(Continued from page 20.)
AFTER this, Ezra, a priest and scribe, who had been all this time in Babylon, is stirred up, evidently by divine energy, to go to Jerusalem. (chapter 7:6.) He is furthered in his service, through the providence of God, by a letter from Artaxerxes king of Persia, not the Artaxerxes we read of in the fourth chapter, but most likely Artaxerxes Longimanus. Many of the chief of the fathers accompanied him. We are told that before he left Babylon, “Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.” (chapter 7:10.) In the way to Jerusalem Ezra “proclaimed a fast,” as he says, “that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of Him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance. So we fasted, and besought our God for this, and He was entreated of us.” (chapters 8:21-23.) So they arrived safely in Jerusalem with all the vessels of gold and silver; and burnt offerings were offered to the God of Israel, twelve bullocks for all Israel. These ways of faith, and dependence, and worship are very precious, and show the divine energy that wrought in this servant of God.
These things being done, Ezra soon finds that the place of the faithful should be one of humiliation and confession before the Lord; with earnest prayer; for the people of Israel had not separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations, &c. When Ezra heard it he rent his garment and his mantle, and plucked off the hair of his head and of his beard, and sat down astonied until the evening sacrifice, when he fell upon his knees, and spread out his hands unto the Lord his God, &c. (chapters 9:1-15.) After this, we read that Ezra the scribe stood up and said to the men of Judah and Benjamin, “Ye have transgressed, and have taken strange wives to increase the trespass of Israel. Now therefore make confession unto the Lord God of your fathers, and do His pleasure; separate yourselves from the people of the land, and from the strange wives. Then all the congregation answered and said with a loud voice, “As thou hast said, so must we do.” (chapters 10:10-12.) The result was that many put away their strange wives, and offered a ram of the flock for their trespass. Thus we see that the moment the authority of God is owned and subjection to his word, evil is brought to light, and separation is the necessary result. It has always been God’s way. If an Old Testament writer declares that “the highway of the upright is to depart from evil,” a New Testament writer insists on those who “name the name of the Lord to depart from iniquity;” and if an inspired prophet says, “Cease to do evil, and learn to do well,” an inspired Apostle exhorts us to “Abhor that which is evil, and cleave to that which is good.” May we know, in these last days, more real, practical separation unto Him who is holy and true!
BECAUSE God has connected His glory with His people, we should cultivate a heart for all saints, and yet evil should be intolerable to us—we should have no acquiescence in it.