On that day the Book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people and there it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever be admitted into the assembly of God, because they had not met the Israelites with food and water but had hired Balaam to call a curse down on them. (Our God, however, turned the curse into a blessing.) When the people heard this law, they excluded from Israel all who were of foreign descent.
Before this, Eliashib the priest had been put in charge of the storerooms of the house of our God. He was closely associated with Tobiah, and he had provided him with a large room formerly used to store the grain offerings and incense and temple articles, and also the tithes of grain, new wine and oil prescribed for the Levites, singers and gatekeepers, as well as the contributions for the priests.
But while all this was going on, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I had returned to the king. (Nehemiah 13:1-6)
Nehemiah had been in Jerusalem for twelve years (Nehemiah 5:14). He had promised the king in the first chapter that he would return, so even though I’m sure he wanted to continue his work, he had to go. Unfortunately, everything started to unravel without his spiritual leadership.
It started with Eliashib subletting the temple of God to Tobiah. That ought to make you do a double-take. Remember Tobiah? Sanballat’s right-hand man. One of the big three. Worse, Tobiah was an Ammonite – a scriptural public enemy. Here we are only three chapters later, and the people have already broken one of their commitments from Chapter 10. Their first commitment was to follow the Law of God given through Moses. Deuteronomy 23:3-4 specifically states that Ammonites are not to be admitted into the temple.
How could Eliashib, the high priest…God’s man…the man who was supposed to be the chief spiritual leader of the Jews…how could he justify allowing one of the Jews’ chief enemies within the city walls, much less a room inside the temple? The answer is found in Nehemiah 13:28:
One of the sons of Joiada son of Eliashib the high priest was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite.
Eliashib’s grandson was married to Sanballat’s daughter! Talk about divided loyalties! We’re not totally sure what a “Horonite” was, but scholars think Sanballat was most likely a Samaritan. That means that while he probably had a claim to some Jewish genes, he was not considered to be Jewish. Remember just a few chapters ago when the Jews made a covenant with the Lord? The second part of the covenant was that they would not intermarry with the neighboring peoples (Nehemiah 10:30). That didn’t last long.
And it wasn’t just Eliashib’s grandson. The end of the chapter tells of other intermarriages. Broken commitment #2.
Moreover, in those days I saw men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab. Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or the language of one of the other peoples, and did not know how to speak the language of Judah. I rebuked them and called curses down on them.
I beat some of the men and pulled out their hair. I made them take an oath in God’s name and said: “You are not to give your daughters in marriage to their sons, nor are you to take their daughters in marriage for your sons or for yourselves…” (Nehemiah 13:23-25)
Why did Nehemiah care if the Jews intermarried with their neighbors? Doesn’t that seem a little prejudicial or even racist? No, Nehemiah’s motives were pure. This is not racial discrimination; it’s spiritual discrimination. His unbending attitude toward mixed marriage came from a desire to keep Israel from the temptation of following other gods. He knew the Israelites’ history and didn’t want to repeat it. After all, foreign wives were what led King Solomon away from the one true God and began the Israelites’ freefall into sin that eventually led to the Babylonian captivity.
King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. They were from nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the LORD; he did not follow the LORD completely, as David his father had done.
(1 Kings 11:1-6)
Because of his appetites for sex and power, Solomon took on 700 wives and 300 concubines in direct defiance to the Word of God. What a dummy! How did the wisest man who ever lived get turned into such a fool? Survey says…ding! Sex – at the top of the list. And believe me, it can do the same thing to us if we aren’t careful.
Sex can have incredible power over us – not just to attract us but to get beyond our defenses, as well. Most men are incredibly vulnerable directly following sex, because it unlocks the deeper parts of us that we don’t share during our more guarded moments. (How else can you explain Samson’s incredible gullibility while he lay with Delilah? Read Judges 16 if you need a refresher.)
If our wives want to talk about a sensitive issue, directly after sex is the time to do it. If they want to ask us a probing question and get an unfiltered response, that’s when they have the best chance. That intimate access is God-intended and allows for true oneness in our marriage. But it’s meant to be reserved for the wife to whom we have pledged our life. (That’s “wife” singular.) Solomon gave that kind of access to hundreds of women! How many of them used that time when Solomon’s gates were wide open to talk about the pagan gods of their people?
I’m convinced that one of the reasons why Paul tells us not to be unequally yoked is that he’s concerned about the potential of our unbelieving partner to pull us away from the Lord. In 2 Corinthians, he says:
Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14)
The word picture Paul is creating is one of two oxen joined by a wooden crosspiece or “yoke.” The two are joined so that they can work as a team, probably to plow a field. If one is strong and the other weak, the team won’t be able to plow a straight line. Unless the strong ox is able to do the work of both, it will be pulled toward the weak ox as the strong ox wearies.
Now consider what would happen if one of the oxen is dead. How difficult would it be for the live ox to walk a straight line? Nearly impossible, right? That’s the metaphor for the believer. Partner with an unbeliever in business, in marriage or in close, intimate friendship, and you’re partnering with someone who is dead to the things of God. It will be much easier for that person to pull you away from walking a straight line than it will be for you to carry the weight of both of you.
Eliashib allowed his grandson, a member of the priestly line, to marry into Sanballat’s family and become unequally yoked. Bad move. If Sanballat was a Samaritan, his family didn’t use the same set of scriptures as the Jews. How long before that started to create doubts in the young priest’s heart? Sure, it’s possible that Eliashib’s grandson could lead his wife to the Lord, but it rarely works that way. It’s a lot easier to pull someone down than it is to pick someone up.
