Honestly, I’m a little surprised I’ve never jotted down any thoughts on this chapter before. That’s because I know that in the past I’ve often chewed on it after reading the chapter’s final verse. Chewing on how hard true repentance can sometimes be and how costly it might sometimes be. Especially when it comes to what might seem to be just a “little bit” of sin.

Chapter in question? Ezra 10. Sin to be confessed? Intermarriage and mixing with “the surrounding peoples” (Ez. 9:2), people who have filled the land “from end to end with their uncleanness by their impurity and detestable practices” (Ez. 9:10-11). Repentance required? Send them away.

“We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the surrounding peoples, but there is still hope for Israel in spite of this. Therefore, let’s make a covenant before our God to send away all the foreign wives and their children . . . Let it be done according to the law.”

(Ezra 10:2-3 CSB)

Repentance. Making a 180-degree turnabout from doing what is wrong in the sight of God to doing what is right. Logical then that if the wrong was taking foreign wives, then repentance would mean sending away foreign wives. I get it. Costly? Yeah! Especially if they were “happy marriages.” But required? Yeah again! Especially if what you gotta do needs to be done according to the law.

But here’s the phrase that really hits me: and their children.

Send away their foreign wives and their children.

Some of these forbidden marriages had resulted in kids (Ez. 10:44). Innocent, little kids. And repentance meant they had to lose a dad. More than that, it meant those kids had to come to grips with being sent away by their dad. Oh, sin’s collateral damage can be so sad sometimes.

My takeaway? Sin is to be repented of, but repentance can be pretty costly.

But here’s the other thing. This sin in the camp; the sin that Ezra owned as his own and repented of on behalf of all the exiles who returned to rebuild the temple; the sin that Ezra said tainted the whole body of God’s people marking them collectively as those had abandoned God’s commands (Ez. 9:10); this sin of intermarriage was seemingly committed by only 113 individuals (Ez. 10:18-43).

So, here’s some quick math (if I’ve done it right). Take the approximately 50,000 people who returned initially after the exile (Ez. 2:64-65) and add the 1,500 or so who returned later with Ezra (Ez. 8:1-20) and that’s 113 who had sinned by intermixing with the surrounding peoples among the close to 52,000 who had not. That’s less than 1/4 of 1 percent. So, what’s the big deal? Sin’s a big deal. Even a little sin.

Don’t you know that a little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new unleavened batch, as indeed you are.

(1Corinthians 5:6-7 CSB)

A community that tolerates sin is a community which, it would seem, before God is collectively tainted by sin. What’s more, a community that doesn’t take action against sin may itself eventually be overtaken by sin — that’s how a little leaven works.

I can’t help but think that Ezra 10, while radical repentance, is meant to teach us something about normative repentance. While the penalty of sin has been paid in full by Christ on the cross, ceasing the practice of sin will come at some personal cost. And it’s gotta be dealt with, even if it seems like a small occurrence within a big group.

More to chew on in this chapter, I’m sure.

By His grace. For His glory.