Employing situational ethics is easy. It requires very little in-depth thought and makes life much more comfortable. Here’s a proper definition: Situational ethics takes into account the particular context of an act when evaluating it ethically, rather than judging it according to absolute moral standards. The problem with situational ethics is that it is moveable and untrustworthy. One generation can view things differently than the next. In fact, it doesn’t really take a generation to swish around in situational ethics and come out with unethical or immoral choices. Relativism is a close cousin to situational ethics in erroneous thinking. “You can think and do what you want, but what’s good for me is good for me.” Both relativism and situational ethics were at work in the exiles who had returned to Jerusalem. They had returned to compromising God’s Law.
After being exiled in a foreign land and being surrounded by pagan religions, at last the Israelite people had settled in Jerusalem—a former shell of itself—but home! The Persians, in contrast to the previous conquerors, were far more accommodating. They allowed different people groups their own religious practices and structures within their cultures, as long as they all stayed generally submitted to the Persian authority. What a stark contrast! We might be tempted to put a warm glow on these Persian kings—imagining that they were converted to the sole worship of the Hebrew God. But, think again. Their success strategy was to give the people they conquered a modicum of freedom so that the Persian kings could maintain a vast empire. Other empires in history have fallen rapidly because they became too big, too fast and required too much oversight. During this time, the leaders of the Persian empire were actually pretty smart. They acknowledged, rather than assimilated, the non-Persian religious groups, even paying to rebuild their religious buildings. God is able to work through whomever he wishes! Let’s read Ezra 7:21-26 to see how this played out for the Israelites. [Emphasis added.]
Now I, King Artaxerxes, decree that all the treasurers of Trans-Euphrates are to provide with diligence whatever Ezra the priest, the teacher of the Law of the God of heaven, may ask of you—up to a hundred talents of silver, a hundred cors of wheat, a hundred baths of wine, a hundred baths of olive oil, and salt without limit. Whatever the God of heaven has prescribed, let it be done with diligence for the temple of the God of heaven. Why should his wrath fall on the realm of the king and of his sons? You are also to know that you have no authority to impose taxes, tribute or duty on any of the priests, Levites, musicians, gatekeepers, temple servants or other workers at this house of God.
And you, Ezra, in accordance with the wisdom of your God, which you possess, appoint magistrates and judges to administer justice to all the people of Trans-Euphrates—all who know the laws of your God. And you are to teach any who do not know them. Whoever does not obey the law of your God and the law of the king must surely be punished by death, banishment, confiscation of property, or imprisonment.
It is quite clear that the Persian king wished to avoid problems with other gods! And it is quite clear that he was trying to establish who was to run this Israelite show. The king of Persia established Ezra as the authority in all matters related to practicing their religion in the region. That last phrase in the Persian king’s quote above is very clear about the kind of wide-reaching and extreme authority Ezra was given. He could impose death, banishment, confiscation of property, or imprisonment. That’s a lot of power! That is also situational power. If, for instance, the Israelites elected to rebel, then all of those consequences would certainly be executed by the Persian authorities. So, Ezra and his retinue moved to Jerusalem to fully re-establish Gods’ Law, starting with worship as it had been prescribed by God. What a wonderful time of rejoicing and reveling in God they had. That was chapter 3.
We now take a time warp jump to Ezra 9. Kevin Mellish, in the Illustrated Bible Life, helps us to understand this new context.
The second half of the book of Ezra shifts from the rebuilding of the temple to practical and ethical matters. Ezra returned to the land of Israel (ca. 458 BC) with the blessing of the Persian government to instruct the people in “the Law of Moses” (7:6). By the time Ezra reached Jerusalem, the people had been living in the land for roughly 80 years (they began to return around 538 BC); amounting to two generations that had grown up in the land since the initial resettlement. Over this period, the people had become lax in their adherence to God’s instruction as proper religious training waned among the community.
As a people who had been called by God to be holy and separate from the nations, the Israelites had been warned repeatedly about associating with the people of the land and adopting their ways, lest they too contaminate the land and be “vomited out” from it (Lev. 18:24-28; Deut. 7:3; 11:8; 18:9).
“Associating” is a pretty broad term. We early see that to mean that the Israelites should not have been worshipping pagan gods. But they had even gone further and actually married non-assimilated, non-Israelite spouses! The Law does have provision for assimilating non-Israelite people into the community—as long as they leave behind their idol worship and other practices contrary to the will and Law of God and turn to him as their own, one, true God. But, what these folks in Jerusalem had done was to take up the banner of situational ethics and design their community in their image, not in the image God had established. They had taken pagan spouses, without the elimination of pagan practices, and allowed their influence on themselves and their children—for 80 years. By that time, it was certainly “normalized” and even some of their religious leaders had taken up this practice!
Here we need to see Ezra as a spiritual leader, not just a Law enforcer. Unfortunately, our chosen text for today leaves out a very poignant scene. So, we must read it.
Ezra 9:1-5
After these things had been done [Ezra and retinue moving to Jerusalem], the leaders came to me and said, “The people of Israel, including the priests and the Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the neighboring peoples with their detestable practices, like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians and Amorites. They have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, and have mingled the holy race with the peoples around them. And the leaders and officials have led the way in this unfaithfulness.”
When I heard this, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled hair from my head and beard and sat down appalled. Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of this unfaithfulness of the exiles. And I sat there appalled until the evening sacrifice.
Ezra was a man who loved God and God’s Law. He was deeply engaged in that lively relationship. So, when he heard about how both the Law and the relationship with God had been pushed aside, his heart was broken, he was outraged at their defiance, and he was deeply ashamed for his people. This was more than just fear of what the Persians might think. It was the recognition that the loving Law of God had very little importance to his people. They had merged their thoughts with those of the pagan family members. They had taught by example that it was acceptable to disobey God. They had let their Godly ethics slide into moral relativism without any thought to the consequences.
Kevin Mellish reminds us of their true situation under God.
The Mosaic covenant stipulated the expected norms of behavior and the terms of punishment if Israel did not abide by the terms of the covenant (Deut. 28). The people were subjected to foreign kings; they experienced the sword (death) and captivity (exile) and were subject to pillage and humiliation as a result of their continuous failure to live by God’s covenant standards. Even after their release from exile, the community continued to experience the consequences for disobedience in the form of shame as they remained subject to Persian control.
Ezra understood their dire situation. And his response was to cry out to God!
Ezra 9:6-15
“I am too ashamed and disgraced, my God, to lift up my face to you, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens. From the days of our ancestors until now, our guilt has been great. Because of our sins, we and our kings and our priests have been subjected to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation at the hand of foreign kings, as it is today.
“But now, for a brief moment, the Lord our God has been gracious in leaving us a remnant and giving us a firm place in his sanctuary, and so our God gives light to our eyes and a little relief in our bondage. Though we are slaves, our God has not forsaken us in our bondage. He has shown us kindness in the sight of the kings of Persia: He has granted us new life to rebuild the house of our God and repair its ruins, and he has given us a wall of protection in Judah and Jerusalem.
“But now, our God, what can we say after this? For we have forsaken the commands you gave through your servants the prophets when you said: ‘The land you are entering to possess is a land polluted by the corruption of its peoples. By their detestable practices they have filled it with their impurity from one end to the other. Therefore, do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters for your sons. Do not seek a treaty of friendship with them at any time, that you may be strong and eat the good things of the land and leave it to your children as an everlasting inheritance.’
“What has happened to us is a result of our evil deeds and our great guilt, and yet, our God, you have punished us less than our sins deserved and have given us a remnant like this. Shall we then break your commands again and intermarry with the peoples who commit such detestable practices? Would you not be angry enough with us to destroy us, leaving us no remnant or survivor? Lord, the God of Israel, you are righteous! We are left this day as a remnant. Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in your presence.”
Oh, do you hear the heart of Ezra—a priest whose heart has been broken, not by his own behavior, but by that of his community?! We need to rejoice that the Israelites had someone who was willing to “stand in the gap” for them (Ezekiel 22:30), or surely God would have removed them all from the face of the earth. It brings to mind the reality of God’s jealousy, like a husband’s reflected in Proverbs 6:34-35, For jealousy arouses a husband’s fury, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge. He will not accept any compensation; he will refuse a bribe, however great it is. But thanks be to God for people like Ezra who recognize the lostness of others and intercede for them! And an even greater thanks to God for his mercy!
Note how many times Ezra uses “we” and “our” and “us” in relation to the sin that had so easily beset them: our sins, our guilt, our forsaking, our detestable practices, our slavery, our evil deeds. This is true intercessory prayer. For eighty years, some of the exiles who had returned to Jerusalem and been on a long, degrading situational ethics slide. They had rationalized that there were not that many acceptable, single, Israelite folks to marry. They shrugged when it seemed apparent that acquiring the property of pagan spouses enhanced their social standing with the pagan neighbors and their economic standing in the marketplace. They told themselves that when their children and grandchildren saw them praying to idols and participating in other pagan practices that these were easily overridden by the fact that they were part of the select few of God’s chosen people. And those who did not participate in these ways until Ezra arrived? Some must have stood by without any confrontation or pleading to get back in true relationship with God! “Our” sin indeed!
And in the same prayer, Ezra still identifies them with God: our God, new life, a wall of protection, and most importantly “you have punished us less that our sins deserved and have given us a remnant like this.” God sent in the ultimate, God-believing, communal, sin-confessing, mini-remnant to call them back to the strong, right, just and true Law. Yes, a remnant within the remnant! Kevin Mellish writes: “The fact that God left a remnant among the people only illustrated God’s commitment to the covenant He had made with Israel, even when the Israelites did not warrant or deserve such consideration (cf. Hos. 11:8-9).”
In the next chapter we see, again, that the Israelites turned back to God. The Wycliffe Bible Commentary states that through Ezra’s weeping, confession and intercession, he “accomplished far more by loving heart-concern than he ever could have done by mere force.” Ezra didn’t even touch the power that the Persians had given him, rather he reached out to God in prayer for his people.
Ezra did more than pray. I challenge you to read Ezra 10 to see the hard, courageous and gritty work that needed to be done in correcting this shameful behavior. It bore out consequences that affected their family units and had significant cultural and economic impact. What hard work it is to recover from sin! But thanks be to God, his presence and power are there all along the way to help move out of situational ethics and relativism to live in his wonderful, clear and pure light!
We have spent a lot of time doing the good work of solid Biblical study. It is always important to understand the original setting as far as we can, and only then make practical application to our contemporary lives. With that in mind, reflect on the following questions.
· Recognizing that the New Covenant does not articulate ethnic distinctions, and that even Ezra articulated the difference between ethnic and religious practices (v. 14 intermarry with the peoples who commit such detestable practices not who are ______ race), how can the principles of staying true to God be applied to our families, our present culture, and our world?
· What kinds of situational ethics impact the current Christian church?
· Admitting that we all have blind spots in our cultural and personal views, are we willing and courageous enough to invite the Holy Spirit to show us any sin that keeps us from him and allow him to help us work out our salvation? If so, clearly identifying those things is the first step in restoring the most vital relationship we will ever have. Then we have hard word to do in letting those things go.
I would encourage you to read how this same subject had to be dealt with again by Nehemiah over a decade later in Nehemiah 13. While we can fall back in to sin, God is still there to help us out—again!
God’s love is more than a match for our guilt.
~NIV Study Bible
Amen
M. R. Hyde
Copyright 2020
Illustrated Bible Life, Summer 2020, The Foundry Press, Kansas City, Missouri.
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