Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezra 9-10.

When Ezra learned that many of the Returned Exiles had intermarried with the people living in the land, we need to interpret that in terms of yesterday’s passage.  Ezra’s response, and that of the rest of the people, was not about those of the Returned Exiles who married those in the land who chose to follow God’s Laws.  It was about those who married and allied with those who continued to worship idols and follow other practices contrary to God’s Law.  In addition to yesterday’s passage where it stated that everyone who separated themselves from the unclean practices of their Gentile neighbors was welcomed to take part in the Passover, we have in today’s passage an indication that resolving who had violated this prohibition was not just a matter of looking at their wives’ parentage.  Rather, each case needed to be looked at on an individual basis.

There is another thing in this passage I want to look at.  When Ezra came forth and publicly prostrated himself before God because of those among the Returned Exiles who were joining themselves with idolaters, many of the people joined him.  This tells us that many people had been concerned about the problem, but no one was willing to step forward and do something about it.  I want to be fair here, it takes a special kind of person to mobilize a group to deal with this sort of problem.  The lesson we learn here is that we are not alone in being grieved by the sins which are damaging our society.  We should take heart from such knowledge.  We can also learn that many times it only takes one person willing to stand up to such things to bring about change.  When we see sin around us, let us prostrate ourselves before God and ask Him to show us what to do.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.