Chapter 9
The new arrivals soon note that those already there - from the first migration - have taken wives for themselves and their sons from the nations around Judah. This is strictly proscribed by the Mosaic law. Doing so brings in false gods, as their history CLEARLY showed, and it dilutes the lineage of Israel from those descended from the people at Sinai, and also dilutes those descended directly from Abraham. This strategy to cut off the descendants of David, and so cut off the Messiah, had been tried many times before by Satan. Those were listed in the MSB notes earlier. In the last few days or so. (This can be found in previous day's notes. I remember putting it in. It showed where Athaliah got rid of all but one direct descendant of David, almost wiping out that line, but one was preserved.) It is further pointed out that the officials and chief men were "foremost" in allowing this to happen. This is a grave crisis. Ezra is appalled, and at the evening sacrifice, starts his prayer this way:
6 saying: "O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens. [Ezr 9:6 ESV] This is how we should approach God when we repent of sin in our lives. We should not presume on His forgiveness, but approach fearfully and submissively. We should remember that repenting of sin does not remove the consequences of that sin. This is a good FB post.
These verses recount and explain what the law says about intermarriage in Canaan, the reasons for it, and the blessing that come from adhering to these rules:
11 which you commanded by your servants the prophets, saying, 'The land that you are entering, to take possession of it, is a land impure with the impurity of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations that have filled it from end to end with their uncleanness. 12 Therefore do not give your daughters to their sons, neither take their daughters for your sons, and never seek their peace or prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever.' [Ezr 9:11-12 ESV]
Unfortunately, White Supremacists, Hitler, and so on have twisted these verses that were addressed directly and exclusively to the direct descendants of Abraham. They twist them to say all races are to be kept pure, and so justify their own hatreds. These rules, again, were God's way of insuring that He would someday keep His promises to Abraham as to the land of Canaan, and rule over the nations. This is about the Abrahamic and Sinai Covenants, AND NOTHING ELSE!!! FB post here. Who would have thought there'd be so many in this little book.
2021 - Intermarriage forbidden. But note that it never says this is because their skin is too dark or too light, there hair is blond instead of black, or they are too tall to intermarry with short Israeli's. It is never about any physical characteristic at all. They are not to marry because all the nations around them are impure and unclean. For the same reason that we don't do our grocery shopping at the city dump, Israel was not to intermarry with the nations around them. Further, this is a general rule. Hagar was from these countries and she is in the lineage of Jesus. Same with Naomi. There were exceptions, and the exception was for those who abandoned the ways - the filth - of these other nations and their idols, and their false gods and their sacrificing their own children and their rampant immorality. If you wanted to intermarry with Israel, then you had to adopt her ways, by choice, and then seek acceptance. But marriages at this time were arranged. They were about alliances and protection and defense. Father's were more interested in these things than in the religion of their future in-law. And because it was done this way, sons and daughters of other nations were marrying in with no repentance at all as their home town religious practices. This is what these verses are about. The OT is not racist. It is religiously picky.
2025 - Back in vs 12 it says, in addition to not intermarrying, that they are to "never seek their peace or prosperity". How does that translate into the New Covenant? We are to seek the salvation of the lost, but the peace and prosperity of our brothers and sisters. We are never to cheat anyone, because that defames the people of God, but we ought to favor our brothers and sisters in all our dealings. I have no idea if that is the correct way to look at this...but I see no other reasonable way to move this law from OC to NC. And maybe it isn't supposed to move. Maybe it is for the Jews only, for the coming physical Kingdom of God but not the spiritual kingdom of the New Covenant. Maybe this Law went away with the dietary and sacrificial law also...but you cannot really fit it in to either of those. I think it is still a Law to be reckoned with in some way.