The Holiness Code
Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have been unfaithful and have married foreign wives adding to the guilt of Israel. Ezra 10:10 NASB
Unfaithful – Ezra’s solution to the problem of the presence of foreign wives in the community of those who returned from Babylon is simple and radical. “Now therefore, make confession to YHVH your God and do His will; and separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives.” In other words, abandon those wives and their children. Get rid of them. They are a threat to the community.
But wait! Doesn’t God hate divorce? How can this be a solution to the problem if it is also a violation of God’s will? In a lengthy analysis of this passage (and the holiness theme in Ezra), A. Philip Brown concludes:
The foregoing analysis of the Biblical data found that the peoples of the lands with whom the Returnees had intermarried were non-Jewish idolaters, that the Returnees’ intermarriage was an abandonment of Yahweh’s commands and unfaithfulness to their covenant relationship with Him, and that the solution to their unfaithfulness required turning from their sin by sending away their idolatrous wives and renewing their commitment to be a people separated unto Yahweh.[1]
As Brown notes, holiness is a communal issue. “Holiness is not, however, simply an individual matter. The entire golah community had to be holy. The narrative presents corporate holiness as a function of the personal holiness of all those who make up the community.”[2] Idolatry represented in the practices of those outside the community is such a serious matter that radical steps needed to be taken to ensure a second Babylonian experience would not ensue. Certainly Ezra was aware that these men loved the wives they took. Certainly they loved the children they bore. But Ezra knew it was no longer possible to walk the knife-edge between holiness and potential idolatry. It was time to make the choice and the make sure that the choice would keep the community, the whole community, far away from offense to God.
Ezra’s circumstances remind me of what it is like to live in Babylon today. The possibility of intimate ties to people and things that are part of a former idolatrous way of life are deep. We might even legitimately love those who no longer share our way of life. Breaking those ties is true heartache. There are no easy solutions. But looming on the horizon is the threat of defaming YHVH’s name, denying His claim on us and falling once again into a way of life that repudiates His grace and blessing. The risk is enormous, just as enormous as the stakes in the necessary detachment. Pain in both directions. But it must be done.
Topical Index: Ezra 10:10, divorce, idolatry, A. Philip Brown, ma’al, unfaithful
[1] A. Philip Brown, https://bible.org/seriespage/chapter-6-holiness-ezra-separated-uncleanness-and-seeking-lord
[2] Ibid.
This very knife edge (along with the Sabbath) showed me, more than any other, where my heart (and the hearts of others) really was.
Love, in the flesh, is about idolatry. Not because idolatry is inherent in love, perhaps, but because we don’t know how to make it not be, I think. In my flesh, no matter how much I knew, and no matter how much I tried, because I had fear of man, I also had idolatry of man. Because we fear what we need; because NEED has power over us; because we need love – because of all these facts – and they are facts we were created in, no less – love is simply not safe for me in my flesh. In my flesh, love leaves me vulnerable to the object of my love – my need.
Because the world views need as weakness, and not as a cue to activate hesed, I was left vulnerable. No matter in which way I extended trust at that point, I was already compromised. No matter how much I kept faith, was faithful, I was suspect. Why? Because the world views all extensions of trust as the leading edge of a deal; that deal of mutual back-scratching. In other words, love looks like just another transaction; a transaction in which the one who NEEDS the most, loses – is weaker – ‘deserves’ the short end of the stick – is compromised – and therefore, curiously (in the eyes of the world, anyway) is the most suspect in the relationship. All of this was a huge shock to me, and, because it did not make any sense, I could not grasp it for a long time. This was a hard one to learn. I think this perhaps may be the main reason that Fear of Man is listed as the biggest fear we suffer from. We are afraid of each other TO THE EXTENT that we need each other. In the flesh, anyway. This fear weakens us, and leaves us vulnerable to each other, but the world, which suffers from contempt for all its weaknesses, is unstintingly cruel to this weakness. I was thinking of the description of the woman’s future that YHVH foretold, that she would continue to be WEAK in her desire, but that that desire would give the man the upper hand. To G-d, my weakness is his strength, also. The principles continue to hold. The question then becomes, in which arena are we going to choose to place our interests: where exactly is safety?
Weakness, to the world, looks like the Thing To Be Controlled. Therefore, a lover (who is a someone who suffers from weakness) is the person who has offered themselves up to be controlled. This enables a man to tell the woman he rapes “you asked for it”. This enables a wife, who controls the husband she perceives as being weak, to tell him “well, somebody needs to wear the pants”.
Paul gives some valuable advice to marriages that are mixed. He advises the woman to conduct herself so as to guard that weakness: to RESERVE it, or to hold it in obeyance, and not to just go handing it over, at least that is how I learned to read it. If the marriage can survive putting G-d first, then it is a true marriage. When I announced my intention to keep Sabbath, which was my signal to the world that I was answering to Someone Else FIRST, it was a signal shot across the bow to my marriage. At that moment, my obedience was fulfilled, and the fight to reset disobedience commenced. It was perceived (correctly, I might add) as a direct hedge around, or re-direction of, my loyalties (which the world perceives as WEAKNESSES, by the way), which was interpreted by my spouse as a shift in what he perceived as my ‘love’ (weakness, remember) towards him. That fight was the defining crack in our marriage, for all the obvious reasons. I never thought it hurt my love for him; had nothing to DO with him, but, because he was seeing me through the eyes of his flesh, even though it MAKES NO SENSE through the eyes of love, anyway, he took it to mean that it did. That was an eye-opener for me. He acted as if it said something about my love for him, but I began to see that it really said something about his love (use) for me. It was a bitter fight: one that left a space between us (that every marriage needs, by the way). That space is the place where trust lives. It is the space the world calls “respect”. (Yes, Aretha: that one.) For us, however, it revealed what was missing in ours. I learned that, in the eyes of the world, needs are perceived as being about using something or someone. I also learned (the hard way), that my needs are safe only with G-d.
Thank you, Skip.
Fascinating. I need to study on this. Recognizing Sabbath also rocked my world and how my Christian family responds to me now…somewhere between condescension and loving contempt, if there is such a thing. But to our Father’s glory and praise, I not only continue to walk in His instruction but am growing and learning more and more as I search for ways to bring my life in line with His spoken Word. It’s a hard loss/change in these relationships but the Lord has tempered the hurt with His grace and His encouragement to continue to seek Him.
My wife and I were just discussing this verse yesterday. So could Yeshua’s statement, “Moses permitted divorce because of your hard hearts” was more about them being stiff neck, and unfaithful and having to divorce because of intermarrying (disobeying), then it was about them wanting to divorce anytime they wanted to so Moses gave divorce (as I have always understood that verse)?
That second paradigm really doesn’t make sense once you think it through with the understanding you bring today
Yes, the second paradigm (divorce on request) was one way the verses were interpreted by one school of thought in the first century. In fact, some of the arguments with Yeshua are attempts to get him to reveal which school he endorsed. He comes down on the conservative side. It is not divorce for any reason. But Ezra was facing real cultural challenge in a time when captivity was fresh on the minds of the people. He did not want anything to start that chain reaction again. His solution is radically painful, but maybe understandable given his circumstances. I am sure it caused enormous grief.
Skip
Can you help me understand what this looks like in our Babylon? I have walked many circles around this in the last five years. At first my zeal was so strong that I was offensive to many in my life and cleared out most of those who didn’t think following Torah the way I do is neccessary for whatever reasons. So my life was secluded. I learned that community is necessary and then learned that we all lack understanding in some area if not all areas. How then do I determine who is to be in my life and who isn’t? What is the litnus test? What is the standard? How am I light to the world and set apart at the same time? Many say the error of Israel was that they were to be a light to the nations but failed in that mission is this true? I understand that they were not scattered due to lack of influence but because of Idolarty no?
This is a constant struggle for me to untangle and any insights are appriciated.
Thank you
Cheryl
OK,so first we acknowledge that we live in Babylon. That means Jeremiah’s instructions to the people who were about to go into captivity matter to us too. (I have lectured on this in Virginia Beach). So, we try to implement them as best we can without violating our commitment to Torah. The litmus test is Torah. It has always been Torah. But Torah is loose when it comes to living in a world that does not honor the God of Israel. Torah is also hierarchical. Some things are simply more important than others given certain circumstances (like pulling a distressed animal from the ditch even if it’s Shabbat). You and I must make constant ethical evaluations. Some things are worth dying for – we do not worship other gods. Some things are not. But ALL things depend on community. We seek out those who follow YHVH and who understand the difficulties we face. We cling to them, and they to us, in mutual support in this broken world. And then we act as LIGHT to the world by doing what Jeremiah suggests. He gives a long list, in order of importance. Take a look and tell me what you think.
Along that line, I read the other day that some rabbis taught that Torah could be violated under almost any circumstance in order to save your life or that of another, with the exception of three things. If doing whatever would cause you to commit murder or if it caused you to commit idolatry or adultery it was forbidden. You could NOT violate Torah even to save your life or another’s if it involved these 3 things. Everything else was flexible. So, for example, during the Holocaust that whole excuse of having to turn a Jew into the Gestapo because a Christian couldn’t possibly lie when asked “if they were hiding Jews” was tragically misapplied by some who thought there was zero flexibly in God’s commandments. So while common sense may be less valued in some religious cultures today than it once was by first century believers, we cannot assume that God doesn’t expect us to use it when appropriate or necessary. I would say that hopefully those evil days would never come where believers would once again have to face those life and death situations as many did in Europe a generation ago, but they are already here (they really never left). Ask those Christians martyred recently in Somalia, Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. Let us seek wisdom, and when we find it be not afraid to use it, even if it might violate the letter of the Law.
Hello Skip and others,
Would you please cite the chapter of Jeremiah where the list you referenced can be found?
I will try and google this topically also.
-Ethical is a key word in this discussion. If a given perspective is ultimately distorted and gives me license to sin, do as I please, that castigates the Apostle Paul’s advisement in Romans 6. Should I continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid.
Is replacement theology an ology I can live with in a communal sense?
Can I support someone in their faith walk who sees the Torah as nailed to the cross, and grace is the buzz word and mode of operation today?
Can I remain married to someone who sees Shabbat keeping as “a heart matter” rather than a set code to observe?
It’s easy to provide answers to anything that does not affect one wrestling with such questions.
We in western culture, don’t see love as protecting or guarding something, i.e., relationship with YHVH, but rather, something done to lift another up. We lift others up because God first lifted us up!
I know Hebraic believers who recently melded in with “the church” because they saw isolation as detrimental to their lifestyle. Evidently they could sustain a warm relationship with YHVH and live in the figurative Babylon.
-Holiness lived within a community instead of an individual hermitage seems a great advisement from whence to proceed.
YHVH will reveal like-minded folks for us to fit in with, they may or may not be the folks we choose!
David
David – I have the same questions, but they extend into the “Hebraic” community. No two groups are alike and each one claims to know the truth. Even beyond this, knowing the truth is different from living it, and there are instances where individuals and groups within the “Hebraic” community are acting in very unloving ways. This can also drive wedges and divide from within. 1 Corinthians 13 makes more and more sense to me, and the expression “no one cares what you know, until they know that you care”, has resounded with me lately. The lost, the hurting, the struggling, and those truly seeking for truth all seem to get the short end of the stick and the “left foot of fellowship”. Lately I have been very envious of the Jewish community at large. They have such a sense of community for each other. I am sure that there are still “Pharisees” among them, but the “Pharisees” are in every group, probably because it is easier to check the boxes and not have to bear the burdens of others.
But then the question, as you have stated, raises itself. How close can I get to false worship without being polluted by it? Replacement theology – no thanks – I have been around ragingly anti-semitic “good christians” who repeatedly told me that “we are Israel”. But I have also seen this level of “righteous” anger among Hebraic roots-ers who feel the need to defend Torah just like Phineas (‘give me a spear, I’ll take care of it”). I want no part of either one. Then there are all the other groups – Jews don’t want me becuase of Y’shua, Christians don’t want me because of Torah (and I can’t worship in a pagan way), and Hebrew Roots wants to focus on the externals or merely talk about the “weightier matters”, yet not see the mote in their eye when they ignore the weightier matters. Every group eats the weak among them. There is pride and self-promotion in all these circles, and very little humbleness.
This blog and community are an exception, but it is only virtual and not in my community. There is real fear of YHWH and self-introspection here. Sorry for the rant. Have a blessed day.
so how do we go from virtual to real? We go to Israel together (some small number of us). Maybe we go to Africa and meet some others. We try. I am open to any other ways to promote this, but I just don’t know how.
It’s not on your shoulders Skip. The internet gives us the comfort in knowing that there are others out there. You have provided a forum. Sometimes, for logistical reasons, making the connections may not be possible, and that’s okay.
Jeremiah 29. I also have a lecture on all this.
One more thing. I am pretty sure that hypothetical situations (as those you may be presented) are not the heart of the issue. The heart of the issue is where I am right now, in my present circumstances. That’s where I have to decide. So I have no answer for “Can I live with this or that?” if it isn’t ME living with this or that. Do you understand?
Skip, would I be correct in saying that you are not advocating divorce in a marriage where one spouse seeks greater observance of Torah and identification with Am Israel and the other remains a more traditional, and devout/loving/sacrificing, Christian?
Correct. I am not advocating divorce on the grounds of differences in understanding the role of Torah.
Hello Skip and Others,
Jeremiah 29, will go there.
Meantime, I went to Jeremiah 6 and found some interesting insight from verse 16 at biblehub.org. They present the verse from various Bible translations, and some thoughts from a few (conservative) Bible commentaries. That backs Skip’s recent, “How am I living now” stance posted above.
A cross reference is Matthew 11:28-29.
-Stop, consider the map and what direction you will go.
-Consider the ancient path, older way.
-The response by (we don’t know how many) was a direct no.
I hear attitude equal to or surpassing action taken. In other words, “I cannot be bothered,” is one thing. “I will look and say no thanks.” “I will look and consider the ancient path.”
Virtual versus practical? Follow the ancient path is the directive. God will provide the practicalities needed in the following. This forum is a practicality provided by God through you, Skip.
Once financially enabled, I plan to help support this with a monetary offering.
-Thanks too for clarifying your position on marriage and divorce between two believers: One who is Torah oriented and the other choosing a more traditional understanding and walking therein.
David
Remember that Torah is also a function of real life circumstances, not hypotheticals. Try reading the gospels as a format for dealing with real life issues in the first century instead of timeless ethical moralism.
Skip – if the wives had begun to lead Torah observant lives after marrying their Jewish husbands, would Ezra have needed to make this ruling? Maybe the husbands were following after the pagan ways of the wives, rather than leading them to righteousness?
That makes sense. Ezra’s concern is the influence of idolatry and the possibility of more punishment. If the wives were becoming Torah observant, they would not present a problem. So the assumption is that the men were becoming less observant as a result of the influence of the wives. Amazing what sex will do.
In addition, maybe the men’s willingness to divorce their wives, rather than negotiate with Ezra for the chance to lead their families in Torah observance, shows that their relationships were not as based on love as you suggested.
Sex? probably 🙂 but what about the woman’s role as ezer kenegdo? Does the ezer role occur only when it’s good? Or is that role God-ordained, whether the woman is pagan or in right-standing? Can the ezer role be for good or bad, depending on the woman’s orientation?
Also seems to put Prov 31 in another light, if you read it from the perspective of a warning for men and not just an admonition/burden for women only (as I was always taught in church). Seems to me, when read that way, it’s for men, even more than women.
A lot more involved here. Some of this is covered in Feinstein’s book (which is outrageously expensive). Some is covered in Guardian Angel. We have a lot more to learn about the influence of culture and history on our thinking and the thinking of those who wrote the material in Leviticus. We will press on with this topic soon.
The difference between adultery and fornication has always been unclear to me but lately I have heard this explanation. Could you confirm?
Adultery is something that adulterates a lawful marriage, e.g. sex with anyone other than one’s spouse.
Fornication is an unlawful sexual union from the start, e.g. casual sex, homosexuality, prostitution, incest or with anyone from outside of the community of Israel.
This is why divorce was an option in this case. Marriages with foreign wives were unlawful unions from the start. Solomon had hundreds of such unions and it ultimately led to the “divorce” of Israel from Judah. Fornication was a very serious issue leading to destruction.
I think your differentiation of adultery and fornication is spot on for all the associations that are taboo in Lev 18, but how do we reconcile that with women like Ruth and Rahab, if the problem is joining with someone from outside of the community of Israel? And what about Torah’s provision for the captive woman to marry into Israel? So it can’t just be that someone is not part of the community. I think the real issue is the woman’s heart. If she has started on the path of obedience to God, perhaps she becomes as one of the community and is then acceptable for marriage.
Yes, Rahab and Ruth, but they aren’t the only oddities. There are more. As we may see.
I think Ruth and Rahab are Y-H’s examples of how He works even in non-Torah hearts. He created all-not just Jews. He knows the hearts of all his creations and we need to learn to be alright with NOT knowing all the details of how He works.
I know, I know, easier said than done. Just keep walking/learning with ears to hear and eyes to see. Y-H will not disappoint us.
This is the simple faith of a child-not immature but simple.
Religion so complicates these things. sigh
He is still the God of miracles if we can simply believe that.
I have been meeting a lot of new people here in the Mid-West Bible Belt. Y-H has been preparing me for such a time as this. Funny how the things I hear come out of the mouths of religious church goers do not demonstrate a selfless compassion towards others. It is all about the church one goes to and the fact that one does go!
Why do I need to go to church for that? Completely rhetorical but valid.
Not all are as I mentioned above. I have met some wonderful people that we have a fledgling community started with. I look forward every day to what Y-H may have for me. I just never know but I do know that I am learning to trust Him with everything. Quite the journey for an original non-Torah person like me-at least to begin the journey.
Shalom Jordan, I can’t agree more with your observations-“Every group eats the weak among them. There is pride and self-promotion in all these circles, and very little humbleness.” Humility is so lacking amongst many such circles, more so from the top, the “leaders”, act in very unloving ways.
Yes, the Jewish community is a very close community, more like a big family.