{"id":6308,"date":"2019-11-19T20:00:11","date_gmt":"2019-11-20T03:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=6308"},"modified":"2019-11-17T16:13:25","modified_gmt":"2019-11-17T23:13:25","slug":"ezra10_1-44","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/ezra10_1-44\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesus, the Only Name That Saves"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ezra 10:1-44 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Ezra 10:1-44.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Ezra 10:1 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0While 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.
\n<\/em>
\nOn verse 1:\u00a0\u00a0Ezra weeps violently because of how his people have sinned, when eventually he is surrounded by a large crowd of men, women and children who weep with him.\u00a0\u00a0What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0Though you might sometimes feel alone, in the kingdom of God you are not alone.\u00a0\u00a0In Christ you are part of a bigger body such that there are others who feel the pain that you, most notably Jesus Christ our brother and our Saviour.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ezra 10:2-4 (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Shecaniah 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.
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Now 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.
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Rise up; this matter is in your hands. We will support you, so take courage and do it.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 2-17:\u00a0\u00a0With the encouragement of Shecaniah, Ezra assembles the people, points out that they have sinned by marrying unbelieving women and calls them to repent.\u00a0\u00a0The people agree with Ezra.\u00a0\u00a0However, they tell Ezra that sending away the unbelieving wives and their children cannot be done in a day or two, but will take some time, some investigation and some ordering of their affairs.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0Repentance is not simply feeling sorry for your sins, or agreeing with God that you have sinned, but it\u2019s about being willing to take those practical steps to turn from sin.\u00a0\u00a0When you start to take practical steps to get rid of sinful habits or patterns in your life, you may find that it is not as simple as raising your hand in a worship service.\u00a0\u00a0There are decisions and life changes to make that will take intentional planning and effort.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0Just as the repenting adulterer needs to take practical steps to cut off ties with the person they committed the affair with, just as the repenting thief needs to comb through their past to determine how much they stole and from whom and make restitution for it, there are practical implications to repentance.\u00a0\u00a0Living out those implications requires time, effort and intentionality.<\/p>\n

Ezra\u00a010:18\u00a0(NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Among the descendants of the priests, the following had married foreign women: From the descendants of Jeshua son of Jozadak, and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib and Gedaliah.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 18-44:\u00a0\u00a0The book of Ezra ends by listing the names of those who sinned against God by marrying unbelieving women, starting with the sons of priests (v18-24) and then listing the rest (v25-43).<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0In Jewish culture parents placed a great emphasis on picking the right name for their child, even more so than today in Canada.\u00a0\u00a0It was believed that a person\u2019s name spoke about that person\u2019s destiny.\u00a0\u00a0So parents would naturally try to pick the best name for their child.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s why it shouldn\u2019t surprise us to see in this list a man named after the history-making patriarch Joseph (v42), another man named after the great prophet Elijah (v26), his relative named after the prophet Zechariah (v26), and FOUR men named after the famous warrior Benaiah (v25, 34, 35, 43).\u00a0\u00a0Yet despite being giving such great names, these men still sinned against God.\u00a0\u00a0Their own names could not save them from their sin and the mark that sin left on their lives.\u00a0\u00a0There is only one name that can save us from our sins.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s the name of Jesus.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Were it not for the name of Jesus, our names would be recorded in hell\u2019s list of sinners.\u00a0\u00a0But isn\u2019t it awesome that through faith in Jesus Christ our sins are forgiven and our names are now included on another list: God\u2019s list of saints, His children.<\/p>\n

The book of Ezra, which was written while the Jews were still under the old covenant (remember the book of Hebrews?), ends on a sad note.\u00a0\u00a0It spotlights the sin that God\u2019s people, including the priests, had committed.\u00a0Praise God that our stories do not need to end that way.\u00a0\u00a0Because of Jesus, what marks the end of our story is not our sin, but God\u2019s grace, forgiveness and salvation.
\nThis brings our look at the book of Ezra to a close.\u00a0\u00a0What were the most important lessons God taught you through this book?\u00a0\u00a0To deepen your grasp of this book, I encourage you to look back at what you learned and journal a prayer to God, asking Him to help you to apply each specific lesson to your life.<\/p>\n

Lord Jesus, Your name is the only name that saves.\u00a0\u00a0Whereas I deserved to be listed among sinners, You chose to be named on that list in my place so that I could be named among Your children.\u00a0\u00a0If there are practical ways that I can change my lifestyle, my habits or my attitude so that I can live more fully in Your blessing, help me to take those practical steps and to make those necessary decisions and arrangements.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

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<\/div>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Ezra 10:1-44.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Ezra 10:1 (NIV)\u00a0
\n1\u00a0\u00a0While 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.
\n\u00a0
\nOn verse 1:\u00a0\u00a0Ezra weeps violently because of how his people have sinned, when eventually he is surrounded by a large crowd of men, women and children who weep with him.\u00a0\u00a0What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0Though you might sometimes feel alone, in the kingdom of God you are not alone.\u00a0\u00a0In Christ you are part of a bigger body such that there are others who feel the pain that you, most notably Jesus Christ our brother and our Saviour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6309,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6308"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6311,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6308\/revisions\/6311"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}