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Pretty good discussion in class today.  A few thoughts emerged.  The object of the lesson was to acknowledge that God may require us to make radical changes in our lives when we have strayed.  For Judea – the name given to Judah on the return from exile – this meant that the community had to quit tolerating marriages outside Judaism.  That’s something that – like the slaughter at Jericho – offends our early 21st century sensibilities.

But the history we’re studying wasn’t the 21st century – it was a time when the survival of the people rested on a knife’s edge.  I believe that God wants us to accept one another – including strangers.  That is the ultimate will of God.  But the circumstantial will of God – allowing for humankind to develop – was to further the intentional will of God – to allow Israel to survive as his chosen people: the culture he prepared for the incarnation.  What I mean is that under ideal circumstances, God would have had Israel flourish and truly be a holy nation and a royal priesthood – an example to all the nations.  But allowing both Israel and the surrounding people to follow their own independent will, this did not happen.  Instead, Israel fell into sin and ultimately this led to Israel’s exile and the destruction of the Temple.  In an ideal world where God’s people followed his will, marriage outside of Judaism would have been dealt with as Paul dealt with the issue in 1 Corinthians 7:12-13.  But that’s not what happend - the people not only married outside the covenant, they abandoned the covenant.  Indeed, even those who remained married to other Jews were included in Ezra’s prayer of confession and sorrow:

5 At the evening sacrifice I got up from my fasting, with my garments and my mantle torn, and fell on my knees, spread out my hands to the Lord my God,
6 and said, “O my God, I am too ashamed and embarrassed to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens.
7 From the days of our ancestors to this day we have been deep in guilt, and for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been handed over to the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plundering, and to utter shame, as is now the case.
8 But now for a brief moment favor has been shown by the Lord our God, who has left us a remnant, and given us a stake in his holy place, in order that he may brighten our eyes and grant us a little sustenance in our slavery.
9 For we are slaves; yet our God has not forsaken us in our slavery, but has extended to us his steadfast love before the kings of Persia, to give us new life to set up the house of our God, to repair its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judea and Jerusalem.
10 ”And now, our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken your commandments,
11 which you commanded by your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land that you are entering to possess is a land unclean with the pollutions of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations. They have filled it from end to end with their uncleanness.
15 O Lord, God of Israel, you are just, but we have escaped as a remnant, as is now the case. Here we are before you in our guilt, though no one can face you because of this.” (Ezra 9:5-11, 15)

There are lessons to be learned from this scripture on several levels.  Here are a few:

• There’s the lesson that the quarterly series wants us to understand – that we sometimes are required to make radical changes in our lives to walk with God instead of the world
• There’s the historical lesson that it was necessary – if seemingly brutal and callous – to require mixed marriages to be set aside and the children of those marriages disinherited – it was necessary for the survival of Judaism as a people set apart;
• There’s the cultural lesson that instructs us regarding the tribal nature of people in general, and of Judea in particular – this should help us understand all the more the radical nature of Christ’s message in parables such as that of the Good Samaritan; and
• There’s the lesson that ultimately challenges us to pursue – and not only to pursue, but to facilitate – God’s ultimate will that we all be as one.

 We can’t see Christ in one another until we can see ourselves in one another.