A Brief Moment (Ezra 9:8)

 


Thursday, October 24, 2024


Psalms 130; 131; 133

Ezra 9

1 Peter 4:3-11


Observance: United Nations Day, inaugurated 1945


A Brief Moment (Ezra 9:8)


Emotions can be an unpleasant thing. Back in Persia, Ezra must have been filled with joy at hearing the exiles were to be returned, and the temple rebuilt. The picture in his head must have been wonderfully optimistic. Having been laid low for their sins, the people would be restored and, having learned the lessons of their ancestors, never sin again. A new golden age for the people of Israel must have been the prize Ezra was reaching out for.


And then, with the episode during the journey, when he realised he needed to pray even harder for God’s grace and protection, and his prayers were vindicated – he must have had high hopes for the future.


Yet now, having arrived in the city, he is told that “there is nothing new under the sun”. It is good enough to be back home, apparently; the people are more than OK with breaking God’s explicit commandments. Ezra knows why they are not to inter-marry. God isn’t being mean in this commandment. Rather, there is a whole system of how God’s creation is supposed to function in all its blessed goodness. By joining the families of Israel to the families of the demon-worshippers, the system is scorned and the blessing is lost.


We must bear in mind that there isn’t a one-to-one comparison between this situation and our own situation today. Every biblical commandment should be investigated in order to discover the principle behind the commandment, and then that principle run through the gospel of Jesus Christ. This process doesn’t reduce the holiness or importance of any commandment; rather, it helps us understand how we are to follow them two and a half thousand years later on the other side of the globe (and the other side of the incarnation). As a nation of immigrants, where do we see Jesus in this commandment about marriage? If the purpose of the commandment is to keep the people focused on God, how should we follow this commandment Ezra is so worried about?


For our purposes today, however, perhaps we can simply empathise with Ezra. How often have we had high hopes for the future of the church, only to discover disappointment? Is that disappointment a problem for other people to deal with, or for us to deal with in ourselves? God loves to use broken and frail people for wonderful miraculous purposes. Am I in the same category? And yet, in spite of that brokenness and frailty, what is the amazing transformation God makes in such people?


Lord Jesus, take us, the least of all people, and use us for such glory to your name that even the heavens marvel at your grace.

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