Ezra 9:1-4 - Mixed Marriages (Overview)

This week, we come to the final section of the book of Ezra, the first part of the book Ezra-Nehemiah, and the section that, for most people, is the hardest.

It is this section, chapters 9 and 10, that provide the most disturbing questions in Ezra for many commentators.

And if you have not recently read these chapters, I would encourage you to take some time this week to read them.

Even a cursory reading of the passage will probably bring many questions to your mind that we shall explore in the coming weeks.

But if you will invest the time to read and ponder on what the Holy Spirit is telling us through this passage, you will find it a gold mine of instruction.

And you must be careful when dealing with commentaries, if you turn to commentaries, when dealing with these difficult passages.

I have found some otherwise reputable commentators who have simply cast Ezra as a misguided soul, demanding too much from the people of God.

They have accused him of being the first Pharisee, elevating the Law beyond its place in the life of God’s people.

I think nothing could be farther from the truth.

For these last two chapters in this great Part 1, I would suggest that he is here dealing with THE great question: What does it MEAN to BE God’s people?

The second part of this book, which we know as Nehemiah, will also often deal with the same question in slightly different circumstances.

What does it MEAN to BE God’s people?

For the next months, indeed for the remainder of our time in this Part 1,

we will come often back to that question as we find facet after facet to illuminate our hearts with Scripture’s answers.

In the course of this study of Ezra which has spanned three distinct congregations, I have been occasionally asked “Why did you choose to preach through the book of Ezra-Nehemiah?”

It certainly is not the most common Old Testament book to preach through, with far fewer series’ than almost any book of Old Testament Scripture.

My reply, besides that it is a book of the Bible worthy of study, has been that truthfully, I had put little effort into studying this book in the past.

I had viewed it, as many do, as an epilogue or an afterword of the Old Testament, doing little more than setting up “Judaism”.

After all, in the books of Ezra-Nehemiah (which is really a single book) and Esther, there are no great miracles to hold on to.

No slaying of a giant, resurrection of the dead, or survival in a fiery furnace or lion’s den.

In short – nothing exciting happens here.

The book is very quiet – with God acting, but doing so through the hearts of kings or through protecting His people as they obey Him on their journey.

There are no prophets active in the books (although we have references to Haggai and Zechariah, but we don’t get there sermons in the text of Ezra).

Indeed for many Christians, every event in Ezra-Nehemiah is almost pointless.

Rebuilding a temple that no longer stands.

Teaching the Law when we are under grace.

And the section we begin today – mixed marriages.

But lest you think of Ezra-Nehemiah as an appendix, just hanging uselessly off the side of the Old Testament,

I bring you to that ever-fresh question we struggle with as believers in Jesus Christ all the time:

What does it MEAN to BE God’s people?

We see all kinds of “gospels” preached in the world every day.

Every so-called church has an angle, and people who claim to follow Jesus Christ treat the churches in the area as a grand buffet,

Where THEY can choose what to believe, how to worship, and what kind of amenities they require.

People who choose a congregation to attend based on the furnishings in the nursery or how polished the praise team is, rather than on whether the Word of God is preached and taught FAITHFULLY.

Where the light show is more important than obedience to the Scriptures in how we come before our holy God.

There are preachers actively teaching that God doesn’t want or expect you to leave your sin behind.

That Jesus Christ came to simply wash over and bleach your sin without removing it from you.

I saw this quote on social media the other day:

God doesn’t want, need, or expect us to be anything other than who we are.

What does it MEAN, then, to be God’s people?

Do we really think that God saved us from drowning in sin only to leave us in the middle of its ocean?

That brings us to the problem identified in our text today.

And one that will dominate our thoughts for the rest of the book.

Ezra 9:1–2 ESV

After these things had been done, the officials approached me and said, “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their abominations, from the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. For they have taken some of their daughters to be wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands. And in this faithlessness the hand of the officials and chief men has been foremost.”

To many a modern reader, including those commentators who think Ezra was too harsh with the people, this issue feels a lot like racism.

It seems to stem from an old-fashioned or ancient preference for those of one’s own race, and so, like the pervasive issue of slavery in the Bible, is viewed by many as either:

An embarrassing incident that we would now remove from the Bible if we could.

Or, from the point of view of unbelievers, one more reason to view the holy word of God as an ancient work unfit for modern use.

We might even think to ourselves that WE would never find this an issue,

And congratulate ourselves on how enlightened we have become.

To think that even if we harbored a racist thought, we would NEVER speak it out loud. We are too modern for that.

If you hear nothing else today, please hear this: this passage, the concern about these marriages, has exactly NOTHING to do with racism.

I don’t care how unfaithful and misguided bigots interpreted this text a hundred years ago (or yesterday).

Followers of Jesus Christ MUST take the Scripture and ask “What is the Spirit saying?”

And through this text today, we will continue our journey to seek the answer to the question it IS answering:

What does it MEAN to BE God’s people?

The first thing about being God’s people is that it is not about race or ethnicity or culture.

It wasn’t in Israel’s day, and it is not today.

Yes, in the text today, there is a list of nations:

Canaanites, Hittites, and the like.

Many of these are a direct quote from the LAW Ezra had been teaching.

We see forms of this list in Exodus 34:11 ff and Deuteronomy 7:1 ff.

But throughout Israel’s history, we do see lauded examples of non-ethnically-Jewish people who were not condemned for marrying into the people of God.

Indeed, in the lineage of Jesus at the beginning of Matthew’s gospel, we see two in one verse – chapter 1:5:

Matthew 1:5 ESV

and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse,

Rahab, you will recall, was a Canaanite woman, a prostitute in the city of Jericho who protected Joshua’s spies when they were sent ahead of Israel’s invasion of the Promised Land.

And Ruth, we are told in the book of Ruth, was of the people of Moab.

Indeed, even those returning with Ezra in his caravan are not chided for having taken Babylonian wives who would have often been ethnically Persian.

There is no sense in the report of these leaders to Ezra that anyone saw a problem with the marriages that had been made in exile.

I do realize we have no evidence that they had taken husbands and wives from Babylonia aside from a few Persian names, but I ask you to consider:

If those who were already in the land had so readily intermarried with the idolaters of the region after their parents had returned to rebuild the temple,

What would have made those who had stayed behind in Babylonia less apt to marry those locals around them?

So, if this commandment from the Law of God is not about race, culture, or ethnicity – what is it about?

It has everything to do with the First Commandment: You shall have no other gods before Me. – Exodus 20:3

You will recall that the word “before” in that commandment is not talking about comparative worth, like

No other gods you love more than Me.

It is “before” as in:

You shall have no other gods…period. None other in My sight.

Because to be God’s people you have to be GOD’S people.

Rahab JOINED the people of God.

She left her profession as a prostitute and married into Israel.

Ruth, at the beginning of her story, declared her intention even before she met Boaz.

You recall the story:

Ruth and her sister-in-law married two Israelite sons of Naomi, and both of those sons died.

Naomi dismissed them both to try to go find new husbands.

Ruth 1:15–17 ESV

And she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”

Ruth had the choice – return to her gods in Moab, or follow the one true God in Israel.

The risk in these marriages to the idolaters all around them was that they would mix the worship of God with other worship for other gods.

See God’s reason for the prohibition in Deuteronomy 7:3-5:

Deuteronomy 7:3–5 ESV

You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire.

Time and again in Israel’s history, we see this very warning come true:

When God’s people let a little bit of the world into their worship of God Almighty,

That impurity causes catastrophic consequences.

Recall Solomon, who started off his reign so well:

Completing the temple his father David had desired to build for God.

Praying for and receiving divine wisdom as a gift from God.

And then the disastrous summary of his reign we read earlier in 1 Kings 11:4:

his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God[4]

To be God’s people, you have to be GOD’S people.

As we observed last week, too many people think they can follow God and the world.

We often would rather hyphenate ourselves than declare our undivided loyalty to God.

To call ourselves Christian-Americans, or Christian-Conservatives.

To identify with a cause, like Christian-environmentalist or Christian-progressive or Christian Socialist.

We even have some who would wear the unholy titles of Christian homosexual or Pro-choice Christian creating a blasphemous mockery of Who God is.

One commentator put it quite well:

Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther (ii)

There is a spirit today which passes for broad-mindedness and tolerance, but which is really indifference to the hastening of God’s kingdom in the world. It has much to learn from Ezra’s immoderate godliness.

We are not a hyphenated people.

If we follow God, we are His and His alone.

2 Corinthians 6:14–16 ESV

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

The Spirit is saying the same thing in this letter penned by Paul as He was in the Torah penned by Moses:

God’s people are HIS.

Enough with seeking to be successful or respected by this world!

Enough of mixing yourself with the idolatry that surrounds you.

Will you be a follower of God? Follow HIM.

Not for the advantage He gives you.

Not for what you get out of it.

In Luke 5:27 ff, we read:

Luke 5:27 ESV

After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.”

I have heard many sermons, and I must confess probably at least one of my own, that speculates on why this successful man Levi would follow Jesus.

They all speculate: Had he seen Him or heard Him before?

But the point of the incident is not that Levi was CONVINCED to follow Jesus:

He was CALLED, and he followed.

No extended conversation; no argument.

He got up from the table and followed – based on the call of Jesus ALONE.

If we are uncomfortable with this miraculously active call of Jesus Christ, then we are uncomfortable with the GOSPEL.

We saw it with all the disciples.

We saw it with Saul of Tarsus.

And we saw it with Lazarus who, though he was dead, was living again.

Is there someone who needs the grace of Jesus Christ?

Pray for His irresistible call to resound in their heart.

Then we will see something truly miraculous.

For those who seek a mixture of Jesus Christ and the world, Jesus has these words for them:

Luke 9:59–62 ESV

To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

These two had things they desired in this world IN ADDITION to Jesus:

The first wanted his inheritance.

The second wanted to have one last encounter with his world.

Both of these had “put their hand to the plow and looked back.”

Both of them wanted Jesus to adopt in their ways.

Last week I stated, and I will repeat this week:

The moment you follow Jesus, the moment you receive His irresistible call, is the end of your life as you knew it.

It can be no other way.

God will have it no other way.

SERMON NOTES:

Target Date: Sunday 7 February 2021

Word Study/ Translation Notes:

· Separated themselves – root: nifal – a separation, distinction, distinguish, dissociation, go different ways

· Abominations – root: to-ivah – an affront to God

o Anything that is tôʿēbâ is an offense and an affront to God. Two helpful summaries of what Yahweh considers tôʿēbâ are Prov 6:16–19 and Jer 7:9–10. These two passages cover many ethical taboos, such as lying and murdering, and many religious taboos, such as worshiping Yahweh inappropriately and worshiping other gods. The word tôʿēbâ occurs mostly in theological contexts. Many of these occurrences are concentrated in Deuteronomy (focusing heavily on avoidance of the abominations practiced by the surrounding nations; e.g., Deut 12:31; 18:9; 20:18; 22:5; 23:18), Lev 18 (focusing on not practicing the sexual abominations of the surrounding nations), and Ezekiel (focusing on the sin and judgment brought about by Israel’s abominations; Ezek 5:9, 11; 7:3; 22:11; 33:26; 43:8).[8]

· 2 – race – lit: seed – Not racial in intent, but inheritors of the responsibility of Abraham.

Thoughts on the Passage:

· We saw the rumblings of the faithlessness of those in the land:

o The dispatch of Ezra in the first place.

o The lack of a welcoming delegation when the caravan arrived.

o How aware was Ezra of the intermarriage problem among the Jews?

§ It seems likely he was aware of it, but 9:3 seems to indicate he did not know its full extent.

· These marriages were not made the same way they are today; these marriages were arranged by the families of the couple.

o It is not simply a tale of star-crossed lovers, but of calculated negotiations and choices by God’s people to embrace the unholy idolaters around them.

o Malachi 2:11ff also indicates that some around this time were divorcing their Jewish wives to marry the women of the nations. Rabbinical tradition points to a pervasive practice of putting away older Jewish wives who had grown “unattractive” due to the hardships of living in post-exilic Israel.

· 1 – After these things had been done – once the goods were delivered, the messages delivered, and the worship of God accomplished.

o The assembly to deal with this issue was called for 20th day of the ninth month (10:9). Ezra’s caravan arrived in Jerusalem on the 1st day of the fifth month (7:9).

§ This is a span of 4½ months.

§ Much of this time may have been accomplishing the delivery of the king’s commissions (8:36).

§ Other of this time – mourning the state of the nation. – 1 day

§ Other of the time – formulating a godly response to the issue.

· It was urgent, but not rushed or hasty.

· 1 – The officials – unknown what level officials these were.

o These appear to be the secular leaders of the area.

o What caused them to report the sins, including many of their own, to Ezra?

§ Eventually, those in the sinful world will see sin move too far and look for a way to reign in the rampant sin.

· But aside from the intervention of God, through the gospel of Jesus Christ, the world simply substitutes one evil for another.

· 1 – the nations of the land: the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites

o This seems to be singling out the evils of these possessors of the land.

o Even Abraham did not want Isaac to marry someone from Canaan:

§ that I may make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell, 4 but will go to my country and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son Isaac.”[9] – Genesis 24:3-4

o Likewise – Isaac to Jacob:

§ Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and directed him, “You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women.[10] – Genesis 28:1

o Compare to Deuteronomy 7:1-4: “When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you, 2 and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. 3 You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, 4 for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. 5 But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire. [11]

o “Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 12 Take care, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in your midst. 13 You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim 14 (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), 15 lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, 16 and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods. [12] - Exodus 34:11-16

o It should be noted that marriage with foreigners in itself was not forbidden in the Mosaic law, and indeed not a few of the patriarchs and other heroes of the faith of Israel are said to have contracted such marriages (see, e.g. Gen 16:3; 41:45; Exod 2:21; Num 12:1; 2 Sam 3:3, etc.). [13]

o Ammonites and Moabites – descendants of Lot from his incestuous incidents:

§ As for the younger, she also bore a son, and called his name Ben-ammi; he is the father of the sons of Ammon to this day.[14] – Genesis 19:38

§ Thus, the progeny even of one who was recognized as “righteous” enough to be preserved by God out of Sodom have become so adulterated by the world around them that they have now earned God’s wrath.

§ Recall that in an earlier period, Ruth was from Moab; Boaz the Israelite married her because she followed God (and she became David’s great-grandmother). But now, the Moabites have succumbed to the influence of their neighbors.

· 1 – with their abominations – Matthew Henry points out that this does not say that the returned exiles had gone completely over to idolatry, but were simply “walking alongside” those who continued to practice it.

o When God’s people seek the approval of the world, or friendship with it, we will overlook sin before we practice it. We will stop our mouths from preaching the gospel for fear of offending those we claim to hold so dear. Our state is grave, but the state we leave our friends in is truly perilous because we have withheld the only cure to their terminal illness.

o Nothing will so stop a preacher’s mouth against sin as tolerating sin in himself or his family.

· 2 – holy race

o “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. 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, 10 and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. 11 You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today. [15] - Deuteronomy 7:6-11

· The reason for this attitude had nothing to do with racism, but with a concern for the purity of the religion of the Lord. Marriages with foreigners, especially when those foreigners were in an important position as in the time of Ezra, were fraught with problems for the Jews. The influence of a foreign mother, with her connection to another religion, on her children would ruin the pure religion of the Lord and would create a syncretistic religion running contrary to everything in the Jewish faith.[16]

· 2 – officials and chiefs (including priests):

o “For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.[17] – Malachi 2:7

· 3 – pulled my hair from my head:

o Nehemiah was much tougher on those who intermarried: he pulled their hair out!

§ And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. And I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.[18] – Nehemiah 13:25

· 4 – returned exiles – because these were those who had intermarried, they were not the ones who had just returned with Ezra – they were the ones who had returned prior.

o They are the descendants of those rebuilt the temple and restored the worship of Yahweh at the temple.

o But they had been re-captivated into a new (or old) syncretism.

· 4 – Sat appalled - Ezra’s reaction was typical of him. It was almost inaction, yet more potent than any flurry of activity, since it drew out of other people the initiatives that could best come from them.[19]

· Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God[20] - 2 Corinthians 6:14-16

o Often this passage is used for business dealings or relationships. And while these are worthy places to remain aloof from the world, the reason given is simply the difficulty of the merger – that the goals of the light are at odds with the goals of the darkness.

o But the warning here is not focused on the success of the enterprise, but on the glory of God. Whether your partnership or marriage stands or fails is of less importance than whether you continue in the sanctification that glorifies God.

· God does not need Christian-Americans, Christian-Socialists, or any other hyphenated abomination. He calls Christians – believers – followers – do be HIS people, not a race with mixed loyalties and divided allegiances.

o We should be concerned when the arguments of the world proceed from our own lips. We have been, at that point, captured by them.

· There is a spirit today which passes for broad-mindedness and tolerance, but which is really indifference to the hastening of God’s kingdom in the world. It has much to learn from Ezra’s immoderate godliness.[21]

· It is this syncretism that lies at the heart of so many heresies of our modern day: seeker-sensitive, prosperity gospel, and the like. It is promising the believer the rewards of this world rather than the rewards of the gospel.

[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Mt 1:5). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

[2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ru 1:15–17). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

[3] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Dt 7:3–5). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

[4] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (1 Ki 11:1–8). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

[5] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Lk 5:27–28). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

[6] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Lk 9:59–62). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

[7] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ezr 9:1–4). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

[8] Robinson, A. (2014). Abhorrence. D. Mangum, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, & R. Hurst (Eds.), Lexham Theological Wordbook. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

[9] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ge 24:3–4). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

[10] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ge 28:1). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

[11] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Dt 7:1–5). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

[12] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ex 34:11–16). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

[13] Williamson, H. G. M. (1985). Ezra, Nehemiah (Vol. 16, p. 130). Dallas: Word, Incorporated.

[14] New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). (Ge 19:38). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.

[15] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Dt 7:6–11). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

[16] Fensham, F. C. (1982). The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah (p. 124). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

[17] New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). (Mal 2:7). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.

[18] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ne 13:25). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

[19] Kidner, D. (1979). Ezra and Nehemiah: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 12, p. 77). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

[20] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (2 Co 6:14–16). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

[21] McConville, J. G. (1985). Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther (p. 62). Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.