The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 271: Israel's Foreign Wives (2023)

Episode Date: September 28, 2023

Fr. Mike discusses God’s instruction to the people of Israel not to marry women from foreign lands. He explains why God would provide this instruction and how Ezra reacted when he discovered that many prominent Israelites had not obeyed it. He also identifies the prophecies of Palm Sunday and the thirty pieces of silver found in Zechariah. Today’s readings are Ezra 9-10, Zechariah 9-11, and Proverbs 20:16-19. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 271. We're reading from Ezra, the end of Ezra, the last two chapters, although as we know that Ezra and Nehemiah are the same book. It's all one, but in our Bibles,

they're two different books. We're reading Ezra chapter 9 and 10, also Zechariah chapter 9, 10, and 11. We're getting kind of close to the end of the book of the prophet Zechariah, as well as Proverbs chapter 20 verses 16 through 19. As always, the Bible translation that I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, the second Catholic edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plans, you can follow along and keep track of every day. Like today, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year, and you would know, wow, it's day 271. This is the last day of the book of Ezra, and we're only reading chapters 9 and 10, that kind of a thing. Also, you can subscribe to

this podcast. I don't know if you knew this. It's a well-kept secret, a little known fact. You can subscribe to this podcast, and then what happens is every single day, you get daily episodes and updates. It's phenomenal. I can't say enough good things about it, but if you're interested, you can click on subscribe. It is day 271. We're reading Ezra 9 and 10, Zechariah 9, 10, and 11, as well as Proverbs chapter 20, verses 16 through 19. The book of Ezra, chapter 9, denunciation of intermarriage, Ezra's prayer. After these things had been done, the officials approached me and said, The sons of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their abominations,

from the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. For they have taken some of their daughters to be wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands. And in this faithlessness, the hand of the officials and chief men has been foremost. When I heard this, I tore my garments and my mantle, and pulled hair from my head and beard, and sat appalled. Then all who trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the faithlessness of the returned exiles, gathered round me, while I sat appalled until the evening sacrifice. And at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my fasting with my garments and my mantle torn and fell upon my knees and spread out my

hands to the Lord my God, saying, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens. From the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt, and for our iniquities we, our kings and our priests, have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plundering, and to utter shame as at this day. But now, for a brief moment, favor has been shown by the Lord our God to leave us a remnant and to give us a secure hold within his holy place, that our God may brighten our eyes

and grant us a little reviving in our bondage. For we are bondmen. Yet our God has not forsaken us in our bondage, but has extended to us his mercy before the kings of Persia to grant us some reviving to set up the house of our God, to repair its ruins, and to give us protection in Judea and Jerusalem. And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken your commandments, which you have commanded by your servants the prophets, saying, The land which you are entering, to take possession of it, is a land unclean with the pollutions of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations, which have filled it from end to end with their uncleanness. Therefore, give not

your daughters to their sons, neither take their daughters for your sons, and never seek their peace or prosperity, that you may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever. And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, seeing that you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserved and have given us such a remnant as this, shall we break your commandments again

and intermarry with the peoples who practice these abominations? Would you not be angry with us till you would consume us so that there should be no remnant nor any to escape. O Lord, the God of Israel, you are just, for we are left a remnant that has escaped as at this day. Behold, we are before you in our guilt, for none can stand before you because of this. Chapter 10. The People's Response We have broken faith with our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land. But even now there is hope for Israel in spite of this. Therefore, let us make a covenant with our God to put away all these wives and their children

according to the counsel of my Lord and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God. And let it be done according to the law. Arise, for it is your task and we are with you. Be strong and do it. Then Ezra arose and made the leading priests and Levites and all Israel take oath that they would do as had been said. So they took the oath. Separation from foreign wives and children. Then Ezra withdrew from before the house of God and went to the chamber of Jehochanan, the son of Eliashib, where he spent the night,

neither eating bread nor drinking water, for he was mourning over the faithlessness of the exiles. And a proclamation was made throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the returned exiles that they should assemble at Jerusalem, and that if anyone did not come within three days by order of the officials and the elders, all his prosperity should be forfeited, and he himself banned from the congregation of the exiles. Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin assembled at Jerusalem within the three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month, and all the people sat in the open square before the house of God,

trembling because of this matter and because of the heavy rain. And Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, You have trespassed and married foreign women, and so increased the guilt of Israel. Now then, make confession to the Lord, the God of your fathers, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives. Then all the assembly answered with a loud voice, It is so. We must do as you have said. But the people are many, and it is a time of heavy rain. We cannot stand in the open. Nor is this a work for one day or for two,

for we have greatly transgressed in this matter. Let our officials stand for the whole assembly. Let all in our cities who have taken foreign wives come at appointed times, and with them, the elders and judges of every city, till the fierce wrath of our God over this matter be averted from us. Only Jonathan, the son of Asahel, and Jaziah, the son of Tikva, opposed this. And Meshulam and Shabbatai, the Levite, supported them. Then the returned exiles did so. Ezra,

the priest, selected men, heads of fathers' houses, according to their fathers' houses, each of them designated by name. On the first day of the tenth month they sat down to examine the matter, and by the first day of the first month they had come to the end of all the men who had married foreign women. Of the sons of the priests who had married foreign women were found Maaseah, Eleazar, Jarib, and Gedalia, of the sons of Jeshua, the son of Josedach, and his brethren. They pledged themselves to put away their wives, and their guilt offering was a ram of the flock for their guilt. Of the sons of Immer, Hanani, and Zebediah. Of the sons of Harim, Maasaiah, Elijah, Shemaiah, Jehiel, and Uzziah.

Of the sons of Pashor, Eli'o-Anai, Maaseah, Ishmael, Nethanel, Josabad, and Elasa. Of the Levites, Josabad, Shimei, Kalaya, that is, Kalita, Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer. Of the singers, Eliashib. Of the gatekeepers, Shalom, Telem, and Uri. And of Israel, of the sons of Parosh, And of Israel, of the sons of Parosh, Of the sons of Elam, Of the sons of Zatu, Of the sons of Babai, Eliot-Anai, Eliashib, Mataniah, Jeromoth, Zabad, and Aziza. Of the sons of Babai were Jo-Hanan, Hananiah, Zabai, and Atlai.

Of the sons of Bani were Musholam, Maluk, Adaiah, Jashub, Shial, and Jeromoth. Of the sons of Of the sons of Of the sons of Matanai, Matata, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremiah, Manasseh, and Shimei. Of the sons of Bani, Maadai, Amram, Ewell, Benaiah, Bediaiah, Jeluhi, Benaiah, Meramoth, Eliashib, Matanai, Matanai, Jaashu. Of the sons of Benui, Shimei, Shalamiah, Nathan, Adaiah, Maknedbai, Shashai, Sharii, Azarel, Shalamiah, Shemariah, Shalom, Amariah, and Joseph. Of the sons of Nebo, Jeiel, Metathiah, Zabad, Zebina, Jedai, Joel, and Benaiah. All these had married foreign women, and they put them away with their

children. The Book of Zechariah, Chapter 9. Judgment on Israel's Enemies. An Oracle. The word of the Lord is against the land of Hadrach, and will rest upon Damascus. For to the Lord belong the cities of Aram, even as all the tribes of Israel. Hamath also, which borders thereon, Tyre and Sidon, though they are very wise. Tyre has built herself a rampart and heaped up silver like dust and gold like the dirt of the streets. But behold, the Lord will strip her of her possessions and hurl her wealth into the sea, and she shall be devoured by fire. Ashkelon shall see it and be afraid, Gaza too, and shall writhe in anguish. Ekron also, because its hopes are confounded. The king shall perish from Gaza, Ashkelon shall be

uninhabited. A mongrel people shall dwell in Ashdod, and I will make an end of the pride of Philistia. I will take away its blood from its mouth and its abominations from between its teeth. It too shall be a remnant for our God. It shall be like a clan in Judah, and Ekron shall be like the Jebusites. Then I will encamp at my house as a guard, so that none shall march back and forth, no oppressor shall again overrun them, for now I see with my own eyes. The Coming of Israel's King Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!

Behold, your king comes to you. Triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the warhorse from Jerusalem and the battle bow shall be cut off and he shall command peace to the nations. His dominion shall be from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your captives free from the waterless pit. Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope. Today I declare that I will restore to you double.

For I have bent Judah as my bow. I have made Ephraim its arrow. I will brandish your sons, O Zion, over your sons, O Greece, and wield you like a warrior's sword. Then the Lord will appear over them, and his arrow go forth like lightning. The Lord God will sound the trumpet and march forth in the whirlwinds of the south. The Lord of hosts will protect them, and they shall devour and tread down the slingers. And they shall drink their blood like wine, and be full like a bowl, drenched like the corners of the altar. On that day,

the Lord their God will save them, for they are the flock of his people, for like the jewels of a crown they shall shine on his land. Yes, how good and how fair it shall be! Grain shall make the young men flourish, and new wine the maidens. Chapter 10. Restoration of Judah and Israel. Ask rain from the Lord in the season of the spring rain, from the Lord who makes the storm clouds, who gives men showers of rain, to every one the vegetation in the field. For the teraphim utter nonsense, and the diviners see lies. The dreamers tell false dreams and give empty consolation. Therefore the people wander like sheep.

They are afflicted for want of a shepherd. My anger is hot against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders, for the Lord of hosts cares for his flock, the house of Judah, and will make them like his proud steed in battle. Out of them shall come the cornerstone, out of them the tent peg,

out of them the battle bow, out of them every ruler. Together, of them the battle bow, out of them every ruler. Together they shall be like mighty men in battle, trampling the foe in the mud of the streets. They shall fight because the Lord is with them, and they shall confound the riders on horses. I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph. I will bring them back because I have compassion on them, and they shall be as though I had not rejected them. For I am the Lord their God, and I will answer them. Then Ephraim shall become like a mighty warrior, and their hearts shall be glad as with wine. Their children shall see it and rejoice. Their hearts shall exult in

the Lord. I will signal for them and gather them in, for I have redeemed them, and they shall be as many as of old. Though I scattered them among the nations, yet in far countries they shall remember me, and with their children they shall live and return. I will bring them home from the land of Egypt and gather them from Assyria, and I will bring them to the land of Gilead and to Lebanon, till there is no room for them. They shall pass through the sea of Egypt, and the waves of the sea shall be struck down, and all the depths of the Nile dried up. The pride of Assyria shall be laid low, and the scepter of Egypt shall depart. I will make them strong in the Lord, and they shall glory in his name, says the Lord. Chapter 11.

Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars. Wail, O Cyprus, for the cedar has fallen, for the glorious trees are ruined. Wail, Oaks of Bashan, for the thick forest has been felled. Listen, the wail of the shepherds for their glory is despoiled. Listen, the roar of the lions for the jungle of the Jordan is laid waste. Two kinds of shepherd. Thus says the Lord my God, become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. Those who buy them, slay them and go unpunished. And those who sell them say, blessed be the Lord, I have become rich and their own shepherds have no pity on them.

For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of this land, says the Lord. Behold, I will cause men to fall each into the hand of his shepherd and each into the hand of his king and they shall crush the earth and I will deliver none from their hand. So I became the shepherd of the flock doomed

to be slain for those who trafficked in the sheep. And I took two staffs, one I named Grace, the other I named Union, and I tended the sheep. In one month, I destroyed the three shepherds, but I became impatient with them, and they also detested me. So I said, I will not be your shepherd. What is to die, let it die. What is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed, and let those that are left devour the flesh of one another. And I took my staff, grace, and I broke it, annulling the covenant which I had made with all the peoples. So it was annulled on that day, and the traffickers and the sheep who were watching me knew that it was the word of the Lord. Then I said to them, If it seems right to you, give me my wages, but if not, keep them. And they weighed out as my wages, thirty shekels of silver. Then the Lord said to me,

Cast it into the treasury, the lordly price at which I was paid off by them. So I took the thirty shekels of silver and cast them into the treasury and the house of the Lord. Then I broke my second staff, Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. Then the Lord said to me, take once more the implements of a worthless shepherd for behold, I am raising up in the land

a shepherd who does not care for the perishing or seek the wandering or heal the maimed or nourish the sound, but devours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs. Woe to my worthless shepherd who deserts the flock. May the sword strike his arm and his right eye. Let his arm be wholly withered and his right eye utterly blinded. utterly blinded. The book of Proverbs chapter 20 verses 16 through 19. Take a man's garments when he has given surety for a stranger and hold him in pledge when he gives surety to foreigners. Bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man, but afterward his mouth will be full of gravel. Plans are established by counsel, by wise

guidance wage war. He who goes about gossiping reveals secrets, therefore do not associate with one who speaks foolishly. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. We thank you so much for this day and thank you for every day. Gosh, Lord, our God, there is always, always, even in the midst of brokenness, even in the midst of suffering, even in the midst, in the face of death, there's always something to give you thanks for. And we just, if we only had the ears to hear and the eyes to see, there is always something, Lord God, that you continue to pour out on us. And that is your grace.

That's your love. And you'd never forget us and help us, help us to never forget you. Always something, Lord God, that you continue to pour out on us. And that is your grace. That's your love. And you'd never forget us. And help us to never forget you. Help us to not be blind to your high call. And help us to not only open our ears, open our eyes to hear and to see, but help us to open our mouths to praise you and to build the people around us up. Help us to be the kind of people who encourage those who are nearest to us today.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. So we have some challenging readings today, both in Ezra and in Zechariah. So what happens? Here's Ezra. He is in part of that second wave, right? That's come back to the Holy Land, has come back to the Promised Land. And what he's discovered is he's discovered that there are many leading peoples, not just kind of your common folk, but even the priests, the sons of Israel, the priests, Levites have not

separated themselves from the people of the land, but they've intermarried. Now, one thing it's very important to understand is that this is not a racial thing, what it is, is a ideological or belief thing. So the Jewish people are the people of the covenant and the people of the land, the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, Amorites, those are not the people of the covenant, right? And so they're the ones who, when God brought the Jewish people into the promised land, said to drive them out and actually explicitly warned them against intermarrying. Why?

Well, we saw what happened. I mean, gosh, we don't have to go back that far back in our reading, maybe, I don't know, 100 days, 150 days, when we saw all that happened when the Jewish people did not keep themselves separated. Remember, the word holy means separate. So there's the profane, right? The common, the ordinary, the everyday. And then there's those things that are separate. There's things that are other, those things that are special, those things that are unique, they're set apart, they're consecrated, they're holy. And God said, you're going to be my holy people in the midst of common people, right?

You're in the midst of a people that hasn't been set apart. And so you have to live differently. And here's Ezra comes and realizes that the people in the land, they have not been kept apart. They have actually intermarried. And the problem with intermarriage is it weakens, it weakens the family. That's what happens. It weakens the bond of the covenant. Because as we've seen that virtually every time the Jewish people intermarried, they lost their faith. They lost their faith in the Lord God. And so here's Ezra who finds this, sees this, and it, and it

crushes him. You can just, you imagine, and he's not just mad, right? It's not just mad. Like, why did you people do this kind of thing? He is, I mean, gosh, there's this line where he says, Lord, my God, this is chapter nine, verse six. He says, oh my God, I'm ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads. And think about that. Our iniquities have risen higher than our heads. Basically, he's saying, we're drowning. We're drowning in our brokenness. We're drowning in our own sin.

We've done this to ourselves. And in this moment, Ezra, again, he's not that prophet who's wailing to stick around and he's trying to smash everything. He is the prophet who sees this and is so demoralized. He's so broken by it that he says, I'm drowning. We're drowning. I feel sometimes the same way when I'm working with couples, speaking to couples and how many couples are living together before they get married. It's just, it makes me so sad. I mean, it's just genuinely sad that it's like, oh my

gosh, what is happening? And here is Ezra who is experiencing the exact same thing. So here's what happens though. And this, what happens next is very, it's challenging. And it's actually on the surface, it's backwards. And then ultimately we realize, okay, here's what's going on. What happens is Ezra says, what about this? Okay, if you intermarried, you'd leave your family, leave your wife and leave your children.

The interesting thing about this is the people then take this up and everyone who has a foreign wife and children from the foreign wives makes the resolution to leave. Now, here's what happens next. This is in chapter 10 before the end of the book of Ezra. It's very remarkable that this isn't just some kind of decree or blanket statement. Okay, that's the deal. If Jim is married to Susie, you got to separate. That's bam, just that's it. It isn't that. In fact, what happens is there's a case-by-case basis. In fact, it talks about in verse 16 of chapter 10, it says that then the returned exiles did so. Ezra the priest selected men, heads of father's houses, according to the father's houses,

each of them designated by name. On the first day of the 10th month, they sat down to examine the matter. And by the first day of the first month, they had come to the end of all the men who had married foreign women. Basically, what happened is they took out a case-by-case basis because it wasn't a matter of, okay, automatically you have to separate.

It's a matter of, okay, maybe your wife has become Jewish. Maybe your children are being raised Jewish. Maybe actually they're being, your family was brought into the covenant rather than you being taken out of the covenant. It could be the case that you've raised your family up into this relationship with the Lord God. Remember, there was that Moabite woman. Oh gosh, what was her name? I think it was Ruth, right? And Ruth, she was Moabite. She lived across the Jordan River. And then her mother-in-law, Naomi, brought her across the river. Well, Ruth followed her.

And she marries Boaz and becomes the great-great-grandmother of King David. And there's this recognition of, so it's not the foreigner. That's not the problem with it. The good thing about Ruth is she said to Naomi, her mother-in-law, where you go, I will go.

Your people will be my people. Your God will be my God. So there's this story of people converting to the God of Israel. That can happen. And also God can do incredible things through that kind of conversion, just like having King David. And in this case too, we have to understand that what Ezra and the other heads of houses are doing is they're not just making a blanket statement. They're saying on a case-by-case basis, is this basically a good relationship? Is this a good marriage in which the people, the whole family, is being brought into covenant relationship with God? Or is this a marriage in which, to preserve the covenant relationship with God, there is this breaking of the marriage bond? Is it good? Is it perfect? Is it ideal? Absolutely not.

But that's, again, where we find ourselves in the midst of a broken and sinful world is, man, not even the solutions sometimes are perfect. Not even the solutions sometimes are good. And I've heard people argue that here's Ezra who just decides to do this. And the interesting thing here, it doesn't say the word of the Lord came to me saying, separate husbands from wives. That's a very important point because there are a number of Bible scholars who will make the claim that Ezra just did this in his grief, right? That Ezra did this in his sadness overseeing this intermarriage that he simply declared that they needed to get divorced. And that's a decent thing to note because maybe this didn't come from the Lord.

In fact, we're gonna get to the book of the prophet Malachi and he's gonna say, God says, I hate divorce. In fact, Jesus in the New Testament, he says that it's unlawful to divorce and marry another. So again, as I said, in a broken world, man, we got a lot of brokenness. Even sometimes the solutions are full of brokenness. And so we get to Zechariah.

And tomorrow we're going to go to Nehemiah, right? The story of after Ezra, we have Nehemiah. But today we're sticking around with Zechariah. And Zechariah has his prophecies. And part of the prophecy is restoration of Judah and Israel. And just so much good. Remember when the prophets were all talking about the doom and destruction, the exile that was to come, the death that was to come. And here we

have Zechariah talking about restoration of Judah, restoration of Israel, that together they shall be like mighty men in battle, trampling the foe in the mud of the streets. They shall fight because the Lord is with them. I will strengthen the house of Judah. I will save the house of Joseph and bring them back because I have compassion on them. Ah, so good. So promising. So encouraging. And in the same time, we recognize that there are still two kinds of shepherds. And this is the last chapter that we read from today's Zechariah chapter 11, where Zechariah talks about these different kinds of shepherds, those that take care of the sheep and those that take care of themselves. And it's so, so important, especially every single one of us.

Obviously, there are so many prophecies in Zechariah about Jesus, about the Messiah. We have the prophecy in chapter nine, where it says, Rejoice, O daughter Zion. Shout aloud, daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king comes to you, triumphant and victorious as he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Remember, Jesus riding in to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. What a gift. We also have in chapter 11, we have the 30 pieces of silver, the price for which Jesus Christ was betrayed by Judas Iscariot. And also he throws it into the treasury. Also, in fact, the translation that we have from the RSV here is he cast them into the treasury in the house of the

Lord. But there's a little note here that cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord, which is, you know, the potter's field that is purchased by the 30 shekels that paid the price for the blood of Jesus, if that makes any sense. So again, prophecies about the Messiah, but back to what I was trying to make the claim of the shepherds and good shepherds. Zechariah is pointing out, just like so many of the other prophets have pointed out, that there are shepherds who care for the sheep and there are shepherds and good shepherds. Zechariah is pointing out, just like so many of the other prophets have pointed out, that there are shepherds who care for the sheep and there are shepherds who care for themselves. And one of the things that we recognize is, you know,

there's this saying, leaders eat last. And every person who's called to be a leader, whether that be your mom, your dad, you are a grandparent, you're a priest, maybe you're single, but you recognize there are people that you're responsible for, people that you're called to care for. And to be able to say, okay, at what point, at what point, at what level with these people around me, can I be a good shepherd? Because I know what the temptation, the temptation is to take care of yourself, right? The good shepherd takes care of the sheep. The bad shepherd takes care of themselves. And there's that saying again, as I said, leaders eat last, that call for all of us to say, okay, who do I feed first? Who do I care for first? Because here's the Messiah, Jesus Christ himself prophesied, who is going to be, as he says, the good shepherd who lays down

his life for his sheep. It's been a long day today. I apologize for how long this is, but a good day, though. What a great day. I am praying for you. Please, please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow.

God bless.