WEDNESDAY, 27 January, 2020 “Ezra 9”

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Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends on this Wednesday,

All eyes have been on Washington DC the past 7 days, and especially the ‘roll out’ of a new American Presidential administration, policies, practices and values. While there is no doubt Washington has an affect on American society, just as in every other country, the government leadership affects the society. But have you noticed there is something more powerful than government in shaping society? It is the people themselves and their attitudes, their values, their priorities and the cultural trends they motivate.

So let’s look around the countries in which we live. What difference do you see in your society from today, as compared to… oh let’s say the year 2000, or 1975 or 1950, or even 1930 if you’ve been alive that long? It’s remarkable isn’t it, how dramatically our societies have changed? Why? What motivates such change, especially when it seems to be a moral decline?

Let’s rejoin Mr. Ezra in the city of Jerusalem, about 457bc in our study in God’s Word, the Bible. Ezra had come with a large group of Jewish exiles, from Babylon. As they began to acquaint themselves with this ‘rebuilt Jerusalem’, which was totally destroyed 130 years before, by king Nebuchadnezzar, I’m sure they are encouraged to see many new buildings, flourishing family businesses, and a city that was once again starting to flourish. Ezra was a scholar and he’d been sent by Emperor Artaxerxes to identity, train if necessary, and then commission magistrates and judges to bring law and order with integrity to the region.

Ezra was also commissioned by Artaxerxes to TEACH all the people living in and around Jerusalem, the laws of God in the Torah and other God given sacred writings they had at the time. That would have included the books from Joshua – the Chronicles, the Psalms and Proverbs, and many of the prophets in our current Old Testament Bible. This is very important my friends, for king Artaxerxes understood something special: If people live according to God’s principles, God’s laws, and love God with all their heart and soul, their lives will be God honoring and their society will be orderly, mutually respectful, lawful and prosperous.

As Ezra walked around Jerusalem observing how people were living, and especially as he did his due diligence seeking to find those qualified for leadership as king Artaxerxes had instructed him, Ezra discovered a very significant issue which was contributing to major problems in Jerusalem society. Ezra chapter 9 describes it for us. May I say, this same problem has been unraveling societies all around our world, and is clearly evident everywhere you look today. Can you guess what this problem is?

The Apostle Paul addressed this problem when writing to Christians in the city of Corinth. Listen to how Paul said it: “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial (Satan)? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?…dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.” (2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1)

My friends, one of the reasons I invest several hours each day studying God’s Word, then writing and recording this “Walking with Jesus” is that we human beings have a deeply ingrained natural tendency to drift morally and spiritually AWAY from God, God’s truth, God’s Ways, and God honoring lifestyles. It’s our sin nature in all of us which causes this natural drift. There’s also this matter of influence and energy. We influence each other and we energize each other as people. That’s why couples or families or groups of people drift away from God much faster than an individual person. Do you see that in your own life and relationships?

God, who created us, understands this deep inner struggle we all have, and God also understands how we can influence each to drift away from God really rapidly. As you look at your city, your society, can you see how far you’ve drifted away from God in 20 or 50 years?

So what is God’s antidote to the drift? Several things, which He repeats often in His Word, down through history.

1. “Love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength…” (Deut. 6:5) It starts with me and my choices, my priorities, my values, my focus on God.

I can only be responsible for ME, and you can only be responsible for YOU. So it begins with each individual and what we intentionally love with our hearts, and pour into our minds. I can control the natural drift in me, and you can too, by keeping Jesus the priority passion of my heart and mind! So how are you doing with that my friends?

2. “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of your life.” (Prob. 4:23) This is defense.

This is being careful to NOT allow my heart and mind to be drawn away from God and God’s truth into the darkness of evil, doubt, deceit, immorality etc. So again I ask, how are you doing with protecting yourself from drift, my friends?

3. “The things we have learned from our ancestors, we will not hide from their descendants, we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD…so the next generation will know them, even the children yet to be born…” (Psalm 78:1-8)

This is the moral obligation and privilege of family. That parents pass along to their children all the great things of God which they have learned in their lives, and the children then grow up holding tightly to these God truths, experiencing them to be true in their lives, and they in turn tell their children… generation after generation. It works great… until one generation says NO, we don’t believe that any more, or that seems so outdated and they refuse to pass God’s truths to their children. It only takes one generation to break the chain, doesn’t it?

That was part of the problem in Ezra’s Jerusalem, as it is today in your city and mine. Even though the centerpiece of the city of Jerusalem was the rebuilt temple of God where worship took place everyday, and annual festivals drew the people together several times a year to celebrate the God of Israel and all He had done for them over the years. And even though only 15 years before God had miraculously intervened through Esther to protect all the Jews in the entire Persian Empire from extermination, still people forget, people marginalize God, people find themselves more interested in things other than worship, other than God’s Word, and people drift, drawn away by friends, family, or other interests. Has it happened in your family my friends?

When you look at Ezra 9, you’ll see there was a very specific problem which contributed to this spiritual and moral drift. Many Jewish men found themselves attracted to and marrying women of the nations around Jerusalem who knew nothing about the God of Israel. They had their own idols and false God’s and religious practices. So in the power of love, men abandoned their worship of the one true God of Israel and followed their foreign wives into idolatry. As these couples then had children, of course those kids were raised living in Jerusalem where the Temple of Jehovah God was, but in their family they worshipped some stone or wooden idol… and the drift became a raging torrent of Jewish people turning away from the God of their ancestors! God had warned them over and over about this, starting all the way back in the days of Joshua, as they first entered this land. But you know how it is my friends, our hearts are drawn away from God by all kinds of attractive things and friendly people… and soon we have drifted far from God, and the children following us know nothing about God. Can you see it all around you?

I urge you today to read carefully the rest of Ezra 9 and look to see how Ezra responded to this discovery. The record says “When I heard this I tore my tunic, pulled hair out from my head and beard, and sat down appalled. Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of the unfaithfulness of the Jewish people…” (Ezra 9:3,4) Do you see a clear line of distinction between those who gathered around Ezra and shared in his grief, his repentance, and those who ignored him, perhaps even mocked him? The distinguishing factor was whether or not they ‘…trembled at the words of the God of Israel…”.

Do you tremble at God’s Words? Do you hold the Bible in very high regard, do you highly respect it and is God’s Word the authority in your life, guiding your attitudes, words and behavior? Here is a word from God which profoundly challenges me: “This is what the LORD says: ‘Heaven in My throne and the earth is My footstool…and these are the people I esteem: those who are humble and contrite in spirit and TREMBLE at My word.” (Isaiah 66:1,2) WOW! As God looks at our planet, as His eyes consider every living human being, God esteems, or looks with favor on those “…who are humble and contrite in spirit and tremble at His words.” Does that describe you and me, my friends?

Ezra was so deeply convicted by the drift of so many of the Jewish people in rebuilt Jerusalem, especially those in leadership, that he sat down on the ground in the public square, taking the posture of profound repentance and shame. Ezra was not guilty of this horrible sin, but he was symbolically taking upon himself the shame, the guilt of his people. That’s what Jesus did when He went to the cross. Jesus took upon Himself the sins of the world, and then God poured out upon His Son Jesus, the wrath of God for all the sin, all the rebelliousness of our human race!

Now ponder that my friends as you consider this question: Look back in your family heritage. Who in your family have held tightly to Jesus, to God’s Word and honored God with their lives, and who have drifted? And what about the children and grandchildren in each succeeding generation? Do you see how easily it happens? And do you see the result of this moral, spiritual drift… as families and societies reject God, reject God’s truth, reject God’s guiding principles for life? And societies refuse to allow Bibles and prayer in schools, and we allow pornography to be called entertainment on our TV’s, and we affirm and even celebrate homosexuality or even people rejecting the gender which God created them to be and attempting to change their hormonal identity. It’s Romans 1 my friends… and that’s why Ezra sat in the public square with his heart broken for his people.

The rest of Ezra chapter 9 is his prayer of confession and repentance and I urge you to read it my friends, slowly, carefully and then look very carefully at your city, your extended family, your society. What does the Holy Spirit of God stir in you as you evaluate the moral drift all around you… even deep within you? I urge you, with your Bible open to Ezra 9, to pray… however the Spirit of God leads you to pray… for yourself, your family, your city, your society. . . and here’s a song to help you as you pray: “For what we have done and left undone, we fall on Your countless mercies… we call on Your name so holy…”

Today’s Scripture is Ezra 9.

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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.

Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.

Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)

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