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Ezra Chapter 10
The People Confess Their Sin
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Ezra 10:1 Now when Ezra had
prayed, and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself
down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of
Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children:
for the people wept very sore.
This was after the 70 year captivity,
after they realized what those kings, priests, and other people had
done. They left the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and did what was
right in their own eyes. By departing from God and getting deep into
idolatry, it caused the loss of their homeland, their captivity, and
all the evil that came upon them. Ezra like Daniel grieved and
repented even though they themselves did not depart from God, they
repented for their whole nation. Ezra pointed out to the other
former captives the sins that were done against God which caused
them to lose their nation to Babylon. This caused them to began
to mourn and weep. Both men, women and children began to weep.
This is what is needed all over the
world in every country. Weeping, repenting, and mourning over
national sin against God.
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Ezra 10:2 And Shechaniah
the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said
unto Ezra, We have trespassed against our God, and have taken
strange wives of the people of the land: yet now there is hope
in Israel concerning this thing.
We may think of this as cruel and
strange but they brought it upon themselves. In the book of Ruth and
also in Joshua we see that Boaz marries Ruth who was from Moab, a
country that worshiped idols. In Joshua we see the Rahab the harlot
later married someone from Israel from which the line that led to
Jesus came. So why did they get away with marrying strange wives?
The reason is Ruth after her husband
died, followed her mother in law back to her homeland saying to her
mother in law, Naomi, Your God, would be my God. She was a type of
being saved by faith in the God of Israel.
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Ruth 1:16 And Ruth said,
Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after
thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest,
I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my
God:
Rahab feared the God of Israel and hid
the spies that entered Jericho. She heard of the conquests of Israel
and feared realizing their God was the real God. She was also a type
be being saved by grace. That made the difference. Once a person
comes to God and believes in Him both before and after the sacrifice
of Jesus, their sins are washed away and they are no longer
heathens.
The strange wives mentioned here
probably didn't accept the God of Israel within their hearts and still were devoted to
idols. So the only solution was to divorce them and send them away
so that the people of Israel would not return to the ways of
evil but follow the Lord God with all their hearts. It may be hard
for us to understand in our modern way of thinking but there is
really nothing we can do about that now. The time when the gospel
was to be spread all over the earth had not yet come and their
knowledge of the coming Messiah was limited. When He did come
however, He was rejected by His own people. Had Israel had the same
repentant spirit as those we are reading about here, Jesus would not
have been rejected.
- Ezra 10:3 Now
therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all
the wives, and such as are born of them, according to the
counsel of my lord, and of those that tremble at the commandment
of our God; and let it be done according to the law.
- 4 Arise; for this
matter belongeth unto thee: we also will be with thee: be of
good courage, and do it.
- 5 Then arose Ezra,
and made the chief priests, the Levites, and all Israel, to
swear that they should do according to this word. And they
sware.
- 6 Then Ezra rose up
from before the house of God, and went into the chamber of
Johanan the son of Eliashib: and when he came thither, he did
eat no bread, nor drink water: for he mourned because of the
transgression of them that had been carried away.
- 7 And they made
proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem unto all the
children of the captivity, that they should gather themselves
together unto Jerusalem;
- 8 And that whosoever
would not come within three days, according to the counsel of
the princes and the elders, all his substance should be
forfeited, and himself separated from the congregation of those
that had been carried away.
- 9 Then all the men
of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together unto
Jerusalem within three days. It was the ninth month, on the
twentieth day of the month; and all the people sat in the street
of the house of God, trembling because of this matter, and for
the great rain.
- 10 And Ezra the
priest stood up, and said unto them, Ye have transgressed, and
have taken strange wives, to increase the trespass of Israel.
- 11 Now therefore
make confession unto the LORD God of your fathers, and do his
pleasure: and separate yourselves from the people of the land,
and from the strange wives.
- 12 Then all the
congregation answered and said with a loud voice, As thou hast
said, so must we do.
- 13 But the people
are many, and it is a time of much rain, and we are not able to
stand without, neither is this a work of one day or two: for we
are many that have transgressed in this thing.
- 14 Let now our
rulers of all the congregation stand, and let all them which
have taken strange wives in our cities come at appointed times,
and with them the elders of every city, and the judges thereof,
until the fierce wrath of our God for this matter be turned from
us.
- 15 Only Jonathan the
son of Asahel and Jahaziah the son of Tikvah were employed about
this matter: and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite helped
them.
- 16 And the children
of the captivity did so. And Ezra the priest, with certain chief
of the fathers, after the house of their fathers, and all of
them by their names, were separated, and sat down in the first
day of the tenth month to examine the matter.
- 17 And they made an
end with all the men that had taken strange wives by the first
day of the first month.
These women were put away and separated
from the congregation of Israel, they probably were provided for or
sent back to their own country. We don't know how they worked things
out here but perhaps other non biblical writings have answers to
this. Once they have a bill of divorement, the women could marry
others. I'm thinking that if their strange wives had of turned to
the God of Israel like Ruth and Rahab, they would not have been sent
away.
According to 1 Corinthians 7:12-13, we
see that under the gospel they were not to put away unbelieving
wives. Jesus fulfilled the law and changed everything but it is much
better for those that believe strongly in Jesus not to marry those
that do not believe. In other words, do not get into that mess in
the first place. The power of the gospel can change the impossible
into possible so we now live by faith and prayer for unbelieving
children or spouses. In the book of Ezra we are seeing those
repenting that are still under the law of Moses and had to do what
the law said.
Those Guilty of Intermarriage
- Ezra 10:18 And among
the sons of the priests there were found that had taken strange
wives: namely, of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his
brethren; Maaseiah, and Eliezer, and Jarib, and Gedaliah.
- 19 And they gave
their hands that they would put away their wives; and being
guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their trespass.
- 20 And of the sons
of Immer; Hanani, and Zebadiah.
- 21 And of the sons
of Harim; Maaseiah, and Elijah, and Shemaiah, and Jehiel, and
Uzziah.
- 22 And of the sons
of Pashur; Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethaneel, Jozabad, and
Elasah.
- 23 Also of the
Levites; Jozabad, and Shimei, and Kelaiah, (the same is Kelita,)
Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer.
- 24 Of the singers
also; Eliashib: and of the porters; Shallum, and Telem, and
Uri.
- 25 Moreover of
Israel: of the sons of Parosh; Ramiah, and Jeziah, and Malchiah,
and Miamin, and Eleazar, and Malchijah, and Benaiah.
- 26 And of the sons
of Elam; Mattaniah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, and Abdi, and
Jeremoth, and Eliah.
- 27 And of the sons
of Zattu; Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, and Jeremoth, and
Zabad, and Aziza.
- 28 Of the sons also
of Bebai; Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai, and Athlai.
- 29 And of the sons
of Bani; Meshullam, Malluch, and Adaiah, Jashub, and Sheal, and
Ramoth.
- 30 And of the sons
of Pahathmoab; Adna, and Chelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah,
Bezaleel, and Binnui, and Manasseh.
- 31 And of the sons
of Harim; Eliezer, Ishijah, Malchiah, Shemaiah, Shimeon,
- 32 Benjamin,
Malluch, and Shemariah.
- 33 Of the sons of
Hashum; Mattenai, Mattathah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai,
Manasseh, and Shimei.
- 34 Of the sons of
Bani; Maadai, Amram, and Uel,
- 35 Benaiah, Bedeiah,
Chelluh,
- 36 Vaniah, Meremoth,
Eliashib,
- 37 Mattaniah,
Mattenai, and Jaasau,
- 38 And Bani, and
Binnui, Shimei,
- 39 And Shelemiah,
and Nathan, and Adaiah,
- 40 Machnadebai,
Shashai, Sharai,
- 41 Azareel, and
Shelemiah, Shemariah,
- 42 Shallum, Amariah,
and Joseph.
- 43 Of the sons of
Nebo; Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Jadau, and Joel,
Benaiah.
- 44 All these had
taken strange wives: and some of them had wives by whom they had
children.
Not all the wives had children in
seems. I found in another place that the children were kept and
instructed in the law of Moses so maybe that was wishful thinking of
the author who claimed that. Verse 3 which is the instructions from
Ezra, said to send the children that were born of the strange wives
away with them. Josephus says that they put away both the strange
wives and those that were born of them. Reminds me of the time that
Abraham sent away Hagar and Ishmael to separate Isaac and Ishmael
because the inheritance was to be given to Isaac. Isaac was the one
God chose for the line of Christ to come. Abraham was grieved by
this but God said He would make a nation from Ishmael also. They
don't yet get along to this day however but when Jesus reigns as
king, things will be different. DC
End of the book of Ezra.
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