A Mixed up Mess.

16 Then the returned exiles did so. Ezra the priest selected men, heads of fathers' houses, according to their fathers' houses, each of them designated by name. On the first day of the tenth month they sat down to examine the matter; 17 and by the first day of the first month they had come to the end of all the men who had married foreign women. (Ezra 10)
What a mess!  After going though all the red tape, travel, hard work, and times of celebrating the rebuilding of the temple after the exile, the people realized that something was terribly wrong. They were falling back into their old patterns of compromise - marrying those who did not serve the true and living God. It is exactly what happened during the days of the kings that led to the exile. They were on the way to repeating history, in a bad way. It took a month to sort out the mess, and to take painful steps away from it. One thing we often forget about sin is that breaking loose from its web can leave quite a mess to clean up. This is one of the most painful passages in scripture. The emotional, relational and financial fall-out would have been devastating.  But choosing to stay "as is" would only lead deeper down the path of decline.  We live in a world full of mixed-up messes - especially in family relationships. It is hard work to step back, step out, and step up to do the right thing - to clean up the mess.  But that's what it takes if we really want to move forward and obey God.