When Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem the second time, as we have seen, he discovered a number of internal issues that were threatening to seriously undermine the mission of God’s people. The third of these was the persistent issue of intermarriage. The issue here was not ethnic but religious. Israelites were permitted to marry foreigners, but only if the foreigners devoted themselves to the God of Israel, and thereby became ‘Israelites’ in the spiritual sense. An example of this is David’s great grandmother Ruth who was a Moabitess. The prohibition against intermarriage with non-believers was to protect God’s people from the influence of paganism. I mentioned previously in connection with Ezra’s dealing with this issue that, as a Pastor, I see this happening with alarming regularity: new Christians are led away by a romantic attachment to someone who does not share their faith commitment. This is not to vilify the potential partner in any way. The issue here is always the priorities of the Christian. Of course, many people come to faith who already have non-Christian partners; this is a different issue. The main issue has to do with the choices people make when the dangers are clearly there in the options before them. You may not be considering such options, but the application goes beyond this issue. There are many instances when we face a choice between risking either our relationship with God or our relationship with another person. Which of these are you least willing to risk?
Reflect on how you might be putting your faith at risk.
Read Nehemiah 13:23-31
