Restoration Principles - Their Biblical Basis (9)

RESTORATION PRINCIPLES - THEIR BIBLICAL BASIS - 9

Yeow Chin Kiong

Restoration work must not leave any aspect of the thing restored unaltered to reflect its original pattern. Whether the item to be restored is a thing (eg. a temple), an act (eg. worship of Deity) or a relationship (eg. between husband and wife), perhaps the hardest to put right is a relationship, particularly when it has to be undone.

The Law of Moses clearly stipulated that the Israelites were not to take spouses from among the people of the lands they were about to occupy. Marrying their sons and daughters to the Canaanites would have exposed the Israelites to the practice of Canaanite idolatrous worship, resulting in God's chosen people "whoring after" false gods worshipped by their spouses. The two prohibitive stipulations are Exodus 34:11-16 and Deuteronomy 7:1-6, as follows:

"11 Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I am driving out from before you the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. 12 Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be a snare in your midst. 13 But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images 14 (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), 15 lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they play the harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods, and one of them invites you and you eat of his sacrifice, 16 and you take of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters play the harlot with their gods and make your sons play the harlot with their gods." (Exodus 34:11-16)

"7 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, 2 and when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. 3 Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. 4 For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. 5 But thus you shall deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire. 6 “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth." (Deuteronomy 7:1-6).

At the beginning of the restoration of the worship of God according to Moses' Law, some Jewish leaders voluntarily reported to Ezra that Jewish leaders and rulers "had been foremost" in violating the Law's prohibition against intermarriage with peoples not of the Jewish faith (Ezra 9:1-2). As an aghast and distraught, ashamed and humiliated (Ezra 9:3-15) Ezra turned to God in repentant prayer, a "very large assembly of men, women and children gathered to him from Israel (who) wept very bitterly" (Ezra 10:1). Confessing their sin of having taken pagan wives, they desired that a covenant be made with God "to put away all those wives and those who have been born to them" (Ezra 10:2-3). The guilty then assembled to be questioned about their taking of pagan wives and their "promise that they would put away their wives and, being guilty, (presenting) a ram of the flock as their trespass offering" (Ezra 10:19). Without an explanation of how this covenant turned out in practice, the book of Ezra concludes with a list of Jews who "had taken pagan wives and some of them had wives by whom they had children" (Ezra 10:44).

Much later after the matter was addressed by Ezra, Nehemiah had to enforce the Law's prohibition of Israelite intermarriage with pagans and unbelievers (Nehemiah 10:30). Much later, he had to contend with Jews who had violated the prohibition and had children who did not understand the Jews' language. Nehemiah invoked the case of King Solomon as a negative example of intermarriage with pagan women causing harmful effects upon the king (Nehemiah 13:23-27).

The work of religious restoration came at a heavy cost to Jews whose spouses refused to give up their false worship,- the reason for the prohibition in the first place. After all, even thd fleshly linage of Jesus Christ evidenced intermarriage with.non-Israelites (like the Canaanite Rahab and the Moabite Ruth, Matthew 1:5). However, both non-Israel women were convinced of the God of Israel being the only Deity worthy of their worship (Joshua 2:8-13 in the case of Rahab and Ruth 1:16-17 in Ruth's). The presence of proselytes along with Jews (Acts 2:10) among those who heard Peter's sermon on the first Pentecost following our Lord's resurrection indicates that restored worship at Jerusalem had worshippers who were non-Israelite by race. Making proselyte bslievers was part of the outreach of the Jews right down to Jesus' day (Matthew 23:15). Hence, if non-Israelite spouses would worship the God of the Law of Moses, there would be a reason to preserve their marriage to Israelites. Of course, this would be a general requirement only under the Law of Moses, which no longer applies in the Gospel Age.