In Ezra 9, Ezra twice mentions God reviving them.

They were “dead,” so to speak, slaves in a foreign land, but had been released and returned home.

They were being given new life.

What were they going to do with it?

Ezra recognizes that God was not fickle in sending them into slavery, in allowing the temple and city to be destroyed. He acknowledges that it had been because of their sin.

He doesn’t ask forgiveness so that they can continue in their sin. That’s not how it works.

He asks for mercy, so they can be given another chance at doing it right.

A sign that they are in a time of revival is their utter seriousness in putting away their sin.

They are going to literally put away their wives that the law of Moses had forbidden them to marry.

We’re not told what happens to the women or their children. Are they escorted back to Babylon? Do they remain and are taken care of as widows and the fatherless, just removed from the lineage?

What we can be sure of is that the Father cared for them.

Foreign women do marry into Israel. They marry in as believers, such as Rahab and Ruth, both of whom are in Jesus’ blood line.

It’s not about pure blood like the Nazis preached. It’s about pure faith.

The warning about intermarriage was that they would bring their foreign gods with them and turn Israel away.

It had happened. The Israelites weren’t separating themselves. They were supposed to be a holy people, a people set apart.

Now they were doing it. Now they were a people with new life, revived.

Come alive with radical repentance. Put away anything that’s keeping you tied to the world. Separate yourself.