I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.

     In yesterday’s passage, the book of Ezra changes from the third person to the first person. That is, up until the point where Ezra actually assembled his expedition to go to Jerusalem the account was in the third person. As he begins describing the activities of the actual expedition the author switches to the first person. For me this switch changes the feel of the account. It is no longer a dry narrative of “x happened and then y happened.” It is now the story as understood by someone who was there.
     Today’s passage begins with Ezra recounting how he was too embarrassed to ask the king for troops to guard the expedition, yet afraid of bandits because of the large amount of wealth they were carrying. Ezra did not want to ask the king for a military escort because he had told him how powerful God was and how He protected those who worshiped Him. So, Ezra ordered the members of the expedition to fast and pray to God for protection on the journey. Their prayers were answered. In order to demonstrate the integrity of the mission, Ezra placed twelve of the priests in charge of the treasure they were carrying. He then weighed out the treasure they would be transporting in front of witnesses and made a record of it. When they arrived in Jerusalem, they presented the treasure to the Temple authorities in Jerusalem and again weighed it out in front of witnesses. The tallies matched.
     The leaders of the people came to Ezra with a concern, many of the people had married women from among the people around them. The larger concern was that they had adopted the practices of their wives’ people. Ezra prays before God and confesses the guilt of the Jewish people in intermarrying with the surrounding peoples. The first couple of times when I read this passage, it really bothered me because it appears to be concerned entirely with racial purity, something I do not believe is a good thing or something that God cares about. However, when I read it through a third time I caught this part, “They have taken up the detestable practices of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites.” The problem was not that the Jews had married women from among these people, but that they had taken up their practices. Why had they done that? Because they had married women who had not converted to Judaism. The issue that concerned Ezra was not interracial marriage, but inter-religion marriage. The problem was not that the Jews married women who were not of the Jewish race, the problem was that they married women who were not of the Jewish faith. This is important for us today, couples should be sure that they share the same faith before they get married. Doing otherwise leads to heartbreak.

     Up until today’s passage, much of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians has focused on Church unity. He now turns and talks about a man who has taken his father’s wife (stepmother). Not only did the church not condemn the man’s behavior, they were proud of his presence among them. Paul tells them that they must cast the man out of the fellowship of the Church in the hope that he would recognize his sin and repent. Paul tells them that they should not associate with those who claim to be a believer who is sexually immoral, greedy, an idolator, a slanderer, a drunkard, or a swindler. One of the failings of the Church today has been that it has put emphasis on sexual sin at the expense of applying discipline on these other sins. Paul also emphasizes that this judgement is only on those who claim to be believers. We should not attempt to avoid non-believers who sin, otherwise how could we witness to them? Overall, Paul is telling us here that there are limits to how far we should go in the name of Church unity.

     Let us turn to the Lord for protection. If we turn to God, He will protect us and place us in a safe place. God is faithful and He will deliver us.

     God will direct rulers and government officials in the course that He desires, whether they wish to follow His will or not. People may justify their actions, even to themselves, but God knows our real motives and will judge us accordingly.