Nehemiah 13:1-3 says, "On that day the Book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people and there it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever be admitted into the assembly of God, because they had not met the Israelites with food and water but had hired Balaam to call a curse down on them. (Our God, however, turned the curse into a blessing.) When the people heard this law, they excluded from Israel all who were of foreign descent." The footnote in the Concordia Self-Study Bible for this section references Deuteronomy 23:3-6.
I wonder how this last sentence of the verses above fits with other passages in the Old Testament which welcome God-fearing foreigners? Some of these include Exodus 12:48, Leviticus 19:34, Deuteronomy 10:17-18, Deuteronomy 16:11, Deuteronomy 31:12, Joshua 8:33, 1 Kings 8:41-43, and Isaiah 56:3-7. Ruth is another example. She was even a Moabitess (see again Deuteronomy 23:3-6) and yet was a major player in Israel and a part of the family line of Jesus. In fact, if you go to www.biblegateway.com and search "foreigner," you get six pages of verses, most of them Old Testament law passages, highlighing how foreigners should be included in the way of life of Israel under God.
The commentaries don't really address my question. My thinking is, given that the context of this section of Nehemiah is that Israel is once again turning away from God and a major cause of this is foreign influence (intermarriage), these foreigners are people who stand against God. Therefore in this situation it was best for Israel to exclude them. Ezekiel 44:9 is the passage I found that seems to sum up this idea the best--that being foreign isn't the issue, it's being spiritually foreign.
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