Only Jonathan son of Asahel and Jahzeiah son of Tikvah, supported by Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite, opposed this. – Ezra 10:15

 Today's Scripture Reading (September 28, 2020): Ezra 10

Winston Churchill said that "A kite flies against the wind, not with it." The idea is that we cannot reach the most incredible heights of what is possible for us without the presence of opposition. Any great idea needs to be opposed, and this need exists so that the insignificant things that will tend to drag the action down can be washed away. I think we need to be suspicious of any decision that garners unanimous consent without a long and hard season of compromise, worked out between the two sides. The best decisions are the ones we haggle over, which originates not just from one theoretical framework, but from two or more differing backgrounds.

But not all opposition is equal. I think our mistake is often to believe that those who oppose an idea are a homogenous group who share the same ideals and reasons for their opposition. But the truth is that resistance to a plan of action is often for many different, sometimes conflicting, motivations. Sometimes we oppose something because we have a personality difference with the person proposing the measure. In this case, our opposition resides more with our dislike of the person than it does with anything in the idea itself. Sometimes, we oppose an idea because it simply goes too far. It is too different from the beliefs that we have held throughout our lives. But the reverse is also true. Sometimes opposition arises because the change is too gentle. There needs to be more change. I used to joke that I knew I got the sound level right for the music portion of a worship service when I had an equal number of people complaining it was too loud as I had complaints that it was too soft. It also sometimes seemed that no one resided in that space. Everyone was angry, but for two conflicting reasons.

Ezra talks about the opposition that existed to the idea that something needed to be done about the intermarriage relationships of the Jewish people. Ezra believed that as long as these relationships existed, there would be avenues open to their enemies, spiritual and otherwise, that could be used to pull both families and the nation apart. Something had to be done.

Ezra mentions four men who opposed the upcoming meeting; Jonathan, Jahzeiah, Meshullam, and Shabbethai. What Ezra doesn't tell us why they opposed. It could be that they had philosophical differences with Ezra. Maybe they disagreed that Ezra should be the one calling the shots. And therefore, anything that Ezra proposed was obviously wrong. It is possible that these were the hard-liners, and they did not believe that Ezra was going to go far enough to punish those who had intermarried with the people around them.

But it seems that the most likely source of their opposition was that they thought the discussion had already gone too far. The conversation did not need to be delayed to a nicer day, but it needed to end. The debate was an afront to the people of the area, and the people of Jerusalem needed to get back to the task of physically rebuilding the nation.

It is not likely that they all agreed as to why they opposed Ezra. But opposition existed, and a conversation was being had around the issue. Most importantly, God was part of the conversation and the reason for the big decisions that were being made in the presence of the people.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Nehemiah 1

They have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, and have mingled the holy race with the peoples around them. And the leaders and officials have led the way in this unfaithfulness." – Ezra 9:2

 Today's Scripture Reading (September 27, 2020): Ezra 9

When I was a teenager, I went into business with a friend. The idea was that we would contract ourselves out to shovel walks for people in the neighborhood. People would hire us for the winter, and we would just show up when it snowed to shovel the walks. At the time, I thought it was a good idea. The problem ended up being my partner. When the snow came, he disappeared, leaving me to deal with both the snow and irate customers I couldn't get to on my own. The deal was one of the worst decisions I had made in my young life. And it cost me my developing reputation.

The Apostle Paul writes about our interpersonal relationships. "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness" (2 Corinthians 6:14)? Paul's words have often been applied to the concept of marriage, but the intent of Paul's words applies to any relationship in which we are contracting to do something together. And the problem is that when we covenant to do something with others, we open ourselves up to their shortcomings. And what they believe and do quickly influences how people see and react to us, and often compromises our beliefs and actions.

Ezra looks out over Israel and realizes that the people, including the leaders of Israel, were compromised. Intermarriage was far from the only problem, but as intermarriage became common among the people, no areas of their lives would be left untouched by the worship of other gods. In every household, in every business, every government office, and every aspect of social life, there was a discussion going on that was pulling people away from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and toward the pagan gods worshipped by the people of the land. The people had begun to depend on their alliances with other nations and people instead of relying on the God who had moved so powerfully in their history.

Does Ezra argue that all alliances are evil? I don't think we need to take it that far. Associations can be useful under certain circumstances. But first, we must be secure in who we are, recognizing that our allegiance to God is our primary alliance, and that, in the end, we are far better off walking alone with God than we are walking with our earthly partnerships and without God.

Ezra recognized that the nation's leaders had led the country into sin through their own intermarriages. He knew that the only path back would depend on the drastic actions taken by precisely those compromised leaders.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezra 10

I said to them, "You as well as these articles are consecrated to the LORD. The silver and gold are a freewill offering to the LORD, the God of your ancestors. – Ezra 8:28

 Today's Scripture Reading (September 26, 2020): Ezra 8

Is it possible that we are possessions of someone? I know, in our current environment, these are not pleasant words. In the shadow of an ever-present memory of the missteps we have made with slavery, we want to believe that we are the makers of our own destiny and the masters of our own lives. But, at the same time, we are also people who owe our existence to those around us and, at least in some way, we belong to them. One of the hardest things about the current COVID-19 mask debate is that wearing a mask is not something we do for ourselves. I wear a mask because I owe it to you and I want to protect you. And I belong to you; I am your possession, at least in a minor way.

Ezra's words to the Levites echo those of Isaiah, "Come out from it and be pure, you who carry the articles of the Lord's house" (Isaiah 52:11). Ezra looks at the wealth of silver and gold, which had been freely given for the Temple, but he understands that the real treasure was the men who would serve in the Temple. They were the descendants of Levi, and Ezra reminds them that they were consecrated to God from the very beginning, just like the silver and gold that would be used in the Temple. These men were the possession of God, and they needed to "come out" from among the rank and file and be pure.

Ezra's words contain a message that the contemporary church needs to hear. Peter reissues the command of Ezra and Isaiah for the Christian Church.

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:4-5).

You belong to God and to each other. We are the possessions of someone else. That means we need to live our lives with that fact in mind, concentrating on the task that God has set before us, and understanding our responsibility to those living around us. It is time that the Christian Church began to examine what it might mean for them to "come out and be pure" and to understand what Ezra meant when he spoke the words "You as well as the articles are consecrated to the Lord."

The biggest problem that the world has with the Christian Church is that the church has forgotten to do just that. We have forgotten to whom we belong and that we are commanded to be salt and light in a world that needs it. We are to respond to the world with the love that God will place inside us, bringing unity and healing, and not division, wherever it is that God, the one to whom we belong, places us.  

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezra 9

After these things, during the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah … - Ezra 7:1

 Today's Scripture Reading (September 25, 2020): Ezra 7

American Author Dave Eggers argues that “books have a unique way of stopping time in a particular moment and saying: Let’s not forget this.” They can gather our attention and point them at things that we might have missed, or maybe even have forgotten that they ever happened. But, while reading a book can often focus our attention on something, it can also take our attention away from some events often considered to be insignificant by the author or not part of the story the writer is trying to tell. Sometimes the story can leap over years in a single paragraph or even decades in the space that exists between two sections.

The author of Ezra leaps over sixty years in the space that exists between Chapter six and chapter seven. It is in that space that the events of the book of Esther take place. But the Xerxes of the Esther tale is assassinated in 465 B.C.E., leaving the empire to his son, Artaxerxes, also known as Artaxerxes Longimanus or Artaxerxes the long-handed because his right hand was longer than his left. Artaxerxes reigned for forty years, long enough for Ezra to begin the work in Judah, likely arriving in Palestine around the year 458 B.C.E. and then continuing to reign throughout the story of Nehemiah, which follows the tale of Ezra’s beginnings.

So, the chronicler draws our attention to the beginnings of the return of the exiles under the reign of Cyrus, and then skips over the largely uneventful rules, at least from the point of view of the Jews, of Cambyses II (who reigned for eight years), Bardiya, the brother of Cambyses II (who reigned for a few months), Darius the Great (who reigned for thirty-six years), Xerxes I (reigned for twenty years and featured the events recorded in the story of Esther), and then, finally, the long forty-year reign of Artaxerxes the Long-handed.

But what the story of Ezra does well is it reminds us that God plays a long game. His presence works over the decades and through many leaders and events. What we often see as the inactivity of God is actually the deliberate action of God, but following God’s timetable and not ours. Moses argued that “a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night” (Psalm 90:4). It is something that we need to remember, as we consider the moves of God. What might seem to be a long time in our eyes could be insignificant to our God, who has his focus further down the road, maybe like the work of a writer, who allows sixty years to pass in the space that exists between the chapters.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezra 8

They also killed Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai and Vaizatha, the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews. But they did not lay their hands on the plunder. – Esther 9:7-10

 Today's Scripture Reading (September 24, 2020): Esther 9 & 10

Life was filled with guns and war
And everyone got trampled on the floor
I wish we'd all been ready
Children died, the days grew cold
A piece of bread could buy a bag of gold
I wish we'd all been ready

The words, written in 1969, belong to Jesus People singer Larry Norman. The song was one of the first to cross over from the emerging Christian Culture into the established church. "I Wish We'd All Been Ready" was widely used in movies that described the coming rapture of the church, scaring many teens into heaven. Ironically, that was not a use that Norman had intended for the song. "I Wish We'd All Been Ready" is a song about priorities and recognizing that sometimes there are more important things than the things we often think are critical. And when you are fighting for survival, money is one thing that becomes very unimportant.

The author of Esther repeats three times that the Jews "did not lay their hands on the plunder" (Esther 9:10, 15,16). The first mention accompanies a note that involves the fight against the sons of Haman. Haman was the instigator of the plan to exterminate the Jews. But Haman, himself, was no longer a problem; the King had executed him. The sons of Haman, however, had decided to carry on the campaign against the Jews, likely blaming them for the death of their father.

And they were not alone. Other residents in Susa and around the empire had taken up the cause of Haman, for whatever the reason, which meant that the lives of the Jews, living in exile in the middle of the Achaemenid Empire, were in danger.

The response of the Jews to the clear and present danger around them was to band together and fight for their lives, taking on anyone who decided to move against them. Sometimes, there is something more important than money, and this was one of those times. As a result, the Jews did not take the riches of their defeated enemies, even though the proclamation of the King allowed them to profit off of their successful battles. The reality was that the fight for their lives was much more important. It was a day that reflected the post-apocalyptic lyrics of Larry Norman. Life was filled with war, and because of their current fight for survival, bread was much more valuable than gold. The plunder of the enemies of the Jews was unimportant because wealth would not help them to survive. In fact, it would probably only increase their danger. And so, the Jews fought to live, leaving the riches of those that they defeated behind them so that others might profit.  

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezra 7

The king’s edict granted the Jews in every city the right to assemble and protect themselves; to destroy, kill and annihilate the armed men of any nationality or province who might attack them and their women and children, and to plunder the property of their enemies. – Esther 8:11

 Today's Scripture Reading (September 23, 2020): Esther 8

God issued the decree to Adam in the beginning. “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die” (Genesis 2:16b-17). From the very beginning, the penalty for wanting to go our way and against God’s way has been death. We can argue over how that death might take its final form in our lives; is sin the reason for the presence of physical death at the end of our lives or is God referring to the spiritual death that we suffer while we are still alive because of our decisions to sin. But the bottom line is that God decrees that the direct result of our sin is death. The Apostle Paul agrees; “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

It is a decree that God has never rescinded. What was true in the Garden of the Eden was still true for Paul in the first century C.E. and is still true for us. The result of our sin is death. The difference, while admittedly something that we don’t totally understand, is that Jesus, the perfect Son of God, has taken the prescribed penalty on himself, dying in our place despite the fact that the sin is ours and not his. He became death so that we might live. And so, our hope is not in God changing his original decree issued in the Garden of Eden. Our hope is and always will be placed solidly on the sacrifice of Jesus.

King Xerxes issued a decree. We can discuss the merits of the King’s proclamation, but the reality is that the decree, once issued, could not be taken back. And part of the reason for this likely has to do with ancient communication. It was hard to get the message out in the first place, rescinding an order once it had been given was almost impossible. And the resulting situation was often muddy, with people unsure of what to do. To make that situation clear, once a proclamation was issued, it could not be rescinded.

The only thing that Xerxes could do was issue a second proclamation. The purpose of the second proclamation was to minimize the effects of the first. In this case, the second proclamation gave the Jews the right to defend themselves. They were allowed to kill any who attempted to kill them, regardless of their nationality. They were also given the right plunder the riches of any who tried to harm them. Originally, none of the Jews had possessed these rights. But now they did.

The hope of the edict was that those who had thought to follow the original command, would be given a reason to pause, considering the cost that their action might visit on them. The edict to eliminate the Jews was still present, but now the Jews could fight back, and the hope was that that would present a significant deterrent to anyone who might want to follow the demands of the first proclamation.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Esther 9 & 10

King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, "Who is he? Where is he—the man who has dared to do such a thing?" – Esther 7:5

 Today's Scripture Reading (September 22, 2020): Esther 7

Sixteenth-century Renaissance writer, Francois Rabelais, argued that "ignorance is the mother of all evils." Sometimes that ignorance is hard to explain. The problem is that we should know, but, for some reason, we don't. Or maybe we do know, but we willingly turn our back on that knowledge because not knowing is easier. But the difference between real ignorance and feigned failure to understand might be only recognized by the person claiming ignorance. After all, the central questions of the Watergate investigation were who knew what and when did they know it.

There seems to be a gap between what King Xerxes knew and what he should have known. After all, Haman came to Xerxes to ask that a proclamation be issued that would, in the send, exterminate the Jews, the same crime that Esther is alleging. So that leaves us with a question; is it possible that Xerxes did not connect the accusation of Esther with the request that Haman had made of the King and the proclamation that Xerxes issued, or is he just pretending to have not known. At least on the surface, it would seem that Xerxes was as guilty as Hamon was about the Jewish situation. No, it was not Xerxes's idea, and Haman was guilty of exaggerating the danger to the empire, but, in the end, Xerxes did issue the order. The bottom line was that Xerxes trusted Hamon. Hamon failed the King, but because of Xerxes's trust, Hamon's error became the King's.

And it is possible that Xerxes completely understood what was happening, but now that decision wasn't playing well with the people who mattered in the King's court, he denies what is evident that he should have known. His feigned ignorance becomes his excuse. We have all known politicians who have done precisely this, rejecting the uncomfortable truths that were present in their circles of influence because it was easier.

But we can also give Xerxes the benefit of the doubt and argue that maybe the King really didn't know what was in the mandate. Like many world leaders, both past and present, he might have allowed an advisor or advisors to work on the wording of the edict and then have the order brought to him for his final approval. Xerxes might have simply trusted Haman and approved the decree without bothering to read it. And, in that case, it is his ignorance that becomes the root of all of the evil that followed.

It is a politician's dilemma, but it also ours. We frequently have to confront evil in our lives that is a direct result of our wrong decisions. But sometimes, we are forced to confront an evil that is a direct result of our ignorance. Our temptation is to excuse the sin on which we have acted in ignorance; after all, we didn't know. But the truth is that we should have known. Rather than excuse our behavior based on what we didn't know, we need to commit that next time we will know. Because it is not always just who knew what and when did they know it, but it is also what is it that they should have known.  

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Esther 8