Deuteronomy 7:3-4 –
<3> You must not intermarry with them. Do not let your daughters and sons marry their sons and daughters, <4> for they will lead your children away from me to worship other gods. Then the anger of the LORD will burn against you, and he will quickly destroy you.
I read this and my thought immediately turned to Solomon. Think about it, God knew the fate of Israel and tried to warn them. Solomon of all people was granted wisdom, yet even he ignored Moses’ warning and married outside the nation of Israel. Today we think this is nuts, love can extend beyond religious boundaries. Yet Solomon’s marriage caused a split in the nation of Israel that had ramifications for generations to follow.
I often wonder if the different sects in Judaism that exist today relate back to Solomon’s taking an Egyptian wife. You can easily see in this example God knew the dangers and tried to warn the people. How many other times has God done this? Let me count the ways! Really the first 5 books of the Bible are there for a guide on how to live our day to day lives and remain in sync with God. Unfortunately, some of Jesus’ teaching have been interpreted that we no longer have to live by these guides. “Fulfill” gives the impression that we can ignore.
Now I don’t want to get into a long dissertation about how we should obey the law, but let’s explore this verse and how it applies to our day to day lives. Again today love conquers all and we don’t need to worry about one’s religious orientation. For some reason we think the Holy Spirit will work in their lives and all will be good. In reality what happens is our beliefs start to be dismissed or put “on the shelf” indefinitely. Eventually things erode due to fundamental differences in core beliefs. This gets compounded when add children into the mix. Now many times, and ours is one, this changes and you become one in your direction in Jesus, but from what I have seen that is rare.
Is religion a litmus test for a spouse? The answer is “mostly yes” for a harmonious marriage. Again it may work if both are dedicated to the religious/moral fundamentals of marriage, but it’s easier if everyone starts on the same page. As we see with Solomon, the wisest person in the Bible, his heart caused a split in the nation of Israel which still shakes the core foundation of their nation.