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Re: Bulletin Board [message #11477 is a reply to message #11476]

Thu, 15 January 2015 16:04

james
Messages: 2137
Registered: April 2008
Location: Birmingham, AL

Senior Member

Repentance requires action...

After Ezra had oversaw the rebuilding of The Temple in Jerusalem and it was rededicated unto The Lord,(and that included burnt offerings and sacrifices by the Levite priests who had been purified in the manner given by Moses) they also kept The Passover feast. They had to be feeling good about themselves and full of joy being back in Jerusalem and free to worship God in the place of their forefathers.

Then comes the revelation unto Ezra that the people of Israel, and the priests, and even the Levites had been living in disobedience by having taken women to wife from among the pagan nations around them. Not only had many taken foreign wives, they had children by them. Ezra apparently not aware of this and when he found out he was crushed in his heart and begin to cry unto The Lord and confess their sins.

The congregation gathered together to seek how to correct their trespasses. One man spoke up and said, "We have trespassed against our God, and have taken strange wives of the people of the land: yet there is hope in Israel concerning this thing. Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them,..." The people agreed to this and they started doing it. Imagine the heartaches, not only were they putting away their wives, they were doing the same with their children. There is a long list of those who had taken strange wives including priests and leaders of the people; after the names are given, the final verse in the last chapter of Ezra reminds us of the cost of repentance and obedience. "All these had taken strange wives: and some of them wives by whom they had children." Ezra 10:44

This should be a reminder to Christians today; first, don't disobey to start with, but if we do there is hope.(I John 2:1-2) But with the confession/repentance must come actions, we must turn from our sins. This isn't preached a lot anymore, many have taken the message of Grace and misinterpreted it into just a 'get out of jail free' card without corresponding actions of repentance {turning from self/sin unto Jesus as not only Saviour, but also as LORD.)

This isn't written to suggest anyone divorce their spouses and dump their children if they aren't of the same lineage and nationality as themselves; we are free from the Law given Moses, Jesus' sacrifice did away with that. But it does show the high cost of obedience; Jesus said that a follower of Him must be willing to abandon ALL to be His disciple, including self and family. He had many 'hard' sayings, and many after hearing them turned and followed Him no more.

“But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,”

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