In Ezra, chapter nine, verse two, Ezra arrives in Jerusalem, and he discovers that many of the people, including priests, Levites, and rulers, had married women who worshipped other gods and practiced the heathen abominations and impurities, as in verses one, two, and eleven, respectively. In the Old Testament, intermarriage with the ungodly is prohibited in the Law of Moses, as in Exodus thirty-four, verses eleven through sixteen, Deuteronomy seven, verses one through four, and Psalms one hundred and six, verse thirty-five. The New Testament likewise forbids new covenant people to wed unbelievers, as in First Corinthians seven, verse thirty-nine, and Second Corinthians six, verse fourteen, accordingly.
Many corruptions lurk out of the view of the most careful rulers. Some of the people disobeyed the express command of God, which forbade all marriages with the heathen. Disbelief of God’s all-sufficiency is at the bottom of the sorry shifts we make to help ourselves. They exposed themselves and their children to the peril of idolatry that had ruined their church and nation. Carnal professors may make light of such connections and try to explain away the warnings to be separate, but those who are best acquainted with the word of God will treat the subject.
Believers today must forebode the worst from such unions. The evils excused and even pleaded for by many professors astonish and cause regret in the true believer. All who profess to be God’s people should strengthen those who appear and act against vice and profaneness. The difference between the godly and ungodly, clean and unclean, is the lifestyle of the one to proclaim they are servants of God. The beginning of the relationship with God starts in the home away from church. We cannot be leaders or believers of God if we lead or believe ourselves into wrongdoing before the eyes of the Lord. Although the public does not see how we live, God does and will spiritually let those in a clean relationship with Him know, too, at some point.