Today’s Scripture Reading (July 15,
2014): Ezra 10
Often we
struggle with what we think the Bible is instructing us to do. Part of our
problem is that we attempt to understand words that were clearly written for
another time, and from the place where I am writing my blog in a culture that
is on the other side of the world, from the time and place where the audience
lived when the words were first written. To just import the words into my time
and my place is impossible. And this passage is no exception.
Taken on its
own, these words might justify divorce in a marriage where one of the partners
refuses to follow the dictates of God (or in some other limited circumstances.)
The passage itself seems to ignore both the fact that God clearly instructs his
follower to “not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth”
(Malachi 2:15 written before Ezra) as well as Paul’s instruction to stay
married to an unbelieving spouse (1 Corinthians 7 written more than 400 years
after Ezra). So the question is, does this verse instruct us to do the opposite
of the instructions found in other passages, or is the tension leading us to
some other cause.
In the case of Ezra 10, the tension seems to clearly be leading us to the
realization of some other cause. Israel’s problem as a nation was their unfaithfulness
to God (described in Hosea by using the illustration of an unfaithful wife.)
The cause of the unfaithfulness in several cases had been their desire to marry
women from other cultures and religions. This was one the main reasons why
Solomon’s reign ultimately failed and the Kingdom of Israel was split into two
after his reign. So because of this tendency, the prophets often instructed the
Israelite men not to marry women from other religions and cultures. Which is
exactly what the men had done in Babylon. And now it was a condition that they
felt that they needed to redress and take action on. And so they come to Ezra
with this plan of action. They are not content to just accept the sin that was
present in their lives – they believed that they needed to take the actions to which
their consciences had led them.
And this is the point that transfers into our culture. Easy divorce is
already a feature of our culture, and for a healthy society it is a situation
that needs to be remedied by us. But the reality is that we need to be willing
to take action, to do the hard things in our lives, so that sin is removed and
we are ultimately set up for success.
In our culture we have a number of hard choices that need to be made so
that we can succeed as a culture and as a nation. The only question is whether
or not we have the strength of character necessary to make those choices.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Nehemiah
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