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Abraham’s brother married his own niece. Jacob married two sisters, cousins of his own by his mother’s side. Judah married his own daughter-in—law, from the offspring of which marriage sprang our Lord Himself. Amram married his aunt, his father’s sister.
And like marriages prevailed among the Gentiles. The Athenians married half-sisters by the father’s side. The Spartans married half-sisters by the mother’s side. The Assyrians and Egyptians married full sisters. The Persians, Medians, Indians, and Ethiopians allowed marriage with mothers, daughters, and sisters. In the earlier periods of human history there was no restriction on marriage with relations. And marriage with near of kin seems to have been the common practice. The only hindrance was, not from marrying relations, but from going beyond them in marriage. There was a strong aversion to marriage with strangers, women of other tribes and creeds. Hence the call for Moses’ interference.
Moses took a broad, comprehensive view of things around him. He saw the state of the Gentile world and of the Jewish nation; he felt the need there was of reformation, but he also knew that any attempt at radical change would be hopeless. His object was as far as possible to restrain and ameliorate. He, or rather God in him, knew that the Israelites were incapable of being raised into a high condition of spiritual religion or social morality, and that any attempt to do so would only make matters worse with them than they were. And the sequel of the Jewish history shows the wisdom of the divine legislation by Moses. God, in His requirements of men, does not overlook their circumstances, or require of man what he is unable to perform.
The Jews came far short of even what Moses required of them. If, then, a higher standard, such as perfection demanded, had been given to them, what would have been the result? Their backsliding would have been all the greater, their transgressions the more numerous, their guilt the more heinous, their condition the more disastrous, and their reform the more hopeless. Hence many things which were not commended, far less approved, were tolerated among them on account of the hardness of their hearts.
Why, then, did God wink at certain things among the Gentiles, and suffer others among the Jews? Because centuries were to intervene ere on Calvary the only power which can melt the hardness of the human heart and enable man to repent, would be created. And this is the only power that can speak effectively to the heart. Law may restrain, but it can never melt or change the human heart. Hence, until this power was created, God did not call upon “all men everywhere to repent.” Moses, then, because of the hardness of their hearts, suffered many things among the Jews which were beneath the highest standard of morality and religion. And marriage with the sister of a deceased wife was one of them. Our standards, then, which demand compliance with the
