Peter Misselbrook's Blog

Nov 14 2019 - Ezra 9 – Ezra's prayer

As we read this chapter, we need to remember why the people of Judah had been sent off into exile in Babylon. The people had adopted many of the practices of their non-Jewish neighbours and had been enticed away from devotion to the Lord into idolatry of various sorts. After years of sending warnings through the prophets, the Lord permitted Babylon to defeat and destroy Jerusalem. The leaders and key people from the Jews were then taken off into exile and people from other nations had been settled alongside the Jews who remained in the land. Only with Babylon's defeat by the Persians were the exiled Jews allowed to return. Ezra, the Bible scholar, was well aware of this history and, at his return, is intent on ensuring that the people of God are not again enticed away into idolatry.

So it comes as a great shock and source of distress to him when he learns that the Jewish people who had not been taken off into exile, and perhaps also some of those who had returned earlier, have intermarried with people from many other nations. Even the leaders of the people have "led the way in this unfaithfulness" (v. 2).

It's easy for us to misread Ezra's concern, especially when we read the accusation that these people "have mingled the holy race with the peoples around them" (v. 2). But Ezra's concern is not for racial purity. Remember how we read in chapter 6 that at the Passover celebrations with the dedication of the temple, those who had turned away from the idolatrous practices of their neighbours were welcomed at the Passover along with the Jewish people who had rebuilt the temple. The concern was not for racial purity but for spiritual purity. Ezra's concern was not to guard against racially mixed marriages but to guard against mixing the worship of the Lord God of Israel with devotion to foreign gods.

Ezra tore his clothes and pulled hair from his head and beard as a sign of his deep distress and poured out his heart to God in prayer. Note how he rehearses Israel's history, confessing the sin that had led to their exile. He gives thanks to God for his mercy in preserving his people even through the time of exile and bringing them back to this land and enabling them to rebuild the temple. He confesses that God has punished them less than their sins deserve but asks, "Shall we then break your commands again and intermarry with the peoples who commit such detestable practices? Would you not be angry enough with us to destroy us, leaving us no remnant or survivor?" (v. 14). How are they to stand before their God in worship and prayer when their lives are compromised in this way?

Do we show the same passion and concern we see in Ezra for spiritual purity both for ourselves and for the fellowship of God's people to which we belong? I must admit that I have never gone so far as to tear my clothes or to pluck out hair or my beard through deep distress for the state of the people of God. Are we conscious of the contemporary issues and trends which threaten to entice us and our fellow believers away from wholehearted devotion to the Lord? What are we going to do to keep ourselves and them faithful? How might a review of our own history and that of our church help us to be more aware of, and prayerful concerning, the dangers the contemporary church faces?

Father God, you did not spare your own Son but gave him up to the cross to be our Saviour. Lord Jesus, you have shown us the depth and extent of God's love for us. Holy Spirit, shed that love abroad in our hearts and give us a burning and single-hearted devotion to the one who has given himself for us. Help us to keep ourselves from idols and to encourage one another to turn away from anything that would lead us away from you. We pray that rather than being enticed away by the world around us we might attract others to leave their idols and to worship the living and true God.

Nov 14 2020 - John 9:1-41 – Once I was blind but now I see

The sight of a blind beggar by the roadside prompted the disciples to ask Jesus whose fault it was that he had been born blind, was it due to his own sins or was it the result of his parents’ sin? Jesus replied, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:3-5).

Jesus refuses to link a person’s sickness or disability with particular sins committed by that person or by his parents. Such sickness or impairment is symptomatic of a broken world and afflicts good and bad alike. But Jesus came into the world to do the works of the one who sent him; he has come to mend a broken world and to create it anew. He has come as the light of the world and the power of God is about to be displayed as light is brought into the darkness of this man’s life. Genesis tells the story of how God created a man from the ground and breathed into him the breath of life. This man’s eyes are restored as Jesus adds his own spittle to dirt from the ground and pastes the mud onto his blind eyes.

But the day on which this took place was the Sabbath day.

Those who had known the man born blind were amazed that he could now see. They could not understand how this could have happened so they took him off to the religious authorities for their verdict. The Pharisees, having listened to the man’s testimony, were offended that Jesus made mud and opened the eyes of a blind man on the Sabbath. To them it seemed quite obvious that Jesus was a sinner since he did not obey the law of Moses.

To the man once blind the case was equally obvious. Nothing like this had ever happened before. No one could give sight to someone born blind unless God enabled him to do so – and God would not do such things through a sinner. The man born blind has a clear testimony, “One thing I know, once I was blind but now I see.” Unlike the Pharisees, he sees things clearly. They are blind to what is going on right in front of their eyes.

The Sabbath marked the completion of God’s work of creation. Sabbath was God’s invitation to all that he had made to join him in the enjoyment of a perfected creation. What could be a more fitting act for the Sabbath day than to make this man whole? As my grandmother used to say, “There’s none so blind as those who will not see.”

But what of me? In what ways am I blind to the work of God because I am locked into my own way of looking at the world? Do I sometimes fail to see the things that God is doing around me as he continues to work in his broken world, working for its healing and restoration?

Lord Jesus, open my eyes that I may see the wonder of all that you are doing now in your world through your Word and your Spirit. Make me your agent in bringing your light into the dark places around me and your healing to those whose lives are disabled by sin or injustice. Help me to do your work in each new day you give me.

Peter Misselbrook