Hi,
You wrote:
Do you feel that it was wrong for Ezra and the people of Israel to do this? Or, do you feel that it was in some way not God's will for them to do this?
Let me answer that with a question: Was it wrong for the Jews to reject and murder Jesus? Was it God's will for them to reject and murder Jesus?
Answer: Yes, and yes.
In another thread this idea of "two wills of God" has been explored, and it has been discussed several times in the past here on the Highway, so I won't start a whole 'nother exploration of it here. Suffice it to say that it was indeed God's will for wicked men to crucify His Son -
and absolutely a violation of His moral will:
...this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death, but God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power (Acts 2:23-24, NASB, emphasis mine).
You also wrote:
In reading chapters 9 and 10, you do not get the sense that what they did was wrong at all. In fact, the passage seems to give weight to their decision as of coming from obedience to God. Ezra is held out as pious, and desirous of obeying the Law.
Ezra
wrote the passages you quoted that make him sound so noble and pious. And I'm sure that his
motives were good and his desire to please God sincere, and that he thought his actions were the proper steps to "undo" the evil they had done. But comparing Scripture with Scripture on the subject of divorce, I cannot use Ezra's account of his own well-intentioned reforms to justify divorce.
Was it wrong? I believe it was. Was it God's will? Same answer.
-Robin
