Foreign Wives and 401(k)s

I was reading, again, the part of Ezra where the Israelites are confessing their unfaithfulness to God which has resulted in intermarriage with the surrounding nations.

This has always deeply offended me.

Today, though, I realized that wives and children represented very different things to this culture. Children were one's legacy - one's immortality, almost. To relinquish one's children was an incredibly humbling thing to do. These men were effectively bankrupting themselves, not just in terms of their honor and significance, but also with respect to their "retirements." Before United Auto Workers and Social Security, children were your pension plan, your 401(k). To send these children back to their mother's families was to relinquish significant wealth with no hope of recovery.

And the wives were like good credit ratings. If a man got into real trouble, his wife's family was very likely to pitch in and help him get back on his feet. It would cost him, of course. Even relatives seldom give stuff away - but it was an economic lifeline that was critical within that social structure. (Added 3/31/09) The fundamental economic nature of marriage is confirmed in Nehemiah 10:30-32. Not marrying pagan people is the first in a list of commands of the Lord the Israelites promise to follow. All of the other commands they promise to follow involve money or property.

Of course, this all reflects a much less egalitarian society. Nevertheless, if we are to understand the passage, we have to see that as the Israelites attempt to rebuild the Temple, they are prepared to give away most of the resources they have relied on up to that point.

There is a lesson in there somewhere.