Rev. Don Campbell
Ezra 7-10
THOUGHT FOR TODAY, September 25, 2019
“THE HIGH COST OF SIN”
The nation had been carried into captivity because of unfaithfulness. Through Jeremiah, God had decreed, “But first I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations” (Jeremiah 16:18). The exiles who had chosen to return to the motherland are settled once again, but there is a fly in the ointment. Many of the men, lead by the priests and Levites, had intermarried with the heathen women who were in the land (Ezra 9:1-2). We need only remind ourselves of the sad, sad testimony concerning Solomon to see the great danger in tolerating this offense: “For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites” (1 Kings 11:4-5).
Ezra speaks: “You have broken faith and married foreign women, and so increased the guilt of Israel. Now then make confession to the LORD, the God of your fathers and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives” (10:10-11). It took two months for the cases to be examined. We can see why when we look at verses 18-44 of Ezra chapter 10 in which the guilty are listed.
Paul wrote, in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18: “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,
“I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
Therefore go out from their midst,
and be separate from them, says the Lord,
and touch no unclean thing;
then I will welcome you,
and I will be a father to you,
and you shall be sons and daughters to me,
says the Lord Almighty.”
There is no greater yoke between a man and a woman than the yoke of marriage. Making an unwise decision might someday cause us to have to choose between our mate and our God and watch a mate walk away from the marriage: “To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace. For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?” (1 Corinthians 7:12-16).
CONNECTIONS
1. There’s a saying: “Sin will take you farther than you intended to go, keep you longer than you intended to stay, and cost you more than you intended to pay.” In other words, ignoring God’s warnings will result in unintended and unwanted consequences. Does this often happen when unwise choices are made when considering marriage?
2. How, in your opinion, has the romanticized notion of “falling in love” contributed to the decline of “until-death-do-we-part” marriages?
