March 14, 2024
Passage Read: Ezra 10 - Nehemiah 3
Meditation Verses: Ezra 10:2-4
Thought
The law commanded the people not to intermarry with foreigners, whether giving their daughters in marriage to foreigners or bringing in their daughters in marriage to their sons. Yet the Jews who returned from exile either already had foreign wives or had married them after arriving back in Judah. So some recognized that God's anger had not completely subsided, though they had completed the temple. So almost all agreed that the right thing was to put away their foreign wives and children, which sadly would come up again under Nehemiah. The people obeyed, but would clearly stumble again, or else new arrivals would commit the same sin. The problem with foreign wives was the unfaithfulness to God that brought. First was disobedience to God in marrying against His clear instruction. Second was the influence toward foreign gods that a foreign wife brought into a family belonging to God. In this case, faithfulness to God was of greater importance than faithfulness to marriage.
Application
Paul teaches that if an unbeliever is willing to remain in marriage to a believer, we're to let him or her do so; but if not, we're under no obligation to preserve the marriage. That seems contrary to this example from Ezra and Nehemiah, but it's not really. Were some foreign wives permitted to remain of they renounced their childhood gods and trusted truthfully in God alone? That would affirm other passages of Scripture, like Ruth. The problem wasn't nationality, but faith. The Law of marriage, the compulsion and command to live with a spouse until death, does not supersede the command to worship God alone, that a family of God worship God alone. Even in the New Testament, it is permitted to allow a spouse to abandon the marriage of they don't want to live with a Christian. Faith in Christ and faithfulness to Christ is more important than faithfulness to marriage vows. The believer is not bound to the marriage in such a case. This is what it means to be a Christian: Obedience and faithfulness to Christ is of greater importance than any human relationship, even marriage.