04/07/2021 – Day 325 – Ezra 6 -10 // When oxen are unequally yoked, they cannot perform the task set before them. Instead of working together, they are at odds with one another…
On today’s reading, I will bring in some connected New Testament verses, but I don’t believe I will quote other sources. Our concluding chapters 9 & 10 of Ezra covers the sin of intermarriage with a spouse that is outside the faith. I just recently commented on the pit that Solomon stepped into by ignoring the law. Ezra discovers this amongst the returning remnant. And sadly it included the priests and Levites.
In 9:14: He prays to the Lord: “… Would you not be angry enough with us to destroy us, leaving us no remnant or survivor. The people wept with Ezra before God over their sin. They fasted; they took action immediately. On the roll listed here, 113 had married foreign wives and in verse 44 , it is noted that some had children. As Matthew Henry commented, God did not see fit to give them the blessing of increase.
They are commanded to separate from their wives. In the 1 Corinthians , chapter 7 on marriage, Paul in verses 12 through 14: “To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce here. And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but , as it is , they are holy.”
So, why the difference between these two: between Ezra’s time and Paul’s time in the early Christian church , one saying you must separate, even if you have kids, and in Paul’s day, the believing spouse is commanded not to divorce them, as long as the non-believing spouse is willing to stay.?
I will note that going forward to this day, the Jewish people in faith have not returned to idolatry since this scene in the 5th century B.C. And back to the title, so how is it an unequally yoked married couple are not capable of performing the task set before them? (Hint: Just covered recently – Deuteronomy 6 through 9)
Soli Deo Gloria!