So now I must add the Book of Ezra to my “list.”
The list in my mind of “abrupt endings” in the Bible, in Scripture!
In the New Testament the history oriented Book of Acts, ends in such a fashion. (Incidentally, Ezra is history, too!) Yes, Acts concludes with the Apostle Paul in jail … and we’re pretty sure (???) he was eventually released and preached more, a lot more! But Luke concludes his Story: “And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.” Acts 28:30-31, but then what, Dr. Luke?
Furthermore, the Old Testament Book of Jonah does the very same thing! Chapter 4 (the Book’s finale) portrays Jonah pouting in anger, not shouting for joy, over the salvation of a while city! Did Jonah ever get “straightened out?” Did he ever see things “God’s Way?”
Plus another one, Jesus’ Parable of “The Prodigal Son!” Did that older brother finally get his attitude “right?” Did the prodigal “stay at home,” once he returned? Was he thereafter a faithful worker on his father’s farm? And did he ever go back to that “far country,” trying to make right the many wrongs he no doubt left behind, clearing his conscience and testifying to God’s Grace in his life?
And “the list goes on,” as they say.
But back to Ezra, chapter 10, its final verse: “All these had taken strange wives: and some of them had wives by whom they had children.” The Book ends with a “list,” of all things! In fact, were it not for the following (in our Bibles) Book of Nehemiah, we’d have no idea how successfully Ezra’s plan ever became!
Why end in such an unexpected way?
1. Maybe to highlight the critical importance of the doctrine of “separation from sin,” that purifying principle in the Eyes of our great God!
2. Maybe to show the accurate historical nature (so interested in statistics) of this part of God’s inspired Word, this genre of Truth.
3. Maybe to reveal the “high price” of backsliding on God! Little innocent “children” losing their Dads … “and some of them had wives by whom they had children.” Yes, sin pays “wages,” painfully so!
4. Maybe again … to reveal (to give) “hope” to those who feel “locked” into some sin pattern! If all these men in Ezra can “obey” God and “forsake” their sins … God can surely help others to do the same!
5. Then lastly, maybe the Book ends so curtly … so that we will better learn to trust God (in giving us what we need to know, but often no more than we need to know) and accept His Word by faith!
Deuteronomy 29:29 often must be cited in cases like Ezra’s … “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.” Wow!
“Lord, we humbly bow at Thy feet today, thanking Thee for the book of Ezra, including its last chapter. By faith, trusting 2 Timothy 3:16.” Which clearly teaches/promises: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”
Amen!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell