"Principles of Separation" - That is the title provided above Nehemiah Chapter 13.
- - - - -
Nehemiah said (Neh 13:25...) "and made them swear by God, saying, Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves."
That is a most important principle indeed. Pretty obvious actually, once you or I stop to think about it!
Sometimes we are fooled into making terrible mistakes.
At one time this happened to Joshua as the Gibeonites fooled them into making a covenant with them. The record of that event is found in Joshua 9:14-20. Realizing the higher principle of a covenant made before God, Joshua did not break that covenant by killing the Gibeonites. The consequences of that error are what they are. Even to this day.
On another occasion King David committed a terrible sin by having an adulterous affair with Bathsheba and by murdering her husband. Yet, because David humbled himself before God and confessed his sin, God pardoned David. Correcting his ways did not imply separating himself from Bathsheba. King David stayed true to his covenanted relationship with Bathsheba. That is, in spite of the fact that he committed a most serious sin by his way of initiating that covenant.
One of the highest principles that I find being taught in the Bible is the sanctity of the Covenant constituting each and every family relationship between a man and a female. Indeed, per Genesis 1:26-27, that Covenant constitutes, more than anything else, the very image of God. Shattering that image of God is a very serious thing indeed.
Making sure we separate ourselves from ungodly people prior to making covenantal relationships with them is a most important principle indeed. But once we are one with such people by a covenant relationship, what are we to do? What does Jesus, our Savior, teach us to do?:
.
Matthew 19:6 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
Mark 10:9 What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
.
Paul also has some important words of God to share with us re this matter. Let's not forget the advise of 1 Corinthians 7:12-16!
Let's never take our incentives from men while forgetting to give priority to the very Word of God!
.
Per Numbers 12:1, even Moses married a woman from a foreign country. We notice how that per Num 12:2 Moses' own siblings objected against this relationship. Yet, God stood up for Moses and for Moses' covenanted family relationship with that Ethiopian woman. Even to the point that we read per Numbers 12:3 that:
.
"(Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)"
.
In his prayer to God, as recorded in Ezra 9:12, Ezra reiterates the principle and the oath recorded in Nehemiah 13:25. Yes, Ezra and the princes of Ezra 9 and 10 confessed their sins and humbled themselves. Yet, nowhere in the Bible do I find any indication that the Lord Himself gave instructions for the people at that time, or at any other time, to separate themselves from their covenanted family relationships.
To the contrary, the initiative, as recorded per Ezra 10:2-5, the initiative came from a certain Shechaniah, and Ezra followed suit, making that wholesale separation of covenanted family relationships little less than a mob action. If we consider carefully the consequences of that oath of Ezra 10:5, it should not be hard for us to realize that there were no blessings of God inherent in that action of men, albeit, no doubt, the intentions of those men were nothing but the very best they knew at the time. Yet, they were being misguided by one another. They did not humble themselves by turning to the direct instructions of God Himself.
.
I am convinced that there are important lessons in this for all of us to consider and to learn from!
May we each and all humble ourselves before our Maker! May each and all of us turn towards God and study more deeply the fundamentals of the Holy Writ, to the effect that...
The Peace of God, our Redeemer, may rest over each our families and homes forever!
