MIXED marriages?

You just never know when you're going to be asked the most unexpected questions, you know? Sometimes they come right out of the blue! I was asked by someone today to explain Ezra 9:1-5. 

I'm so glad I was listening and learning during our recent Bible Study on Sunday mornings!  And I'm grateful to the one who asked the question today; I was blessed in being reminded of the answer!


Here's the passage:
Ezra Chapter 9:

1 After these things had been done, the officials approached me and said, “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their abominations, from the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. ² For they have taken some of their daughters to be wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands. And in this faithlessness the hand of the officials and chief men has been foremost.” ³ As soon as I heard this, I tore my garment and my cloak and pulled hair from my head and beard and sat appalled. ⁴ Then all who trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the faithlessness of the returned exiles, gathered around me while I sat appalled until the evening sacrifice. ⁵ And at the evening sacrifice I rose from my fasting, with my garment and my cloak torn, and fell upon my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord my God.

(Some newer translations read "So the holy race has become polluted by these mixed marriages." NLT)

The man of God here is clearly distraught, appalled.  What is it, exactly, that has brought such distress?  Unlike the conclusion that many jump to after a cursory reading, the issue does not appear to be racially mixed marriages.  This Scripture passage from Acts clarifies that:

And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth,... Acts 17:26 (KJV)And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, ... Acts 17:26 (ESV)


Here are a couple helpful Bible commentaries (from http://bible.cc/acts/17-26.htm) 

"And hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth-Holding with the Old Testament teaching, that in the blood is the life (Ge 9:4; Le 17:11; De 12:23), the apostle sees this life stream of the whole human race to be one, flowing from one source."


"And hath made of one blood - All the families of mankind are descended from one origin or stock. However different their complexion, features, or language, yet they are derived from a common parent. The word blood is often used to denote "race, stock, kindred." This passage affirms that all the human family are descended from the same ancestor; and that, consequently, all the variety of complexion, etc., is to be traced to some other cause than that they were originally different races created."I believe there is ample Scriptural evidence that the issue here was NOT of race.  So ... what IS the issue?  The crux of the matter is not the color of your skin, but of spiritual kinship, spiritual oneness, sameness, commonality.  Here are some applicable verses to study on marriage between Christians and non-Christians, Believers and unbelievers. This is the type "mixed-marriage" that the Word of God does not sanction. 
"Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you."  2 Cor 6:14-17


"If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth."  1 John 1:6


"The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned."    1 Cor 2:14


"For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ."  Galatians 1:10


"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."  Romans 12:2


"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."  1 Peter 2:9 

(Peter is speaking here to Christian people, the Body of Christ, not to a group of people with the same color of skin!)


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(When a husband or wife confesses Jesus as Lord after the marriage, the Scripture plainly says to stay married; do not divorce. See such verses as 1 Cor 7:12-13 - "To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him.")


Our family has used resources from Answers in Genesis for years now, in both our homeschooling and in Bible study. Here's one of their articles that we found especially helpful on this subject:  http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/nab/are-there-different-races

“Once upon a time they was two girls," I say. "one girl had black skin, one girl had white."
Mae Mobley look up at me. She listening.

"Little colored girl say to little white girl, 'How come your skin be so pale?' White girl say, 'I don't know. How come your skin be so black? What you think that mean?'

"But neither one a them little girls knew. So little white girl say, 'Well, let's see. You got hair, I got hair.'"I gives Mae Mobley a little tousle on her head.

"Little colored girl say 'I got a nose, you got a nose.'"I gives her little snout a tweak. She got to reach up and do the same to me.

"Little white girl say, 'I got toes, you got toes.' And I do the little thing with her toes, but she can't get to mine cause I got my white work shoes on.

"'So we's the same. Just a different color', say that little colored girl. The little white girl she agreed and they was friends. The End."

Baby Girl just look at me. Law, that was a sorry story if I ever heard one. Wasn't even no plot to it. But Mae Mobley, she smile and say, "Tell it again.” 

Now some people would say that story came from a book/movie called The Help.  But truth in that story came from a much older Source.

Fanny Crosby, blind from infancy, knew of that Source when she wrote:

Tell me the story of Jesus,
Write on my heart every word;
Tell me the story most precious,
Sweetest that ever was heard.

Red and yellow, black and white, we are ONE in His sight!

One blood, one race, from one man .... the race of mankind ... made in the very image of God.

And THAT is the WORD of God.