The Exiles' Distress

I hear that on Saturday it will be near record highs here in Charlotte, near 70 degrees!
let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Five days before Christmas, and I need to break out the shorts and tshirts! I don't mind. My middle son will be home for Christmas and he loves to play frisbee. It will be a perfect warm sunny day to frolic in the park. I moved to NC twenty years ago because I had had enough of frigid weather, 5 months of ice and snow, and burrowing in my home till June. I am grateful for warmth. The older I get, the more grateful I am. I don't know what all the fuss is about global warming anyway. I much prefer being warm.

It is a little ironic that my Christmas tree is covered with fake snowflakes and icicles. White lace is draped over the branches like snow. Ok, so maybe I miss Christmas snow just a little....But I am not alone in being affected by the weather.

I just finished the book of Ezra in the Bible. In this book, the Israelites are finally recognizing how far they have fallen away from God and His commandments. One of their "ah-ha" moments as they are planning to return to rebuild Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity is "oops", they married pagan women in direct disobedience to God's command. They are very upset, because many of them have children from these women, and now they realize they must send the foreign wives and their children away. As I was reading this, I was in deep mourning for them. Yes, they had sinned, but how on earth could they bear to send away their own children?! And then I reread the last chapter and one line really popped out at me:

Ezra 10:9 NIV
[9] Within the three days, all the men of Judah and Benjamin had gathered in Jerusalem. And on the twentieth day of the ninth month, all the people were sitting in the square before the house of God, greatly distressed by the occasion and because of the rain.

Because of the rain?

I don't know. That struck me as odd. They are distressed understandably about the need to toss away their wives and kids...but because of the rain?

Sometimes I wonder why God puts up with us. I am as affected by the weather as the next guy, but doesn't the rain seem like a piddling consideration when one is confronted with denouncing one's own wife and kids?

In the end, despite the rain, the exiles pledged to "put away" their foreign wives. I admire them for that. They recognized obeying God was the most important duty before them. Still, I am not sure I could have done it. They would have of course been more admirable if they hadn't sinned in the first place, but it takes a lot of courage to admit one has grieved God and then suffer the consequences and try to right the wrong at great sacrifice to self.
With this story, one cannot escape the poignant message that sin takes many victims besides the sinner. Think of how those innocent children must have felt.

As I sit in my warm city with my tree covered with fake cold weather accoutrements, I am grateful for Jesus. I am as weak as the people of Ezra's day, grieving my God and worried about the weather. I don't think I could have sent away my children as the exiles of Ezra's story did...but the wonder and promise of the Child born unto us is that He would save us from our sin and pay the penalty we owed. He knows how we shiver in the cold and melt in the rain. In the midst of our weakness, Jesus came and provided a safe haven, shelter from the wrath that we deserved.

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Ezra 10:1-4 NIV
[1] While Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God, a large crowd of Israelites---men, women and children---gathered around him. They too wept bitterly. [2] Then Shekaniah son of Jehiel, one of the descendants of Elam, said to Ezra, “We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the peoples around us. But in spite of this, there is still hope for Israel. [3] Now let us make a covenant before our God to send away all these women and their children, in accordance with the counsel of my lord and of those who fear the commands of our God. Let it be done according to the Law. [4] Rise up; this matter is in your hands. We will support you, so take courage and do it.”

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.” (John 1:29, 34 ESV)

-save a dog- hollowcreekfarm.org
http://www.amazon.com/Vicky-Kaseorg/e/B006XJ2DWUrain