CSI: Jerusalem

It wasn’t that long ago that I was a huge fan of the original TV show “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.” Grissom and his team would use every trick in their forensic bag to get to the truth. Before you know it, you had shows featuring CSI teams in cities like Miami and New York. But long before the original series was a gleam in Jerry Bruckheimer’s eye, there was another investigative team. The one assembled by Ezra to investigate rampant sexual sin and idolatry among the Israelites. In Ezra 10:16-17, he describes a massive three-month investigation as they tried to get to the truth. Call it CSI: Jerusalem.

So what led to this probe in the first place? After spending 70 years as slaves in Babylon, the children of Israel are resettling the Promised Land. After rampant idolatry and sexual sin, God sent the King Nebuchadnezzar to haul them into exile (2Ki 24:10-16). Just as He sent them into slavery, the LORD brought them out. He moves pagan kings Cyrus (Ez 1:1-4), Darius (Ez 6:1-12), and Artaxerxes (Ez 7:1-6, 27) to not only allow their Hebrew captives to return home but fully fund the entire project as well. After two different phases of resettlement, a significant number of Jews have come home. What should be a time to party quickly turns sour when folks tip Ezra off about some real nasty stuff that’s going on. A boatload of priests, Levites, and other men are not only fooling around with local pagan hotties but actually shacking up with them (Ez 9:1-2). Ezra calls everyone to Jerusalem for a mandatory family meeting and has very hard words for the people during a very hard rain (Ez 10:9-11). Confess your sin and ditch your girlfriend. The people agree and suggest investigating the situation using local officials rather than continuing their meeting in the monsoon (Ez 10:12-13).

We pick up the story with the people moving forward obediently with the proposed plan. “Then the returned exiles did so” (v16). Once again, the Big E refers to the people as the “exiles” (Ez 1:11; 2:1; 4:1; 6:19-21; 8:35; 9:4; 10:6-8). The label reminds them of where they once were and where they are now. Their consequences of their sin and rebellion cut them off from a relationship with God. He’s now rolled up His sleeves to not only forgive them but escort them home. Our rebellion cuts us off from a relationship with God. It’s only through Jesus who brings us home from our slavery to sin. It’s never a bad thing to look back on where we were BC. Before Christ. We were all exiles before He came to the rescue. 

The people follow Ezra’s lead on how to move forward. The high priest handpicks the teams who will investigate the situation. “Ezra the priest selected men, heads of fathers’ houses, according to their fathers’ houses, each of them designated by name” (v16). This is no one man job. This is going to take teams. These investigative panels are set in place in every city to explore the charges that Hebrew men have hooked up with unbelieving local ladies. Just like CSI ends up with teams in Las Vegas, New York, and Miami. Separate teams could focus on more cases at once. And they were made up of more than one man. It’s just another great example in Scripture of shared leadership. Moses was trying to handle it all himself when his father-in-law told him that it was a VERY bad idea (Ex 18:22-23). Jesus put together a dozen dudes to carry the load once He was gone. Paul always seems to travel with a posse in the New Testament. We read that churches are to be led by teams of elders, not a single superstar pastor (Acts 11:30; 14:23; 15:2-6; 20:17; 21:18; Phil 1:1; 1Tim 5:17; Titus 1:5; James 5:14; 1Pet 5:1-2). Heck, even the Godhead has three Persons! 

These investigative teams “sat down to examine the matter” (v16). Ezra drops the Hebrew verb darash, which means to seek out, search, investigate, inquire, or study. Writers of the Bible often use this to describe how people would seek God’s guidance and wisdom in a matter. When her twins turned her womb into a cage match, Rebekah “went to inquire (Heb. darash) of the LORD” (Gen 25:22). Moses commanded the children of God to totally devote themselves to to seek after God and “to search (Heb. darash) after Him with all your heart and all your soul” (Dt 4:29). Earlier in Ezra, the people sought after God in order “to worship (Heb. darash) the LORD” (Ez 6:21). Our man Ezra dedicated his life to investigate God’s Word to “set his heart to study (Heb. darash) the Law of the LORD” (Ez 7:10). We also see the same term used when someone launches a full investigation into something. When a person is suspected of providing false testimony, “the judges shall inquire (Heb. darash) diligently” (Dt 19:18). We’re talking about a serious and intense investigation.

Ezra has assigned these teams to following the commands God gave Moses about investigating false worship among His people. If they suspect anyone to be fooling around with idols, “then you shall inquire (Heb. darash) and make search and ask diligently” (Dt 13:14). Actually Yahweh established a very specific process to follow when looking into idolatry charges (Dt 17:2-7). If there’s evidence of that “someone has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have forbidden, and it is told you and you hear of it, then you shall inquire (Heb. darash) diligently” (Dt 17:2-4). If it turns out that the charges are true, the person being found guilty of idolatry faces…gulp…a mandatory death sentence (Dt 17:5-7). Idolatry is a capital crime. Yeah, these investigations are a VERY big deal.

These investigators don’t just meet once and call it a day. They crank up their meetings “on the first day of the tenth month” (v17). That’s the Hebrew month of Tivet, which falls during December/January. The dig into the controversy until “the first day of the first month” (v17). This is Nissan. We’re talking about the Jewish month not the Japanese automaker. This is during March/April. In other words, it took three months to do the full investigation. The hearings lasted all winter. The goal was probably to allow these men to celebrate Passover with a clear conscience. It begins on the 15th of Nissan. We can celebrate today because Jesus is our ultimate Passover sacrifice! “For Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed” (1Cor 5:7).

The various panels of fact-finders eventually got to the bottom of “all the men who had married foreign women” (v17). Let’s take a little closer look at the original language that the ESV translates as “married.” It’s the Hebrew word yashab. While it can be used to describe a traditional marriage, the term simply means to dwell with, give a home to, or stay in a certain place. It sure seems to be saying that these Jewish men were simply shacking up with pagan ladies. They weren’t legit hubbie and wife relationships. They were sordid and sexually illicit affairs. 

That’s the story of CSI: Jerusalem. Jerry Bruckheimer had nothing on Ezra.