In Deuteronomy 23:3-4, God punished the Ammonites and Moabites for their opposition to Israel by denying any of them entrance into the assembly of God. At the time of Nehemiah, the remnant in Israel read from the Book of Moses, and rediscovered this decree. Nehemiah 13:1 reads, “So it was, when they had heard the Law, that they separated all the mixed multitude from Israel.”
Under Moses’ law, Israel was the chosen people of God. Their consecration secured the genealogy of the Savior, and prepared the world for the fulfillment of God’s scheme of redeeming man. As Paul wrote in Galatians 3, “Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.”
Today it is the Christian who is chosen by God, and separated from the world. Paul refers to Christians as inward Jews, whose “circumcision is that of the heart” (Romans 2:29).
Although Christians can come from every nation, it remains important that we separate ourselves from the world, through holiness. God’s promise remains, this time to us, as Paul instructed us, “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord… and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6:17-18).
