Below is a link to this week’s focus passage in several translations –
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezra+9%3A1-12&version=NRSV;NIV;ESV;KJV;NET

VI.
In ending my last post I asked – “How do you place this situation and these actions in the context of Scripture in its entirety and its essential thrust and call on our lives?”

What comes to your mind?

The people of the covenant are commanded to drive out the resident people as they enter their promised land (Numbers 33:51-53);

The people of the covenant are told to treat the alien and the stranger justly, by the same law as they, because they were once aliens in a strange land (Exodus 22:21);

Jesus reports that he will cause division even between a father and son, mother and daughter (Matthew 10:34-39);

Jesus freely talks with and interacts with Samaritans, Roman soldiers, tax collectors, and lepers, all of whom are folk the religious leaders would hold far off and tell their followers to avoid (John 4:9);

Paul of Tarsus tells Christians in Corinth to not be “unequally yoked” with unbelievers (2 Corinthians 6:14);

Paul tells the folk in Galatia that there is neither Jew or Greek, neither male or female “in Christ” (Galatians 6:28);

How do you hold these thoughts and the situation in the book of Ezra together? Or maybe not?

VII.
In a note in the Life with God Bible (page 678) I read this,

“… the Bible must always be read with the big picture in mind. It is not a flat book with only one perspective of faith. The book of Ruth, for instance, celebrates the role of a foreign woman in Israel’s history. Malachi, who wrote shortly after Ezra, strongly objects to divorce (Mal 2:16). In Exodus 22:21 the Israelites are instructed to be kind to aliens because they were once outsiders in Egypt. Moreover, Ezra 1-6 has an inclusive theme regarding the foreigner. In listening to the Word of God, one must consider all the voices of faith.” (Italics have been added for emphasis)

VII.
What do you make of this week’s focus Scripture?

How do you hold it with other Scripture that informs you how to live as a disciple of Jesus?

What do you take from these words in Ezra that help you live a “Life with God” today and tomorrow?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}