These are the families
of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by
these were the nations DIVIDED in the earth AFTER the flood.
-- Gen. 10:32
And the whole earth
was of ONE language, and of ONE speech . . . And the LORD
said, Behold the people is ONE, and they have all ONE language;
and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them,
which they have imagined to do . . . So the LORD SCATTERED THEM ABROAD
from thence upon the face of all the earth . . . -- Gen. 11:1, 6, 8
REMEMBER the
days of OLD, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father,
and he will show thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee. When the Most
High DIVIDED to the nations their inheritance, when he SEPARATED
the
sons of Adam, he
SET THE BOUNDS of the people according to the number
of the children of Israel. -- Deut. 32:7, 8
And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth, and hath DETERMINED the times before appointed, and the BOUNDS of their habitation; That they should seek the LORD, if haply they might feel after him, though he be not far from every one of us:
The correct approach
to the intermarriage issue is to REMEMBER the days of OLD
and CONSIDER the years of many generations [not the political correctness].
If we ask our fathers and elders, they will tell us that it was God, who
SEPARATED
and DIVIDED the three seeds of Ham, Shem, and Japheth, in the first
place. It was God, who SET the BOUNDARIES. The reason for this was
so that men "SHOULD SEEK the LORD." Rather than promoting the gospel
and the salvation of souls, amalgamation of these three seeds and intermarriage
thereof has hindered the salvation of men of all colors. A perfect example
is North America, where the Colonists avoided amalgamation with the native
Indians, and the gospel flourished, while its southern neighbors did the
opposite and remained for the most part in heathenism. The word of God
is not without precedent or principle or instruction, regarding this issue.
Did Abraham Believe in Intermarriage?
. . . thou shalt not
take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom
I dwell: But thou shalt go to my country (surely not of like faith in unbelieving
Mesopotamia), and to my kindred (idolaters), and take a wife unto my son
Isaac . . . And my master made me swear, saying, Thou shalt NOT TAKE
A WIFE to my son of the daughters of the CANAANITES, in whose
land I dwell: -- Gen 24:3, 4, 37
Prior to the law, Patriarchal
commands and pronouncements were to be obeyed and considered to be from
God. Canaanites were OFF LIMITS, and even the heathen from one's
own ethnic seed were to be preferred to them in marriage.
Did Isaac, Rebekah, or Jacob Believe in Intermarriage?
And Isaac called Jacob
. . . and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of
the daughters of Canaan . . . Arise, go to Padanaram, to the house of Bethuel
thy mother's father; and take thee a (heathen) wife from thence of the
daughters of Laban thy mother's brother . . . And that Jacob OBEYED
his father and his mother . . . -- Gen. 28:7
And Esau seeing that
the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father; Then went Esau unto
Ishmael, and took unto the wives he had Mathalath the daughter of Ishmael
Abraham's son (of Abraham's Hamite concubine), the sister of Nabajoth,
to be his wife. -- Gen. 28:8, 9
Notice that Isaac, under
patriarchal rule, charged Jacob to avoid the Hamites in marriage and to
rather take a wife from his own heathen ethnic heritage, whether a believer
or not. Esau, however, did not obey the patriarchal command and fetched
him a Hamatic wife, even though it would not please his father. Nothing
you can do about it, when it happens, except to either grieve or make an
excuse for it.
Did Moses Instruct or Prohibit Intermarriage?
Neither shalt thou make
marriages with them; thy daughter shall not give unto his son, nor his
daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. [Hittites, Gergashites, Amorites,
Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, Jebusites—Ham’s descendants] -- Deut.
7:1-3
A bastard [illegitimate
or amalgamate offspring] shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD;
even to his tenth generation shall he not enter . . . An Ammonite or Moabite
[Hamites] shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to their
TENTH
generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the LORD for ever;
-- Deut. 23:2, 3
Strange as it may seem, Moses condemned his own intermarriage by the words that he penned. Some use his example to justify intermarriages, while they are ignorant that they are also justifying polygamy, for Moses was already married with children (Gen. 2:20,21; 18:4). The issue today is not about racial superiority or inferiority, although the Israelites were told by God that they were a special people and a holy seed, not to be mingled.
The issue is not about
jobs or equal opportunity; it is not even about the certain blessings or
curses pronounced upon the various ethnic groups, which God will enforce
and not men. We know that some will emphasize the disclaimer in Deut. 7:4,
which voices the motive of these ethnic entities causing Israel to go after
other gods. This is a good point, but it does not go far enough. Yes, these
ethnic entities were steeped in idolatry, but so were Abraham's people;
we must go back to the main reason that God separated and divided these
people in the first place - that they should seek the Lord. Wherever amalgamation
has taken place in any substantial way, the gospel message has deteriorated
and degenerated into false religion. Those, who want to mix the ethnic
groups to get them saved are without a scriptural injunction, unlike those
who honor the Bible's injunction. Amalgamation hinders soul winning and
does not enhance it as some teach.
Did Ezra Believe in Intermarriage?
Now when these things
were done, the princes came to me, saying, The people of Israel, and the
priests, and the Levites, HAVE NOT SEPARATED themselves from the
people of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even of the
Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites,
the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. For they have taken of their
daughters for themselves, and for their sons: so that the holy seed have
mingled themselves with the people of those lands; yea, the hand of the
PRINCES
and RULERS hath been chief in this
TRESPASS. And when I heard
this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of
my head and of my beard, and sat down astonied (Ezra - a real Redneck)
-- Ezra 9:1-3
Of course, the disclaimer
will be emphasized that the lack of separation from unbelieving heathen
was the problem, for the Jews were doing the abominations of these heathen.
Yet Ezra saw the root of the problem as being much deeper in that the seed
was mingled between Jews and these people. You don't get false religion
from mingled offspring, except in the sense of Acts 17:26, 27, where bounds
have been violated resulting in people not seeking the Lord.
Did the Prophets Instruct or Prohibit Intermarriage?
Which thou hast COMMANDED
by thy servants the PROPHETS, saying, The land, unto which ye go
to possess it, is an unclean land with filthiness of the people of the
lands, with their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another
with their uncleanness. Now therefore give not your daughters unto their
sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons . . . FOR EVER [quite
a long time]: -- Ezra 9:11,12
Obviously, the children
of Israel did not listen to their prophets' commands. Someone will certainly
say that their filth and abominations were the only reason, and surely,
and they were a reason. Still, what if these people had cleaned up their
act and the filth and their abominations? Do you think that they would
then be suitable marriage prospects for the children of Israel? Or do you
think that violating God's command to separation and division causes folks
of all ethnic groups not to seek the Lord and plunge right back into filth
and abominations? Did the prophets Instruct for or against Intermarriage?
Did Israel or Shecahaniah Repent of the Intermarriage Trespass?
Now, when Ezra had prayed, and when they had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women: for the people WEPT VERY SORE. And Shechaniah . . . said unto Ezra, We have TRESPASSED against our God, and have taken STRANGE WIVES of the people of the land; yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing. Now therefore let us make a covenant with God to PUT AWAY ALL THE WIVES, and SUCH AS BE BORN OF THEM, according to the COUNSEL OF THE LORD, and of those that tremble at the COMMANDMENT of our God; and let it be according to thy LAW . . . Then arose Ezra, and made . . . ALL Israel to swear that they should do according to THIS WORD. And they sware. -- Ezra 10:1-5
Amalgamation was considered
a trespass that must be repented of in Israel. Folks trembled at the commandment
of God in those days. Today, Christians tremble and line up with the ACLU,
PRAVDA, TASS, the U.N., the NAACP, the Supreme Court, the News Media, the
New Age Movement, One Worlders, and Jesse Jackson rather than what Abraham,
Jacob, Isaac, Ezra, and Nehemiah said regarding the issue. Something is
wrong,
when that happens.
Did Nehemiah Believe in Intermarriage?
They clave to their
brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to
walk IN GOD'S LAW, which was given by Moses the servant of God,
and to observe ALL the commandments of the LORD our Lord . . . And that
we would not give our daughters unto the people of the land [Canaan, filled
with Canaanites], nor take their daughters for our sons: -- Neh. 10:29,
30
In those days also saw
I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab: And their
children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak the Jew's
language, but according to the language of each people. And I contended
with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off
their hair, and made them sware by God, saying, Ye shall not give your
daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters unto your sons, or
for yourselves. Did not Solomon king of Israel SIN by these things?
yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his
God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did outlandish
women cause to SIN. -- Neh. 13:23-26
This fellow outdid Ezra as a redneck. He beat the folks up and cursed them for their intermarriage. He would not survive in our society today. He would be in jail for hate crimes. Like Ezra, Nehemiah experienced God's people not obeying the Lord in this matter amalgamation. He compared it to Solomon and his sin and how Solomon caused Israel to follow his example in sin. Make no mistake about it, open a crack in the door and everyone will pile through. Yet, God loved Solomon, and God loves those Jews and Christians that had intermarried, but that is not the point. The point is, shall we follow the examples in the Bible, or shall we follow the examples and values of the communists, socialists, government, and the news media? So, Christian, do as you please, but buckle your seat belt, when you do it.