Confess; Do His Pleasure; Separate Yourselves

Ezra's instructions to those Jews who had offended God by disobeying him and marrying foreign wives (Ezra 10.10-11). Ezra called these men to repentance, which would be demonstrated by: 1. Confessing their guilt; 2. Doing God's pleasure (in other words being obedient to God); and 3. Separating themselves from their foreign wives. This was a messy, difficult process and one which took time, but the ones who repented did do these three things.

What strikes me about this passage is that the process of disobedience had become entrenched and accepted. A man looked around him and saw other men taking wives who were not Jewish and said, "They did it, I suppose I can to." I'm wondering if this translates into our culture in the form of Christians taking on the forms and behavior and entertainment viewing habits and attitudes towards divorce of the world with little thought or discernment. Not that we set out to sin or to depart from holiness, but that we end up there by our undiscerning choices.

WYSIWYG

More politically incorrect behavior from the Lord in 1 Chronicles 13.9-12. I'm struck once again at how little the authors of Scripture (and therefore the Holy Spirit) care about our sensitivities. The ark is being transported incorrectly; it gets upset; Uzzah reaches out to steady it and is struck down because he was not supposed to touch the ark. The Chronicler specifically tells us that the Lord struck him down, thereby making the Lord look capricious and vindictive.

I take from this that the Lord is more concerned about his holiness than he is about how he looks to us; his holiness is more important. That is breathtaking to me. We, humans, before we read this passage do not take his holiness that strongly. Yes, the Lord is holy, but is it that important? We read this passage and see that it is; radically.

May we take from this story, that God is holy. He will not have his holiness impugned. Even at the cost of how he appears to us. His holiness is more important than that.