Trusting in God or using your Brain? Part 2

More thoughts on Ezra. I don't think God is against us using our brains even when we have faith God will protect or guard us in potentially dangerous situations. However, the Ezra story is not as simple as a mutually exclusive decision to either trust God or trust Babylon. Historically, Israel found itself in deep water when it relied on foreign nations for its protection. In Isaiah 30, for example, God rails against his people for relying on Egypt. In Isaiah 36, the then king of Assyria, Sennacherib, ridicules King Hezekiah for relying on Egypt. Treaties with foreign nations was strictly forbidden in the Mosaic Law (Exodus 34:12,15; Deut 7:2; 23:6). Thus, not only is God's perceived omnipotence at stake, but reliance on the Babylonians is against the Torah. Thus Ezra is compelled to pray to God for safety.

What are the implications of this law for us now?

The law says:

Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you. ¹³ Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles.¹⁴ Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

¹⁵ “Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices. ¹⁶ And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same.

Calvin, in his Harmony of the Law, includes this commandment under the Second, the commandment against making images. He calls it a "civil supplement" to the second commandment. In other words, this commandment in part expounds upon the second commandment and its applicability in the sphere of society. Calvin says that the point of this law is that God's people ought to avoid getting into relationships with wordly institutions and people such that the intimacy of these relationships might have a corrupting effect on the person of God. Basically, its the slippery slope argument, and Calvin sees this law in effect in the NT by way of Paul's injunction, for example, that believers ought not to be yoked to unbelievers.

The problem is, the spirit of the law seems to be the prevention of corruption of God's people. I'm not sure that's what Ezra had in mind when he declined asking Babylon for protection on the way home.