Share Life: 40 days of Prayer

Day 12 - March 6, 2007

Ezra 9:1-15

In this passage Ezra discovers that some of the returning exiles have inter-married with the people of the land, an activity expressly forbidden by the law of God in Leviticus. God’s concern was that His people would lose their distinction if family units, by virtue of the plurality of their gods, would become polytheistic. When Jehovah is one among many gods, Jehovah loses his power and distinction, and when that happens to the capacity to be a blessing to others disintegrates. Thus this command is offered by God with an eye toward assuring that families would sound the clear call of loving Jehovah with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. This is impossible when we have mixed loyalties.

Ezra, upon discovering this reality does something outlandish, archaic, shocking: He repents! I found this amazing because it’s not His sin. But this repentance reminds us of the solidarity of God’s people. In the New Testament Paul puts it this way: When one member of the body suffers, all suffer! We are linked, and the sins of the one, or the glories of the one, are the sins and glories of the all. It’s tempting, when someone else is misrepresenting Christ, to run to God and remind him that “I’m not like that person over there… I’m righteous.” However, this isn’t the manner of Ezra. Instead, Ezra repents for the sins of the nation. He understands that there’s no escaping solidarity with the whole of God’s people. Sin in one camp, affects the testimony of us all.

Seen through this lens, I’ve a sense that all of us have a bit of confession to carry out – for greed, violence, lust, the disintegration of marriage, the cheapening of human life both in the womb, and on the streets of Rwanda, or Baghdad, or Aurora. Perhaps we need to repent of allowing other lovers to have sway in lives, rather than a simple and pure devotion to the One who alone is the source of life, Jesus Christ. When the gifts of God, such as our prosperity, or family, health, or creature comforts, sexuality, or intellect rise up to places of supremacy, they dampen our love for Jesus. I pray that we’ll never make a truce in our hearts with anything which would diminish the passion of our love or the power of our calling. This multiplicity of lovers isn’t the problem of‘those people’ – they’re our problems. And we, like Ezra, need to repent, perhaps on behalf of those unwilling to see their own sins. So with Ezra we pray:

O our God… We are ashamed to lift up our face to You, for our iniquities have risen above our heads and our guilt has grown even to the heavens. Though you’ve blessed us with prosperity and abundance, we’ve become people characterized by apathy, self-centered indulgence, pride and violence. Though we’ve preached about purity, our lives betray our lusts. Though we’ve preached of peace, our choices reveal our bent towards violence. And the fruits of our choices are clear. Your church is shrinking in spite of our national wealth, while it thrives in those parts of the world where scarcity reigns. Our lives are filled with activity, but little of it leads to an increased capacity to bless others – and so people still starve, and sleep on the streets, and use each other to gain power or pleasure.

Waken us dear Father, to any idolatry in our hearts, and any loves which have displaced our calling to love You. In Your great Name we pray, Amen.

posted by Richard Dahlstrom @ 4:06 PM