Read:
Ezra 9:1-7
1 After these things had been done, the leaders came to me and said, "The people of Israel, including the priests and the Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the neighboring peoples with their detestable practices, like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians and Amorites. 2 They have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, and have mingled the holy race with the peoples around them. And the leaders and officials have led the way in this unfaithfulness."
3 When I heard this, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled hair from my head and beard and sat down appalled. 4 Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of this unfaithfulness of the exiles. And I sat there appalled until the evening sacrifice.
5 Then, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self-abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn, and fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the LORD my God 6 and prayed:
"O my God, I am too ashamed and disgraced to lift up my face to you, my God, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens. 7 From the days of our forefathers until now, our guilt has been great. Because of our sins, we and our kings and our priests have been subjected to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation at the hand of foreign kings, as it is today.
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9 He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.
When Ezra came to Jerusalem years after Johua and Zerubbabel came, Ezra found out that the leaders and people have married foreign wives who were involved with idol worship. Ezra fell on his face and plucked some of his beard and hair, and ripped his robe. He was so grieved by what he found out. The leaders and people who were involved with this mixture came to Ezra and told him that they would divorce the wives that they married. This was to keep that Holy Seed from being tainted for the lineage to run pure course for Jesus' birth. All throughout the bible we see that the enemy has always tried to get the Jews to commit adultery with those involved with idol worship. We see this again with Prophet Balaam. Prophet Balaam knew that he couldn't curse Israel, so he told King Balak that if we could just get them to enter into idol worship, then that would break the blessings and bring curses upon them. We see this happening with some of the church today. False worship and weird manifestations have crept in the church, and it has really stopped the Holy Seed for the great commission to go forth in advancing God's kingdom. We need soundness like never before in the church, and sound doctrine is knocking on the door of the church today that have entered into false worship. The Ezra's are falling on their knees and crying out to God for the minister's and people that have fallen away from the one and true God. The greek word for sound in this scripture is hugiano, and it means free from any mixture or error. When our hearts are one with the father, then we will have filter system within us to be able to detect what is true and not true concerning order in the church.
Prayer,
Lord, we fall down in prayer with the same heart that Ezra had in the reconstruction of Jerusalem. Forgive us Lord for entering into strange fire. Forgive us God for allowing things to come in without weighing it out. Lord, send down your fire of your spirit to burn anything that is not of you, and bring us to a place of true conviction. Allow this conviction to go forth and convict of sin, show forth your holy righteousness, and bring us back to you. We divorce anything that we married Lord that's not of you, Amen.
by Keith Edwards
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