Ezra 10:1
OUTLINE:
I. \\#Ezra 1:1-2:70\\ The First Return to Israel
A. \\#Ezra 1:1-4\\ The Command to Return
B. \\#Ezra 1:5-11\\ Preparations for the Journey
C. \\#Ezra 2:1-65\\ The People Who Returned
D. \\#Ezra 2:66-67\\ The Animals That Returned
E. \\#Ezra 2:68-69\\ The People’s Reaction
F. \\#Ezra 2:70\\ Life Begins
II. \\#Ezra 3:1-6:22\\ Construction of the Temple
A. \\#Ezra 3:1-7\\ In the First Year
B. \\#Ezra 3:8-13\\ In the Second Year
C. \\#Ezra 4:1-24\\ The Temple Work Is Stopped
D. \\#Ezra 5:1-6:22\\ The Temple Completed
1. \\#Ezra 5:1-2\\ The Work Begun
2. \\#Ezra 5:3-5\\ The Law Comes
3. \\#Ezra 5:6-17\\ The Official Inquiry Made
4. \\#Ezra 6:1-5\\ The Search Was Done
5. \\#Ezra 6:6-12\\ The Command Given
6. \\#Ezra 6:13-14\\ The Command Obeyed
7. \\#Ezra 6:15-22\\ The Temple Completed
III. \\#Ezra 7:1-8:36\\ The Second Return to Israel
A. \\#Ezra 7:1-28\\ Ezra, the Man
B. \\#Ezra 8:1-36\\ The Journey
IV. \\#Ezra 9:1-10:44\\ Restoration of the People
A. \\#Ezra 9:1-2\\ The Sin of Israel
B. \\#Ezra 9:3-15\\ Ezra’s Reaction
C. \\#Ezra 10:1-44\\ The People’s Reaction
I. \\#Ezra 10:1-44\\ The People’s Reaction
A. \\#1-5\\ The Voice of the Righteous
1. \\#1\\ "there assembled unto him out of Israel a very
great congregation of men and women and children" - The
people must have heard about Ezra and, knowing Israel’s
sin and Ezra’s character, come in anticipation of what
would happen.
2. "for the people wept very sore" - While some were guilty
of deliberate sin in Israel, many had mourned over it.
3. \\#2\\ "Shechaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of
Elam"
a. There is no consensus who this man was but he must
have been a man of influence with the people.
(1) It might be that his father had been guilty of
this sin for a list of those guilty is given in
\\#Ezra 10:18-44\\.
b. In that list, Shechaniah’s family seemed to be
mentioned.
Ezr 10:26 And of the sons of Elam; Mattaniah,
Zechariah, and Jehiel, and Abdi, and Jeremoth,
and Eliah.
c. So it is possible that this man’s father brought this
sin to his family.
4. Even so, Shechaniah spoke as one who wanted God’s will
done.
a. "We have trespassed against our God"
b. "yet now there is hope" - Shechaniah must have given
this much thought and had a plan.
5. \\#3\\ "…let us make a covenant with our god to put away
all the wives, and such as are born of them…."
a. This must have been a most difficult solution. How
difficult it would have been to have divorced and
separated fathers from their children! But such is
the great price of sin. It always causes pain and
heartache.
b. This was Shechaniah’s suggestion and it appears that
he was one of those who gathered to weep over this
sin. That probably meant that he and the people
gathered together that day were not participants in
the sin. Those who were participants likely did not
like the suggestion and did not willing obey.
c. I can see this suggestion causing one of three things
to happen:
(1) Some might refuse to separate from their pagan
wives and children and would have to be forced
out of Israel, losing their property and
heritage with God.
(2) Many would comply being forced to divorce their
wives, being separated from their children, most
likely with their former family members being
cast out of the land.
(3) It might have been possible—if the wife had
already proven that she had forsaken the false
gods of her past—to be accepted into Israel as
a stranger and sojourner like Naomi and Ruth. I
think this would have been rare if at all and
would have required much testimony from Jews
that this was her choice BEFORE Ezra arrived and
that she had proven her devotion to God beyond
question.
d. Was God in favor of divorce? No. Yet sin has a way
of eliminating the righteous choices in life and
leaving people in a situation of having to do the
lesser of two evils.
6. \\#4\\ "Arise, for this matter belongeth to thee"
a. Shechaniah made the suggestion but he knew that Ezra
was the leader for he had been appointed so by the
king of Persia \\#Ezra 7:24-25\\.
b. It would be up to Ezra both to decide what should be
done and then to carry it out.
7. \\#5\\ And Ezra "made" the people, from the leaders to the
commoners, to swear they would do so.
a. I do not know what Ezra would have done had they
refused to do so.
b. Thankfully, no one ever found out for "they sware."
B. \\#6-15\\ The Voice of the People
1. \\#6\\ "he did eat no bread, nor drink water" - Ezra went
to fast, pray, and mourn for Israel’s sin.
2. \\#7-8\\ The children of Israel were then compelled to
come or one of the possible consequences would
automatically be executed.
3. \\#9-14\\ "Then all the men… gathered"
a. \\#9\\ "ALL" - The Bible says that everyone came,
meaning no one choose to be forced out of Israel to
keep participating in this sin. The word "all" will
be used again to indicate that there was 100%
agreement in what was to be done.
b. "…all of the people sat in the street… trembling…
because of this matter, and for the great rain."
There was trembling both because of the seriousness
of what was being decided and for the cold rain that
fell on them. This would have been all of the men
in the land of Israel, numbering tens of thousands.
4. \\#10-11\\ "separate yourselves from the people of the
land, and from the strange wives."
a. Ezra told the men what they must do.
b. Since \\#Ezra 10:3\\ specifically mentioned "such as
are born of them" and \\#Ezra 10:44\\ also mentioned
the children, it is likely that their children were
sent away too.
5. \\#12\\ "Then ALL the congregation answered"
a. It appears that 100% of the people choose to obey God.
b. This would be an extreme case of having to choose God
over family and personal happiness.
c. How difficult it must have been to separate from those
they loved. What difficult choices sin brings.
6. \\#13-14\\ It was suggested that the rulers judge the
situation and make certain that the course of action was
carried out.
a. This would be a great task since the rulers could not
rely on the people to volunteer the information about
their sin. Every family in Israel would have to be
checked.
b. \\#15\\ Four men were selected to see that the
separation fully carried out, two being employed and
two being helpers.
C. \\#16-44\\ The Work of Separating
1. Ezra arrived in Israel on the first day of the 5th month
\\#Ezra 7:9\\.
2. It appears this problem was brought to his attention as
soon as he arrived \\#Ezra 9:1\\.
3. \\#Ezra 10:16\\ Things were set up so that the official
work began on the first day of the 10th month.
4. \\#Ezra 10:17\\ Sixty days later, it appears that those
guilty of taking strange wives had separated from their
wives and children.
a. No details are given.
b. How many tears? How many children were sent away?
Did the men sent them away penniless? Did they
provide for their children? Where did they go?
c. Perhaps it was such a sad time that no one wanted to
remember such details. Perhaps because it was the
wages of sin, the details did not matter.
5. \\#18-43\\ The names and the families of those who had
taken the strange wives are listed.
a. \\#18\\ The list started with the sons of Jeshua, the
High Priest of Israel who served with Zerubbabel, the
governor that first lead the Jews back into the land,
some 79 years before.
b. We do not know what happened to Zerubbabel or Jeshua.
(1) The work of rebuilding the temple started well
but then halted, still under the leadership of
these men.
(2) It was Haggai and Zechariah that the Lord sent to
stir the people to complete the work. Zechariah
made it clear that Zerubbabel would still be
leading when the temple was completed, almost 20
years after they lead the return.
Zec 4:9 The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the
foundation of this house; his hands shall also
finish it; and thou shalt know that the LORD
of hosts hath sent me unto you.
(3) But no one and no family is perfect.
(a) Some speculate that Jeshua may have allowed
his children to marry the strange women but
that is just conjecture.
(b) It was a common practice for older men to
take younger wives to keep producing
children even after their first wives were
no longer able to do so. That being the
case, the sons of Jeshua may themselves
have been older men when they took these
pagan women to be their wives and Jeshua
might have long been dead.
c. Concerning the number of those who committed this sin,
Barnes Notes on Ezra 10:44 states:
The guilty persons, it would seem, were 113 in
number. They comprised 4 members of the high
priest’s family, 13 other priests, 10 Levites,
and 86 lay Israelites belonging to at least 10
distinct families.
1. By my own crude count I only came up with 112.
2. However, 112 to 113 men among tens of thousands
was not a large percentage.
3. Perhaps the worst part of the sin is that it a
great percentage of the those guilty were of the
tribe of Levi (27 out of 113, about 42%).
d. Some wonder why the men of Israel, especially the
leaders in the land, took pagan wives.
(1) First. there is always the lust factor.
(2) But second, there is also the thought that many
more men came back to Israel than women so that
there were not a lot of Jewish woman to marry.
(3) Regardless of their reason, it was wrong and
whatever their reason, their sin ended up
hurting all involved.
And on this sad note, Ezra finishes his writing. In the Jewish
Bible, Nehemiah is part of the same book as Ezra—so the story
continues there.
<Close Window>
