Reconciliation with God
10 Now while Ezra was praying and making confession, weeping and prostrating himself before the house of God, a very large assembly, men, women and children, gathered to him from Israel; for the people wept bitterly. 2 Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, said to Ezra, “We have been unfaithful to our God and have [a]married foreign women from the peoples of the land; yet now there is hope for Israel in spite of this. 3 So now let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives and [b]their children, according to the counsel of [c]my lord and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law. 4 Arise! For this matter is [d]your responsibility, but we will be with you; be courageous and act.”
5 Then Ezra rose and made the leading priests, the Levites and all Israel, take oath that they would do according to this [e]proposal; so they took the oath. 6 Then Ezra rose from before the house of God and went into the chamber of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib. Although he went there, he did not eat bread nor drink water, for he was mourning over the unfaithfulness of the exiles. 7 They made a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the exiles, that they should assemble at Jerusalem, 8 and that whoever would not come within three days, according to the counsel of the leaders and the elders, all his possessions should be forfeited and he himself excluded from the assembly of the exiles.
9 So all the men of Judah and Benjamin assembled at Jerusalem within the three days. It was the ninth month on the twentieth of the month, and all the people sat in the open square before the house of God, trembling because of this matter and the heavy rain. 10 Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have been unfaithful and have married foreign wives adding to the guilt of Israel. 11 Now therefore, make confession to the Lord God of your fathers and do His will; and separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives.” 12 Then all the assembly replied with a loud voice, “That’s right! As you have said, so it is [f]our duty to do. 13 But there are many people; it is the rainy season and we are not able to stand in the open. Nor can the task be done in one or two days, for we have transgressed greatly in this matter. 14 Let our leaders [g]represent the whole assembly and let all those in our cities who have married foreign wives come at appointed times, together with the elders and judges of each city, until the fierce anger of our God on account of this matter is turned away from us.” 15 Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahzeiah the son of Tikvah [h]opposed this, with Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite supporting them.
16 But the exiles did so. And [i]Ezra the priest selected men who were heads of fathers’ households for each of their father’s households, all of them by name. So they [j]convened on the first day of the tenth month to investigate the matter. 17 They finished investigating all the men who had married foreign wives by the first day of the first month.
Ezra and the people were trembling and weeping bitterly, and though it directly says it was because of the greatness of their transgression, I suspect it was also because of what they expected the outcome to be. Namely, that all these foreign wives AND their children would have to be “put away”. Now, I’m not 100% certain what that would entail, but I’m pretty sure it meant they would be sent back to their father’s household. It certainly meant these men would lose their families, and that these women could likely not marry again.
It’s somewhat curious to me that there was no provision for those that wanted to serve God and forsake their foreign idols. But perhaps that was part of the investigation. It certainly wasn’t impossible for God to redeem such a situation, and even in the case of Ruth to work through it to bring a king to the throne of Israel.
But whatever the situation, they felt that God wanted the foreign wives to be removed, rather than reconciled. This was a very hard thing, and in our lives also, God asks us to do hard things. It may just be a temporary test, it may be a lifelong change, but whatever the case, we need to be obedient.
In so many things in life, God gives us freedom and choice, so when God asks us for something specific, we know it is for our own good. For the men of Israel who had married foreign women, this often led to compromise and allowing or participating in idol worship. So it is with us (as Paul once said), that many things are “permissible”, but not all things are “profitable” for us. We need to trust God when he tells us to remove something unprofitable, and let him work in and through our lives. It may be hard, but it will be well worth it in the end.