So that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands - Ezra 9:2
05/03/2011 09:33
Our text today revolves around a report that Ezra had received regarding the lack of separation by the people of Israel with the heathen in the land. Ezra is told that the people, the holy seed, "have mingled themselves with the people of those lands". A major command that Israel had always had from God was to avoid joining up in any way with the heathen. The Lord knew that if His people got too close and involved with the heathen that the ways of the heathen would rub off on His people. Every time the Jews violated this command they suffered the consequences. The same thing awaits God's people today if we violate this command as well. When it comes to this area of mingling with the heathen or unsaved, it is interesting to see how it unfolds. In this verse, we see that the mingling process began with God's people - "have mingled themselves". When a mingling between God's people and unsaved takes place, it is usually God's people who pursue the union. An unsaved person usually does not desire the righteous living that should characterize a believer. On the flip side, the unsaved generally have no problem welcoming Christians into their ranks and eventually their sin. When a Christian mingles himself with the unsaved, he must compromise his righteous living so as not to wear out his welcome in the fraternity of sinners. When a mingling occurs, it is almost always the unsaved affecting the Christian and not the other way around.
Another thing that we see from this verse is the extent to which this mingling occured - "yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this trespass". What a terrible state of affairs. The biggest violators of this command to separate from the heathen came from the leaders. Not much has changed today. Many churches are being led by men who have multiple divorces, remarriages and even affairs. It is no wonder, that the same kind of activity permeates their churches. If it's alright for the leaders, then it must be alright for the people as well. It should come as no surprise that churches with a mingling problem also have sin problem and ultimately a serving problem. If you are in a church that has mingled too much with the heathen, it is my advice to run from that church and not look back - remember Lot's wife!
In closing, I want to share the process by which mingling takes root. Mingling with the unsaved always begins with compromise. Since the Bible is so clear on mingling, and the consequences have clearly been laid out, along with the fact, that believers have to give up their righteous living to join the fraternity, it is compromise on our part that begins the process. After compromise takes place the next step is comfort. A Christian that will compromise in order to mingle with the unsaved will soon get comfortable with the unsaved. Once comfort has occured the next step in mingling is cozying. The moment a Christian has gotten comfortable, he will begin to cozy up to the ways of the heathen. Areas of sin that he thought he would never be involved in, he begins to cozy up or warm up to. Sin that was once taboo, now becomes acceptable. After cozying takes place, then conformity arrives. Conformity settles in and transformation takes over. The moment a Christian arrives at this step, he begins to lose everything that was unique to him before the mingling process. This Christian now begins to look, sound and smell more unsaved than he does saved. His righteous lifestyle has been replaced by a raucous lifestyle. Everything that used to be a godly practice in his life has been replaced with a godless practice. His mingling has only changed him. This downward spiral continues with collapse. The Christian that once built His house upon a rock has now moved into the low rent district and has found a foundation of sinking sand to now build his new found life. Once conformity takes root, collapse in every way is inevitable. For the Christian who has mingled himself with the unsaved collapse comes hard and fast. Not only does this mingled believer lose out on God's blessings, provisions and protection, he also loses his peace, joy and comfort. The sin that he has cozy up to, now becomes a millstone around his neck that has dragged him into the depths of depravity and depression.
Would to God that we would all realize the collapse that lies at the end of the tunnel of mingling with the unsaved. This collapse can then go in any of three directions. This collapse could become catastrophic. The catastrophe could include all of the awful consequences of sin, from sickness to death. Many of God's people have had to endure an early exit from this life because of a poor testimony as a result of mingling with the unsaved. A second direction could be chastisement. When God inserts Himself into the collapse of His child, He'll many times do it with chastisement. In order for God to wake up His mingling child, He may have to turn up the heat. This process isn't a gradual warm-up, it many times becomes a full fledged heat wave. We are told in the Bible that "if we judge ourselves we shall not be judged". If we deal with sin before God has to, it goes much better for us. This chastisement has the goal of a third direction - conviction. If a Christian has reached this level, he would do well to respond to God's conviction. It is interesting how conviction becomes a bookend in this process. It is a lack of conviction that leads to compromise, which starts the mingling process. It is God's conviction after collapse or at any point in the process that can restore what was lost through mingling. Once conviction is heeded and changes are made, the next wonderful step is communion. Mingling with the unsaved robs the believer of communion with God. All the wonderful benefits of this communion are also lost. Once the believer has hit rock bottom, he now can "come to himself" as did the prodigal son. He can now go back to where he left when his mingling experiment began - the Father's house. Mingling with the unsaved may seem fun, different and glamorous, until you begin looking up longingly from a pit of despair, realizing all that you had lost and once enjoyed. Let's learn from the calamity of the Jews. If we are going to mingle, let us mingle with the holy seed, not the harmful seed.
Striving for the Saviour,
Pastor George Yurick