THE STORY OF JESUS: Ezra 9-10
“Let’s promise to send away all of those women and their children.” (Ezra 10:3)
We look to the bible for insight into how God works.
But we should not take human examples as our patterns of behaviour.
Ezra and the people recognize that they had married improperly.
But to send away their wives and children… in the name of God!?!?
Our lives become so messy and complicated because of sin.
We make bad choices, and they have bad consequences.
But more bad choices will not correct them, they will only make it worse.
We need Jesus to help us, and to show us the way of grace.
Grace does not send away ‘sinners’, grace embraces them.
God shows us through Jesus how we need to overcome evil… with goodness.
Not by exclusion but by inclusion, by transforming sinners with love.
If God did to us what Ezra did to the women and children, where would we be?
Look to God and Jesus, not Ezra and the people, for knowing the right way.
As a Jesus follower, join Him in welcoming the outsiders with God’s grace
What do you sense the Lord saying to you?
PRAYER
Lord, may other sinners like me not feel excluded or unwelcome around me. May they feel the same way that sinners felt with You, drawn into God’s family!
The people did not do what the Lord had required of them – keep themselves separate from the neighbouring people. I need to do that – to stay separate – in the world but not of the world.
To do that I need God’s leading and guiding. His Spirit.
And I also need Jesus Christ since I am saved by grace. To stay separate, to walk in His Way, is a difficulty journey. I too constantly fail but it is in Christ Jesus I am given help along the way.
Lord, help us all on this journey to keep our ways guided by Your Word – the BIBLE – which gives Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth.
When we walk with the Lord in the light of his Word
What a glory he sheds on our way!
While we do his good will, he abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.