having practiced what he learned then and only then was Ezra equipped to teach.
Ezra was said to have studied the Commandments (Mitzvot), the Statutes (Chukkim) and the Ordinances (Mishpattim).
The superficial reader of the holy record might conclude that those are all the same thing… They are not.
The “commandments” are God’s Law found in the first five books of the Bible.
The “statutes” are a a subdivision of the Law that are commandments which defy human logic… like not mixing wool and linen.
The “ordinances” (Exodus 21-24) are a subdivision of the Law that contain civil and religious laws.
Although Ezra would have been familiar with the historical books, the Psalms and Prophets and the other Writings. His emphasis in rebuilding God’s people was the first 5 books of God’s word… Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy… The Torah or Pentateuch.
Of course in todays world all of those commands are greatly simplified in Jesus Christ. But still as teachers we need to not only know Jesus Christ but also all of the other writings God inspired men to write that culminated in Jesus coming into the world.
Ezra was a great teacher. Let’s consider and follow his method… having our hearts right, studying God’s Word, living what we learned and then sharing with others.
I’ve never had sheep but I have had chickens. When we first got chickens I thought my fence was good enough… it wasn’t. Some coyotes got in and slaughtered all our chickens. It was a crime scene. So I did a lot of work and built a much better fence. Of course the fence stopped the dogs and coyotes but could not stop the Bobcats and Hawks.
We had not had a problem for about 20 years and then two dogs found an imperfection in my fence the other day. They squeezed through and started slaughtering our chickens. They killed 7 of them. They wouldn’t leave when I waved my arms and hollered at them but they did leave when I started shooting at them.
Dogs are different than coyotes… they kill for fun not for food. I’m sure if I was a dog that chasing and killing chickens would be a lot funner than chasing a thrown ball in the back yard for instance.
That night we could only find three live chickens in our pen. I figured that some must be in hiding. One of the first chickens killed was a crippled (from birth) rooster named Willie. He was born to be a victim because he couldn’t run. Our other rooster was Woody a large and beautiful bird and I suppose he was my favorite and he was among the missing. Woody and Willie.
It was so traumatizing to Julie and I that we decided we wanted to get out of the chicken business.
We knew that we wouldn’t get an accurate count of the survivors until the next evening when they came in to roost. That next evening 13 of them came back including Woody the rooster. But they were terrified and wouldn’t leave the roost for two days. Over the next three days three of the wounded hens died.
What to do… what to do… Of course I could protect our chickens if I locked them up all the time but that wouldn’t be much of a life for them it would be like being in prison. The chickens like to free range during the day and they make more nutritious eggs scratching for insects and eating vegetation.
In the end we decided to continue with our chickens. I apologized to them for not making them safer.
The church and its leaders have been compared to a flock of sheep with shepherds. The shepherds have been warned about wolves slaughtering and scattering the flock and to be careful and be watchful.
Shepherds can be so careful with the flock that the flock are like chickens… confined to a jail cell instead of being able to be free and productive in society. Shepherds can also be so lackadaisical that they allow any and every improvisation into the assembly that poisons the flock from within and slowly strangles it.
Shepherds have a responsibility to have a healthy productive flock and not be so restrictive that the flock withers on the vine… so to speak. That’s requires great judgment and great patience and great confidence in the Lord God almighty.
In our flock of chickens the ones we lost were the oldest and the crippled (Willie). Let’s do our best as shepherds to make all of our members so spiritually strong that they are immune to the attack of Satan. Of course that’s impossible because churches are dynamic. Always taking in the weak and building them up.
I like to think that Woody the rooster fought for his hens. I did think he was dead because we found a lot of his tail feathers but he survived to fight again. Fight as he might have he was no match for a German Shepherd… but I was and the Lord's Shepherds are more than a match for German Shepherds.
As a Veterinarian I am tasked with euthanizing the beloved pets of our clients. I do it several times a day. At first I would be affected by the emotions of my clients but then as time went by I became more immune to it. I have witnessed the silent sorrow of some and on the other end have seen the bitter wails and crying of others. I’ve seen it all.
The other day I had a pet presented for euthanasia and I started crying and had to leave the room… unusual for me. An old lady came in with a 16 year old poodle which had lived far beyond its life expectancy and had all the symptoms of advanced age… blindness, deafness, arthritis and dementia. The woman loved “Coco” and was reluctant to put her “to sleep”. She explained that she and her husband had moved into assisted care living and that her husband had told her to put Coco to sleep… and she couldn’t she just couldn’t do it.
Now her husband had developed kidney failure and she was over whelmed with caring for him and exhausted and didn’t have enough time to care for Coco. She had thought of placing Coco with someone else but she wasn’t sure of the care Coco might get from someone who had not loved Coco like she had.
I told her that I understood. That my dad had developed cancer and my own mother was overwhelmed with his care and then I started crying and had to leave the room. I came back later when I had composed myself and helped Coco pass on. The old lady hugged me and thanked me.
I think my employees think I don’t care when I put a pet to sleep because I am emotionally solid because euthanasia is something I do every day. But every once in a while I surprise them and myself when some unexpected connection is made that they can’t see and I didn’t anticipate.
I understood that woman because she looked like my mother to me and my mother’s emotions were my own emotions. I feel them exquisitely.
My guess is that our Lord God almighty feels our emotions just like we feel them. And that when we feel pain it’s like he feels it… as if it were his own pain. Imagine that kind of love.
Oh to be like him and I hope and pray that I can be.
Prior to the construction of the Temple the people of God wandered around in tents and had a special tent or tabernacle for God to live in.
When the people became settled King Solomon built a fabulous Temple that included the “Holy of Holies” for God to dwell in.
God inspired Nebuchadnezzar to punish his people Israel for their sins and destroyed the magnificent Temple that took Solomon seven years to build.
Seventy years later God inspired Cyrus King of Persia to rebuild the Temple under the guidance of Zerubbabel. That project lasted twenty-one years and was not as magnificent as Solomon’s Temple. Some of the older people who remembered Solomon’s Temple wept at what they considered a far lessor structure.
Perhaps some of that sorrow was because of what Ezekiel the prophet predicted what the new Temple would look like (Ez. 40-48). They took Ezekiel’s prophecy literally.
Later King Herod would take 45 years to rejuvenate and expand the second Temple and it was astoundingly beautiful to the disciples of Jesus.
But the Jews made the mistake again of a horrible sin and killed Jesus Christ. God sent the Romans in AD 70 and totally destroyed the Temple.
There won’t be anymore structural Temples for God to live in because God chose to live in his peoples… in their hearts… with his Holy Spirit and that is a far, far superior Temple than anything carpenters and builders could construct. And one that cannot be destroyed.
Make your lives and your bodies a place that God is proud to live in.
The conditions in Judea were deplorable. The Babylonians had carried off all of Jerusalem… the armies, the priests, the levites, the skilled workers and the royal family. All that was left in Judea were the poorest of the poor.
For the seventy years while their brethren were in Babylonia those left in Judea had no teaching, no sacrifices and no feast day celebrations. In fact they were surrounded by enemies and by those who hated them like the Samaritans, Philistines and other peoples of the land. They were barely surviving waiting on God’s promises.
However in Babylonia the Jews prospered. They became rich and powerful. Examples would be Daniel, Mordecai, Esther, Hannah, Mischael, Azariah, Ezra and Nehemiah. In Babylonia the Jews had all the best and all the brightest of their people including the priests and the scrolls of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy and the Prophets that they had brought with them.
But God had not forgotten his wretched people in Judea and he inspired Cyrus King of the Persian empire and 43,000 Jews to leave Babylonia to rebuild Jerusalem, it’s Temple and it’s walls. Ezra would bring back the Hebrew scriptures that he had patched back together to rebuild the people.
In seventy years time few would remember or have been eye witnesses to the siege of Jerusalem and all of its horrors. And those who did remember would be elderly and at the end of their lives but they had passed down the stories to their children and their children’s children.
Never forget the names of Zerubabbel who led in the rebuilding of the Temple, Ezra who re-instituted the Law and Nehemiah who led in the rebuilding of the walls. Also, the contemporary prophet Haggai who encouraged the people to rebuild the Temple and the contemporary prophet Zechariah who prophesied about hope and restoration.
God always has a plan and is always true to his promises. Wait on him.
The New Testament is replete on the topic of Agape Love… the love that serves. It is commanded, examples are given and the theory behind it is discussed.
Agape/Love (especially towards our foes) is an identifying mark of who is and who is not a Christian. Agape/Love is a testimony to the world that God sent Jesus Christ. Agape/Love witnesses God’s wisdom to the spiritual world in Heavenly places.
Something in the scriptures that is implied but not stated is that Agape/Love can make us physically and emotionally healthy.
A quick search of Artificial Intelligence on the topic of how does Agape/Love benefit the giver and/or the receiver reveals these things (to name a few)
For the giver…
- increased happiness and life satisfaction. Acts of kindness triggers the release of feel good hormones in the brain.
- reduction and stress in anxiety
- greater emotional resilience
- a sense of purpose and meaning
- deeper emotional intimacy
- builds a more compassionate community and reduced social isolation
For the recipient…
- Deepens self-acceptance: Agape love embraces a person for their complete self, including all their flaws and vulnerabilities, without judgment. This unconditional acceptance from another person helps the recipient accept and embrace their own true self, overcoming feelings of guilt, shame, and hopelessness.
- Lowers stress and improves mood: The act of giving and receiving love has a positive physiological effect on the body. Love can lower stress hormones like cortisol and trigger the release of “feel-good" neurotransmitters like oxytocin, dopamine, and serotonin.
So, a couple of learning points here. God doesn’t just give us meaningless commands like we’re some kind of lab rats. His commands are purposeful and *beneficial* to us. He wants us to be happy and healthy as we testify to the world.
Also, if we are depressed and stressed out or have any other kind of malady maybe the therapeutic benefits of practicing Agape/Love could be beneficial or even curative. It can’t hurt to try or even to “up our game” in that area. Think on these things.
