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He Expects Compliance
“Now therefore, let us make a covenant with our God to put away all these wives and those who have been born to them, according to the advice of my master and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law.”
Ezra 10.3
Ezra was a priest and scribe - a direct descendant of Aaron - who led a second group of refugees back to Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity. His task was to essentially reestablish the people in their understanding of and commitment to the Law of Moses. Artaxerxes, the reigning king of Persia, supplied Ezra with all that he would need to reestablish the regular worship of God in the reconstructed temple, and commanded of all those under his rule in the areas surrounding Judea to contribute whatever was necessary for such a task.
It must have been an exciting time for God’s people, not only to see another wave of countrymen repopulating the promised land, but more so to see the support of such a powerful ruler and the providential influence of Yahweh. Nonetheless, Ezra was immediately confronted with a serious problem. Over the approximately eighty years that the Jews had been back in Judah, many had taken wives from those nations which God had originally prohibited. Ezra is so troubled by this circumstance that he tears his garments, rips the hair from his head and beard, begins fasting and mourning, and begs forgiveness from God (Ezra 9). While thus employed, a large group of people approach him, acknowledging their sin and proposing that they dissolve those marriages in order to comply with God’s demands. The chapter concludes with the plans for such and a listing of the many people who had married those Canaanite women.
How hard this must have been for those involved. While the relationships between husband and wife were obviously somewhat different in their culture than in ours, surely the dissolution of these family ties was painful, especially given the presence of children in some cases. We do not know what happened to the wives and children. Perhaps the lengthy process mentioned in the later verses of chapter ten involved some of those practical matters. We just don’t know. What we do know is that they had broken God’s law and that they had to do very hard things in order to make themselves acceptable in the eyes of God. And they did.
Such a thing is almost unimaginable in our day, in our world, in our culture. We cannot conceive of a God that would call for His people to do something so challenging. But I am reminded in reading this section that God does not grant us the right to amend His will at our own discretion. He expects compliance. He has not changed. Rather, we have changed our view of Him. And that is a terribly dangerous perspective. So I am forced today to ask myself a sobering question: Just how far will I go in my obedience to my God?
In the answer to that question is the truth of my discipleship.
