Sermon Outline
A Sermon for Everyone
Ezra 10:1-5: verse 5
February 21, 2010
- even though you’ve fallen again
- for God is full of gospel
- as you clear the air with God
Today is the first Sunday of Lent. Lent is a time to examine our relationship with God. Over this forty day season we will seek to grow closer in our walk with Jesus Christ.
Hidden like a rare jewel at the end of Ezra, there lies a message we cannot live without.
Even now there is hope!
For reflection:
“As is so often in Israel’s history, the problem consists in the idolatry brought about by intermarriage with non-Israelites. If things continue in this way, Israel will dissolve into the peoples of the land, and God’s covenantal bride, recipient of the promises given to Abraham, Moses, and David, will be no more. Israel’s disappearance as a distinct people would be disastrous not only for Israel, but indeed ‘for all the families of the earth’ who are to receive God’s blessing through the seed of Abraham” (Matthew Levering, Ezra & Nehemiah, page 97).
“After noting that not ethnicity but idolatry is the issue for Ezra 10, Thronviet concludes, ‘Distasteful as they may be, the marriage reforms must be seen as a purification of the community along the priestly lines of separation from all that was unclean’” (Levering, page 109).