Now when these things had been completed, the princes approached me, saying, “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands…The holy race has intermingled with the peoples of the lands; indeed, the hands of the princes and the rulers have been foremost in this unfaithfulness.” (Ezra 9:1 and 2)
It is possible to be so caught up doing and being good that you can’t see the bad. Ezra was singularly focused on getting back to the land beyond the river to complete his mission, to put the finishing touches on the house of the Lord. This was certainly a high calling, and from what we read he did a stellar job. It is about that time in this story for the reader to expect something to go wrong, and it did. It was brought to Ezra’s attention that some of the people, the princes, the rulers, the priests, and the Levites had intermarried. This information rocked and shocked Ezra to his core (“appalled” or mortified him), causing him to rend his robe, pull out portions of his hair and beard, and crash to the ground to mourn for hours.
There are two kinds of leadership, moving the hearts and minds of the masses to accomplish something greater than themselves, and the mundane, managing and maintaining what has been attained. In the former there is perspiration, lofty goals and objectives, and an abundance of inspiration. In the latter there are expectations, inspections, interrogations, corrections, and exasperation. Ezra was experiencing his first bad news, not of an approaching threat around the bend, but of a cancer within.
“But now for a brief moment grace has been shown from the Lord our God, to leave us an escaped remnant and to give us a peg in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our bondage.” (Ezra 9:8)
But after this “good cry,” Ezra rose in his tattered clothing from his “humiliation,” only to fall back to the ground with arms stretched out to address the Lord above. On behalf of the people and himself, Ezra acknowledged their sin and shame in the midst of God’s “brief moment” of grace. When he was all about granting them a “little reviving,” they were playing the harlot again! I’ve never thought of the extension of God’s grace to be “brief,” but aside from his saving grace, it may very well be that his grace is momentary, in that it must be seized and acted on for good without sin. Down through time, many a good man has succumbed to an alluring glance, and good women have sold their souls for apparent wealth and power. All hasty generalizations of course.
Some of the people of God had again enslaved themselves, not to a foreign king, but to an all too familiar vice.
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