Yes, Ezra is known for its lists, at least to some degree.
There was a list of returning (to Judah from Babylon) captives way back in Ezra chapter 2, under Zerubbabel’s (among others) leadership.
Then another such list (still of returnees) under Ezra’s direction appears in chapter 7 of this little Book.
But now, today (actually for several days) we analyze Ezra chapter 10, with its third and final list, but not of families coming back “home” … but of families who have sinned against God by marrying idolatrous wives!
In fact, according to Malachi chapter 2, dozens and dozens of the Judean men may have divorced their Jewish wives in order to “pick up” some of these foreign beauties! “Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god (these very marriages which Ezra is attempting to dissolve). The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob (impending judgment) ….“ verses 11 and 12. But then verse 14 adds, when God refused the “sacrifices” (worship) of these worldlings … “Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.” Mistreatment of their (Jewish) wives! Then God adds, warns: “Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away (divorce).” verses 15 and 16. Again, they are divorcing their (older, but godly) wives!
That set of circumstances (the context of Malachi, a contemporary of Ezra-Nehemiah) makes this Ezra chapter 10 situation much more palatable, to me anyway!
Oh, back to this “list.” Including some of the very same people who were mentioned back in Ezra 2, that first list. Note: but this list is not as long as the other “lists” in Ezra. Indicating, I think, that the sin of idolatrous intermarriage (bad as it was) had not yet filtered (spread) through the whole Jewish populace. Ezra and the leaders were thus “nipping it in the bud,” so to speak. Before things got any worse, before God’s judgment really fell (again)!
The experts say 110 or 111 (depending on how one calculates the names) families are involved! That means the same number of “wives” were “sent away,” essentially divorced.
Tomorrow morning (if not then, Monday) we may need to take a whole lesson and discuss the “ethics” of this chapter, this “drastic” action. (One feminist-leaning author says here that 111 women, idolatrous though they may have been, could have posed NO REAL THREAT to the welfare of that little nation! But that view is wrong! A LITTLE SIN OFTEN BECOMES A LOT OF SIN! Paul twice reminded us: “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.” Yes, iniquity spreads, permeates, infiltrates, and ultimately kills! (Galatians 5:9 and 1 Corinthians 5:6)
The first two lists in Ezra … those men and women who were heroic, patriots, bold and intrepid!
The last list in Ezra, those who had sinned, compromised, taken the “easy way” out, the carnal life!
God has “lists” too, you know.
I sure want to be on the right one!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
Revelation 21:27 … “And there shall in no wise enter into it (New Jerusalem) any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the LAMB’S BOOK OF LIFE.” Consisting of a “list” of names! Of the redeemed!