Sat.’s Devo - Get Rid of Evil

Read: Ezra 10:1-44; 1 Corinthians 6:1-20; Psalm 31:9-18; Proverbs 21:3
Ezra’s lamenting and repenting sent a ripple effect throughout the exiles. Shecaniah went to Ezra and told him that there was still hope for the people. They could make a new covenant with God and send their foreign wives and their children away. Ezra continued to fast while they sent a proclamation throughout the exiles to come to a mandatory meeting. If they didn’t come they would be forfeiting rights to their property.
They met on the twentieth day of the ninth month making it the time of Pentecost. Look at the similarities of this time and the Pentecost of the New Testament in Acts 2. The people were trembling and the rain was falling. In Acts they were trembling under the power of the Holy Spirit and the rain that fell was the Holy Spirit. The light inside them was visible on their heads as tongues of fire. What followed Pentecost was great spiritual and physical persecution yet great multiplication of souls. God was ushering in his New Covenant of grace and power.
In Ezra, the people met to get rid of the evil in their houses and the rebellion in their hearts and make a new covenant with God. What followed was a rending of their hearts as they had to tell their foreign wives to leave. They had to part with children from these wives. It had to be a hard time and it took them three months to review all the cases and divorce all these people. Talk about mass divorce!
We have to remember that these foreign wives stand for wrong covenants they made with evil. Along with these wives came false worship and idolatry. They were now breaking their covenant with evil and making a new covenant with God.
When we look at the list of offenders we see priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers and Israelites. No group was exempt.
Paul tells us that one day we will judge the saints, the angels and the world. He rebukes the church for taking their cases outside of the church to let an unrighteous judge judge their problems instead of handling it themselves. Everyone is one day going to be judged and the guilty will not enter the kingdom of God.
Paul talked about not letting sin be your master. We are free to choose what we do but when we choose outside of God’s will and framework then we have to divorce ourselves from God and marry another and it will be come our master. Sexual sin is different from any other sin because it is making a new covenant with your body which is suppose to be the temple of the Holy Spirit. When we became Christians we gave our body to the Lord so we must honor God with our body.
Lord, help us to honor you with our deeds and the motives of our hearts.