Look What Sin Does | Ezra 10

 

We are wrapping up the last Wednesday in June as we wrap up the book of Ezra. Next month I have something fun in mind to do for the Bible studies. I hope you will enjoy it and even try to participate with me.

If you have not finished reading the last chapter of this book, please take the time to do so now. There are a lot of names listed but please do not skip over them. It is listed for a reason and we can see the big impact those names have on what has happened. As a reminder, I do not do a line by line study in this series. I am sectioning off the chapter in two parts. Let's begin.

Verses 1-11 Israel Repents

Ezra prayed. He confessed. He wept. He threw himself down at the house of God in humility. Something happens. Ezra is no longer the only one aware of the great sin and the consequences. Ezra is not alone. Men, women, and children came out in great numbers, weeping and wailing. Shechaniah confessed, "We have sinned against God." He admits taking the pagan wives was wrong but he announces that hope is not gone. There is still hope for the people of Israel. Shechaniah knew the nature of God and he comes up with a plan to get into a covenant with God and divorce all the wives they took that were not of their own nativity.

Let's sit with that for a moment. It seems cruel to rip families apart just because they were not Israeli women. In our society, we shake our heads and wag our fingers. Yet, remember God had the rule for them to only marry within the community He gave them. His rule was for the protection of His people. His rule was for the protection of His covenant with them. His rule was for the sanctity of their relationship. He is God and we are to serve Him. These women worshipped other gods and did not serve God. It cannot be both.

In today's "if it feels good, do it" society we think we can do whatever we want and live however we want with no consequences. That is simply not true. We are not to mingle with the world, and date just for fun, then get entangled in problems and drama that we could have simply avoided if we would hearken to the voice of God. Learn from the Israeli people in the book of Ezra. God has these mandates in place for a reason. It is not to exclude the world, it is to protect His children.

Divorce is common in our American culture today. In the Old Testament times it was not so. This suggestion for a massive dissolution of marriages was unheard of! This drastic measure gives us a glimpse of what desperation the people must have felt. Not only were the wives sent away, but their children were sent away as well. Sin never impacts one person. What one person does, good or bad, will always impact others. We must think before we act. There is too much at stake. 

For more clarification and education, I am going to quote some notes straight from my study Bible. "The Christian is not to leave an unbelieving spouse but rather to live in a manner that may win that spouse to the faith (1 Cor. 7:12-16; 1 Pet. 3:1-7). At the same time, the Bible warns the believer not to enter marriage with an unbeliever for one of the reasons that the Jews were not to do so--because it can weaken the faith of the believer. What is valuable and essential to a believer cannot be shared with an unbelieving spouse (see Neh. 10, Interfaith Marriage; 2 Cor. 6, Husbands). 

Sin is not pretty. I wish more churches would preach and teach on what sin is, how ugly things get when we choose to sin, and the real consequences of what we jeopardize when we disobey God's law. Jesus did not do away with the law. He came to fulfill the law and so we must not believe that God's law is no longer effective. Christian brothers and sisters, it is time to take sin seriously. Let's find the roots in our own lives and ask God to help us get rid of it. We cannot continue in sin just because God's grace is bountiful. Rather, let's turn away from doing those things that are wrong and sinful. 

Verses 12-44 Putting Away Wives

In verse 12, the congregation is unified in their decision to divorce their wives and send them away with their children. They must have all felt sad and great regret. All of the damage to these women and children would never have happened if they would have obeyed God in the first place. 

As usual with most sinful situations, it is complicated and multi-faceted. Now, the people have another issue to deal with. It's the rainy season and there are so many people that this cannot be done in just a couple of days. They see now how big this sin problem really is. The solution? They appointed officials to represent the people. Anyone who married a foreign wife would come at a set time with the elders and judges of their city and the process would continue until the unholy unions were dissolved and God was no longer angry with the people.

From verse 20-43 we read names of families and see the plural word: sons. Verse 44 says, "All these had taken strange wives: and some of them had wives by whom they had children." The book ends there.

Let that sink in. Marriages were destroyed. Families were destroyed. Sin caused the destruction. Who do you think enticed them that the grass was greener on the other side? The devil! He is a thief that only comes to steal, kill, and destroy according to John 10:10. We must be careful. The devil is clever, but God did not leave us to fend for ourselves. His Word, the Holy Bible is here for us to learn from. He tells us everything we need to know. Friends, life is an open BOOK test! We are without excuse. Let's be careful moving forward to not let pride, envy, greed, lust, or the love of money to rule our hearts. Instead let's operate in the fruits of the Spirit. Galatians teaches us that when we do so, there is no law to prevent us from being loving, kind, patient, gentle, faithful.... Let's walk with God and be aware of what we are allowing in our lives.

You may say, "Bridgett, I'm not living in sin. I am not married outside of God's will." That's great! But, there may be hidden sins we must ask God to reveal to us. Sin comes in many forms. It can be that we want what others have. FOMO: Fear Of Missing Out has been a driving force for people to go into debt to obtain things they do not need to impress people they do not like. Let's be real! We have enough stuff! What are we watching? If we are watching movies, tv programs, news, infomercials, or follow accounts of people who are always buying more stuff, we will soon want more stuff. Whatever we keep before our eyes, sooner or later will materialize. Trust and believe that!

What kind of music do we listen to? Songs about cheating and people leaving their husbands or wives, destroying other people's property, killing, and worse... those messages get into the minds of those who listen and before you know it, you begin to act out in ways that reflect what you listen to. Where do you go? Are you watching movies that have profanity and sex scenes? How is that honoring God? I am not saying stop up your ears, close your eyes, be a hermit, and never live in the real world. The Bible says in the words of Jesus, "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." (John 15:18,19) We are not of the world when we have been blood bought by Jesus. If you accepted Him as your Savior then you do not belong to the world. You won't ever fit in like the rest. You were made to stand out so you can be a light and a witness to the world about how good and wonderful God is.

Jesus loves us so much He died for us. He hated sin so much because He knew what it would do to us. Look what it did to Him when He took our sins upon Himself? The good news is there is not a sin that is too big or too bad for Jesus's blood to cover. He paid it all. He paid a debt that was not His and He does not ask us to pay Him back. He just wants us to love Him and serve Him and be obedient. When we do what He says we are not being restricted; we are being protected! 

David says in Psalms 139: 23-24, "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." We can pray the same thing. He will do it!

We can learn so much from the men and women in the Old Testament. I did not even do an in-depth study of this book this time and yet there was so much to glean from it. In Romans 15:4 it reads, "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope." The things we read in the Bible are for us to learn from. When we practice the ways of righteousness, we develop patience and find comfort in the Scriptures. That comfort gives us hope that we, too, can overcome. I know the men that were estranged from their wives were never the same. They may have thought about fun times they had with their ex-wives, favorite meals they cooked, or memories they made with their children. We, like Moses, can choose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season (Hebrews 11:25). It may seem fun for a while to embrace the world and follow their example, but the end is destruction and we will suffer the consequences.

I hope you have enjoyed this study. It has been a sobering study and honestly I never expected to get this much from one book. It is incredible the encouragement and lessons packed into ten short chapters. I pray that something I have shared today has given you strength for your journey and light for your way. God bless you!

~Bridgett Owens

Oven vs God | Fuel For The Weekend

God told me to share my faith on Fridays and call it Fuel For The Weekend. I wanted to do it. I thought about it. I tried coming up with ideas on my own, but I just came up short, so I put the idea toward the back of my mind, but the Holy Spirit continued to nudge me in this direction. I am going for it and it's my desire that the posts I put up on Fridays will give you something to think about, ponder, consider, and reflect on throughout the weekend.

The theme this week is patience. We studied patience together Wednesday in James for the Bible study here on this blog. Then I talked about how I waited on God to give me a child in my Thankful Thursday post. God continued to deal with me on this same topic but gave me a whole new perspective on it and I am going to share that today for the Oven vs God Fuel For The Weekend post. I hope you are as blessed by this as I was when He gave it to me.

How many people have you watched bake a cake? Maybe you are the cake baker and can relate to what I am about to share. I took a Wilton cake decorating class and prior to that I used to bake cakes and cupcakes all the time. It was a quick treat and most people enjoy eating a piece of cake. Usually it does not take long to whip up the ingredients for the batter, mix in a bowl and pour into a prepared pan, and place in the oven. Once inside does anyone start yelling at the oven? "Hurry up! You're working too slow! I want to eat my cake right now and you are taking too long. It's like you don't want me to enjoy my cake. Why are you making me wait so long?"

The oven is working. It is baking the cake inside. If we turn up the heat, continue to adjust the temperature, or fan the door to see if it is done yet we will ruin the cake. It won't finish baking all the way through. No one wants to bite into raw cake batter. Why do we rush the Master with our prayer requests? We beg and plead and cry. We complain the results we want are taking too long. We get impatient and we cry and beg and plead again. We don't truly believe God will give us what we desire. Instead of preparing our requests according to scripture and presenting them to God then walking away trusting He will do the job, we stand around and attempt to rush Him and fan the door to check on the progress. This is not faith.

PHILIPPIANS 4:6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

This verse tells us not to be anxious for anything but in every situation and for every request we are to pray and plead to the point of almost begging with a thankful heart and grateful attitude present our petitions to God. He is our Heavenly Father. He wants to give us good gifts and the desires of our heart. But there is a formula for this. We know that if we do not have faith the Bible says it is impossible to please God. It tells us that He does not work when people are doubting and full of unbelief. If we say things like, "It's never going to happen. I don't think God will do this for me. He probably is too busy to care about my concerns. I am not important enough to bother God with my problems," then we will not get God to move on our behalf.

JAMES 1:6-8 (6)But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. (7) For let not that man think he shall receive any thing of the Lord. (8) A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

We have to first ask in faith and not waver. We can't go back and forth between trust and fear. If we ask God to do something for us and He doesn't do it, there is a good reason for it. God is not up in heaven waiting on requests to say NO! He has a plan for our lives and if the request aligns with His purpose and His plan for our lives He will do it. If getting what we ask means straying from God or compromising our integrity, like any good father, God is not going to grant our request. Going back and forth in our minds about whether we are worthy or not, whether God wants to do it or not, and whether He will do it or not is like the waves rising and crashing in the ocean. The Bible tells us that no one who thinks like that should expect anything from God. And it further states that a person who thinks like that is unstable in all that they do.

My mom sings a song at church that says:

You can't hurry God. You'll just have to wait. Trust Him and give Him time. No matter how long it takes. He's the God that you can't hurry. He'll be there don't you worry. He may not come when you want Him but He's right on time.

I love that song and it's so true! You can't hurry God. His time is not our time. His ways are not our ways. He has a big picture in His mind of how things need to go for us. He wants to give us the things we ask for when we pray but we have to trust Him. We have to wait. Just like we trust our oven to bake the cake and we wait on the timer before we start checking on the progress and fanning the door. We know that we put batter into the oven but we trust that we are pulling out a cake. We may give God our mixed up messes but we hope to get back a beautiful blessing.

Let's put all of our hope and trust and faith in the King of kings and Lord of lords. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He is faithful. He is true. He is lovely. He wants to bless us with the fruits of the Spirit and if we are working on patience this week, then Holy Spirit complete the work! Forgive us for being impatient and teach us Lord to wait well upon You!

Be encouraged friends. God is going to take care of His children. He always has and He always will. He will not abandon us. He will not forget us. He will not ignore us. He is working on our behalf even when we cannot see it. He is working all things for our good and we just have to learn to lean and depend on Jesus. Like the old song says, "I'm learning how to lean and depend on Jesus. I found out if I trust Him He will provide." No matter what you're going through, trust God, our Heavenly Father, and watch Him do great things!

I hope something I have said today encourages you. I hope it's been strength for your journey and light for your way. God bless you!

~Bridgett Owens

Be Patient | Bible Study

Patience is something not many people brag about having much of. Often I hear people say, "I am not a patient person." "I don't have much patience." "I need more patience." My mother used to always tell me, "Patience, Bridgett. Just be patient." I, too, have struggled with this fruit of the Spirit. I simply do not like to wait.

In our society, we are conditioned to hurry. We rush in and out of the stores. We are in a mad dash down the road. We enter a meeting with papers in a whirl as we try to get there on time knowing we have ten more things to do before the meeting gets started. We multi-task and juggle and struggle and in the end, is it even worth it?

I grew up in rural southern Indiana. One day I was in my house and I heard a knock at the door. I had not heard any vehicles drive up so I was not sure who it could be. I opened the door and there stood a sweet little Amish woman. She and her children had stopped by to see if I would like to purchase her handmade jams and jellies. We talked for a little bit and then off they went in their horse and buggy. No rush to get to the next place. No hurried sales pitch to peddle her wares. It was so nice and left me smiling and happy. I admire the way of life of the Amish, though it seems strange to me to not have electricity and other amenities that my family and I enjoy.

What's our rush? Why can't we slow down as a society? My dad used to get frustrated when I would say, "Can I ask you something real quick?" He would always ask me, "What's your hurry? You don't have to ask real quick." He was not being silly. He meant it. He genuinely did not like to rush conversation and there was no reason he could think of that I would need to say anything in a hurry. The book of James touches on patience, so even in Bible days this was an issue for many.

JAMES 5:7-11 (7) Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and the latter rain. (8) Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. (9) Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door. (10) Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. (11) Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

James encouraged the oppressed people to be patient. James tells them to strengthen their hearts with the hope of Christ's coming. With the focus on hope it creates patience even under oppressive conditions. We could take that same message to apply it to our lives. James reminds them just like the farmer waits for the crop and is patient, we are to also have the same endurance. We must wait on God to give us all that He promised would be fruitful in our lives. It takes time to get the things we desire, but we must work towards it and not give up. We have to remember the prophets who were under extreme persecution and yet we talk about how happy they were to make it through to the end. We know Job had patience but we do not want to suffer as long or as much as he did to get the blessings he got in the end. The Lord is compassionate and merciful.

I like how The Message Bible reads James 5:11 "Take the old prophets as your mentors. They put up with anything, went through everything, and never once quit, all the time honoring God. What a gift life is to those who stay the course! You've heard, of course, of Job's staying power, and you know how God brought it all together for him at the end. That's because God cares, cares right down to the last detail." Friends, He really does care right down to the last detail. I have heard it said, "The devil is in the details." I am here to tell you that God is in the details! God does not form elaborate plans and amazing stories for our lives and leave out the details. He knows every single thing about the trials and tests we must endure. He leaves nothing out!

James tells us in chapter one that trials make patience. He said in chapter one, verses three and four: "Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." In other words, trials make our faith stronger. We need to endure the trail because when patience has been perfected in us we are complete. We can face bigger trials because we have overcome the smaller obstacles. Our faith is like a spiritual muscle that gets larger with use. 

I know it's been a crazy year. It has been a struggle with the ups and downs of Covid-19, lockdown, masks, no masks, sometimes masks, eating in restaurants, not eating in restaurants, going to church, not going to church in person but meeting online, and on and on and on. The election, race riots, hurricanes, tornadoes, natural disasters, and so much more has caused many to get discouraged, to give up, to quit, and to turn away from the Word of God. Please grab your Bibles and read about the hardships that men and women had to face. Read in Hebrews chapter 11 of the men and women of faith. There are so many witnesses in the Bible who have endured hardship like a good soldier, endured until the end, and came forth like fine gold. Do not despise the trials; they only serve to make you stronger.

Be patient. It is hard to wait. It is not much fun to wait. It is frustrating to wait. Wait on the Lord and Isaiah says, "But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint." (Isaiah 40:31) There is a promise for those who endure until the end. Do not give up. Do not quit. Do not walk away. Do not run from your gifts and callings. Do not think it's over. God is not done with you yet. Watch Him do the impossible in your life! He is able!

I hope something I have shared today has been strength for your journey and light for your way. God bless you!

~Bridgett Owens