What God Joined Together - Family Radio

Israelite married a heathen wife, he was to divorce that wife, which was the way
Ezra and the other leaders understood that law. Ezra 10:10-12:
And Ezra the priest stood up, and said unto them, Ye have transgressed,
and have taken strange wives, to increase the trespass of Israel. Now
therefore make confession unto the Lord God of your fathers, and do his
pleasure: and separate yourselves from the people of the land, and from
the strange wives. Then all the congregation answered and said with a loud
voice, As thou hast said, so must we do.
We read in Ezra 10:16-17:
And the children of the captivity did so. And Ezra the priest, with certain
chief of the fathers, after the house of their fathers, and all of them by their
names, were separated, and sat down in the first day of the tenth month to
examine the matter. And they made an end with all the men that had taken
strange wives by the first day of the first month.
Combining the commands of Deuteronomy 7:2-4 and Isaiah 52:11 with
the last two chapters of Ezra, we see that the earthly application of the first
ceremonial law concerning marriage is that there was Biblical divorce. If a
man violated the law of Deuteronomy 7:2-4 by marrying a heathen wife, the
law of Isaiah 52:11 decreed that he was to correct that sinful situation by
divorcing that wife.
The spiritual or heavenly meaning introduced by these laws continues
today. In II Corinthians 6:14-17 God declares:
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship
hath righteousness with unrighteousness and what communion hath light
with darkness And what concord hath Christ with Belial or what part
hath he that believeth with an infidel And what agreement hath the temple
of God with idols for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said,
I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall
be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate,
saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.
God is emphasizing that believers are not to be unequally yoked to
anything that is of the kingdom of Satan. This can be someone we are planning
to marry, or it can be any situation in which we become so entangled with the
world that it is like being married to the world.
If we find this condition in our lives, we are to separate ourselves from it.
We are to turn away from the unclean condition. Turning away from the world
is what God was typifying by the Biblical divorce presented in the last two
chapters of Ezra.
4 What God hath joined together...