ENCOURAGEMENT FOR THE DAY

“Monday’s Meat: Interfaith Marriage {Agree or Disagree?}”

God views marriage as a union of two people becoming one. More specifically a husband (man) and a wife (woman): “He answered, “Haven’t you read in your Bible that the Creator originally made man and woman for each other, male and female? And because of this, a man leaves father and mother and is firmly bonded to his wife, becoming one flesh-no longer two bodies but one. Because God created this organic union of the two sexes, no one should desecrate his art by cutting them apart” (Matthew 19:4-6 MSG).

The choice of partners becomes very important since each will identify with the other in their union. However, the Lord Strictly Warned the Jews Against Intermarriage because of its Propensity to Result in Dangerous Compromise and even Tragic Abandonment of Their Commitment to Him!

Malachi, a contemporary of Nehemiah, spoke specifically against such marriages: Malachi 2:11-12, “Judah has cheated on God – a sickening violation of trust in Israel and Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the holiness of God by falling in love and running off with foreign women, women who worship alien gods. God’s curse on those who do this! Drive them out of house and home! They’re no longer fit to be part of the community no matter how many offerings they bring to God-of-the-Angel-Armies” (MSG).

In the history of Israel, Interfaith Marriages Frequently Led to the Worship of other gods. The wise King Solomon ruled everything but his own heart wisely! His seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines not only continued to worship their false gods But Also Led Him to Worship Their Pagan Deities!

In the book of Nehemiah, the Demise of Jerusalem is Directly Linked to Intermarriage, Especially Tobiah and Sanballat, the opponents to the rebuilding of the city’s walls: (Nehemiah 6:17-19, “All during this time letters were going back and forth constantly between the nobles of Judah and Tobiah. Many of the nobles had ties to him because he was son-in-law to Shecaniah son of Arah and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berekiah. They kept telling me all the good things he did and then would report back to him anything I would say. And then Tobiah would send letters to intimidate me” MSG; Nehemiah 13:28, “One of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was a son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite; I drove him out of my presence” MSG).

Since Marriages were Arranged By Parents, Nehemiah – and other leaders before and after him – Warned Parents Specifically Not to Give Their Children to Pagan Unions.

What led the Hebrews to Intermarry? Generally the pagan occupants of the lands they came to inhabit were the longstanding landowners and merchants. Much of the tendency to intermarry was not based upon love, romance, or any other intention other than to improve a family’s economic and social position in life. The prophet Malachi spoke strongly against Hebrew men divorcing their Hebrew wives to marry “daughters of a foreign god”: (Malachi 2:11-16, “Judah has cheated on God—a sickening violation of trust in Israel and Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the holiness of God by falling in love and running off with foreign women, women who worship alien gods. God’s curse on those who do this! Drive them out of house and home! They’re no longer fit to be part of the community no matter how many offerings they bring to God-of-the-Angel-Armies. And here’s a second offense: You fill the place of worship with your whining and sniveling because you don’t get what you want from God. Do you know why? Simple. Because God was there as a witness when you spoke your marriage vows to your young bride, and now you’ve broken those vows, broken the faith-bond with your vowed companion, your covenant wife. God, not you, made marriage. His Spirit inhabits even the smallest details of marriage. And what does he want from marriage? Children of God, that’s what. So guard the spirit of marriage within you. Don’t cheat on your spouse. “I hate divorce,” says the God of Israel. God-of-the-Angel-Armies says, “I hate the violent dismembering of the ‘one flesh’ of marriage.” So watch yourselves. Don’t let your guard down. Don’t cheat.” (MSG).

The Danger of Interfaith Marriage Extended Beyond a Dilution of Faith, a Deviation From Strict Obedience, and a Straying From Pure Worship of the One True and Living God. It generally included Loss of Language, Thought, Understanding, and Expression at the most basic cultural level, including Access to Scripture.

Interfaith Marriages Blurred and eventually Obliterated the “National Identity”, Destroying the Adherence to God’s Laws which were the Moral Code of the Hebrew People. Thus, in Marrying “Outside the Faith”, God’s People Destroyed Their Own Identity and Tainted the Favored Status They Enjoyed as “the People of God”.

In the New Testament, Believers are Cautioned Against Marrying Outside the Faith: (1 Corinthians 7:39-40, “A wife must stay with her husband as long as he lives. If he dies, she is free to marry anyone she chooses. She will, of course, want to marry a believer and have the blessing of the Master. By now you know that I think she’ll be better off staying single. The Master, in my opinion, thinks so, too” (MSG); 2 Corinthians 6:14-18, “Don’t become partners with those who reject God. How can you make a partnership out of right and wrong? That’s not partnership; that’s war. Is light best friends with dark? Does Christ go strolling with the Devil? Do trust and mistrust hold hands? Who would think of setting up pagan idols in God’s holy Temple? But that is exactly what we are, each of us a temple in whom God lives. God himself put it this way: “I’ll live in them, move into them; I’ll be their God and they’ll be my people. So leave the corruption and compromise; leave it for good,” says God. “Don’t link up with those who will pollute you. I want you all for myself. I’ll be a Father to you; you’ll be sons and daughters to me.” The Word of the Master, God” (MSG).

Such Marriages are Especially Problematic and are Prone to Fail When Both Spouses are Strong in Their Respected Faiths.

Guiding Principles regarding those Already Married to Unbelievers Can Also Be Found: (1 Corinthians 7:12-16, “For the rest of you who are in mixed marriages—Christian married to non-Christian—we have no explicit command from the Master. So this is what you must do. If you are a man with a wife who is not a believer but who still wants to live with you, hold on to her. If you are a woman with a husband who is not a believer but he wants to live with you, hold on to him. The unbelieving husband shares to an extent in the holiness of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is likewise touched by the holiness of her husband. Otherwise, your children would be left out; as it is, they also are included in the spiritual purposes of God. On the other hand, if the unbelieving spouse walks out, you’ve got to let him or her go. You don’t have to hold on desperately. God has called us to make the best of it, as peacefully as we can. You never know, wife: The way you handle this might bring your husband not only back to you but to God. You never know, husband: The way you handle this might bring your wife not only back to you but to God.” MSG; 1 Peter 3:1-4, “The same goes for you wives: Be good wives to your husbands, responsive to their needs. There are husbands who, indifferent as they are to any words about God, will be captivated by your life of holy beauty. What matters is not your outer appearance—the styling of your hair, the jewelry you wear, the cut of your clothes—but your inner disposition.)” MSG.

Certainly the Faith of Your Spouse and His Expression of that Faith Must Be Respected as You Simultaneously Try to Hold On to Your Own Faith. If Children are born to such a Union, Parents Must Discuss and Agree Upon How to Nurture Their Children Spiritually.

A Biblical Example of an Interfaith Marriage {Samson’s Pagan Bride}

This impressive woman from Timnah captured Samson’s affection with her beauty and charm, and she, too, must have been infatuated with his strength and wit. They married hurriedly and Despite Parental Opposition. 

The Marriage Was Doomed From Its Beginning Because of Competing Loyalties Which Pulled at the Young Couple as well as Selfishness and Immaturity on the Part of Both.

The Timnite, who had remained in her parents’ home after her wedding, was most concerned with her Own Self-Preservation. Just as Samson, she was accustomed to getting her own way, if by no other means, through her tears and whining: (Judges 14:2-3, 16-17, “Samson went down to Timnah. There in Timnah a woman caught his eye, a Philistine girl. He came back and told his father and mother, “I saw a woman in Timnah, a Philistine girl; get her for me as my wife.” His parents said to him, “Isn’t there a woman among the girls in the neighborhood of our people? Do you have to go get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me. She’s the one I want – she’s the right one.”…So Samson’s bride turned on the tears, saying to him, “You hate me. You don’t love me. You’ve told a riddle to my people but you won’t even tell me the answer.” He said, “I haven’t told my own parents – why would I tell you?” But she turned on the tears all the seven days of the feast. On the seventh day, worn out by her nagging, he told her. Then she went and told it to her people” MSG). 

She Used Manipulative Skills, including a Week of Tears, to meet the demands of her countrymen, knowing all the while that they planned evil against her husband. When Samson finally trusted her with his secret, She Blatantly, and Seemingly Without Remorse, Betrayed Him. She was under threat for the lives of herself and her family, but in the end, Perhaps Because of Her Own Wrong Choices, All Their Lives Were Lost: (Judges 15:6, “The Philistines said, “Who did this?” They were told, “Samson, son-in-law of the Timinte who took his bride and gave her to his best man.” The Philistines went up and burned both her and her father to death” MSG). Who knows what protection Samson might have afforded the family if only his wife had communicated her fears to him.

The Timinte and Samson Erred When They Rushed Into the Serious Commitment of Marriage Based Upon Initial Infatuation and Physical Attraction: (Judges 14:2-3, “When he got back home, he told his parents, “I saw a Philistine woman in Timnah, and I want to marry her. Get her for me!” His parents answered, “There are a lot of women in our clan and even more in the rest of Israel. Those Philistines are pagans. Why would you want to marry one of their women?” “She looks good to me,” Samson answered. “Get her for me!” CEV).

In Addition, Neither Had Left Father and Mother In Order to Give Primary Loyalty to the Other: (Genesis 2:23-25, “The Man said, “Finally! Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh! Name her Woman for she was made from Man”. Therefore a man leaves his father and mother and embraces his wife. They become one flesh. The two of them, Man and his Wife, were naked, but they felt no shame.” MSG).

Neither Reached Beyond Self to be Concerned about the Best Interest of the Other: (Ephesians 5:29-33, “No one abuses his own body, does he? No, he feeds and pampers it. That’s how Christ treats us, the church, since we are part of his body. And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cherishes his wife. No longer two, they become “one flesh.” This is a huge mystery, and I don’t pretend to understand it all. What is clearest to me is the way Christ treats the church. And this provides a good picture of how each husband is to treat his wife, loving himself in loving her, and how each wife is to honor her husband.” MSG).

Neither Had Considered the Ramifications of Being Linked to Another Who Did NOT Have the Same Spiritual Commitments: (Amos 3:3, “Can two people walk together without agreeing on the direction?” NLT).

Marriage to a Foreign Woman Who Was NOT Committed to the God of Israel Was Strictly Forbidden Because Intermarriage Was a Definite Factor in the Destruction of the Nation: (Deuteronomy 7:1-4, “When God, your God, brings you into the country that you are about to enter and take over, he will clear out the superpowers that were there before you: the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Those seven nations are all bigger and stronger than you are. God, your God, will turn them over to you and you will conquer them. You must completely destroy them, offering them up as a holy destruction to God. Don’t make a treaty with them. Don’t let them off in any way. Don’t marry them: Don’t give your daughters to their sons and don’t take their daughters for your sons—before you know it they’d involve you in worshiping their gods, and God would explode in anger, putting a quick end to you.” MSG; Judges 3:5-6, “But the People of Israel made themselves at home among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. They married their daughters and gave their own daughters to their sons in marriage. And they worshiped their gods.” MSG).

Not Only Was Samson an Israelite and thus Committed to Yahweh, but He Was Also a Nazirite and thus Set Apart By God in a Special Way: (Judges 13:2-5, “At that time there was a man named Manoah from Zorah from the tribe of Dan. His wife was barren and childless. The angel of God appeared to her and told her, “I know that you are barren and childless, but you’re going to become pregnant and bear a son. But take much care: Drink no wine or beer; eat nothing ritually unclean. You are, in fact, pregnant right now, carrying a son. No razor will touch his head—the boy will be God’s Nazirite from the moment of his birth. He will launch the deliverance from Philistine oppression.” MSG).

Not to Mention, for a Judge to Fail In This Area Shows the Far-Reaching Result of Spiritual Apathy.

This Interfaith Marriage Put Samson On the Road to Estrangement From Yahweh! And Certainly There is No Greater Consequence Than That! And on that note, I do not put on boxing gloves to fight it out with anyone, however, on the Basis of My Faith, I Must Disagree with Interfaith Marriage. 

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