Wednesday Bible Study: The end of all things- Ezra

This week, like last, there are a few, "Why is this here"s I got hung up on, but I'm going to, with God's grace, work past them to the gist of the story.  Let me set up where we are.  Ezra the Priest has led the exiles back to Israel, and re-established the Temple.  But now he gets word that some of the exiles have broken the commandment and taken foreign wives.  He is devastated, and why not?  As he prays in the previous chapter, they had JUST gotten off a punishment that was far less than they deserved in the exile itself.  And no more had they returned and re-established the worship of God, then they break one of the first rules they were given!  Now, Moses might have said, "Easy, Ezra, you'll get used to it from this lot" (even as he was taking a stick to them), but  Ezra was broken, and as we enter chapter ten, he is crying after his prayer at the sin of his people.

But JUST mourning is not in God's plan. 

Ezr 10:1  While Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, a very great assembly of men, women, and children, gathered to him out of Israel, for the people wept bitterly. 
Ezr 10:2  And Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, of the sons of Elam, addressed Ezra: "We have broken faith with our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land, but even now there is hope for Israel in spite of this. 
Ezr 10:3  Therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all these wives and their children, according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God, and let it be done according to the Law. 
Ezr 10:4  Arise, for it is your task, and we are with you; be strong and do it." 

God never allows self-pity; the leaders remind Ezra he has a job to do, and Ezra, strengthened by the support of his fellows, gets his dander back up and does it.  He has them spread the word- big meeting on the Temple grounds in 3 days- be there, or you are OUT of the congregation.

(Here comes one of the things that distracted me:  After he sends out the messengers, he leaves the Temple proper and gets a room (apparently) from the 10-year-old grandson of the High Priest, which caused a debate in the commentaries whether it was this kid and this priest or someone else with the same name, because this is a chapter that leads to a LOT of "same names".  Moving on...)


So they all show up at what is believed to be the open area by the Water Gate, which is appropriate because when they all arrive, it is pouring rain like a monsoon.  I believe this is because Ezra has gone into full wrath mode, and he wants this all settled NOW- but God has other plans.  The people have no problem with his command to get rid of the foreign wives- but there are two problems.  First, there are so many of these instances, there's no way to root them all out in a day, let alone in the rain.  Second, the rain itself, coming down in buckets, so that they couldn't spend all day in it fighting this out.  It was decided that everyone would return to their towns and their leaders would investigate, root out, and report back.  And Ezra was cool with that.


At this point, we enter the second distraction:

Ezr 10:15  Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahzeiah the son of Tikvah opposed this, and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite supported them. 

There are three reasons why this is a distraction.  First off, the next verse goes right into the approval and implementation of the plan- so why are they mentioned?  Second, are they disapproving of the plan to take their time investigating, or getting rid of the wives in the first place?  And third- well, let me show you the KJV of this verse and see if you catch it:

Ezr 10:15  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. 

So, did they oppose it, or did they implement it?  Unfortunately, the word here used for both 'oppose' and 'employed' has a plethora of uses, and you really have no choice but to look at the context.  And in the context, why would you use the beginning word 'only' if they were being EMPLOYED?  Plus, a bit later:

Ezr 10:16  Then the returned exiles did so. Ezra the priest selected men, heads of fathers' houses, according to their fathers' houses, each of them designated by name. On the first day of the tenth month they sat down to examine the matter; 

Ezra names the head of the families to investigate; thus, the four mentioned had to be in opposition.  I will get back to the other questions down the way, but let's finish the story first.  It was 10 days from the meeting in the rain that the investigations started, and 3 Jewish months- 90 days more- to bring the report back to the congregation at the beginning of the new year.  And they found a list of 116 men- all of whom get named- who had to give up foreign babes and sacrifice a goat as a sin offering.  And God leaves us no doubt why THEY all got named:

Ezr 10:44  All these had married foreign women, and some of the women had even borne children. 

They were being shamed for their sin.

(Third distraction:  the name of one of the opposers, Meshullam, comes up in the list, though there is no way to tell- and circumstantial evidence against- him being the same one.)

All right, so let's parse this out.  First lesson we get is that it is good to bring a problem to God in prayer FIRST- but like Ezra, you then have to get OFF your knees and get your job done.  Second, it pays to have a group of faithful people around you to strengthen and support you when you're down and struggling.  Third, God has his timing, and when you try to do it in your time you often end up playing the "square peg, round hole" game.  And fourth, God isn't asking you to do everything yourself- sometimes the job is so big that you need a team- and TIME.

But now, I want to look at the 'second distraction' and the other two questions.  In context, one would assume that the opposition was to delaying the investigation.  But to our minds, it might seem a little petty to signal these men out over a procedural issue.  Which leads to question 2- are they being signaled out, shamed before the congregation here, or does God have another reason for bringing up their opposition?  I would think (and this is just me) that given what happened with the list at the end of the chapter, that God is indeed shaming them, which makes me wonder if their opposition WAS to getting rid of the wives in the first place.  Still given that missing the meeting was enough to get you tossed from the congregation, I have to think that if they were in opposition to dumping the wives, that there would follow something along the lines of, "And so Ezra had them removed from the congregation for their sin", which we do not find.  So IMHO they were opposed to the delay.

At this point, one might say, "Makes you wonder if they wanted to do it right away because they themselves had foreign wives and hoped to slip by in the rain and confusion- which they wouldn't be able to in an investigation.  After all, 'Meshullam' was on the list..."  My answer to that is- none of the others were on the list, it's doubtful even that the Meshullam on the list was the same.  However, here's a bit that might throw some doubt:  in Nehemiah  11, Shabbethai was named with Jozebad as "chiefs of the Levites", in charge of the Temple's outside upkeep, and Jozebad of the Levites IS on the list of hubbys of foreign wives!  In total, there were at least a half dozen priests, 6 Levites, one singer and three gatekeepers on the list- they might very well have been trying to stonewall an investigation to protect their fellow.  Which brings us to a fifth lesson- covering for someone else is just as shameful in God's eyes as committing the sin yourself.