Old and New: Devotions From Time of Grace MinistryNäide

You could marry only fellow Israelites then

Do you know anyone who is party to an arranged marriage, i.e., where the parents choose their child’s spouse? That custom is rare in America but more common in countries like India.

In the Old Covenant, the heavenly Father set boundaries around a select group of marriage prospects; he wanted marriage to stay within Israel. Here was his law: Moses told the Israelites, “When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations . . . do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods” (Deuteronomy 7:1,3,4).

This was not just Jewish chauvinism. It was a matter of survival. Israelite people frequently broke this commandment, and the unions with unbelievers usually turned out to be spiritual disasters. Even great King Solomon, the wisest man on the face of the earth, had his heart turned from God by his foreign, idol-worshiping wives.

The point was not to preserve Israelite culture. The point was to keep the often wayward Israelites from throwing away their faith in the God of Abraham.