Sin is deadly and messy. Cleaning up the mess sin leaves behind takes surgery, not a Band-Aid. Ezra was not just angry or upset over the sin of his fellow Israelis, he was broken. They had taken foreign wives which would lead them to worshiping foreign gods and losing their children to the service of foreign gods. They had just rebuilt the temple of God and here they were essentially cheating on him with other gods. In Ezra 10:1 Ezra wept and cast himself down before the house of God over their sin. In Ezra 10:6 he fasted through the night, mourning their faithlessness. Israel had “broken faith” with God. (see Ezr 10:2). In Deuteronomy 7:1-4 Moses had clearly warned Israel against the very thing they were doing. A generation later Joshua gave the same warning (Josh 23:11-13). Yet in their faithlessness they had done the very thing they had been warned against (Mal 2:10-16; Ezr 10:2).
In dealing with their sin they proposed a covenant with God to put away their foreign wives. Ezra led them in an oath of obedience and then spent the night in prayer and fasting. Additionally a proclamation was made calling for all those involved in this sin to assemble within three days, or forfeit their property and be banned from the congregation. To forfeit their property probably meant that it would be given to the temple of God. Sin is serious business. When we gloss over it, excuse it, or make light of it we are as faithless as Israel. Sin is to be taken seriously.
We are a society that is more interested in appearance than in reality. The truth is, plastic chrome is still plastic, not chrome. Criminals are often told to dress nice for their court appearance, but dressed up criminals are still criminals. A nice façade on a building changes the outward appearance of the building from the front, but it doesn’t change the actual building. A paint job doesn’t get rid of termites and a Band-Aid doesn’t cure skin cancer. You can dress up a sow, put perfume on her, and call her cute, but she is still just a pig who prefers mud on a hot day. We can dress sin up, give it another name like mistake, accident, or misunderstanding, but sin is still sin.
To effectively deal with the mess that sin leaves behind we must first be honest with God and with ourselves. Sin is an offensive expression of faithlessness. Appearance doesn’t change reality. We can cover up sin, but it doesn’t make it any less offensive to God. Maybe it is time we got honest with God instead of looking for someone or something to blame for our own faithlessness.
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