Ezra 10:4

He urges Ezra forward. "Arise," he said; "for it is your task, and we are with you; be strong and do it." How welcome these words must have been to Ezra's burdened heart! And no doubt he would see in them God stepping in to answer his prayers. He had indeed learned the source of all wisdom and strength. So he turned to the Lord before he tried to correct the abuses that were widespread in Israel. And so the Lord went before him, prepared the way, and inclined the people to confess and put away their sin.

A special responsibility rested on Ezra in this matter. As we saw in the early part of Ezra 7, he had prepared his heart to seek, and do, and teach the law of the Lord. Shechaniah recognized this, so he said to him, "Arise, for it is your task." And he assured Ezra of the support of those who feared God in the action he had to take.

Shecaniah, the people's spokesman, here shows an energy and unselfishness which ought to be an example to us. His father, Jehiel, was among the offenders (v. 26)! It took the power of God, joined to the zeal of Phinehas, to move him. He abandoned all his own family interests and took up the cause of God by himself. Yet this energetic man does not seek a role for himself in the work of restoration; he is of no importance in his own eyes. He judges that the thing rests on Ezra, "a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses that the Lord, the God of Israel, had given". In his eyes, the bearer of the Word — let us say the Word itself — must play the main role.

It is worth noticing how the Lord uses the faithful zeal of one man to wake others up to their condition. Before Ezra arrived, everyone's conscience seemed dead... Ezra was alone, and alone he would be, if necessary, in taking God's side against the wrongdoing of the people. But it needed courage and a single eye, and by grace Ezra had both... In times of evil, the only path of blessing — and even of success, in its divine sense — is the path of fidelity.

Individual humiliation comes first, and then collective humiliation. But neither the individual nor the people of God may stop there. Action must follow humiliation... Humiliation is not yet separation from evil. It is the path to this separation and prepares it. But when ruin has to be repaired, activity without humiliation can lead only to further ruin, however zealous it may be. The flesh, unjudged in humiliation, throws off all restraint when it is a question of separation from evil. Such was the zeal of Jehu.

One cannot but be struck with the spiritual power shown by one man. The secret of it was that he was in communion with the mind of God. He stood in faithfulness for God while everyone around him was unfaithful. And so God was with His servant, and worked with him. To the outward eye, Ezra was almost alone. But the truth is, it was God and Ezra. And so the hearts of the people bowed before him.

Such an action certainly shows how serious the evil of sinful associations is. We must not play down how serious this is. In our day, under grace, we cannot demand that anyone put away a wife, even an unsaved one. The nations Israel was mixing with were demon worshipers, so God had completely forbidden marriage with them. Believers today are not under such a law. But Scripture does say to them, "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers" (2 Cor. 6:14). If they disobey this, Scripture does not tell them to put away the unbeliever.