The problem has been identified.
But it is overwhelming, too big to be solved in a single session!
Yet the people agree … the sin has to be removed!
So “all the congregation” purposed:
“The people are many, and it is a time of much rain, and we are not able to stand without, neither is this a work of one day or two: for we are many that have transgressed in this thing. Let now our rulers of all the congregation stand, and let all them which have taken strange wives in our cities come at appointed times, and with them the elders of every city, and the judges thereof, until the fierce wrath of our God for this matter be turned from us. Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahaziah the son of Tikvah were employed about this matter: and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite helped them. And the children of the captivity did so.” Ezra 10:13-16
That rain, again!
Look at the honesty here: “For we are many that have transgressed in this thing.”
The Hebrew verb used for “transgress” is “pasha,” meaning “to rebel!” That’s what sin is, rebellion (revolt) against God’s Law, God’s Word! Insurrection against the Lord Himself, in reality! (1st John 3:4 teaches us: “Sin is the transgression of the law.” To the point!)
Yes, God had sternly warned the Jews … “Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the Lord your God. Else IF YE DO IN ANY WISE GO BACK, and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, even these that remain among you, and SHALL MAKE MARRIAGES WITH THEM, and go in unto them, and they to you: know for a certainty that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you.” Joshua 23:11-13
Such a dire situation demands action!
Thus … “Let now our rulers of all the congregation stand, and let all them which have taken strange wives in our cities come at appointed times, and with them the elders of every city, and the judges thereof, until the fierce wrath of our God for this matter be turned from us.”
This strategy implies that God, just knowing the Israelites plan to extirpate the iniquity, that they hope to nullify these forbidden intermarriages, just might “turn His Wrath!”
These good men presume that sin brings with it consequences!
Wages!
The withdrawing of God’s good Hand of protection, for example! (Please read Joshua 23:11-13 again, printed earlier in the Lesson. To see one of these dangers! If you do so intermarry … “know for a certainty that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the Lord your God hath given you.” Frightening!)
Next, today’s Text begins a list of names! The last such list in the Book of Ezra. “Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahaziah the son of Tikvah were employed about this matter: and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite helped them. And the children of the captivity did so.”
Here one word applies, “obedience,” Did you notice? “And the children of the captivity did so.”
The “offenders” will now be identified. And required to renounce these (illegal) relationships!
Marriages annulled!
Some children essentially orphaned!
Nearly unprecedented in Scripture (though repeated in Nehemiah), that drastic a solution!
Still, action (it seems) sanctioned by God the Father, nonetheless. The great God Who “hates divorce!” (Malachi 2:16 says so. “For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away ….” And Jesus even further intensified this tenet!)
Sad.
But necessary.
If Israel plans to continue being Israel!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell