As we turn to Ezra 8, we read the genealogies of those who were returning to Jerusalem with Ezra. Then Ezra called for the Levites to come, because they were missing from the group. After this, Ezra called for a fast for the LORD to protect the people. He didn’t want to ask the king for soldiers to protect them, because he had told the king the LORD would protect them, which turned out to be right. When the group made it to Jerusalem, they celebrated by offering sacrifices to the LORD.
Ezra 9 records Ezra’s long and anguished prayer to the LORD of the returning exiles’ failure to retain racial purity. They had intermarried with many different races. Ezra confesses the reason they were in exile in the first place was because they had failed to follow the LORD whole-heartedly, and now they were being given a great opportunity by Him. Ezra asked for the LORD’s help in doing the right thing. While we find the concept of racial segregation as one we have fought against as a nation, we must remember the people of Judah were being reestablished as God’s people, and their faithful worship of the LORD was a major matter.
Ezra concludes in chapter 10 with the people confessing they had sinned greatly against their God, by intermarrying with foreign women. While a couple of leaders opposed the judgment that the men would have to put away their foreign wives and children, the vast majority agreed. The record of the priests who had taken foreign women is listed as the book ends. It is a long list, and we see how significant the offense was considered to be, precisely because we have the list as part of the Bible. Again, our modern sensibilities might be offended by this, but as Judah was being reestablished, it was necessary that idolatry not become rooted in the culture as it had in the past. Of course, idolatry cannot be rooted out by eliminating cross-cultural marriages. The human heart is prone to idolatry. We must follow Jesus’ command to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness if we are to overcome it.
As we return to Matthew 5, and the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, we are reminded how challenging Jesus’ teaching in this section of Matthew are. As we read Matthew 5-7 these three days, we must remember Jesus was establishing what “Kingdom people” are like. We cannot be Kingdom people without the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Given that Jesus taught the Sermon on the Mount before He died, rose again, returned to heaven and sent the Holy Spirit, the message must have seemed incredibly difficult or impossible to Jesus’ original hearers. We will not attempt to summarize each section of Matthew 5 here, but will focus on 5:13-16. I’m sitting in the Bangkok Airport (Thailand) as I write this post, waiting for my first trip to Laos. I’m on a mission trip to Cambodia with twenty-three others from New Life, but Pastor Matt Geppert, the president of the South East Asia Prayer Center asked me to accompany him on this brief trip. We are submitted to his authority, so here I am! Anyway, it seems appropriate with a team from New Life in Cambodia, me in Thailand, and all of you who are part of New Life in various parts of western Pennsylvania seeking to follow Jesus faithfully, to be given His vital reminder: we are salt and light! In Jesus’ day salt was used primarily as a preservative. It kept meat from rotting. It was also used as a healing agent, as a flavor enhancer for food, and in some places it was even used as “money.” Salt was vital in the world of Jesus’ day. He calls us to be vital in the same way. Our world will “rot,” be sick, tasteless and without value unless we who bear Jesus’ name offer His life that is truly life to those around us. Light has always had one, primary purpose–dispel darkness. We have the opportunity and responsibility to dispel the darkness around us in our daily experience wherever that experience is being lived out at this moment. (By the time you read this post, I will be back in Cambodia, and looking forward to the first day of Kids’ Camp with the rest of the New Life Team, and hundreds of children from the New Hope for Orphans children’s home, and people from churches around the globe who are helping with leadership of the camp. [The LORD willing, of course.]) Let’s be certain we call on the Holy Spirit to fill us in this moment and throughout the day, so we’ll will be salt and light to each one and everyone we meet.