Today I was reading from the book of Ezra. Ezra was a priest and one of the captives held in Babylon. He got letters from the King of Babylon authorizing him to take gold, silver, and other items needed for worship in the Temple of the God of Israel. Ezra was scribe, priest and teacher of the people of God from His Law. Upon returning to Jerusalem he found that the exiles from Babylon that had returned before his group had intermarried with the gentile and pagan nations and taken up their ways.
When these things had been done, the Jewish leaders came to me and said, “Many of the people of Israel, and even some of the priests and Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the other peoples living in the land. They have taken up the detestable practices of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites. For the men of Israel have married women from these people and have taken them as wives for their sons. So the holy race has become polluted by these mixed marriages. Worse yet, the leaders and officials have led the way in this outrage.” (Ezra 9:1-2)
Ezra fell on His face and tore his clothes in front of the Temple of God until evening. He then prayed to the Lord:
“O my God, I am utterly ashamed; I blush to lift up my face to you. For our sins are piled higher than our heads, and our guilt has reached to the heavens. 7 From the days of our ancestors until now, we have been steeped in sin. That is why we and our kings and our priests have been at the mercy of the pagan kings of the land. We have been killed, captured, robbed, and disgraced, just as we are today.
8 “But now we have been given a brief moment of grace, for the Lord our God has allowed a few of us to survive as a remnant. He has given us security in this holy place. Our God has brightened our eyes and granted us some relief from our slavery. 9 For we were slaves, but in his unfailing love our God did not abandon us in our slavery. Instead, he caused the kings of Persia to treat us favorably. He revived us so we could rebuild the Temple of our God and repair its ruins. He has given us a protective wall in Judah and Jerusalem.
10 “And now, O our God, what can we say after all of this? For once again we have abandoned your commands! 11 Your servants the prophets warned us when they said, ‘The land you are entering to possess is totally defiled by the detestable practices of the people living there. From one end to the other, the land is filled with corruption. 12 Don’t let your daughters marry their sons! Don’t take their daughters as wives for your sons. Don’t ever promote the peace and prosperity of those nations. If you follow these instructions, you will be strong and will enjoy the good things the land produces, and you will leave this prosperity to your children forever.’
13 “Now we are being punished because of our wickedness and our great guilt. But we have actually been punished far less than we deserve, for you, our God, have allowed some of us to survive as a remnant. 14 But even so, we are again breaking your commands and intermarrying with people who do these detestable things. Won’t your anger be enough to destroy us, so that even this little remnant no longer survives? 15 O Lord, God of Israel, you are just. We come before you in our guilt as nothing but an escaped remnant, though in such a condition none of us can stand in your presence.” (Ezra 9:5-15)
Their solution to this problem to this problem was to divorce those they had married and send them away with their children. As I read this I found myself in disagreement. But earlier when the children of Israel were first coming out of Egypt, and the Lord told them not to intermarry with the nations they were replacing I was in total agreement. So why have I found myself not agreeing with their decision? My only answer is that I know how hard what they were planning to do was going to be.
I once met a girl who practiced paganism. I was a born again Christian ( about a year). The second time we saw each other we slept together. Our relationship continued over a period of about two years. I had fallen in love with her, or, at the least become dependent upon the sex in the relationship. I was living in sin. As the relationship continued the Holy Spirit continued to convict me about it. Even in our day and time God does not want His people mingling and intermarrying with those who practice what He calls the detestable. The Spirit eventually convinced me to break off the relationship. It was the most painful thing I have ever done.
The apostle Paul says this about sexual relationships outside of marriage:
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit. (1Cor 6:15-17)
To become one flesh means that you become one physically. Not only during the sexual act but even after. If you have ever been married and had a spouse cheat on you think about this; didn’t you know almost immediately? The two of you had become one flesh so anything one does in their flesh (especially sexually), the other will be aware. I don’t know how this works but it is the truth. And then to end the relationship, marriage or, just a sexual relationship, is absolutely devastating. It is like literally ripping the fabric of your being. I was in pain for nearly 3 years. Some may call me weak. All I can say is that I take God, His Word, and relationships very seriously. There are millions who can testify to what I am saying.
What the Israelites had done was put themselves in a position, that when undone, was going to cause them great pain. Praise God they were willing. In my fleshly thinking, just as I had resisted God in my own life and circumstance, I wanted God to make away for Israel to keep there pagan wives and children. But the reason God didn’t want them to intermarry was that they would be lead away from Him to worship other gods. It was either repent or lose the blessings God had promised them in that land. The very first commandment is:
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:2-3)
I was never a slave in Egypt but I was a slave to sin. It is by the blood of His only Son, Jesus Christ, that I have been set free. I belong to Him. He paid a very high price for me. The dangers of intermingling with those who are not God’s people are the same today. I agree with God’s laws. However, when I am operating from my flesh I find myself contrary to Him and His ways. I WANT WHAT GOD WANTS FOR ME! I want what God wants! I am not interested in anything that appeals to my flesh or my own desires. Time and time again they have lead me into the most painful situations and circumstances I have ever experienced. So I choose God, ADONAI! I choose His ways. I choose to let Him live out His life in me.
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