Times Of Crisis

[Ezra 7:26] And whosoever will not do the law of thy God, and the law of the king, let judgment be executed speedily upon him, whether it be unto death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment.
In times of crisis a community’s response is not always a normative one. Sometimes, in order to survive, a community may involve itself in contradictory policies. Such is the case with the postexilic community. On the one hand, separation from all that is foreign is emphasized; on the other hand, there is appreciation for and limited cooperation with, the Persian government. This twofold emphasis was an attempt to confront the community’s chide problem; survival. It was recognized that the community would survive only if absorption with peoples of other religious traditions was halted and if the community leadership cooperated with the Persian government. In normal times community leadership may have acted differently, but in a time when the life of the community was threatened, whatever promoted survival, short of repudiation of its basic beliefs was done.
Ezra acts principally as a religious leader, and some kind of official of the Persian ruler. The king decrees that severe punishment will be carried out (including execution) on those who will not obey the Law of G-d and the law of the king. Breaking the Law – whether Persian law or the Law of G-d – earned the same punishment.
A close relationship between the command of an Israelite king and those of G-d (Prov. 24:21), a new element has entered the Jewish community through the decree of Artaxerxes, namely, a foreign ruler who does not worship Yahweh nevertheless establishes a policy that demands obedience to Yahweh on pain of punishment. Religious and political disobedience is punished by the authority of the Persian government and with the same kinds of punishment.
Jewish cooperation with Persian rule has its dangers. It is especially dangerous when the state punishes people for disobedience to religious principles. This state policy of Persia treated the covenantal, ‘I-Thou’ relationship. Such is the danger today regarding any contemporary state policy that would exact fines or punishment on people who violate some Christian teaching. Ironically, by requiring everyone to obey G-d, the relationship between G-d and people is destroyed. State – sponsored religion attacks the core of faith.
The Ten Commandments are not part of an impersonal codex governing an association of men but they were uttered by an I and addressed to a Thou….nothing of its society’s vast machinery has anything to do with the situation of the human being who in the midst of a personal experience hears and feels himself addressed by the word ‘thou’.