A Distressing Occasion (Ezra 10:9)

 


Friday, October 25, 2024


Psalm 135

Ezra 10:1-19

1 Peter 4:12-19


A Distressing Occasion (Ezra 10:9)


The situation has come to a head. Full of hope for the future, hopes dashed into weeping, Ezra sits and waits for the people to decide how to move forward. A great sin has occurred amongst the people, and something must be done about it.


Once again we must move past the contextual commandment to the principle behind that commandment, and see how the principle lines up with the gospel of Jesus Christ.


Beginning with the principle: God originally raised up a nation for himself, first by calling Abraham, then through Joseph and Moses keeping them safe and then rescuing them, and then giving them a king, David. A people called to be holy, as God as holy; a blessing to all the surrounding nations. By inter-marrying with those surrounding nations, the point of everything that God has been doing up to that point was made void: hence, a sin was committed. And so, the principle is to be holy as God is holy, and to be a blessing to the nations.


Lining up this principle with the gospel of Jesus Christ (and it certainly helps to be reading 1 Peter alongside this), we see there is the potential for great suffering when we separate ourselves from anything that is not holy. Forget something as heartbreaking as divorce and exile – think of all the things we used to love that we have had to give up in order to follow Jesus along the narrow path into life.


And yet, by dropping off all those things, we have opened the way for holiness, and to be a blessing to others. Things such as, according to St Peter, “living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.” (1 Peter 4:3) Thank God we do not have to go through the awful necessity that the Israelites under Ezra did; and thank God that he has saved us from the things of which St Peter speaks. At first, this removal feels like a distressing occasion: what’s the big deal? Does God hate fun? Why can’t he just live and let live? But once the problem is removed, God’s grace rushes in like a flowing stream, and we grow into the people God always wanted us to be: a holy people, and a blessing to the nations.


What are we holding on to that is blocking the way of holiness and blessing? What personal experiences in our own past of leaving behind sinful ways can we take encouragement from?


O Holy One, you call us to holiness and to be a blessing. Grant me the grace to leave behind everything that stands between me and you.

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