Readings for the day: Ezra 7-10
Today’s reading definitely presents a challenge. Particularly since we live so far removed from the specific cultural situation Ezra faced as the Israelites returned from exile. It is deeply offensive to our 21st century sensibilities to imagine a group of men initiating a mass divorce simply over race and/or nationality. We rightly wonder what happens to the women and children who are kicked to the curb? Are they left destitute? Is this of the will of God? Or was this an example of early Pharisaism rearing it’s ugly head? Zealousness for the Law of God taken to a logical extreme? Moreover, many wonder if this is yet another example of God’s Law remaining culturally bound? Irrelevant to our modern lives? After all, how can we respect a God who commands the breakup of so many families?
This is what makes Bible reading such a challenge. We can’t just read the words on the page and accept them at face value. We have to dive deeper to understand the cultural currents of the day and how this story fits if we want to understand. Furthermore, we have to acknowledge the cultural assumptions we ourselves bring to the text. We are not objective observers. We too have biases and perspectives that are shaped by current cultural movements like #MeToo, feminism, and, at a more fundamental level, the US Bill of Rights that will shape how we respond to the text. It’s hard to lay these things aside and try to walk a mile in Ezra’s shoes.
So why was Ezra so upset over the intermarriage of Israel with their pagan neighbors? And why does he call for them to “put aside” the foreign women and their children? And what were the social ramifications of such a drastic move? First and foremost, we need to understand that in ancient near east culture, ethnicity, tribal identity, and religion all overlapped. You see something similar in the world today where Islam is so closely identified with the Arabic ethnicity. Tribal kingdoms were defined in a very real sense according to the god they worshipped. Each nation had their own god and their own unique religious practices. Their god ruled over a specific territorial boundary which defined the geographic limits of a particular kingdom. Other features that defined tribal and/or national identity had to do with the personality of the king who ruled, the language they spoke, and then, downstream from the rest, the particular physical features of the people themselves. One can see how different this is from modern racial theory forged in the wake of the horrors of the Holocaust and ethnic purges of the last 150 years.
From a Biblical standpoint then, if one married a pagan, one pledged allegiance in a certain sense to their god. This obviously represents a fundamental break with the First Commandment which is why Ezra reacts so strongly to the news. Furthermore, intermarriage also brought into question one’s tribal and/or national identity. It was an open question whether one could actually be an Israelite if one married a non-Israelite. One would always be suspect as would one’s children. If/when an invasion took place, whose side would you be on? Could you be trusted? All these were very real questions for a fragile group of people seeking to reestablish themselves and rebuild their nation. Certainly there were options for non-Israelites to become Israelites. The book of Ruth is a great example and a story the people in Ezra’s time would have known well. However, in order to become an Israelite one had to renounce any connection to their former god and their former people. “Where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people and your God my God.” (Ruth 1:16)
Hopefully, this helps us understand Ezra’s dilemma and heartbreak. He is ashamed. He is afraid. He knows his history well and he knows what happens when God’s people are unfaithful. "O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens. From the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt. And for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plundering, and to utter shame, as it is today.” (Ezra 9:6-7) He tears his robe. He rips his beard. He falls on his face before God and intercedes for the people.
As he prays, a few men come forward with a solution. What if everyone who has taken a foreign wife puts her aside? What if they separated out the foreign women and children as an act of repentance? This seems good to Ezra. The proclamation goes forth. Those found guilty repent. And the story ends. We don’t know how it turns out for the women and children. Are they simply cast side? Left to fend for themselves? Surely not as God’s Law is just as clear about how we treat the foreigner and stranger and most vulnerable in our midst as it is about intermarriage.
So what happened? No one can say with certainty. I can only here offer a modern day analogy. In many places in Africa, it is common for the men to take more than one wife. Polygamy is not God’s design for marriage so I’ve encouraged them to choose one wife and essentially “put away” the others. They remain in the household under the economic care and protection of the man of the house but he lives in covenant faithfulness with only one woman. He provides for them. He takes care of their children. He still fulfills all his responsibilities as a husband and father so they are not left destitute on the streets. It’s not a perfect solution but it is one offered in an attempt to bring the family into covenant faithfulness to the gospel.
So where do you find yourself today? What does covenant faithfulness look like for you? Where are you living in covenant obedience? Where are you living in disobedience? Is your heart grieved by the brokenness and sin of your life?