June 7-11, 2010

“The remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire.”

Nehemiah 1:4 NASB

This week we begin our journey with Ezra as he heads to Jerusalem. Because of Ezra’s lineage as a direct descendant of Aaron, and because God moved on Artexerxes to show him favor, Ezra has been commissioned by the king to return many of the Temple artifacts that had been taken by Nebuchadnezzar and rebuild the wall. Ezra has enough sense to recognize that the king’s favor was God’s doing and not his own and he gives God the glory!

Although the Temple is complete, Ezra finds that the walls of the city are broken down. I’m not just referring to the stones and gates surrounding the city, but the living stones who made up the city. The first thing Ezra is confronted with when he reaches Jerusalem is the situation of intermarriage with the people of the land. It is amazing how quickly people forget how they wound up in such dire straits. It’s like the man who is in financial debt and acquires a large sum of money. He pays off his creditors, doesn’t change his lifestyle, and ends up back in the same situation he was before. What had he learned from his experience? Absolutely nothing!!! His stubborn heart didn’t seek council to gain wisdom and there was no change in his ways. There is a great adage that sums up this kind of action. “It is insanity to keep doing the same things over and over and expect different results!”

Unfortunately, many people under the New Covenant don’t understand the reasons for the ban of intermarriage under the Old Covenant and treat interracial marriage as sin. If marriage to a foreigner was a terrible sin, even under the Old Covenant, Moses, Boaz, David, and many others were guilty. It was not their race that was the problem; it was the gods they served. It is obvious from the narrative of the account of Moses that his father-in-law Jethro and his wife Zipporah recognized YHWH as the one true God. Boaz took Ruth, a Moabite, as a wife because of her faithfulness to God and His people. Abigail’s words regarding the power of the God of Israel and her understanding of His authority obviously won the heart of David. Nothing derogatory is ever said of these marriages because God was at the center of them. God did give a pretty sad review of Solomon’s marriages, because Solomon married foreign woman who never turned to God, and he allowed them to continue their pagan practices.

If you ever want to see broken down walls today, just look at homes that struggle with marriages where one is a believer and the other wants to live by the world’s standards. Although God’s presence may fill the “temple” of the believer and they may be wholeheartedly dedicated to Him, the effect of the other often wreaks havoc in the lives of the children! That is why Paul wrote to the Corinthians and told them

Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? 2Cor. 6:14

There is a powerful message to parents in this scenario of Ezra. The influence of a strong, godly marriage is like the walls of a city! They are the best protection you can give your kids today!

As we continue our week, Ezra lists the names of those who have incurred guilt. Every walk of life has been affected, from priests to commoners. It’s a sad claim to fame when the only way your name is forever memorialized in the Bible is on a guilty list!

The next portion of our journey is taken with Nehemiah, the cupbearer of the king. His name meant “comfort of YHWH.” To be in his position he would have had to be a man of great character, good looks, and tremendous courage. A cupbearer’s life was on the line every day. Because of the continuous plots to overthrow ruling powers, kings constantly looked for people they could trust. A cupbearer’s duty was to serve the wine at the king’s table. He would only give the cup to the king after he personally drank from it. That way, if someone was trying to poison the king, the plot would be exposed by the death of the cupbearer. This high-risk position, like all risky jobs, came with great benefits. The pay was great and the direct access to the king even greater. Because the king fully trusted his cupbearer, he would often confide in him. It is apparent that the king not only trustedNehemiah, but he had become endeared to him. Nehemiah’s concern for the condition of Jerusalem and her walls was quickly met with positive actions by the king.

Nehemiah barely reached the city of Jerusalem before Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem confronted him. Who are these three troublemakers? They are the leaders of Samaria. You may recall that when the Assyrians captured the northern kingdom of Israel, that the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sephar-vaim, and settled them in the cities of Samaria, but God sent lions in their midst. To try and stop the attacks, the Assyrian king sent one of the exiled priests to teach the people to fear the God of the land and keep His customs. Unfortunately, the result was that the Law became tainted by the customs of the pagan people and a new form of Judaism took shape. The Jews who had remained in the land intermarried with the incoming displaced Assyrians and the breed of Samaritans took shape. The Samaritans did not see themselves as taking their name from the region of Samaria, but from the Hebrew word meaning “keepers.” They claimed that the religion that the Jews brought back with them from Babylonia was altered and that they were the true “keepers of the Law.”

To this day, the Samaritans have their own version of the Torah. Although there were vast numbers of them until the end of the Roman Empire, they began to dwindle drastically. As of November 1, 2007 there were 712 Samaritans living in Kiryat Luza on Mount Gerizim near the city of Nabulus (Shechem) which is in the West Bank and also in Holon, an Israeli city. They continue to believe that they are the true descendants of Abraham, and that they have the true understanding of the Law that God gave through Moses. They only accept the first five books of the Law, which is called the Samaritan Torah. This gives us more insight into Nehemiah’s remarks when he tells them in no uncertain terms

“The God of heaven will give us success; therefore we His servants will arise and build, but you have no portion, right, or memorial in Jerusalem!” Nehemiah 2:20

Once we gain understanding of the development of the Samaritans, we can see why the problem of intermarriage brought such grief to Ezra. The Samaritan religion was the result of a mixture of the worship of Assyrian gods, the sin of Jeroboam, and the Law of Moses. Nehemiah has no tolerance for it and is certainly not intimidated by it! He also understands that the only antidote for such mixture is to teach the people what the Word actually says. And so a platform at the Water Gate is set up for the reading of the Word. When people are hungry enough to stand for hours to hear God speak to them, you can be sure it will bring lasting change. My goal is to get people willing to sit down and read it for 10 to 15 minutes a day. Thank God for the few who do. May the truth of God’s Word guard us from mixture and keep us pure!!!