Somewhere Between Quack and Quisling
Ezra 9 and 10
Before we read Ezra 9 and 10 let's back up and get a broad overview of what happened to the Jews up to this point. I'm going to back up and then go slightly ahead because it will matter when we consider Ezra's response to God:
605 BC - Babylon defeats Judah and the first Jews are deported
597 BC - Second deportation of the Jews to Babylon
586 BC - Jerusalem and the temple are destroyed and the third deportation occurs
539 BC - Babylon defeated by Medo-Persia
538 BC - Cyrus II allows the first exiles to return to Jerusalem
536 BC - Cyrus II decrees the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem
520 BC - Building resumes after Samaritan opposition is overcome by Darius I's decree
515 BC - The temple is complete and the 70 year exile is officially over
458 BC - Ezra and the second group of exiles return to Jerusalem and calls for reform
445 BC - Nehemiah and the third group of exiles return to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls and complete
reforms
Ezra 9:1-10:17
One of the great difficulties of teaching from an Old Testament narrative like this is that the specifics of the story do not apply to us. We are not Jews. We do not live under the Old Covenant. God has cut no contract with us based on the land of Canaan.
The problem faced by Ezra was intermarriage. We can’t even apply this because there are no New Covenant prohibitions against marrying people of differing nationalities. The Israelites were commanded not to intermarry, but the prohibition was due to religion and not race. The idea was that if you married a pagan you’d adopt pagan ways.
This had been a problem throughout Israel’s history. Almost immediately after escaping slavery in Egypt, Israelite men took Midianite women as partners and incurred God’s judgment. Later, after the kingdom was established, Solomon took numerous foreign wives and was so led astray by them that he was bowing the knee to their idols at the end of his life. Because of this sin, God ripped a portion of the kingdom away from Solomon’s family in the next generation. Right up to the defeat and exile of the Jews by the Babylonians, the people of God were intermarrying with the neighboring nations and adopting their pagan practices.
God had explicitly commanded them not to intermarry with pagans, but they did it anyway and the result was sin and judgment. In this story, they’ve finally returned from exile and rebuilt the temple, but they’re right back at it. They were practicing one of the very things that sent them into exile in the first place. Thus, Ezra’s shock and over-the-top demonstration of sorrow.
How did this happen? Were they unusually stupid or sinful? No. It turns out that they were just like us.
The Jewish exiles were caught between two competing and yet correlating forces. In the sermon title I’ve called these quack and quisling. A quack is a faker. There’s a grain of truth in what they’re promoting, but they’ve largely got it wrong. As we say in church circles, they major in the minors and minor in the majors. Religious quacks are engaged in a big fancy word called obscurantism.
Obscurantism - cultural expressions that accompany the gospel, for good or bad, which actually obscure the gospel
Let me give you an example from the book, and later movie, Hawaii. Author James Michener described Christian missionaries’ efforts to evangelize the islanders:
…Male missionaries began preaching the gospel from their big black Bibles in their black suits under the shade of their wide-brimmed black hats. The women with them were walking the shores of Hawaii spreading the good news in hoop skirts and bonnets while the native women listened intently in their grass skirts and other traditional attire. Even so, converts were made.
However, an unintended effect materialized. A scene later in the movie shows the new Hawaiian believers gathering for worship; and all these Hawaiians who had been in traditional island attire (because they love Jesus and want to live like Christ) are all wearing hoop skirts and bonnets and black suits and black hats while carrying big black Bibles.
… The movement was hindered there at the shore—it struggled to spread inland.
One of the reasons is that people incorrectly understood what it meant to become a Christian. To become a Christian was to literally change their clothes. Other Hawaiians were less open to the gospel, because they didn't understand it as an internal work of grace that affected people on a spiritual level.
They saw it simply as an outward physical change that was more American culture than it was Christian.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2014/june/beware-of-obscurantism.html
The gospel wasn’t about hats and hoop skirts, but that’s what it became. The message was obscured by the custom.
This is what had happened to the Jews. The message of God was obscured due to their focus on things that that didn’t really matter. But it was even worse for the Jews. Their majoring on the minors actually led them away from God and right into judgment.
What did God do about it? He removed the inducements to quackery. He took away the things they were focused on so that they would turn and focus on Him. God’s purpose was to restore them as a light to the nations.
Their political power was shattered. The kingdoms of Israel and Judah had been some of the most powerful in the ancient world. Remember King David, King Solomon, King Jeroboam? Enemies were defeated, their territory expanded, fortresses built, power and glory and treasure flowed into the kingdom. The Israelite kings were major players in world affairs.
But now, post exile? They had some local authority, but they were ruled by a Persian satrap in Samaria. Samaria! The Davidic monarchs had been replaced by half-breed Israelite mongrels now called Samaritans. What happened to the kingly line that God had promised would last forever?
And what of Jerusalem, that glorious city of the Great King? When Ezra arrived it was a sparsely populated backwater of a town. The place that used to attract luminaries from around the world was just a broken relic. The city that had repulsed invasion after invasion didn’t even have walls for protection. The stones were a heap of rubble and the gates had been burned.
What happened to the promise that the nations would stream into Jerusalem? They couldn’t even get the majority of the Jews to come back from Babylon. Jews had been immigrating to Judea and living there for at least 80 years by the time Ezra arrived, but the total number of inhabitants of the land was no more than a scattered 50,000. In Babylon the Jewish population soared to an estimated 1,200,000. In fact, for the next 1,000 years Babylon was the most influential center of Judaism.
Perhaps the greatest focal point of the Jews was the temple. It was the hub of Jewish worship. The temple contained the Ark of the Covenant, a box overlaid with gold containing the two tablets of the 10 Commandments, a jar of manna (bread from heaven), and Aaron’s staff which budded almonds. On top of the ark was the mercy seat where the presence of God was said to reside. The temple was once the place where the literal presence of God could be seen. In Solomon’s day it was once filled with a thick cloud so thick no one could enter.
The Babylonians tore it all down. Yes, the first exiles rebuilt it, but what did it look like in comparison to its former state? If you’ll recall, the old men who had seen the original cried when they saw the new foundation. It was pitiful in comparison. Sure, all the furniture was returned, but one key thing was missing: the ark of the covenant. In the list of all the articles returned to the temple, the ark is conspicuously missing. No one has a clue where it went. Not even Indiana Jones.
The temple was great, but it wasn’t the point. Jerusalem was a beautiful city, but it wasn’t the point. The Davidic kingdom with all of its power and majesty had a glorious past, but it wasn’t the point.
What was the point? God! His character, His qualities, His attributes! The Jews were supposed to be a light to the nations, a blessing to all people groups by pointing them to the true and living God. Living by God's law would reveal God's character.
They chose obscurantism. Maintaining the trappings of faith while leaving God behind makes you a religious quack. You give people the wrong impression about God and thus diminish His glory before others.
God does not long endure us tarnishing His reputation. He ripped the obscurant trappings right out of their hands.
But it didn’t solve the problem. Most of the returned exiles didn’t seem to understand what God was doing so they veered in another direction. They became quislings.
“What’s a quisling?” you ask. A quisling is a traitor who collaborates with an enemy, occupying force. The term was coined after the Norwegian President, Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling, who cooperated with the Nazis in attempting to exterminate the Jews. A quisling is a collaborator, a compromiser, a sell-out. In academic terms, it is syncretism.
Syncretism – the blending of different religions or religious elements
As God tore away the Jews’ inappropriate focus they misunderstood what was happening and drifted into syncretism. They adopted an if-you-can’t-beat-them-join-them attitude. Their manta became, “Go along to get along.” The returnees began intermarrying with pagan neighbors and incorporating their practices and beliefs.
In a word, the people drifted from God due to expectations. If you don’t understand God and His intentions you will misinterpret the situation around you. If we don’t really know God we’ll have unrealistic expectations about what He’ll do and permit in our lives. I think this is exactly what happened to the Jews.
Hadn’t God made them a promise through the prophet Jeremiah? He foretold their exile and their return with these words:
“For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.” Jeremiah 29:10-14
When God told them He would restore their fortunes they wrongly assumed that all of the former things would be restored. They had the wrong expectation of His promise. He was going to bring them back to the land but the restoration He was after was right relationship with Himself. He was their fortune. He was their future and their hope. But they confused God with the trappings of religion.
Things didn’t work out as they expected so, a-quisling they did go.
We shouldn’t judge them too harshly because a-quisling we have gone too … and for largely the same reason: God didn’t meet our expectation so we sold out. Not completely. We go along just enough to get along.
I'm not going to announce, "Thus saith the Lord," but I am going to get a little bit prophetic with you. I strongly think that God is removing our obscurantism and, as a result, many, many Christians are opting for syncretism.
I am convinced that the Christianity of western civilization is being stripped of its prestige and influence at this moment in history. The good old days, when you could count on most folks in the west in general and the US in particular being Christians are at an end. I heard a story the other day that reaffirmed my conviction. It came, of all people, from right wing talk show host Rush Limbaugh. On a lark I tuned into his show and he was talking about a pub in England that was being sued by PETA. That's right, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, was taking them to court on behalf of a group being oppressed by the pub's name. The client? Chickens. The name of the pub is "The Fighting Cocks." According to a PETA spokesperson the name denigrates this sensitive, social, and noble bird. So they're suing.
Rush said that when he runs across stories like this his first response is to fact check to make sure it's not from a satirical site like The Onion. Sadly, absurdity like this is becoming every day news. In fact, PETA membership is growing by leaps and bounds. Why? Rush said it's because our culture has left God. People need a cause bigger than themselves and, without a moral compass, this is the kind of ridiculous organization they choose to join.
I think he's right. Church attendance is nearly dead in Europe and sinking fast in America. We have a generation that does not know its moral left from its right. We poison or dismember nearly a million unborn babies a year legally. Apparently, under the law you're not human unless your mother affirms your humanity by letting you live. We have jettisoned moral absolutes except for the moral absolute that there are no moral absolutes. 20 years ago gay marriage wasn't even on the radar screen. No one thought it a even a remote possibility that such a thing would be considered. Now we are a Supreme Court decision away from all state laws protecting legitimate marriage being overturned. We have lost the so-called culture war.
Things are dark and getting darker with each passing year. But, I am as hopeful and excited as ever. I'm not enthusiastic about the sin and destruction, but I am thrilled at what our sovereign God is doing. My guess is that He's removing our quackery, our obscurantism. For too long Christianity has been identified with the west. For many folks living on this planet, to be a Christian is to be an American. For many Americans to be a Republican is what it means to be a Christian and evangelicals by and large tow the party line even though there's a hairsbreadth of difference between the opposing political sides. My parents' generation and their parent's generation viewed church as the thing that all good people do. But today's generation arises and asks, "Who says?"
God is ripping away the obscurantisms that we hold dear and it is frightening and painful. You are in the midst of witnessing a division between the remnant and the syncretists.
You can see religious syncretism in little ways. Many Christians have adopted universalism as their default position. Jesus is my way, but maybe not your way and that’s okay. After all, we want to be inclusive, not exclusive. I even see the influence of other religions sneaking into our vocabulary. I can’t count the number of times that Christians invoke karma against their enemies on social media. Karma is a Hindu doctrine that says your reincarnation in the next life is due to how you live this life. Good karma means a good reincarnation. Bad karma means you come back as a worm or a slug. Christians invoke it and even then they misuse the term.
Syncretism is most definitely affecting the church in America. Churches aren't incorporating other religions so much as the philosophy of secular humanism. Have you noticed that increasingly the highest value among Christians is tolerance? Does the Bible call us to tolerance? No. Not as it’s defined by the tolerance crowd. They want agreement and affirmation of all moral choices (except the biblical ones of course). The Bible calls us to love not modern tolerance. Love means telling the truth and seeking the highest good for others. We have accommodated the corrupt culture by adopting their highest value.
Church attendance is on the decline, so what are many churches doing? Promoting a gospel that guarantees health and financial prosperity. You can now attend megachurches where concepts like sin, holiness, and hell are banished from the pulpit. Instead you get a limp-wristed power of positive thinking gospel. Folks aren’t attracted to dry doctrine and songs with depth. So let’s try to thrill them with entertaining music, fog machines, disco balls, and practical life application messages devoid of the boring or offensive stuff.
The syncretists are everywhere in the church. Every few weeks another high profile preacher or denomination caves in to political correctness. Today they deny the reality of difficult teachings like hell and console us that love wins. Tomorrow they say that the Bible, which has nothing good to say about homosexual activity, actually condones it.
There is a division taking place just as in the days of Ezra. Syncretism was winning, but Ezra preserved a faithful remnant. How did he do it? He turned their focus back to God.
The turning point of the story is his public prayer. He confessed the sins of the nation. He acknowledge that in the past Israel had been completely unfaithful to the covenant made with God at Sinai. The Jews had been rightly punish. God should have destroyed the entire nation, but, instead, He had mercy on them. God had punished them less than they deserved and returned them to the land enrich by the Persian kings, supplied by their enemies to rebuild the temple, and they in turn desecrated His law. God's faithfulness was rewarded with the Jews' rebellion.
You know from the story that a remnant turned from their sin and back to God in those days. The faithful took the drastic and painful step of putting away their foreign wives. Unless you've read Nehemiah you may not know that the majority continued in their sin. Intermarriage with pagans was still going on 13 years later when Nehemiah arrived to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. Nehemiah had the political clout to stop it once and for all. But Ezra preserved the remnant by turning their focus back to the character of God. (A great illustration that politics cannot change hearts, but changed hearts can change politics)
Liberal scholar, John Bright, tells us why Ezra's reforms were so significant:
If Moses was Israel's founder, it was Ezra who reconstituted Israel and gave her faith a form in which it could survive through the centuries. ...Had not some new external form been found, Israel would not have long survived, but would have broken herself in futile nationalism [quack] ... or would have disintegrated into the pagan world [quisling]... The distinguishing mark of the Jew would not be political nationality, nor primarily ethnic background, nor even regular participation in the Temple [worship] ..., but adherence to the law of Moses."
John Bright, A History of Israel, p. 389-390
Let me add what John Bright left off. They adhered to the law which was based on God's character. Why? Because Ezra turned their focus back to God.
Four and a half centuries later a remnant of Jews who trusted God and demonstrated their faith through obedience to His law made possible the coming of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah. In Jesus' day there were quacks. We call them scribes and Pharisees. They found a away to obscure God's character by misinterpreting and misapplying His law. These were the ones who attacked Jesus most of all. They couldn't recognize God in the flesh because they had obscured knowledge of Him from their own minds.
They had quislings too. Fair weather friends and summer soldiers are a constant problem when things don't work out the way we think they should. I think of Judas and the multitudes who turned away from God in their midst. They did not recognize this as the same merciful God as in Ezra's day who would offer Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of all. Some quislings abandoned the faith even after the compelling evidence of His resurrection.
If there's any application this morning it's this: somewhere between quack and quisling is the remnant. Strive to be among that number. As our world grows dark keep turning your focus to the character of God.
In his letter to the Romans, Paul describes our great salvation and God's mercy toward the remnant of faithful Israel and nonJewish people who trust Him. For 11 chapter he explains who God is who we are and how our merciful God saved us. Then, in chapter 12, he tells us what our response should be in light of who God is, who we are, and what He's done:
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:1-2
Somewhere between quack and quisling is the remnant. Strive to be among that number. As God detaches the true Christian faith from the trappings of culture there will be dark days ahead. But they will be good. The wheat is being separated from the chaff. The character of God's people will be refined as pure gold. I predict that the Body of Christ, the church in America is going to be somewhat smaller, but somewhat more faithful. As you are pulled between quack and quisling reject either and strive to be a part of the remnant.
