Or, Be Strong and Take Drastic Action
Scripture: Ezra 10:1-44
Date: February 9, 2025
Speaker: Sean Higgins
The purity of a people is worth drastic action. Reformation, when required, requires separation from something sinful, or something that’s a temptation to sin, and that separation is almost always painful.
In Ezra 10, about 110 households were broken up. It was either that, or the Lord would break up the nation, again. It’s another longer chapter, but there’s no real benefit in splitting it up over a couple messages, especially since the largest part is a list of names. Ezra 9 introduced the sin: many of the leading men had intermarried with foreign women who had continued their abominable practices in service to false gods. Ezra had been teaching the law for about four months after his return from Babylon, and a recognition of unfaithfulness grew among some of the people until it had to be exposed to all. What would they do? It at least started with Ezra’s corporate confession (Ezra 9:6-15).
In this last chapter of what we have as the book of Ezra, a covenant is made to return to keeping the (Mosaic) covenant. We’ll see that the people didn’t argue against the reform although it was drastic, and we’ll see the guilty men named.
Verse 1 brings us back to the context after the content of Ezra’s confession (Ezra 9:6-15). A large crowd collected in front of the temple where Ezra was praying. Then a representative spoke in verses 2-4.
Shecaniah is not named in the last part of chapter 10, though it appears the name of his father is (Jehiel, 10:26). If it’s the same man, his dad was one of the guilty, though that would make Shecaniah himself one of the illegitimate offspring, unless Jehiel had two wives, which also isn’t unbelievable. Either way, Shecaniah acknowledged the guilt in the group, but unlike what’s recorded of Ezra’s prayer, he saw at least a little light: but even now there is hope for Israel in spite of this.
The proposal calls for a covenant, a new policy, to put away all these wives and their children. Remember, the sin was not a lack of racism, but of covenant unfaithfulness to the only true God.
Of note, some key words are different than elsewhere in the OT. The word for married in verse 2 is really “cause to dwell (in one’s house)” (Breneman), a word only used here and in Nehemiah 13:23; so these women were brought into the home, but maybe not recognized as “real” wives. And the word for put away is not the typical word for divorce either, though the outcome is the same. So these women are not even considered to be legitimate wives. The put away is perhaps more like what we’d call an annulment (declare that it has no legal existence) than divorce. Whatever the precise legal status, the relationships were real, and the separation—from a woman and their children—would be painful.
The Lord had revealed limited allowances for divorce, and Deuteronomy 24:1-4 has some specifics. But this situation in Ezra 9-10 is different than any other in the Old Testament, and for that matter there is almost the opposite counsel in the New Testament (1 Corinthians 7:12-16). We should seek out the principle more than follow every particular: the purity of the people is worth drastic action.
Shecaniah addressed Ezra as my lord (verse 3), and urged Ezra to lead the way. And, Artaxerxes had commissioned Ezra to teach the Law and establish obedience to the Law. Ezra had authority. It is ironic that Ezra’s authority was given to him out of the religious pluralism of the Persian king(s), while he was about to use his authority to enforce religious exclusivity.
Ezra then took the verbal commitment from the men and then turned in to pray in verses 5-6.
An oath is binding; sort of, “as God as their witness.” Ezra’s fasting and prayers through the night were private. He mourned the faithlessness of the exiles. Even though they had proclaimed their commitment to change, there was much painful work to be done.
Phase One: the call to meet (verses 7-8). The first part the plan required every man in Israel to assemble in Jerusalem.
They had three days to get there. It’s not as if Judah’s borders covered a huge area, but such an immediate requirement to travel still wasn’t convenient. It was also a threat, not a request. Again, Ezra had been given these powers by Artaxerxes (Ezra 7:25-26), and losing property and/or losing public standing would be a severe sentence.
Phase Two: the assembly (verses 9-11). The ninth month was Kislev, equivalent to our December. It gets cold and rainy in Palestine during the winter. And there was heavy rain; “rains” is plural in Hebrew to emphasize the intensity. They were in the open square, standing outside the temple, and trembling both because of the weather and because of their guilt.
Foreign women is the same as we’re more familiar with as used in Proverbs. Malachi had been prophesying during these years as well, and Malachi 2:10-16 talks about how some Israelites had divorced their Jewish wives to take in foreign wives. For money? For connections? Ezra doesn’t mention that part here, because the point is the unfaithfulness to God. The call was simple: separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives.
In verse 11, make confession to the LORD is actually “give praise to” the Lord. And this is part of why confession of sin is part of our worship; it acknowledges that God is right (Ezra 9:15; see also Achan in Joshua 7:19).
Their response in verses 12-15 is not dithering or dickering. They have no arguments (almost), but they do appeal for how things proceed.
Again, they don’t seem to be hiding anything, or buying time to find loopholes. And yet it was not a task for one day or for two. It was crucial, until the fierce wrath of our God over this matter is turned away, but they also didn’t want to count guilty those who had a case.
Verse 15 names four guys who didn’t like something about it, though we’re not told what they didn’t like. Did they disagree with the severity of the divorces? Or did they disagree with giving extra time?
Phase Three: the investigation (verses 16-17). Once the committee was chosen, it took three months, what some commentators calculate to be about 75 working days, to work through each case. Based on the names to follow, there were 110 cases that required separation, so an average of not quite two a day. Of course, we can assume that there were at least some cases of examination that did not result in separation.
We’re not told where the foreign women deported to; back home to their families (which presumably were nearby)? We’re not told how much time the men were given to separate. We’re not told how the interrogations went. Were they looking for any foreign woman, or was it possible that a foreign woman had converted away from the gods of her family? What kind of expenses were involved in this mass deportation?
The only thing better than not being included in this list is being included. What I mean is, it is a list of all the unfaithful, of the men who did what was wrong. Except they are included here as those who then accepted the drastic, painful action of putting away those wives and then offering sacrifice.
Priests come first (18-22), then Levites and singers and gatekeepers (23-24), then the rest of the people (25-44).
Is this the ideal way to make it into Scripture? No, and also, we can thank God for the ongoing reformation that was enabled by their repentance.
The last sentence is partly hard to interpret, and partly surprising as a “last sentence.” It suggests that children born of the women were sent away (as does 10:3), and it does tie a bow on the divorces and deportations before moving into the account with Nehemiah’s perspective.
Next we’ll head into Nehemiah, same story, some overlap with Ezra, though it’s a different book in our copies of the Bible.
What did we get from Ezra?
You can’t build/re-build a culture of faithfulness and be in bed with unfaithfulness, and the purity of a people is worth drastic action. While not a ongoing prescriptive demand to divorce and deport, it is a call to be zealous and repent.
It is safe to turn from sin. It is wise to follow the ways of the Lord. And it is a glorious opportunity for your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ to be made known for the glory of God in the world. Turn away from sin, serve God!
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. (1 Peter 2:11–12 ESV)