KEEP SEPARATE FROM THAT WHICH IS UNGODLY

PROCLAMATION

“But now, our God, what can we say after this?  For we have forsaken the commands You gave through Your servants the prophets when You said: ‘The land you are entering to possess is a land polluted by the corruption of its peoples.  By their detestable practices they have filled it with their impurity from one end to the other.  Therefore, do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters for your sons…”  Ezra 10:10-12 (NIV)

EXPLANATION

Several months after the celebration and dedication of the temple, the Israelites celebrated the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days.  (Ezra 6:19-22)  Chapter seven of the Bible Book of Ezra contains the letter which King Artaxerxes wrote to Ezra, and his decree regarding the Israelites. (Ezra 7:26)  Chapter eight contains the names of the head of each family that was with Ezra. (Ezra 8:1-14)  It also includes the actions which Ezra took after he learned that there were no Levites there with him. (Ezra 8:15-36)  Sometime later on Ezra learned that the people of Israel, including the priests and the Levites, had intermarried with the neighboring people who had once been their enemies.  He was very grieved by this.  He gathered the people together, and after much prayer, (Ezra 9:1-15) the men agreed to separate themselves from their foreign wives and any children from those marriages. (Ezra 10:1-17)  The second half of chapter ten of The Book of Ezra listed all of the men who had married foreign women. (Ezra 10:18-44)

APPLICATION

As believers we are not supposed to do all of the things that non-believers do.  Just because we can do it does not mean that we should do it.  It may not be illegal or immoral, but if it goes against The Word of God, then we should not do it.  Like Christ, we are in this world but not of it. (John 8:23)  We are to function in a Christ-like manner in this sin-sick world without taking on its sinful ways.  We are not to befriend or hang out with those individuals who consciously practice ungodly behavior. (Ephesians 5:11)  Only birds of the same feather will flock together. (Amos 3:3)  Let us fellowship one with another as part of the body of Christ. (1 John 1:7)