A perspective
We read in the last chapter of Ezra that once the people of Israel rediscovered the law of God, among realizing their many sins and wanting to repent of those sins, they decided to put away (divorce) the pagan wives whom they had married. In the New Testament the Apostle Paul, in I Corinthians 7, tells us that we are not to put away (divorce) a pagan spouse, if they will remain with us.
It seems interpretations boil down to the following two explanations for this appearant inconsistency.
1. God changed His mind, in that He allowed or wanted pagan wives to be put away in times past, but now (New Testament era) He wants or allows pagan wives to be kept.It seems to me that (2) is the better way to look at the text. We see that in the Ezra passage God never gives a command to put away the pagan wives; in fact, it is a priest counseling Ezra who convinces Ezra to command the people of God to put away their pagan wives.
2. There is no inconsistency at all in that God did not intend ever for men to put away their spouses (pagan or not) and the people of Israel under the leadership of Ezra merely went about their repentence in the wrong way.
Also, it seems that there are numerous examples in the Old Testament of men who have intention (and to some extent even succeed) to please God and live pious lives, yet do not fully conform to that Holy Law. One must only think of several of the Kings of Israel recorded in I and II Kings who were generally considered God fearing kings, but who did not comprehensively pursue things like taking down the altars to Baal, or the other pagan "high places."
So if God "blesses" or "allows" (in a broad sense) men who only in part follow His command, is it not possible that the men in Ezra's time, who put away their wives, were actually not doing the will of God-- even though the text makes it seem as if they were doing "the right thing" for all the right reasons: seeking to please God, making covenant with God, repenting, etc?
Posted by jeremy stock at November 4, 2001 10:21 PM