Rebuild: Ezra 9. Matrimony

Notes:

Introduction:

Whenever we do a sermon series, always interesting to me how things naturally line up.

Better than Ezra last week: Chapter filled with hope and promise and blessing!

Perfect for a Birthday celebration.

Could you imagine if Ezra 9 popped up on our Birthday Celebration:

Happy birthday to us, now let’s talk about how Ezra pulled out his beard, and wept over mixed marriages that would lead to forced divorces…

It’s like: Did someone pop a balloon?

Good thing I didn’t preach this on our 11th birthday last weekend.

Ezra 1-6=The enemies who hate us

Ezra 9-10=The sin that ensnares us

Guilt

Grace

Ingratitude

What do we make of this?

GUILT:

What were they guilty of?

Lot’s of things… Complicated things… Marriage, life, children, all mixed up together with nations “who practice abominations.” (REPEATED in vv. 1 and 14).

Very close to a literary device called inclusio.

Phrase or words bracket a passage: Mixed marriage has to do with mixing with abominable practice!

“Refers to blatant idolatry and the abhorrent practices associated with hit, such as child sacrifices and sexual perversions—including incest, homosexuality, and bestiality—which God deems detestable and deserving of judgment.” Andrew Steinmann

READ:

“O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens. 7 From the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt. And for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plundering, and to utter shame, as it is today.

Posture of Guilt:

Torn garment

Torn cloak

Pulling hair

Pulling beard

Sits absolutely disgusted with the sitation!

Prayer of Guilt:

Personal Confession

Personal Shame

Personal Guilt “OUR iniquities”

Totality of Guilt: v. 7: “From the very beginning of Israel’s history to this day.”

Slow down Ezra, are you making too big a deal here?

Pretty intense dude!

Ralph Davis did the math:

Just over 100 woman ended up being divorced, some of whom had children

“The problem involved slightly more than half of 1 percent of the people, but it was a persistent problem that would also haunt Nehemiah.” Klein

Moses married Zipporah

Joseph married Asenath—daughter of a pagan priest! (Genesis 41:45).

Jesus’ lineage includes Ruth, a Moabite. And Hagar, a citizen of Jericho.

So why does Ezra go to such extremes in his response to mixed marriages:

BTW: Introduce the Term Exogamous Marriage:

Exogamous Marriage lead to Idolatry, Sin, and the Lord’s Wrath

Deutoronmy: Only book in the Bible that refers to God’s People as a “HOLY” People:

Deuteronomy 7:6: After Moses commands Israel not to practice Exogamy: “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”

Deuteronomy 14:2 “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”

Deuteronomy 26:19 “That he will set you in praise and in fame and in honor high above all nations that he has made, and that you shall be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised.””

Deuteronomy 28:9 “The Lord will establish you as a people holy to himself.”

Deuteronomy 20:17-18: But you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded, 18 that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the Lord your God.”

BTW, THESE GROUPS DON’T EXIST ANYMORE! CLEAR THROW BACK TO A SIMILAR TIME!

Summary: Dale Davis: “This was not a racial phobia, but a religious phobia… You can kiss covenant fidelity goodbye.”

Much of the Language here has suggests that Israel on the Plains of Moab ready to take over the land is very similar to this moment in time with Ezra:

As a Skilled Scribe, Ezra is applying the past Law to the Present.

Severity of this moment in time.

Vulnerability of this moment in time.

Ezra’s Job: Like Moses, Enforce Torah Law: Ezra 7:14 “14 For you are sent by the king and his seven counselors to make inquiries about Judah and Jerusalem according to the Law of your God, which is in your hand”

Ralph Klein shares some further important aspects:

Some political alignment could influence the distinctive character of the Remnant. If they didn’t keep their distinctives, they could lose out on their rebuilding project in Jerusalem.

They owned property, and so children in mixed marriages would inherit land, which would then again mess up the distinctiveness in Israel.

Ralph Klein“Genealogical lineage, land tenure, membership [in the cult, or “the worship life of Israel]: Legal right to the land accrued to those who had access to the cult, and having the appropriate genealogy assured one’s right to membership.”

A lot to be guilty about!

People are paying attention.

People are getting distracted.

People are looking beyond their borders for purpose, or opportunity, or distraction, or curiosity, or just plane lust: “I want what I can’t have!”

All sin driven!

WARNING: SERIOUS AND PREVALENCE OF SIN

Problem with Sleeping with the Enemy

GRACE

8 But now for a brief moment favor has been shown by the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant and to give us a secure hold within his holy place, that our God may brighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our slavery. 9 For we are slaves. Yet our God has not forsaken us in our slavery, but has extended to us his steadfast love before the kings of Persia, to grant us some reviving to set up the house of our God, to repair its ruins, and to give us protection in Judea and Jerusalem.

But now for a brief moment favor has been shown by the LORD our God:

Major turning point in the prayer:

Move from Guilt to GRACE, many aspects to grace!

Type of Graces Ezra mentions:

“Grace of Survival”: to leave us an escaped group.”

“Grace of Stability: “and to givce ua peg in his holy place.” “Secure place”= lit. peg. Anchored in the ground.

“Grace of Encouragement”: v. 8b: “give light to our eyes and givce us a little reviving in our slavery.”

“Grace of Constancy”: 9s: “For we are slaves, yet in our slavery our God has not forsaken us.”

“Grace of Providence”: 9b “he has extended his faithful love to us…to grant us reviving… to rebuild the temple… to restore its ruins.”

Ralph: reviving= root=lifex

Dale: “All the drama and history of Ezra 1-6 is packed into that half-verse.

“Grace of Protection”: v. 9c, “To give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem.” Metaphorical wall? Dechronology??

What did God for them

NO GRATITUDE!

What they did in response?

HOLINESS

Separate yourself!

How to be holy in today’s day and age?

Some people recently created false theologies to set themselves apart.

Reception of Grace

Call to Holiness

“how do we maintain the integrity of the faith without excluding others.” Klein??

What do we make of this?

“It is difficult to find redeeming theological value in this chapter.” Klein

How would we understand unholy matrimony today?

Ezra 10:

Three month investigation into each situation.

Intentional investigation so that each and every circumstance was properly investigated.

Dale Davis: “What if some women converted to Judaism?”

Given the number of investigations: 1.5 cases/day.

Case of Ezra 9-10: Don’t absolutize the ethic here. Paul’s marriage advice: Stay married to a pagan if one of them converts.

Ezra’s day: Men who left their wives (per Malachi 2), who then married other pagan women.

Dale Davis: “Ezra 9-10 represents a unique situation in redemptive history, when the ‘church’ faced an emergency situation, one involving the very survival of a faithful remnant, and so extreme measures were called for and taken. It was a ‘one-off’ affair. We are required not to imitate Ezra 10. There are, however, implications simply flowing from the general concern of Ezra 9-10. For example, if a pastor has a young man, a professing believer, in his congregation who wants him to perform the marriage for himself and his intended, and if the pastor, after meeting with tjem, determines the young lady neither makes nor has a Christian profession—does he not have to say he cannot marry them? And warn against marriage under present conditions? If may not make him popular, but he has to have the guts to say that.” Dale Davis