Chapter 10

All the people are convicted of their sin, and weep before God.  Some come forward, and in their repentance, urge Ezra to arise, and to carry out the requirements of the Mosaic law concerning this sin.  Ezra gets up and makes them swear they will help him to obey the law.  As I remember, what the law says is that they are all to be killed - husbands, wives, and children.  Very severe indeed.

Ezra retires to a quiet place, and spends the night fasting and in prayer.  The next day, a national assembly is called, for all to gather in Jerusalem within three days.  The people come, and there is this verse:

9 Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin assembled at Jerusalem within the three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month. And all the people sat in the open square before the house of God, trembling because of this matter and because of the heavy rain. [Ezr 10:9 ESV]

A ragged assembly indeed, with many there fearing for their own lives, their relative's lives, their children's lives.  They all knew the penalty for what they'd done...yet they faced their fear of just consequences, and they came, and they sat trembling in the rain.  Note also that all these came from Judah and Benjamin.  Not remnants of the 12 tribes, but of Judah and Benjamin only.  The Southern Kingdom.  Also Levites were represented.  Yet in the Millennial,  all 12 tribes will be restored.  How diluted will they be since they have not at all kept the injunction against intermarriage? 

Ezra addresses the assembly.  He tells them they have brought increased guilt on the nation by intermarrying.  The people - most of them - agree, but they say that an accounting of the guilty and their spouses and children cannot be done in a day.  And they propose that a system be set up to conduct a sort of  census, that lists all the families that are guilty of this sin.  This is what they do.

It is somehow decided - we are given no details at all in this chapter - that it will be acceptable for all those who have married foreign women to "put away" their wives, and any children already born.  This is divorce.  It was allowed because of the tragedy that strict enforcement of the law would be.  God allows divorce in this case. 

The book ends on this note of mercy from God - even where the Mosaic Covenant is involved.  It ends on Israel's realization that it must keep itself pure as a nation, and its resolve to do exactly that.  To me, it seems an odd place to end.  It seems awkward and abrupt and sad.  Perhaps this kind of end is a reminder to us that sin cuts off joy, leads to continuing sorrow, and precludes happiness for a time.  When we knowingly choose sin we are "daring" God to impose consequences.  We are ourselves deciding that what WE want is better for us than what God wants.  We can never be right about this.  And we can never really know what blessings we forego because of our own willful, stubborn, attitudes.  This would be a good FB post, but I am not sure how to put it together.  Maybe sometime.