EZRA 9
The whole history of Scripture prepares us to recognise that, on the human side, there is always a tendency to slip away from what is of God, and the greater the divine favour shown the more subtly will Satan seek to corrupt the people of God in relation to it. So we see here that, after the house had been [p. 241] built, and provision made for its beautifying and the carrying on of its service, unfaithfulness of a serious character manifested itself amongst the returned remnant. The “princes” had to report to Ezra that, “The people of Israel, and the priests and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, according to their abominations ... for they have taken of their daughters for themselves and for their sons, and have mingled the holy seed with the peoples of the lands; and the hand of the princes and rulers has been chief in this unfaithfulness” (verses 1, 2).
The “princes” were those who, like the house of Chloe at Corinth, discerned the unfaithfulness that had come in. One would gather that the prophetic ministry of Haggai and Zechariah had ceased at this time, so that no powerful voice from God had been raised to check the mixture of “the holy seed with the peoples of the lands”. It is of deep interest to see that in the divine ordering of the assembly provision was made for ministry in each locality of a prophetic character (see 1 Corinthians 14). This would assure that, along with what was for positive building up, there would be the calling attention, on God’s part, to any influence which might tend to corrupt His temple. Those who prophesied would discern the incoming evil, and would bring in the good to counteract it, long before it showed itself in any glaring way. At Corinth the more showy speaking with tongues had evidently overshadowed the exercise of prophetic gift, and a moral state had developed which would have been checked in its beginnings if prophecy had had its due place in the assembly. One can understand that it was not a mere detail when Satan succeeded, in the very early days of the church, in setting up the clerical system so that meetings for the exercise of prophetic gift as contemplated in 1 Corinthians 14 became impossible.
There can be no doubt that corrupting influences will always be at work. Salvation lies, in the first place, in the ability to discern that they are at work. This was found with the “princes” when Ezra came to Jerusalem. So long as this element is present there is hope. For if it is pointed out that an evil is present, not only will priestly sensibilities become active, as they did in Ezra, but all who tremble at the words of God will be powerfully affected. Then, if full confession is made, the enemy’s work may be so counteracted that complete restoration may be brought about. Indeed, it is a comfort to [p. 242] see that, notwithstanding the unfaithfulness that had to be mourned over and confessed, there is evidence of a much deeper work of God in the souls of His people in the last two chapters of this book than had been seen in the earlier chapters. The lesson of all this is most important for ourselves, for we often have sorrowful reminders that, in spite of much divine favour, the same kind of unfaithfulness shows itself amongst the returned remnant today. How often do we see links with the world formed, or links with believers not walking in the truth, either by marriage or friendship, or by association for mutual advantage, sometimes even by joining in worldly pleasures, or by the reading of worldly literature! If these things go on, “the holy seed” does not preserve its own distinctiveness and separation, and the consequences are spiritually disastrous. For these things being carried on are the clear evidence of unfaithfulness to the Lord.
It is to be noticed that the “foreign wives” with which the holy seed had mingled were of the very nations that had to be overcome in Joshua’s day. After long centuries they were still present to exercise a baneful influence on the returned remnant. The very things by which the church was corrupted in its early days are the things which will be a snare to the remnant in our day. They are all “of the world”, though presenting themselves in varied forms. “Foreign wives” taken by the people of God represent, for us, not only those personal alliances to which we have referred, but also principles or associations which are contrary to what should mark “the holy seed”. For example, the legal principle, which Paul had to combat in the assemblies of Galatia, is one of the “foreign wives” which may be taken today. It is a principle which, over the greater part of christendom, has displaced the true knowledge of God. The world often ensnares by taking on a religious form suited to man after the flesh. But worldly religion always gives some place to the man that was crucified with Christ; it sets up again what God has condemned. And it always takes away from the enjoyment of the blessings of grace, liberty in Christ Jesus, sonship, and the Spirit of God’s Son in our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. The loss of spiritual joy is a danger signal which should warn believers from continuing on the line of religious flesh. Paul said to the Galatians, “What then was your blessedness?” They had turned to law, to circumcision, to observing days and months and times and years, but [p. 243] they had lost their blessedness, they had fallen from grace; they had really gone away from all that they once enjoyed in Christ.
Satan does not always use religious or legal flesh to turn us aside. Perhaps more often in our day he allures by something that appeals to our natural and carnal tendencies. What a terrible thing it is for one who has known something of the privileges of the assembly to give them up for some bit of fleshly gratification! It was by such means that he brought about unfaithfulness at Corinth in the early days, and he will use the same things now. Paul brought the truth of the temple before the Corinthians to correct their unholiness, and their association with the unclean and idolatrous world, and he brought the truth of the body before them to correct their tendency to form sects and parties or to act independently. Sectarianism is a carnal thing; it is the practical denial of that one body which the Spirit has formed. To adopt a sectarian principle today is really to take a “foreign wife”; it is to espouse a principle which is alien to the present working of God, for, according to truth, we are all part of a divinely formed organism, in which each member has its appointed place, and functions for the benefit of the body. Where the sectarian principle is adopted the clerical principle generally goes with it. I suppose the latter got a footing in the early days of the church through the readiness of the many, in a day of spiritual decline, to let another do the service which was really the privilege and responsibility of all the believing men. It is really a form of unfaithfulness, however unwittingly done.
Then at Colosse there was a tendency to be led away “through philosophy and vain deceit, according to the teaching of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ”. The human imagination delights in such things as worshipping angels, and prying into what is unseen, but Paul says that the one who would do this is “vainly puffed up by the mind of his flesh”. But philosophy and human imagination and ordinances and ascetic austerities are really of the world. Those who take up such things are really being fraudulently deprived of their prize; they are being carried away from Christ. They are as guilty of unfaithfulness to God as were those who took “foreign wives” in Ezra’s day.
In all the epistles we may see what had to be overcome by faithful saints at the beginning of the church’s history: seeking their own things, minding earthly things, loving the world,
[p. 244] loving money, the snare of idolatry, the deceit of many antichrists, Satan’s ministers pretending to be apostles of Christ. Now we may be certain that all these things are present to be a snare to any recovered remnant in our day. Their influence is as much to be dreaded as that of the “foreign wives” of Ezra’s day. They have to be met by princely care and watchfulness, and by priestly sensibilities such as we see in Ezra.
“And when I heard this thing, I rent my mantle and my garment, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down overwhelmed” (verse 3). Do we feel like this about the things which corrupt “the holy seed” today? One pious person truly feeling things as before God may become a rallying point in an evil day. “Then were assembled to me every one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the unfaithfulness of those that had been carried away; and I sat overwhelmed until the evening oblation” (verse 4).
There is a beautiful touch of grace in “the evening oblation” being brought in here. A well-known servant of the Lord said, ‘If you want a man to judge himself you must minister Christ to him’. I think it is on that principle that “the evening oblation” is mentioned here. The “evening oblation” was the offering by fire to Jehovah for a sweet odour of a lamb as a continual burnt-offering, with its oblation and drink-offering. “It shall be a continual burnt-offering throughout your generations”, Exodus 29: 42. God would have His people to know that the sweet odour of Christ is the ground on which He dwells in their midst, and is their God. It is there that He meets His people. Now God had not left this ground, though there had been great unfaithfulness on the part of His people, and He would have their repentance and confession to be in the light of it. We might, perhaps, without unduly straining the type, regard the “morning” oblation as setting forth God’s precious thought at the beginning of the assembly day, and the “evening oblation” as having its place at the end of that day. Such an application is justified because there cannot possibly be any change in the ground on which God’s people are before Him as accepted. He was with His saints at the beginning of this “accepted time” according to the infinite sweet odour and acceptance of the offering of Christ, and He is still with them on precisely the same ground. In the light of this what do we think of our links with the world, of the “foreign wives” by whom we have been ensnared? It is in seeing what we have [p. 245] been led away from that we get power to judge the influences that have led us away.
So we can understand the very deep sorrow and confession of Ezra. He had in mind the wonderful place of the people as identified in God’s thoughts with the sweet odour of the burnt-offering. As remembering this he could not do other than go down to the very lowest point in confession. He felt how unfaithful the people had been to the God who had set the burnt-offering among them throughout their generations. God has fully blessed us through Christ, and in Christ, and has not departed from any of His thoughts about us. Why should we not, in the sense of this marvellous grace, fully and deeply own our shame in forming links with the world which displace Christ in our hearts? God does not want us to judge ourselves legally, but from the standpoint of the immense favour in Christ in which He has called us. It was on this ground that He appealed to His erring saints in Galatia and at Corinth and elsewhere, and it is on this ground that He appeals to us. It is in getting a revived sense of His grace in Christ that we are brought down to the very bottom in the judgment of ourselves for having yielded to the influence of things which are really worthless. Whatever may be the form which unfaithfulness has taken in any one of us Christ is the power for self-judgment and confession, and also for courage and decision in putting away the influence that has ensnared us. As Christ is brought in and gets His right place with us once more, there is power to detect what is contrary to Him, and to feel its true character before God. What Ezra expressed in his prayer and confession was what the Spirit of Christ felt about the state of things that existed. If we truly return to a sense that Christ is everything for us before God we shall urgently desire to move into company with the Spirit of Christ about everything that has been a snare to us. We shall want to gather to Ezra as feeling that we have been a grief to Christ, but we want now to be a comfort to Him. Let us all really face before God the truth as to our state and associations.