The sermon 'Promising to Put Away' by Jason Dohm examines Ezra 10:18-44, focusing on the Israelites' transgression of marrying pagan wives, which added to Israel's guilt. Ezra urged the people to confess and separate from these wives to turn away God's wrath. Despite opposition, a process was initiated to address the issue, led by Ezra and the heads of households. This process took three months, resulting in 113 identified cases of mixed marriages, disproportionately involving priests and Levites. The sermon emphasizes the gravity of sin as cosmic treason against God and highlights the need for atonement through offerings. It contrasts Old Testament practices with New Testament teachings, specifically 1 Corinthians 7, which advises against divorce in mixed marriages if the unbelieving spouse is willing to stay. The sermon concludes with four applications, urging believers to consider the impact of their sins, the importance of personal faith, the influence of leaders, and the consequences of sin on children. It also explores interpretive options for understanding these divorces, ultimately suggesting that differences in covenantal context between the Mosaic and New Covenants explain the divergent approaches.

Our sermon text for today is Ezra chapter 10 verses 18 through 44. I'll begin reading in verse 9 for context. So all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered at Jerusalem within three days. It was the ninth month on the twentieth of the month, and all the people sat in the open square of the house of God, trembling because of this matter and because of heavy rain. Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, You have transgressed and have taken pagan wives, adding to the guilt of Israel.

Now therefore make confession to the Lord God of your fathers, and do his will, separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the pagan wives." Then all the assembly answered and said with a loud voice, yes, as you have said, so we must do. But there are many people. It is the season for heavy rain, and we're not able to stand outside. Nor is this the work of one or two days, for there are many of us who have transgressed in this matter. Please, let the leaders of our entire assembly stand, and let all those in our cities who have taken pagan wives come at appointed times, together with the elders and the judges of their cities, until the fierce wrath of our God is turned away from us in this matter.

Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jehaziah the son of Tikvah opposed this and Mishulim and Shavathai the Levite gave them support. Then the descendants of the captivity did so and Ezra the priest with certain heads of the father's households were set apart by the father's households, each of them by name, and they sat down on the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter. By the first day of the first month they finished questioning all the men who had taken pagan wives. And among the sons of the priest who had taken pagan wives, the following were found of the sons of Jeshua, the son of Josadak and his brothers, Maasea, Eliezer, Jerob, and Gadaliah. And they gave their promise that they would put away their wives and being guilty they presented a ram of the flock as their trespass offering.

Also of the sons of Emmer, Hineni and Zebediah. Of the sons of Haram, Measeiah, Elijah, Shimeiah, Jehael and Uzziah. Of the sons of Pasher, Eliewenai, Maasea, Ishmael, Nathaniel, Jezebad, and Elissa, also of the Levites, Jezebad, Shimei, Kalei, the same as Kalida, Paphahiah, Judah, and Eliezer, Also of the singers, Eliashib, and of the gatekeepers, Shalem, Telam, and Uri. And others of Israel, of the sons of Parish, Ramiah, Josiah, Machiah, Minjiman, Eliezer, Machijah, and B'neiah. Of the sons of Elam, Mataniah, Zechariah, Jehiah, Abdi, Jeromoth, and Eliah.

Of the sons of Zatu, Eliei-Eni, Eliashib, Mataniah, Jerimoth, Zebad, and Aziza. Of the sons of Bebi, Jeho-Hannon, Hananiah, Zebi, and Afli. Of the sons of Bani, Meshulam, Malek, Adaiah, Jeshu, Sheal, and Ramoth. Of the sons of Pehath Moab, Adna, Kielol, Baniah, Measeeh, Mataniah, Bezalel, Benui, and Manasseh. Of the sons of Harem, Eliezer, Eshaidah, Malchaidah, Shimeiah, and Shimean, Benjamin, Malek, and Shemariah.

Of the sons of Hashem, Mataniah, Matata, Zebad, Eliphelet, Jeremiah, Manasseh, and Shimei. Of the sons of Bani, Meyadai, Amram, Uel, Baniah, Bidea, Kielo, Vinaya, Mirimoth, Eliashib, Mataniah, Mataniah, Jasi, Baniah, Benuah, Shimei, Shalemiah, Nathan, Adiah, Magnatibai, Shashai, Shariah, Azarell, Shalemiah, Shemariah, Shalem, Amariah, and Joseph. Of the sons of Nebo, Giel, Matathiah, Zabad, Zabina, Jadai, Joel, and Baniah, all these had taken pagan wives, and some of them had wives by whom they had children. We come to the close of the exposition of Ezra. The title of the sermon this morning is, Promising to Put Away.

It comes right out of the text in verse 19 where the priests make this promise that they will put away their pagan wives. Then we have this succession of names of all those in Israel who do so. Last week we saw the people of Israel displaying a heart of obedience. Here's what they said, yes, as you have said so must we do. And It wasn't just the words of a man they were obeying.

Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach it among the people. So this was really God's ways, his words, his law that was being exalted and obeyed. So the people in last week's text acknowledged Ezra's authority and they proposed a process to Ezra for a way to go about obeying. And then ten days later, this representative judging body made up of Ezra and heads of family houses, father's houses, who had been selected by the families, convened and they spent three months judging all these marriages. And At the end of the three months, that's what we have in this week's text.

It's the output of that three months worth of work by this representative judging body. It was determined that they should put away their pagan wives. So this week we are going to finish chapter 10 in sort of a mini sermon, meaning I am going to go as fast as I can to get through the exposition of this. And then at the end of the mini sermon on the rest of chapter 10, I'm going to dive into these divorces and try to make sense of how we should think of them and how we should reconcile it with New Testament teaching. I'm working to save the bulk of our time for that.

Then next week the sermon will be a summary of the ten chapters. We'll just look back through where we've been in the ten chapters of Ezra. And the week following that we'll have a public reading of the 13 chapters of Nehemiah. So that's a roadmap for the coming weeks. As we go to the text, let's go to the text in prayer.

God, I pray that you would give us such a heart that we would fear you and always keep all your commandments that it might be well with us, with our children forever. I pray that you would give us hearts that love Christ, that have seen His work and have fallen in love with that display of your mercy. And our hearts have been captivated by it and now we live to your glory. So we pray that you would come and use this text for that great purpose, that Christ would be lifted up and exalted, that his work would be loved, that now we would be a people set apart to live to your honor. Pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen. So let's begin looking at verses 18 through 22. And I'll read it again. Ezra chapter 10 verse 18. And among the sons of the priests who had taken pagan wives, the following were found of the sons of Jeshua the son of Josadach and his brothers, Maasea, Eliezer, Jerub, and Gedaliah.

They gave their promise that they would put away their wives. And being guilty, they presented a ram of the flock as their trespass offering. Also of the sons of Emmer, Hanani, and Zebediah, of the sons of Harem, Maasea, Elijah, Shemaiah, Jehael, and Uzziah. Of the sons of Pasher, Elianai, Maasea, Ishmael, Nethanel, Josabad, and Elisah. So Here we have the priests that have engaged in these mixed marriages, these treasonous marriages.

I've been consistently saying the same thing, that engaging for an Israelite to engage in the marriages that we have before us is tantamount to treason. It is treason against God because they had a constitution and their constitution was Deuteronomy and the law of God. And so to engage in this was to break the constitution that God had given to His people. And now we see this list of seventeen priests who had engaged in this marriage. So there's a long list ending chapter 10 and the priests end up being 15% of all those who had engaged, which is a lot considering that the priests were just one family of one tribe, and that there were many families in all the tribes, and that Israel ultimately had twelve tribes, though we don't know how many of the other tribes came back.

In any event, the priests are disproportionately represented in these sinful marriages. You'll recall back in chapter 9 verse 1 when the report was being given to Ezra of these sinful marriages, we read that the people of Israel and the priests and Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the land. So right away as the report is being given to Ezra, it is said that the priests and Levites hadn't separated themselves from the people of the land. And then in chapter 9 verse 2 we read, Indeed the hand of the leaders and rulers has been foremost in this trespass. So the rule of thumb on the sinful marriages is likely it is that you engaged in this sinful pattern.

The hands of the leaders were foremost in this trespass and of course the priests are high up in that. The priests enjoyed great privileges among the people of God. Rulers of the church in the state are aligned in ancient Israel. Now when we look at, for instance, Leviticus 21 verse 7, these are the requirements. So if you go later and look up Leviticus 20 restrictions, marriage restrictions for all of Israel, there are more than for the rest of the Israelites.

They cannot marry harlots, they cannot marry women who have been defiled, They cannot marry women who have been defiled. They cannot marry women who have been divorced. Those things aren't true for the rest of Israel. They are true for the priests, according to Leviticus 21.7. But instead of being more strict, these priests were less strict.

In other words, if we compare the number of sinful marriages that are given by name in Ezra chapter 10, we're going to find 113 of them, and they're disproportionately weighted towards the priests. So in God's economy, according to God's Word, according to God's Law, the priests have a higher standard and a stricter requirement. But according to what we've seen in the patterns of the lives of the people, they've actually been less strict in how they've conducted themselves in marriage. Now look at who's leading the list. Of all Israel, the order matters, starting with priests and then Levites and then the rest of Israel.

The order matters among the priests. The list is headed by the sons of of Jeshua, the son of Josadach. Yes, that Jeshua, the Jeshua that is the hero of the early chapters of Ezra, actually God's the hero, but God raised up this faithful priest, Jeshua, to stand beside Zerubbabel and to help Zerubbabel lead the people in righteousness. How many times in the early chapters of Ezra did we see Joshua standing up, leading the people in maintaining a distinction between the people of God and the people of the surrounding nations and leading the people in righteousness and now his sons are leading the people in unrighteousness and actually blurring the distinction between the Lord's people and the people of the surrounding nations. His sons are doing the exact opposite of what he was doing.

That's what his sons should have done. By the way, it's probably his great-grandsons. Eighty-five years has transpired between the things we were reading of Joshua and Zerubbabel doing when the first wave came back from captivity and now what we're reading in the lives after the second wave has come back. So 85 years have passed. It's probably Jeshua's great-grandsons just given the timeline.

They should have been doing like their forefather, Joshua, leading the people in righteousness, leading the people in maintaining a distinction between the people of God and the surrounding nations but instead they were doing exactly the opposite. But now being confronted in their sin, now they lead the people in repentance. Now they are out front in repenting and turning away and putting away these pagan wives and in bringing the trespass offering. There is going to be a lot of names and there's going to be other groups of people, but the Trespass Offering is only mentioned here with the sons of Jeshua, the son of Josadach. Does that mean no one else brought a trespass offering?

We don't know. The text doesn't say. My guess is no, others brought a trespass offering too. But I think the indication from the text is that these sons of Joshua, these descendants of Joshua, are leading the way in repentance. They are blazing the trail and they are acknowledging their guilt before God and they recognize that something has to be done with this guilt.

So they take a ram of the flock, like Leviticus chapter 6 says, and they bring a trespass offering. So here again we've encountered multiple offerings in the book of Ezra. Here again we have an offering. This just brings us face to face with one of the great truths of scripture, which is what? Which is that the wages of sin are death.

When we sin, when we commit treason against God. If you don't think of sin that way, then you have to retrain your brain. Sin is cosmic treason. Sin is treason against Almighty God. Why is that?

It's because God is so great and because God is so good that the sin against a God who is so mighty, who is so great, and the sin against a God who is so full of mercy and compassion and goodness who has given us everything that we needed and to sin against this God, it is treason. Do we understand the sinfulness of sin? We think of sin so lightly. God says the wages of it is death. You deserve death for sin.

Something has to die when we sin. Blood must be shed to atone for sin. There is no bringing a holy God together with the sinner unless somebody dies for the sin. This is the teaching of the Bible from the beginning to the end. And now we've been brought face to face with sin, with cosmic treason, with betraying a great God and a good God.

And so because of that we're brought face to face again with the need for blood to atone for that sin. There is no way to be brought together again with this holy and just God except blood. When we sin, someone has to die. Now let's look at verses 23 and 24. That was the priests.

There were 17 of them. Now to the Levites, 23 and 24. Also of the Levites, Jozebad, Shimei, Kaliah, the same as Kalita, Pithiah, Judah, and Eliezer. Also of the singers Eliashib and of the gatekeepers, Shalom, Telam, and Yuri. Now we come to the Levites, and I'm including the singers and the gatekeepers in with the Levitas because you'll remember from our earlier studies when we encountered singers and gatekeepers, they are Levitas.

They have a specialized task, but they're of the tribe of Levi's. So here are mentioned the name of ten Levites who have engaged in sinful marriages and who will be putting away their wives. Now, understand these 113 marriages that are listed here. This is a first wave problem. So there are two waves of returning captives in the book of Ezra.

The first comeback with Zerubbabel and Jeshua. It's during the time of King Cyrus. Cyrus sends them back and there's about 50, 000 people who come back in the first wave. These marriages are from the descendants of the first wave that came back. Ezra and the second wave have only been back in Jerusalem for about four months at the time of this.

So this is not a second wave of captives returning problem. This is a first wave problem. So just looking back at the demographics of the first wave, The first wave had 4289 priests that came back as part of that group that came back with Zerubbabel and Jeshua, but only 341 Levites. So proportionally, you would expect there to be less sinful marriages among the Levites, just straight math, just proportions. And that is what you find.

There are 17 priests listed here and only 10 Levites. So that is according to what we would expect to see because in the first wave so many more priests came back, 4289, than Levites, 341. But there's another reason I think think we should expect to see more priests than Levites, and that is what has been told to us about those who have engaged in the sinful marriages. The hand of the leaders was foremost in the sins. So in the pecking order of those who have privileges in the temple, I'm calling the work they've been given to do privileges, The priests are higher in the pecking order than the Levites are, so I think that's the second reason that should make us expect that.

This is one of the things that we see that makes these marriages so devastating among the Lord's people that when leaders engage in sins there is an unspoken permission given to followers. Not by God, but by the example, the pattern of leaders. Leaders by nature are examples to those who are following. And when there are breaches In the moral conduct of leaders, you get nothing but more of it among those who are following. There is an unspoken permission that is given.

This is why in Ezra these marriages are such a big deal. At the very end, it seems so abrupt, but at the very end in verse 44, we read that some of them had wives by whom they had children. In other words, some of these sinful marriages have resulted in children being given to these families. I think we have to link this back to verse 3. If you look back to verse 3, Shekiniah is admonishing Ezra and he says this, let us make a covenant with our God to put away all these wives and those who have been born to them.

So when we see this in verse 44, that's what's happening. Link back to 3 and see that Shek and I was admonishing Ezra that not just the marriages were deceased, but all the children born as a result of those marriages, those children were to be put away with the wives. What a heartbreaking ending. Here are 113 families, probably many of them, children resulted from these marriages. And these children are now going to be put away with their pagan mothers.

It's heartbreaking. Now why is the ending so abrupt? Back historically, Ezra and Nehemiah have almost always been taken as a single unit. So it's not the end of a book really. It's just a lead in, it's an entree into Nehemiah.

So I think we're doing exactly the right thing by continuing right into Nehemiah. In fact, in some of the early manuscripts, they're just a single body. There's no distinction at all. And so I think that's why we see it be so abrupt. But even so, at the end of this account here, what a heartbreaking ending that these children are now put away with the pagan wives.

I have four applications that I want to make now that we're at the end of the mini-sermon. Four applications. They're very important. Number one, God doesn't have grandsons and granddaughters. Just sons and daughters.

No grandsons for God. No granddaughters for God. Only sons and daughters. I'm taking this from the text from the sons of Jeshua, the son of Josadach, this righteous man, this believer who acted on his convictions and obeyed God. And this is true not just of justification, of course it's true of justification, meaning that your father's faith, your mother's faith does nothing for you before God related to your standing.

There are many benefits to having a godly father, a believing father or a believing mother. There are many benefits to having a godly father, a believing father or a believing mother. There are many benefits to having both, but it never saved anyone. It never saved a single soul. So in that sense, you can't be God's granddaughter.

You either are a daughter or you're nothing. You're either a daughter or not related. Children, young men, boys, You're either a son or you're nothing. You're either a son of God or you're unrelated. Either you're grafted into Christ and thereby adopted as his son or his daughter or you're nothing.

You're an enemy of him. You're completely outside the family. So this is absolutely true and most true in justification. But it's also true in growth and holiness. I don't know whether the seventeen priests listed in Ezra chapter ten were believers or non-believers.

At least it seems like they are repenting in this passage. But we know this, they did not attain to the holiness of their forefathers. It does nothing for my children that I'm a pastor. God expects them to grow in holiness. If they're to cease to be an enemy of God, they must be grafted into Christ.

It cannot come through me. And when they've been grafted into Christ, God expects them to make progress in their faith. And no amount of progress on my behalf benefits them directly. My progress does benefit my children, but not in that way, not in the way in which I'm speaking. Application number two.

So application number one was think of Jeshua and his sons. His descendants did not attain to the progress he made in the faith. Number two, just as it's a blessing when leaders lead in righteousness, So it's a curse when they lead in sin. We've seen both in Ezra, haven't we? We've seen Zerubbabel and Jeshua courageously obey God.

They believed God and they obeyed. Their belief led to something good. And that was such a blessing to study, it was a blessing to those people. Just as that's a blessing, so it is a curse when leaders sin, because again, there's the unspoken permission. This means something for the fathers and mothers in this room.

It's a curse when you put up with sinful patterns in your life. It's a curse to your children. It's unspoken permission to your children. Application number three, ask this question, whose blood will pay for Whose blood will pay for my sin? Not will blood be shed for my sin.

The Bible answers that resoundingly. The wages of sin is death. Some life is going to be required for your sin. So not, will there be blood to pay for my sin, but whose? Jesus has offered himself as a once for all sacrifice that all who trust in his work will be pardoned.

He can stand in your place. It can be his blood. He can be the trespass offering for your sins. Application number four. Ask this question, what impact are my sins having on my children?

This is a variation of number two. It's just now occurring to me how close they are. But I'm not talking about Jeshua and his sons here. I'm talking about verse 44 and these children who are put away with their pagan mothers. You say, that's not fair.

Hey, It isn't fair and it happens all the time. Children paying consequences for the sins of their parents. Happens every day, it happens all the time. This isn't new, this isn't restricted to Ezra chapter 10. Are you kidding me?

Our children suffer the consequences for our sins all the time. So we should come to this text. We should come to verse forty-four, the last verse in Ezra and see these little children being put away, being thrust out of a family with their pagan mothers, knowing that it was the sin of that man that has led to this and ask ourselves the question, what impact are my sins having on my children? How unloving to nurture these sins in our hearts, to not deal with them, to let them continue, to keep them hidden and secret and alive and well. Where will they lead?

What will they mean for our children? Okay, here endeth the mini sermon. Now I want to try to make sense of these divorces. And I want to start with a list of considerations. In other words, I'm not drawing conclusions yet.

I'm just going to establish some things that I think have a bearing. And then I want to give a list of interpretive options and evaluate them. So I'd like to begin with six considerations. Here's what I mean. Things that should be considered as we're deciding what conclusions to draw from this.

Okay, So you have truths, you have facts, and then you draw conclusions from those. And I'm just saying, hey, what are the critical facts that we should have in view as we go to the phase where we're trying to draw conclusions from these divorces. Here are my six. Number one, the New Testament teaching appears to be the exact opposite of Ezra 9 and 10. I'm going to unpack this as we go and we can decide as we progress through this whether we believe that it actually is that.

But at least on the face of it, the New Testament teaching is exactly opposite of Ezra 9 and 10. Please turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 7. 1 Corinthians chapter 7. In 1 Corinthians chapter 7, Paul is writing to a pagan church, pagan marriages, and he's writing about marriage and divorce. So let's see what Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 7.

I'll begin in verse 10 and I'll go through 16 and just keep your finger in the text because I'm going to give a little bit of running commentary as we read through it. 1 Corinthians chapter 7 beginning in verse 10. Now to the married I command, yet not I but the Lord, Paul is saying Jesus said this, A wife is not to depart from her husband. But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And a husband is not to divorce his wife.

So I believe here in verses 10 and 11 we have Paul summarizing what Jesus taught. What God has joined together, let no man separate. So Paul has summarized what Jesus taught on marriage. Now beginning in verse 12, But to the rest I, not the Lord, say, in other words, Jesus didn't say this, but I'm saying it, and I don't think that takes any of the authority out of what is getting ready to be said. He's just clarifying what Jesus taught in his earthly ministry and what Paul is now giving as inspired revelation.

If any brother has a wife who does not believe, and she is willing to live with him, let him not divorce her. And a woman who has a husband who does not believe, if he is willing to live with her, let her not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, But now they are holy. But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart.

A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases. But God has called us to show, O husband, whether you will save your wife. Paul, so that there isn't a divorce, that unbelieving husband. Then he flips it. What does a husband do if he's got an unbelieving wife?

If she's willing to remain in that marriage so that they continue to live together, he is not to divorce that unbelieving wife. We see here the exact opposite of what is happening in Ezra 9 and 10. We have men married to unbelieving pagan wives and instead of continuing in those marriages they are putting them away. In addition, in the Old Testament here in Ezra 9 and 10, the pagan spouse is assumed to have a polluting influence on the child of the marriage, on the offspring of the marriage, and on the community. Do you see that in Ezra 9 and 10?

Both spouse and child are put away in Ezra 9 and 10. In 1 Corinthians 7, rather than what is assumed in Ezra 9 and 10, which is that the pagan spouse pollutes the child and pollutes the community and therefore both have to be put away. What Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 7 is that the believing spouse has a sanctifying effect on the child. So that things are reckoned through the believing spouse, not the unbelieving spouse. It's exactly opposite in Ezra.

In Ezra, that child is being reckoned through the unbelieving pagan spouse. So in the Old Testament you have the pagan spouse having a polluting influence on the child and the community. In the New Testament passage you have the believing spouse having a sanctifying influence on the child and on the spouse. Not a saving influence necessarily. Paul is so clear about that.

He ends this whole section by saying, you don't know whether you'll save your unbelieving spouse. You can't predict that. So whatever you believe sanctifying and holy means in this text, it cannot mean saving. That overthrows the doctrine of election and the plain meaning of what Paul says when he says you can't know whether they'll be saved or not. Now, don't misunderstand the overriding principle, which is this.

Don't marry an unbeliever. Overwhelmingly, pick a testament. Overwhelmingly in the Old Testament, the council of God is, don't marry an unbeliever. Overwhelmingly in the New Testament, the council of God is exactly the same. Do not marry an unbeliever.

So don't misunderstand. This is not warrant. 1 Corinthians 7 gives no warrant for marrying an unbeliever. But the difference between Ezra 9 and 10 and 1 Corinthians 7 is what do you do if that exists? In other words, the sins already been committed, now what?

You have a different answer to that question, to the now what question. You have one answer in Ezra 9 and 10, you appear to have exactly the opposite answer in 1 Corinthians 7. But the underwriting principle is don't marry an unbeliever. We've got that explicitly in Deuteronomy chapter 7 where it says don't marry people from these surrounding nations. You've got it explicitly in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 when Paul says, Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.

So the underlying principles are the same, but the answer to the question, if you find yourself in this situation, through whatever circumstances, what now? I want to caution you, as I thought through this, I thought my easy way out was this. The easy way out seems to be on the surface. In Ezra they're called pagans. Paul never uses that word.

He just uses unbelievers. Sort of a run-of-the-mill unbeliever, not an open idolater. So that's the distinction. But be careful about that. You have to consider who Paul is writing to.

He's writing to Corinthians. Corinthians are no run-of-the-mill unbelievers. They're not some neutral kind of unbelievers. Corinthians are pagans through and through. In fact, in the very next chapter, we've been looking at 1 Corinthians chapter 7, the very next chapter, do you know what the subject is?

What do you do about food offered to idols? Because Corinth was awash in paganism. Corinth was a center of paganism. So it won't do to say, these are hardcore pagans in Ezra, but they're just sort of neutral, run of the mill unbelievers in Corinth. The target audience is just don't bear out that escape hatch.

So I wanted that escape hatch, but when I looked at it and thought about it, I don't think it's available to me or to us. So that is consideration number one. The New Testament teaching appears to be the exact opposite of what we find here in Ezra. Number two, Narrative is not normative. What is narrative?

There are different kinds of Scripture. All true. All God-breathed. But not all the same kind of scripture. You don't read every kind of scripture the same way.

Narrative is the historical accounts. Sometimes there are good, godly things in the historical accounts. Sometimes there are horrific things. So you can't take the historical accounts of things that are horrific or even things where you can't tell and say, God approves of that. If you could do that then polygamy would be on the table because you have forefathers in the faith like Abraham who was a polygamist.

Well the reason that's not legitimate is narrative. The historical accounts are not normative. God is not saying through every historical account, do this. No way! You know that.

So this is a critical principle of interpretation. The fancy word for that is hermeneutics. This is a critical hermeneutic. A principle that you use to interpret your Bible is that narrative is not normative. What's another kind of scripture?

Didactic. Didactic is a teaching kind of scripture where the author isn't giving you a historical account at all. The author is saying, Do this. 1 Corinthians 7 is didactic teaching. It's an author speaking specifically about a subject saying, do this, don't do that.

Thus saith the Lord. And so you always build your doctrines on the didactic teachings on an author looking at a subject and saying, not giving a story, but saying, do this or don't do that. Here's what God would have you know about this. So absolutely as we compare these two, we would say that 1 Corinthians 7 rules the day, especially because it's in the New Testament. It's under the same covenant we're under.

If you come away from this sermon with nothing else, come away from it with this. 1 Corinthians 7 tells us what we should do. We're going to continue to make the comparison between new and old. Does that or does that not have anything to say about the differences? But know this, for us it's settled.

1 Corinthians 7 rules the day for us, both because it's a didactic teaching and also because it's under the covenant that we're under, the new covenant. There's all sorts of things about these divorces that we're not given in the text. Here are some of them that have come into my mind that I wish I had visibility to. What happens next? Do these men continue to provide for these wives, for their sustenance and their protection, and these children?

Where do they go? Were some of these marriages in question found to be lawful because you had a Rahab or a Ruth, a woman who had forsaken the pollutions of the cultures that she was born into and grafted into the people of God so that the marriage looked questionable on the surface, but when you did the investigation you found out that those people aren't her people anymore. Those gods aren't her gods anymore. She's forsaken her people. She's forsaken those gods to follow Jehovah.

That's never said in the text. So if we were going to build doctrine on this narrative, which is dangerous in any event, we would want more information so that we can draw careful, precise lines. You cannot draw the careful, precise lines needed to construct a doctrine out of narrative. You cannot, you cannot, you cannot. So I'm not building my doctrine on marriage and divorce out of Ezra 9 and 10.

It is all true. It is all given by God. But it's not such that we should build our doctrine out of it and override clear teachings of scripture that were pointed at this subject like first Corinthians chapter 7. So that's number two, narrative is not normative. Number three, the text is clear that the fundamental problem was religious, not ethnic.

I've said this a number of times, but I want to establish it again. If you're back in Ezra, just flip back to Ezra chapter 6, verse 21. Ezra chapter 6, 21 is the first wave has come back from captivity and the temple has been completed and they are celebrating the first Passover. Here is what we read in Ezra 621. Then the children of Israel who had returned from the captivity ate together with all who had separated themselves from the filth of the nations of the land in order to seek the Lord God of Israel.

So what do you have in Jerusalem and Judah when the first wave gets back? You have probably every mixture under the face of the sun. Other kings have repopulated the northern kingdom with the people that they have conquered and taken into captivity. And then you have the Jews who were left behind. Not all the Jews were taken by Nebuchadnezzar.

The poor were left. The prominent were taken. So you probably have every mixture 70 years later under the face of the sun. So did that mean that you were excluded if you weren't purebred Jew? No.

In 621 we see that all who had separated themselves from the filth of the nations had turned their back on the pollutions of the nations to serve and only serve Jehovah. They were welcome to participate in the Passover. Now if we flip to chapter 9 and we read 1 and 2. This is the report given to Ezra, Ezra chapter 9 verses 1 and 2. When these things were done, the leaders came to me saying, The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with respect to the abominations of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.

For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons. So the holy seed is mixed with the people of those lands. Indeed, the hand of the leaders and rulers has been foremost in this trespass. So they name the peoples, but in the report given to Ezra, a very clear distinction has been made with respect to the abominations of. In other words, it's the continuing practices of abominable things that are part of these cultures that are at the heart of it.

If you're not satisfied with that verse, verse 14 is even more explicit. Look at verses 13 and 14. This is from Ezra's prayer of repentance, chapter 9, verses 13 and 14. And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our guilt, since you our God have punished us less than our iniquities deserve and have given us such deliverance as this, Should we again break your commandments and join in marriage with the people committing these abominations? So these marriages, the fundamental sin in these marriages is that they've joined again with the people committing these abominations.

It's the continuance in the abominable patterns that is at the heart of this. That's number three. The text is clear that the fundamental problem was religious, not ethnic. Number four, here's the fourth consideration. There is precedent for this in the history of Israel.

We're not seeing the putting away of a foreign wife with her child for the first time. There is precedent. Father Abraham. If you go back to Genesis and his wife says, take my maid servant as your wife. Chapter 18.

I think it's chapter 18. Ishmael is mocking and Sarah sees it and she tells her husband, put away. And God says, listen to your wife, put them away. This afternoon, go look at Galatians 4, 21-31, where it says, these things are symbolic. In other words, God did that to give us a picture.

The Egyptian is a symbol of things done in the flesh. He had the promise of God, but unbelief caused him to forsake God's promises and say, I can do this. Paul looks at that and he says, This is the Mount Sinai covenant. This is the Jerusalem that now is, physical Jerusalem, which is just a picture. The marriage to Sarah, The child through Sarah, the free woman, is symbolic of faith.

Belief in the promise, resting in the promise. And it's the New Jerusalem, and Paul says the New Jerusalem is the mother of us all. New Jerusalem is the mother of all believers. Because it rests on a promise, not on the works of the flesh. So in the time of Ezra, Ezra knows all about Father Abraham in these two marriages and he's doing what has been done all the way upstream with Father Abraham.

So there is precedent for this. Number five. Number five. The rule of scripture is this. Honor your covenants.

Honor them. Even the bad ones. So I think we have an exception in these divorces, but Don't let that make you misunderstand. The weight of Scripture, the testimony of Scripture is honor your covenants, even the bad ones. Consider Psalm 15.

Psalm 15 answers the question of verse 1, who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who can dwell in the presence of God? And then there's this list of things about the one who can dwell in God's presence. And in Psalm 15 verse 4 we read this, He who swears to his own hurt and does not change. The weight of scripture is on the side of this.

So don't you dare come away from the divorces of Ezra 9 and 10 saying the message is if I enter into something and later I find out it's wrong I'm free that is not where the weight of scripture is. The weight of scripture is that you should swear to your own hurt and don't change. Here's a great example of this. Just note this one. 2 Samuel 21.

In 2 Samuel 21, God sends a plague upon the people. God is judging the people. And when they find out why God is judging the people, it's because Saul had killed Gibeonites. You have to go all the way back to Joshua, the book of Joshua. The Gibeonites are the one who came and they lived in the promised land.

They were part of the people that should have been annihilated, wiped out by the people of God. God said, kill them all, annihilate them all. The Gibeonites were very crafty. They came and they had worn out clothes, they had tired looking animals, they had moldy bread, and they said, we've come from a long way away to make a treaty with you. Because they knew what was in store for them.

They didn't have a treaty with the people of God. And Joshua didn't ask God. He walked by sight. And He fell into the trap. He was tricked.

And he entered into a treaty with these people that God said annihilate. So if there was ever an agreement that you'd look back on and say, we shouldn't have entered into that agreement, It would be this one. Fast forward, Saul becomes king. Saul actually kills Gibeonites. He violates the agreement that had been made.

It was the wrong agreement. It never should have been made. Saul goes back on it and kills Gibeonites and now in the reign of David the people are being judged for that. The weight of scripture is on this, honor your covenants. Ezra 9 and 10 doesn't change that.

Consideration number 6, Mixed marriage is an abomination and God hates divorce. Both true. Turn to Malachi 2. Malachi 2 is particularly striking with respect to what we're seeing in Ezra 9 and 10 because Malachi was prophesying towards the end of the first wave period shortly before the second wave returned. So the words of Malachi apply to this situation.

Are you with me? God raised up Malachi to say certain things at the end of this 85 year period where the first wave had come back and established themselves in Jerusalem and Judah. Towards the end of that 85 years, Malachi is raised up by God to prophesy about marriage problems. So hopefully you're in Malachi chapter 2. I'd like to read 10 through 16.

Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously with one another? By profaning the covenant of the fathers. So the covenant of the fathers is what?

It's the mosaic covenant. It's the covenant they're under when Malachi is prophesying. Verse 11, Judah has dealt treacherously and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the Lord's holy institution which he loves. He has married the daughter of a foreign God.

This is speaking to the marriages that we're talking about in Ezra 9 and 10. It's the same time period. They have married the daughters of a foreign God. God calls it an abomination in verse 11. And he says that they profane the Lord's holy institution that he loves by marrying these daughters of a foreign God.

Verse 12, may the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob the man who does this thing being awake and aware, yet who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts. God is saying you cannot have it both ways. You should be cut off from Israel. You should not bring an offering when you are in this state. Now, verse 13.

And this is the second thing you do. You cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and crying so he does not regard the offering anymore, nor receive it with goodwill from your hands. Yet you say, for what reason? Because the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously. Yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant.

But did he not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? God seeks. He seeks godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit and let none of you deal treacherously with the wife of his youth.

For the Lord God of Israel says that he hates divorce for it covers one's garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. Therefore take heed to your spirit that you do not deal treacherously." So here's a man raised up by God to prophesy during the time when Ezra 9 and 10 is happening shortly before. What we've been dealing with, what we've had predominantly in view, is the first part of this, which is that God hates the mixed marriages. They're an abomination to him. To marry the wife of a foreign god is treason against your creator.

But it doesn't stop there. God raised up this prophet in this time to declare that God hates divorce, that she's your wife by covenant. Here you have this strange convergence of these things, two things that God hates in Ezra 9 and 10. So I haven't drawn many conclusions yet. I've given you six considerations.

And I'm saying that these six considerations should be in our mind as we go into drawing conclusions. Okay, these are truths that have a bearing on how we think about these things. So I'm going to give you five interpretive options. I knew this was going to be a long sermon, But I can't stop now, no matter how much my voice wants to. Here are your five interpretive options as best I understand it.

Number one, they did the wrong thing in Ezra 9 and 10. That's an option. Narrative is not normative. Maybe it's like other narratives where things were done that shouldn't have been done. That's an option.

I cannot bring myself to embrace that option. Here's why. You look back to our introduction to Ezra, to the man Ezra. In Ezra chapter 7 verse 10, for Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel. With respect to applying the old covenant, Ezra is the man.

Ezra knows how to apply the Mosaic covenant. He's been introduced to us as one who prepared himself for these things, to seek the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach statutes and ordinances. Then in chapter 10 verse 3 we read this, This is the words of Shekiniah chapter 10 verse 3. Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all these wives and those who have been born to them, according to the advice of my Master, according to what Ezra is saying, and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God and let it be done according to the law. And then this unfolds.

So Shekinaiya's exhortation is let's do it according to what Ezra, this man who is a master in applying the Mosaic Law says, and according to what the people who tremble at the word of God want to do and let all these things be done according to the law. Then in still in chapter 10 verses 10 and 11 we read this, then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, you have transgressed and have taken pagan wives, adding to the guilt of Israel. Now therefore make confession to the Lord God of your fathers and do His will. Separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the pagan wives. Ezra, when he confronts the people in their sin, says that separating from these pagan wives is essential, necessary for repentance.

So the first interpretive option is they messed up in Ezra Night in Town, But I can't embrace that one for those reasons. Number two. Number two. The sexual immorality of the paganism made these divorces acceptable according to Deuteronomy 24 and Matthew 19. That's an interpretive option.

I think that option is on the table to be evaluated. In other words, these marriages have been linked to the paganism with respect to the abomination of the nations. And then he listed the nations. And it's clear that these pagan spouses were continuing in the abominations. When you go and you look at the abominations of those nations, it's all wrapped up in sexual immorality.

It's hard to separate them. When you find one in the Old Testament, normally you find the other right alongside it. So one thought would be that the sexual immorality of the paganism made these divorces acceptable. In other words, there was adultery wrapped up in the paganism and so on the grounds of adultery these would be biblical divorces according to Deuteronomy 24 in Matthew 19. So that Ezra 9 and 10 and 1 Corinthians 7 seem to be contradictory, but they're not really because they're very different circumstances.

Could be, but you have to connect two dots that the text never explicitly connect. In other words, it says paganism, you'd have to import the things you know about the paganism. That they often travel together, the paganism, the idolatry often travels with the sexual immorality. So you, if you make me pick between those two. Number three, the example of what would happen if you said and to say, I'm married to another man.

The civil marriage marriages. It's explicitly prohibited in their constitution for nine and ten than just that. I will say the divorce. These classic divorce, Neither of those words is found in the Bible. I've been saying the word divorce, but you don't find the word divorce in the passage.

You find we can't stop short and say the only thing that's going on here as a civil magistrate is saying determination. This is a historical account. We don't have enough data to say. Sometimes it's wise to do that. You know my favorite saying is the text doesn't say, we got two chapters.

I mean there's a lot said here. So I'm not comfortable. That brings us to the fifth one, which I think is the right one. But I'm not positive. So I'm giving you my best shot.

Number five. The essential differences between the Mosaic covenant and the new covenant explain the differences between Ezra 9 and 10 and 1 Corinthians 7. So I know that's if you're taking notes that's a disaster, that's a long sentence, so I'll say it again. The essential differences, in other words there are fundamental essential differences between old covenant and new, between the Mosaic covenant. I don't like saying old covenant because there are several old covenants.

You can go back older than the Mosaic Covenant and there are covenants with God. So between the Mosaic Covenant and the New Covenant there are essential differences and those differences explain the differences between Ezra 9 and 10 and 1 Corinthians 7 where it appears you have the same thing with different outcomes. Paul says something different than what we see happening in Ezra 9 and 10. Thankfully, we have great guides for the application of both covenants, don't we? Does anybody not trust Ezra to apply the Mosaic Covenant?

To me, if I couldn't have Moses, I would want Ezra. If I had to untangle something hard from the Mosaic covenant, I might want Ezra over Moses. A lot of history had gone by. I might want Ezra. He's the guy.

He's the guide I want. Under the new covenant, who do you want more than you want Paul? Jesus. Okay, I'll grant you that one. That's it though.

Outside of Jesus, I want him over Peter or any of the other apostles, I want Paul. If there's some tricky, sticky application, I want Paul applying it. So that's who we got, right? We've got the best guides to applying these covenants. I think we can trust these guides that they've applied rightly the covenant that they're responsible for.

Under the Mosaic Covenant, the rule is this. Israel is genealogical. That's the rule under the Mosaic Covenant. Bloodline. Father to son to father to son to father to son to father to son to father to son to father to son.

Now there are exceptions like Rahab, like Ruth, but the reason the names Rahab and Ruth fall off our lips so easily is because they're the exception. There's not very many of them. Who else is in that category? You'd have a hard time thinking. The exception doesn't invalidate the rule.

It proves the rule is the rule, right? Because there are so few examples of those who are Gentiles but are grafted into the people of Israel. The fact that there are so few that you can remember most of them tells you that the rule is that Israel is genealogical. Under the new covenant, especially in the early days, the rule is the church is made is made up of Gentile converts. Right?

After 50 years of the new covenant, the Christians are Gentiles, with the exception being Jews. Right? Grafted in from pagan cultures, just the kind of cultures that they're trying to get clear of in Ezra 9 and 10. So that most of the Lord's people are going to be saved out of that paganism. And they're married to pagan Gentiles because they were a pagan Gentile when they got married.

That's the new normal under the new covenant. And God doesn't want them to separate because there's a new covenant. Now under the new covenant you're a pagan Gentile God reaches into that and he saves you because he's a merciful God. It might still cost you your marriage. The pagan gentile that you're married to might not put up with that.

And when you have to choose, you have to choose your allegiance to Christ. Could the New Testament have been any more clear than that? So don't think, oh in the Old Testament it might have cost me my marriage, but now under the new covenant my marriage is safe. If you're a Gentile pagan being saved, it might very well cost you your marriage. The New Testament couldn't be any more clear about how our allegiance to Jesus Christ stands so far above our allegiance to every other relationship.

Go to Luke 14 if anyone comes to me and does not hate his father or mother, his brother or sister, his wife or his children, he cannot be my disciple. So don't think bad old covenant, restrictive old covenant might cost you your marriage, but now we have a new covenant that could never possibly cost you your marriage. Not so. That's not what the new covenant itself says. Israel was a city on a hill.

It was a light on a lamp stand and it depended the light, the being in view for the glory of God depended upon no marriages like this. The new covenant does not depend on that. The covenants are different. The church now is the light on the lampstand. The church now is the city on the hill and it's not good to have a pagan spouse, but you can be a light with a pagan spouse.

Between the covenants, the relationships between marriage and the people of God has changed. Did you get that? Between the covenants, the mosaic covenant, new covenant, The relationship between marriage and the people of God has changed. In the Mosaic covenant it was fundamental because to bring a pagan into Israel polluted Israel. But the boundaries of the church don't work like that.

Okay, you're not automatically in the church because you're married to somebody. You're in the church when there's reason to believe you are born again. Think about the beauty of the new covenant. In the old covenant most of those pagan Gentiles get passed over by the mercy of God. You understand that?

Through most of human history, God has passed over the overwhelming number of Gentiles, pagans. He wasn't obligated to show them mercy, and he let them have what they wanted. And they wanted to destroy themselves, and they did destroy themselves. But now in the new covenant things have changed. His mercy has expanded.

That's a blessing. I think we see it on display in the difference between Ezra 9 and 10, 1 Corinthians 7. That's the best I can do on this topic. Let's pray. God, I thank you for the new covenant sealed in the blood of Jesus Christ.

We know that 3, 000 years ago Because of who we are, chances are you would have left us to ourselves. You would not have broken through our sinfulness and our raging against you to show us your mercy and have compassion on us. But that after the pinnacle of human history, Jesus coming to lay down His life, your mercy is so much more widely distributed so that you'll receive so much more glory. May it be so. God, we rejoice as Gentiles before you, that you have extended your mercy to us now so broadly.

Thank you for this text. Help us to honor marriage and all that we do, Lord, as it is a great display of Christ in his church. Pray in Jesus name. Amen.