As I was reading through the books of Ezra and Nehemiah I was reminded that the central theme running in both of them, as well as the entire Bible remains the same. God desires holiness from his children. Holiness in the Bible means separation from everything that is not of God and being devoted entirely for God’s use. In simpler terms a vessel that has been set apart for exclusive usage by God. In both the books of Ezra and Nehemiah God calls for separation from foreigners/unbelievers/pagans, Israel is even commanded to put away wives they have married that are not from the nation of Israel i.e. Israelites were required to separate from wives they had married from other pagan nations. This intermingling led to Israel’s downfall and sin and because of this God’s wrath was poured out on the entire nation of Israel. Israel as a nation was defeated and its citizens carried away as captives to distant nations like Babylon and Persia. It was only when the people repented that God forgave them and enabled the remnant to return to Israel. However, on returning the remnant found that the nation of Israel was destroyed and without boundaries and open to attack from all sides from its enemies. This required the remnant that returned to build its walls once again and to raise up its defenses so that the nation of Israel could defend itself against its enemies. This done the people were then asked to rededicate themselves to God once again and get back to reading of the Word of God. It was because the people of Israel had stopped reading the Word of God that they fell into sin and thereby into captivity and enslavement. Reading the Word of God kept them aware of God’s requirements and failure to achieve this led to their being destroyed as a nation. Read Nehemiah 9 in particular to gain an understanding of where the nation of Israel repeatedly failed and also to gain an understanding of what we should be careful in doing in our walk with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Applying this to our lives in this day and age is again similar in all respects. God’s word makes it clear to not marry unbelievers and also to keep away from unbelievers. You can read up on it in II Corinthians 6:14-18. While we have no physical wall to build like Israel we still need to keep our defenses up as we read in Ephesians 6:10-18. Praise in another powerful weapon that will keep our defenses up as praise brings down the very manifest presence of God in our midst (Psalm 22:3). We are also required to read the Word of God on a regular basis, in fact Jesus said in Matthew 4:4 “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” and Ephesians 6:17 lets us know “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God”. I can assure you even in this day and age God is looking for people like Job who carried the testimony from God in Job 1:8 Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil." Remember even King Solomon was led into sin because he made the mistake of marrying and mingling with unbelievers. Ditto for the nation of Israel and also because they stopped reading the Word of God and following it.
