25
Jan

No Mixing

   Posted by: Joshuah   in OT, holiness, no mixing

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“You shall be holy to me, for I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.” (Lev 20:26)

We mentioned it elsewhere recently: One of the basic biblical principles is “no mixing”, or the separation of the clean from the unclean, brethren from non brethren, the holy from the profane. “Holy” means “set aside, separate”, so holiness lies at the core of this principle of “no mixing”. God calls His chosen people to be holy as He is holy, and to separate themselves from everything that defiles them, including other peoples.

Another aspect consistently mentioned in context with “no mixing” is that of idolatry. Mixing with other peoples is a snare to Israel to go whoring after other gods (Deu 7:16 or 7:25, for example), but the 10 Commandments clearly forbid idolatry:

“You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exo 20:3)

Mind you, this indicates that indeed there are other gods, and that God’s chosen people are not to turn to them instead of the LORD their God.

So if God’s chosen people ignore the concept of holiness and the principle of “no mixing”, they are guilty of the sin of idolatry. God created everything according to its kind, and He separated the heavens from the earth so that the two realms would not be mixed, just as He separated the day from the night (Gen1:1-8). When heavenly beings violated this separation to come down to earth and have children with human women, God’s punishment both for them and for mankind was most severe (Gen 6:1-7).

The concept of “no mixing” is a very practical one. The case laws give us several examples that illustrate the principle and at the same time make it clear that faith is for all of life and not just for an hour on Sunday mornings. If we follow God, we are to follow him 24 hours a day 365 days a year, and in all aspects of life. So apart from the obvious call to stay away from other peoples and their gods, you find a prohibition against clothing of mixed thread (Deu 22:11) and against plowing with an uneven yoke (Deu 22:10). And if you look at the Dietary Laws for example (Lev 11), you find the clean animals separated from the unclean along the lines of whether or not these animals violate the separation of life and death – those animals that are carnivorous, scavengers or omnivorous are not considered food, as they eat the blood of other animals in which is the life, thereby breeching the barrier between life and death. Blood is not to be eaten (Gen 9:4, Lev 17:11), nor are semen and blood to be mixed, which is why a wife is to be separate from her husband during her monthly bleeding (Lev 15; 18:19).

“No mixing” in terms of brethren is a somewhat difficult topic, as most of what the bible has to say about this would be classified as hate speech today. But if you want to follow God’s Law Word, you better not marry anyone who is not your kind, or adopt children from parents who aren’t. It is rather common amongst American Christians these days to adopt little Asian dolls when they either won’t or can’t have children anymore, but as well as their intentions might be, they are violating the principle of “no mixing”.
“No mixing” goes beyond the plain differences of race though. We are called to put the evil away from among us, so criminals who endanger the brethren community are not brethren anymore, but are to be dealt with according to God’s judgment and the corresponding punishment (Deu 17:2-7, for example). I suppose you are aware of the fact that there is no such thing as a prison in Mosaic Law – you find cities of refuge for those who kill someone by accident (Deu 19:5-6), but otherwise, the punishment is rather straight forward and basically results in restitution, and if a life is taken, in death (read Exodus 21 and 22 for a number of examples).

If you look for it, you find the principle of “no mixing” at work all through the Scriptures, both in the big things and in the small. We should not chalk it off lightly, as people are wont to do these days.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 25th, 2008 at 4:12 pm and is filed under OT, holiness, no mixing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

6 comments so far

David Brown
 1 

“But if you want to follow God’s Law Word, you better not marry anyone who is not your kind” – so are people with darker skin color “different kinds” from caucasians in your opinion?

January 24th, 2010 at 5:36 pm
Joshuah
 2 

Yes indeed, David.

January 24th, 2010 at 6:01 pm
David Brown
 3 

So how specifically do you delineate kinds among skin color?

January 24th, 2010 at 6:40 pm
Joshuah
 4 

Primarily by observation.

January 24th, 2010 at 6:58 pm
JH
 5 

With all due respect, the Bible does not forbid racial marriage, or “mixing” at all. These are misinterpretations of the scriptures. On the contrary, The Bible states that “God is impartial, and every man or woman fearing him is acceptable to him, no matter what nation, people, tribe or tongue.” The only instance where this would be forbidden, would be if a christian lived in a land where interracial marriage was against the law, as we must obey the laws of the land. However, there would be nothing wrong with moving to a country where one could marry interracially.

May 12th, 2010 at 5:21 pm
Joshuah
 6 

Thanks for your comment JH. We don’t agree, as you can imagine. God’s law is law in principle. Here are a couple of the laws dealing with the *principle* of mixing, which are grounded in the sixth commandment, Thou Shalt not Kill: Lev. 18:22-23, Lev. 19:19, Deut. 22:9-11.

And here is a story to read: Numbers 25
And let’s not forget the NT application of it as expounded on by Paul. II Cor 6:14.

The burden of God’s law is against inter-religious, inter-racial, and inter-cultural marriage; what we call mixing. One should know the letter of and be able to apply the principle or *spirit* of the Law-Word of God.

Mixing, hybridization, unequal yoking: God forbids it, and the state god so many people seem to look to for their standard doesn’t force it, so the point about obeying the laws of the land in this respect is moot, although, interestingly enough, laws against miscegenation were in effect in North America since colonial times until very recently. I wonder how that changed…hmmm.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-miscegenation_laws

In North America, laws against interracial marriage and interracial sex existed and were enforced in the Thirteen Colonies from the late seventeenth century onwards, and subsequently in several US states and US territories until 1967.

Miscegenation has become increasingly accepted in the United States since the Civil Rights movement and up to the present day.

May 13th, 2010 at 6:38 am

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