Some Words and Wisdom from Ezra

I have been reading the last few days in in the book of Ezra, and what I read yesterday has seemed to me to be particularly pertinent to our own day.

The people of Israel had returned from their seventy-year exile in Babylon. I am not particularly up to speed on the timeline here but it seems that probably nearly eighty years had passed since their return by the time this had been written. They had rebuilt the Temple, and though they had been worshiping and offering sacrifices, the normal, pre-captivity worship routine had not yet been fully reestablished when Ezra returned to Jerusalem with the group he was leading.

Ezra, himself, is described in chapter 7:6 as follows:

“He was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses that the Lord, the God of Israel, had given, and the king granted him all that he asked, for the hand of the Lord his God was on him.”

In chapter nine and beginning with verse 1, we read these words of Ezra:

“After these things had been done, the officials approached me and said, “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their abominations. . . “

The issue that had come up in this instance was that the Israelites had intermarried with “the peoples of the lands with their abominations that have filled it from end to end their uncleanness.” (Ch. 9, V. 11). This included, and was aggravated by the fact that “the hand of the officials and chief men has been foremost.” The resulting action was a mass divorce from these foreign wives, and their foreign customs.

It is not my purpose to dwell here on divorce, but to suggest that perhaps we who call ourselves Christians are “married” to aspects of our culture that we have found to be pleasing to us, and that we need to “divorce” ourselves from. We too need to make a concerted effort to separate ourselves from the “abominations” of the people of our land.  

We have often presumed that since we have our roots in being a Christian nation, which indeed we do, that everything we practice, or have practiced is sanctioned by Christ We need to realize that this is not necessarily the case.

We cannot deny that our nation has been blessed and favored by God, particularly where our history is concerned. We often surmise from this that the blessing and favor of God is something for which we are being rewarded because our actions are righteous. To a certain degree this is true. God frequently blesses righteous behavior, and frequently punishes unrighteousness. But it is not a strict “quid pro quo”, and we need to realize that the blessings of God are not necessarily rewards for our goodness.

One obvious aspect that stands out to me is that of financial blessing. Sometimes, I believe, God blesses us financially in order to enable us to be a blessing to others. As I have written about many times in the past, we need to recognize that everything belongs to God, and that we need to seek His will as to how to use the financial blessings he has given us (ouch! That one hit close to home).

Another important area of God’s blessing is the unrivaled freedom we enjoy in this land. Concerning liberty and freedom, Paul reminds those of us who belong to our Lord Jesus:

“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” (Galatians 5:13)

And Peter further elaborates:

“Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.” (1 Peter 2:16)

For the Christian, there is a unique responsibility that comes with our American freedom. From a Biblical point of view, we live in a time of extreme unrighteousness. Many today use our American freedom to do all kinds of things that are unpleasing to God. For the Christian Church, this is not an option. I cannot help but notice however, that many are gravitating toward the actions practices in the world, and are continuing to look for ways to justify and excuse our behaviors.

The reminder of the prophet is:

“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”  (Micah 6:8)

You have seen me express many times in the past few months my belief that we are living on borrowed time as a free nation, and that God has granted us this opportunity to make the time count for Him. I feel as though Ezra may have felt like this too when he prayed these words:

“But now for a brief moment favor has been shown by the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant and to give us a secure hold within his holy place, that our God may brighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our slavery. For we are slaves. Yet our God has not forsaken us in our slavery, but has extended to us his steadfast love before the kings of Persia, to grant us some reviving to set up the house of our God, to repair its ruins, and to give us protection in Judea and Jerusalem.” (Ezra 9:8-9)

This is our “brief moment”. Let us seek His will as to how He wishes for us to take advantage of it. Let us make a difference by being different at His direction. Let us read His word. Let us live by His word and His Spirit. 

Thanks for sharing this moment with me today.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

Natural Disasters

This has been a particularly bad day for me in what has been a particularly bad week, so please forgive me if I seem somewhat disorganized. I was going to comment on an article I read in an online Christian magazine whose name, and the title of which article I cannot remember. I cannot find my copy of the article, so I cannot quote it. I tried to sign on to aol to relocate the article (which I had probably deleted anyway since I had printed off the now missing hardcopy) but found that aol is temporarily offline.

I suppose that the name, and the actual content of the article is irrelevant anyway, but I will try to go on without it, as I say what I feel led to say.

The article was about natural disasters, and how there seem to be so many of these happening in recent days. It was written just after the recent mudslides in California that resulted in not only property damage, but some very tragic loss of life. This all coming on the heels of a particularly destructive hurricane season which also resulted in considerable property damage and loss of lives. I would add to this list the recent wildfire damage and loss of lives in California (that produced the loss of vegetation that led to the mudslides), which I think I heard was the greatest monetary loss by wildfire in history (I’ve got to start keeping that notebook closer to the chair when I watch TV).

The article went on no speculate as to whether these were true acts of God (in the Biblical sense, rather than the insurance sense) as a reckoning for our sins. I believe that it concluded that they probably were not, but that they did give opportunities for us to minister to those touched by disaster. That is a good, and very valid point.

I, however, in this post would like to touch on whether these and other natural disasters are indeed “acts of God.”

I am currently reading the book Unlocking the Prophetical Mysteries of Israel, by messianic Rabbi, Jonathan Bernis, who makes the following statement which pretty much echoes my belief on this matter:

 I do not think for a moment that God sent these calamities on the American people. Instead, I believe He lifted His hand of protection and we were battered by one disaster after another. Only God knows what would befall our nation if He completely lifted His protection from us. Only in the world to come will we know how often He has stretched out His hand to protect us individually and as a nation. (P. 34)

He was in that instance referring to several past natural disasters, specifying the Northridge California earthquake, the tornadoes that had then recently hit Kansas and Oklahoma, and hurricane Katrina, but I believe that this could be said of many other such events. I read some years ago, that in the last twenty-five years or so, natural disasters had increased nearly tenfold from the number of occurrences of the century previous to that. Again, I do not have the exact information on hand, but I believe this number to be nearly correct to what I read in the article in question. This would hardly seem to be coincidental.

Jesus told a story and I’m not sure what He had in mind, as I have found several levels of meaning in it:

“[the] eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Luke 13:4-5

At the very least this passage suggests that disasters, natural or man-made are a part of life in this fallen world. I think that there is also at least an implication that repentance (turning to Christ) could avail us to His protection. He also said:

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” John 16:34

The takeaway from this passage is that in our right relationship with Him we will have peace and will overcome the world, including the natural disasters, with and through Him. I also observe that for those of us that are either untouched by these events, or are among those that were prepared when the disasters struck us, we are left with the privilege of being able to minister in His name, and on His behalf to those who are less fortunately affected by disaster.

Thanks for sharing this moment with me today.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.