Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezra 9-10.

When Ezra learned that the returned exiles were sinning by making alliances with and marrying idolaters, he did not just ignore it, or throw up his hands and say, “Well, that’s too bad, I hope they repent,” or even preach a sermon about their sin.  No, he publicly abased himself before God and prayed.  Others joined Ezra in his prayer and abasement and prayer about the sin.  And their prayer was not about other people’s sin, they prayed, “We have sinned…”  Then they decided to enter into a covenant with God and each other to change their behavior, to stop sinning and make good for their past sins.  If you, like me, see God’s judgement coming upon our society because of our sins, let us acknowledge our part in that sin and pray to God to transform our hearts, and the hearts of those around us, so that we change our ways and live the life He desires us to live.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezra 6-8.

I do not normally write about this because it crosses over passages I read on separate days, but I decided to write about it anyway today.  Toward the end of yesterday’s passage, the prophets Haggai and Zechariah inspired the Jews to resume work on rebuilding the temple.  The political leaders of the people around them attempted to intimidate them into stopping, when that failed those leaders sent a letter to the King of Persia to request that he order them to stop.  However, instead of ordering the Jews to stop work on rebuilding the temple, Darius, King of Persia, ordered the people who had sent him the letter to cover the costs of rebuilding and provide animals for the Jews to sacrifice on its altar in order to pray for the king and his sons.  This gives us a great example of how God moves to aid those who faithfully serve Him, even in the face of opposition.

Some time later, Artaxerxes sent Ezra the priest to Jerusalem with wealth in order to make sacrifices there on behalf of Artaxerxes and his sons (Side note: I believe that the “his sons” referred to here and in the letter from Darius is meant to refer to those who took the throne after those kings).  In response to this commission from Artaxerxes, Ezra gathered leaders from among the Israelites in exile to return to Jerusalem with him.  When those who would accompany Ezra gathered, Ezra realized just how much wealth they would be traveling with and was concerned that they might become a target for bandits.  However, he was embarrassed to request armed guards from the king, since he had been bragging to the king about God’s great power.  So, Ezra called on those who would be traveling with him to fast and pray for God’s protection.  Ezra and those who traveled with him put their trust in God for their protection.  Let us follow their example…and perhaps, considering the state of our world today, we should remember to include more fasting with our prayers.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezra 3-5.

The first thing which struck me about this passage was the enthusiasm of the returned exiles for serving the Lord.  As soon as they had gotten settled into their new homes they gathered in Jerusalem to offer sacrifices to God and celebrate the Feasts He had mandated for the Israelites.  In fact the way I read the passage, they built a makeshift altar, or perhaps I should say they built an altar that was intended to be temporary, in order to begin making those sacrifices as soon as possible.  The other part of this which strikes me is that they did this “Despite their fear of the people around them,…”  We should share both their enthusiasm for worshiping God and their willingness to defy their fear of those around them in an open and explicit manner.

Later, the passage recounts something about which I am somewhat ambivalent.  When the people who had been living in the land before the exiles returned learned that they were rebuilding the temple, those people asked to be allowed to help them do so.  The returned exiles refused to allow these people to help them.  Which caused those whose assistance was rejected to slander the returned exiles to the King of Persia, who ordered a halt to the rebuilding.  On the one hand, I wonder if things might have gone better if the returned exiles had allowed the surrounding peoples to join in rebuilding the temple.  Perhaps if they had invited the surrounding peoples to join them, and not just in rebuilding the temple, but in full worship of God, Israel would have risen as a power dedicated to God.  On the other hand, perhaps the returned exiles were correct in rejecting this offer of assistance.  Perhaps, if they had accepted the assistance the surrounding peoples would have demanded that they include some of the pagan practices which they had adopted into their worship of God.

Both of these possible interpretations of this passage have lessons for us.  First, we should always welcome the help of those who will faithfully join us in worshiping God.  We should strive to avoid alienating those who genuinely seek to faithfully serve and worship God.  Second, we should be wary of those who offer to aid us in serving God so that they can lead us into accepting practices which God condemns.  We must be cautious of those who refuse to abandon practices which God has clearly spelled out as evil.  Much of the Church today fails to heed the second lesson.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezra 1-2.

Some years ago I heard a theory that when we look at history, every major world power, every empire which dominated the world provided more freedom for the peoples it ruled over than the one which preceded it.  My initial thought when I heard the theory was that it might be correct.  However, soon after that I was reading this very passage and I looked up some information about Cyrus (and then about the Persian Empire).  What I learned from that research was that the Persian Empire gave more freedom of religion and political autonomy to its subject peoples than any other world empire in history.  I learned that Cyrus, and the kings of Persia who followed him, encouraged the different peoples who were subordinate to him to build and maintain temples to their gods in order for them to pray for his success and health.  Further investigation reveals that Cyrus was apparently convinced that there was a god, or, perhaps many gods, but that he had no conviction as to who that god, or gods, was.  Finally, at least on this, copies of edicts by Cyrus similar to the one recounted here, but about the gods of other peoples, have been found.  Which means that the edict recounted here is likely a paraphrase of the actual edict issued by Cyrus encouraging the Israelites to return to Jerusalem to build the temple and worship God.

All of the above leads to the conclusion that there is no “arc of history” whereby people are becoming better and treating each other better, or whereby each generation experiences greater freedom than the one which came before.  No, as I have written in previous entries, each generation has to decide for themselves if they will serve and worship God.  The Israelites had repeatedly turned from God, so He sent them into exile.  During their exile, they cried out to Him and studied His Law.  God raised up Cyrus and brought the Israelites back to Jerusalem.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezra 9-10.

When reading today’s passage I have often been bothered by the fact that the writer emphasizes the sin of the people of having married foreign women.  After all, why would it be wrong to bring women into the family of faith?  As I have been writing off and on this spring, that is because that is not quite what the passage is telling us.  In order to understand what is going on here you have to start with what those who brought the problem to Ezra’s attention told him.  They told him that the people of Israel had not kept themselves separate from the detestable practices of the people around them.  One can easily misread what they said to think they were upset with the interaction with the people around them, but a careful reading of the entire passage shows there is more to it than that.  When the Returned Exiles gathered to address the issue, they agreed that those who had married “foreign women” needed to send those wives away, but they said it would take more than a day or two to accomplish this.  Why would it take more than a day or two to settle this if it was just a matter of all the men who had married a woman not of the group of Returned Exiles putting aside their wives?  To me, this says that they had to evaluate whether these wives had continued in the detestable practices of their people or had embraced the worship of God and all that entailed.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezra 6-8.

The first thing I wanted to write about is the way in which the style of writing changes in today’s passage.  Up until this point, and for the beginning of this passage, the writer appears to be an anonymous third party.  However, in chapter 8 the tone changes to that of Ezra writing in the first person.  I would love to know what led to these two approaches being combined into one document.  I mean it seems pretty clear to me that Ezra wrote an account of his travel to Jerusalem and his actions once there and that someone decided to add some background information, but why did they do so?  It is not particularly important, but I am curious.

Having written the above, I want to focus on what is written in verse 21 of chapter 6:

So the Israelites who had returned from the exile ate it, together with all who had separated themselves from the unclean practices of their Gentile neighbors in order to seek the Lord, the God of Israel.

It is very easy to miss the significance of this verse.  Repeatedly throughout Ezra and Nehemiah we see passages which talk about the Returned Exiles separating themselves from those living around them.  The passages about that separation read as being very draconic and absolute.  However, we also have passages like this one which help us put those passages about separation into context.  The Returned Exiles had rejected the assistance of their neighbors in building the temple because those neighbors followed unclean practices and had no intention of giving them up.  Later, when they demanded that none of their number marry any of the women from the neighboring peoples it was once again about women who continued in the unclean practices of those neighboring peoples, not about women who chose to fully embrace the worship of God.  Here that is made clear, they ate this first Passover after rebuilding the temple with “all who had separated themselves from the unclean practices of their Gentile neighbors.”  Let us also embrace all who separate themselves from the unclean practices of those around us in order to serve the Lord.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezra 3-5.

As soon as the Returned Exiles got settled they arranged to build the altar to God in order to offer sacrifices upon it.  Once it was built they immediately started offering the sacrifices required by the Law of Moses.  At that point they began the process of laying the foundation, and rebuilding, the temple.   Reading today I think I finally understand the justification for the Returned Exiles rejecting the offer to help, actually almost a demand, in rebuilding the temple brought by those who had been living in the land during the Exile (particularly in the areas of the Northern Kingdom).  Those whose help the Returned Exiles rejected had not taken part in the ritual sacrifices required by the Law of Moses, yet now claimed to worship God.  In all of the time that these people had been living in the land, they had made no attempt to rebuild the temple, nor had they joined in the sacrifices and festivals which the Returned Exiles had restored.  When we keep in mind the attitude towards foreigners worshiping God which was expressed in the Chronicler’s account of Solomon’s dedication of the first temple we should see that the help was rejected because those offering wanted to co-opt the efforts of the Returned Exiles and assimilate them into their practices rather than join the faithful worship of God which the Returned Exiles were establishing.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezra 1-2.

The passage tells us that shortly after Cyrus had conquered Babylon he issued an order for the Temple to be rebuilt in Jerusalem and giving the Exiled Israelites permission to return  to Jerusalem to build the Temple.  This is consistent with what we know from other records from the time: Cyrus was known to encourage those within his Empire to worship as they pleased and for those relocated by previous Empires to return to their home countries.  Also in his order, Cyrus encouraged those living near those Exiles who wished to return to Jerusalem to assist them financially.  It seems likely, both from the account here and other historical records we have of Cyrus, that he issued this order because he desired for God to be kindly disposed towards him.  As I understand the records, Cyrus was a true agnostic: “I don’t know if any of these gods exist, but, if they do, I wish for them to favor me over my enemies.”  Another way of putting what appears to have been Cyrus’ attitude: “I am better of behaving as if God is real when He is not, than behaving as if He is not real, when He is.”  I firmly believe that God will often guide those who take that attitude to Him to a better understanding of who He is.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezra 9-10.

When Ezra learned that many of the Returned Exiles had intermarried with the people living in the land, we need to interpret that in terms of yesterday’s passage.  Ezra’s response, and that of the rest of the people, was not about those of the Returned Exiles who married those in the land who chose to follow God’s Laws.  It was about those who married and allied with those who continued to worship idols and follow other practices contrary to God’s Law.  In addition to yesterday’s passage where it stated that everyone who separated themselves from the unclean practices of their Gentile neighbors was welcomed to take part in the Passover, we have in today’s passage an indication that resolving who had violated this prohibition was not just a matter of looking at their wives’ parentage.  Rather, each case needed to be looked at on an individual basis.

There is another thing in this passage I want to look at.  When Ezra came forth and publicly prostrated himself before God because of those among the Returned Exiles who were joining themselves with idolaters, many of the people joined him.  This tells us that many people had been concerned about the problem, but no one was willing to step forward and do something about it.  I want to be fair here, it takes a special kind of person to mobilize a group to deal with this sort of problem.  The lesson we learn here is that we are not alone in being grieved by the sins which are damaging our society.  We should take heart from such knowledge.  We can also learn that many times it only takes one person willing to stand up to such things to bring about change.  When we see sin around us, let us prostrate ourselves before God and ask Him to show us what to do.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezra 6-8.

Throughout the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah there are repeated references to the Returned Exiles separating themselves from the people living in the land.  Those references seem to suggest that those who were not among the Returned Exiles were not welcome to worship the Lord.  However, today’s passage contains a phrase which one could easily miss, and even if you catch it, you could easily miss its significance.  While discussing the Passover which the Returned Exiles celebrated after rebuilding the Temple, chapter 6 verse 21 says this: “ So the Israelites who had returned from the exile ate it, together with all who had separated themselves from the unclean practices of their Gentile neighbors in order to seek the Lord, the God of Israel. ”  The words in bold in that quote tell us that while the Returned Exiles kept themselves separate from the culture of those living in the land, they allowed any of those who wished to fully embrace God’s Law to join them.  This little phrase, almost a throw away, changes how we should interpret all of the rest of the passages which discuss how the Returned Exiles interacted with those living in the land. Those who sought to find synergy between the idolatrous worship of the Gentiles were not welcome among the People of God, but any who chose to fully embrace God’s commands, no matter what their background, were welcome to join in.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.