Ezra

It's hard to believe it has been over two weeks since I finished Chronicles. I've been thinking about it and processing ever since, but I've not had a chance until now to sit and read in a concentrated manner. We were out of our house for a week while the floors were refinished, but have been back in now for a week (today).

Ezra is a different read then the last few books. By comparison, Samuel, Kings and Chronicles tells the story of the rise to superpower of the nation of Israel, then their demise into exile because of the blatant disregard for God and his law who let them ascend to power and blessing in the first place. Here in Ezra, Israel is like a puppy that's been scolded, trying to get close again to his owner that scolded him, crouching, head down, moving slowly back to the couch.

But God, in his mercy, has not forgotten about his people. He prompted Cyrus, the King, who was not an Israelite, to send God's people back to rebuild the temple. It seems much time past over the duration of this book, because several kings are named and a couple prophets (Haggai and Zechariah). They really kept good records in those days, even without computerized databases, because lists of families and numbers were kept as to who went back to rebuild the temple.

Ezra refers to the trouble they ran into, but quickly resolves it. There are a few things that stand out to me in this book:

1. Things look different in retrospect. In chapter 5, some politicians were trying to get clarification about who gave the command to rebuild. In their letter to King Darius, they detail their conversation with the Israelite people. They were told "that their people had made God angry, and he let them be captured by Nebuchadnezzer." Now, God had told his people all along that they had to obey his laws, and if they didn't, bad things would happen. Back in Leviticus, Moses shared a promise that "theorized" that they were exiled because of their sin. They didn't seem to get it then, but they certainly appreciate it in retrospect. Hindsight.
2. Why did the Kings want to obey the God of the Heavens? One would think they were afraid because he did nasty things to them. But no. It must have been because they saw what God did to his own people, because he gave them over to other nations. I suppose they could have thought that if he would do that to his own kids, how much worse would he do to those who captured them?
3. The Kings were kind to Israel. Again, in Leviticus, God said that even if he cast them out to another nation, he would not forget them and the promises he made. Here it is. God is faithful, and the situation thye found themselves in did not negate his faithfulness.

Ezra, the book, culminates in mass divorces. Once the temple was complete, it was brought to Ezra's attention that there was massive intermarriage between Israel and non-Israel nations. This was forbidden, and Ezra pleaded with God. Lists were made, and it was decided that people who were involved would divorce their wives and send them away with their kids so that they wuld no longer be living in sin. Only a couple people were named as objecting, but it doesn't say one way or the other what they did. All in all, this seems odd to me, because God has said elsewhere that he doesn't like divorce. So, I'm not sure of the moral here: is it that sometimes significant actions are required in maing corrections or that under some circumstances, dicorce is permitted? Perhaps there is no moral, except that the people did what they had to do to obey.