Ezra 10:9-17, Hope in a Pond, an Oasis (2)

We are studying “hope” in the term “miqveh.”

·       Lev. 11:36: a carcass ruins water, making it unclean and useless.  But springs or cisterns have value because there is “plenty” (miqveh) of water.  Let’s say you are walking across the desert and have run out of water.  You come to a carcass which has water in it from a recent rainfall.  You are thirsty but you must avoid the temptation to wet your tongue.  But if you come to a spring or a pool or collected rainwater, you have hope.  It’s an oasis!

·       1 Chr. 29:15: our days are like a shadow and without hope.  To get this you need to read vs13-15.  David is thanking God for His provision in all things.  Without God’s provision there is no hope because humans are but a shadow.  We are trusting God for the “gathering together” of blessings, and there is no blessing more fundamental than water.

·       Ezra 10:2: there is hope in the issue of taking pagan wives.  What they decided to do, to carry out true repentance, is to divorce themselves from the pagan wives.  This may seem strange, or even wrong.  I won’t argue this, although I assume part of the negotiations that took place with each man was to make sure he provided for the “ex-wife.”  I am also assuming the wives had no desire to take on the religion of Israel.  Maybe so, maybe not.  But here’s the point of this “hope.”  All the men who had taken pagan wives were “gathering together” to take this difficult action.  Therein was the hope that they would follow through on their decision borne out of repentant hearts. 

·       Jer. 14:8; 17:13; 50:7: In these passages God is “the Hope of Israel" or “the hope of their fathers.”  I love 14:8, even though Jeremiah is praying a prayer that God will not answer: “O the Hope of Israel, his Savior in time of trouble.”  All that is true.  God had determined to punish Israel and there He would not change His mind.  Thus, in v11, He tells Jeremiah not to pray.

There is one other word for hope, that is related to “miqveh” (masculine noun) and that is “miqvah” (the feminine noun).  Perhaps you have heard the term “miqvah.”  That’s what Jews call the ceremonial washing pool.  It’s a reservoir, and the term is only used in Isa. 22:11 where it refers to a moat, essentially.  It’s a pool between two walls around a city.  What is interesting here is that God is accusing the people of putting their trust in the “miqvah” (the pool) rather than in the God who made pools, having made the first ones in creation.  The LORD God called for repentance but the people feasted instead of fasting: “Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die” (22:12-13).  For that there would be no atonement (22:14).

One last thought.  In Acts 2, at Pentecost, when thousands were baptized, we believe they used the many “mikvehs” that are known to have existed in the temple mount area.  What a great picture.  Water baptism, immersion in the pool of hope.