Ezra learns that the spiritual leaders of the nation have
taken foreign wives and he is utterly destroyed within that such a thing could
happen. Have they learned no lesson at
all from the history of the nation? One
of the prime reasons for the downfall of Solomon and thus the nation as a whole
was the taking of wives from among the Gentiles by leaders rather than from
among their own people. The foreign
wives led them astray and they followed after their gods in an effort to please
their wives. Balaam, the prophet of Moab
who would not prophesy evil against Israel because God intervened, was said to
have given the best strategy for conquest of the nation to his leaders, simply
have Moabite women seduce and marry Israelite men and they will soon be
Moabites in all but ancestry. Ezra knows
that this is a great threat to the nascent movement to restore both the nation
and its religious life under the covenant.
He is appalled at what he hears and he knows how important it is that
they get this right here at the beginning, if not, all their work has been
completely in vain.
Getting it right at the beginning means that these men in
the boat, the disciples, need their own signs.
They need to be certain who Jesus is if they are to be leaders in the
church. As they struggle in the midst of
the storm they see Jesus walking on the water.
Peter knew that a disciple was intended to become just like his master
and he knew that if Jesus could walk on water then this was something he too
could accomplish but knows that if his master didn't call him to do so it
wasn't a good idea to presume. So long
as he kept his eyes on Jesus he could do what Jesus did but as soon as he
noticed the wind and waves he was lost.
Leaders need to always keep their eyes on Him, especially in the midst
of storms if they are to navigate well.
If we allow ourselves to avert our eyes or be led by another we will,
like Peter, quickly sink in our problems and fears. Ezra knew where to turn.
Why is John marveling at the beast he describes to us? She is a drunken whore sitting on a beast
filled with blasphemous names and she is holding in her hand a cup full of
abominations and immorality. It would
seem to make sense that he would be so repulsed by this vision that he would
look away rather than marvel at such a sight.
We have a problem with sin and with our eyes. We fail to see how disgusting sin truly is
from God's perspective because we are so acclimated and accommodated to it and
we no longer have proper vision. We can
be allured by that which we know is disgusting and which later will indeed
disgust us. John is told that many will
be taken in by this and that there will be a resurrection that will look like
Jesus' resurrection and that this beast will be at war with Jesus. We have to be on guard against spiritual
adultery and we need to be always in prayer that the Lord give us spiritual
eyes that we not be seduced away from Him.
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