Cleaning up the mess sin leaves behind is messy with no easy solutions. Ezra 10:9-17 demonstrates that reality. Verses 6-7 reveal that when the men respond to Ezra’s call to assemble, they face heavy rain. The text says that they are trembling because of the sin matter and because of the rain. Rain was a sign of God’s blessing under the Mosaic Covenant, but “heavy rain” had a different significance. Years earlier, in the time of King Saul and King David, the prophet/priest Samuel warned the people about their unfaithfulness. Then “Samuel called upon the LORD, and the LORD sent thunder and rain that day, and all the people greatly feared the LORD and Samuel” (1 Sam 12:18). Heavy rain was an expression of the fearsomeness of God in Samuel’s farewell warning to the people of Israel. In Ezekiel 13:11-13 a heavy rainstorm was an expression of God’s displeasure with false prophets. It is likely an expression of God’s displeasure with his people in Ezra 10 as well.
The people were instructed by Ezra to make confession of their sin and to separate themselves from the people of the land and from their foreign wives (Ezr 10:11-12). The scriptures teach that God hates divorce (Mal 2:16), and yet Deuteronomy 24:1 allowed for divorce “if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her” (Deut 24:1). The indecency in this case is idolatry and the worship of false gods. Malichi 2:10-16 shows that this was even messier than it may appear in Ezra. It seems that at least some of the men may have put away their Israeli wives in order to marry pagan wives. The issue did not have an easy, black and white solution. They acknowledged that it would take some time to sort everything out (Ezr 10:13-17). In fact, not only did they recognize that it would take time, but not everyone was in agreement as to the solution (Ezr 10:15). It ended up taking three months to deal with this sin (Ezr 10:16-17).
We like quick, easy, black and white solutions to problems. We like one verse answers. But life is not always that simple. Consider the following: A woman has been living with a man for seven years and has two children with him, but he is divorced and his wife is still single. The simple solution is for him to put away his live-in girlfriend and remarry his wife, but what happens to the two children? This woman has given seven years of her life to this man. Is she just to be put out on the street? A pastor has been married three times, but in the third marriage he asked the officiant not to file his marriage certificate so that his third wife would not lose her medical benefits. They have now been “married” for some time but not legally. What counsel should be given to him? A tribal chief comes to faith and has five wives. What does the missionary tell him? A woman comes to faith and wants to follow Christ but she is in a same-sex marriage. Is she to get a divorce? Sin is complicated. There are no easy answers to many of these questions.
Cleaning up the mess sin leaves behind is often messy with no easy solutions. It takes time, prayer, and discernment. We want to quickly sweep things under the rug and go on as though the sin never happened, but that is not how sin works. Sin always leaves a wake of destruction in its path. When dealing with the mess sin leaves behind we need to learn to move slowly, deliberately, and with much prayer and discernment. The best thing is to avoid the sin in the first place. Life is much less messy that way.
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