Did Moses break the law by marrying a wife outside Israel? 

In Numbers 12, a problem arose when Moses’ siblings, Miriam and Aaron, began to speak against him because of his marriage with an Ethiopian (Cushite) woman. 

Numbers 12:1(NKJV)

Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian woman.

Now it is widely believed that Moses broke the law by marrying outside Israel. After giving out laws to the children of Israel on who not to marry, he should at least have led by example. 

But one striking thing in this chapter that should get us thinking is what God said about him in the seventh verse. 

Numbers 12:6–7(NKJV)

6. Then He said, If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, make Myself known to him in a vision; I speak to him in a dream.

7. Not so with My servant Moses; He is faithful in all My house.

Would a faithful and impartial God say this about someone that chose to despise the law? Or does God judge people’s unrighteousness on different weighing scales? 

Absolutely not. 

Moses did not break the law by marrying a Cushite. 

The law about avoiding marriages with people outside Israel was actually not about EVERY nation outside the country but specifically about the ungodly nations that were dwelling in the land that God was going to give them—the nations they were about to dispossess of the land. 

Exodus 34:10–16(NKJV)

10. And He said: "Behold, I make a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the LORD. For it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.

11. Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I am driving out from before you the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.

12. Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be a snare in your midst.

13. But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images

14. (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),

15. lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they play the harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods, and one of them invites you and you eat of his sacrifice,

16. and you take of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters play the harlot with their gods and make your sons play the harlot with their gods.

These nations were full of wickedness and idolatry, and Moses knew that by having marriage ties with them, the Israelites would become ensnared into worshipping their gods, thereby breaking the first two of the ten commandments. 

Deuteronomy 7:1–4(NKJV)

1. "When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you,

2. and when the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them.

3. Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son.

4. For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the LORD will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly.

So it was about these specific nations. 

Deuteronomy 9:4–5(NKJV)

4. "Do not think in your heart, after the LORD your God has cast them out before you, saying, "Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land'; but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out from before you.

5. It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the word which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

So Moses did not marry from any of these nations; he did not break the law or despise the covenant of God with Israel. 

And following the story, we see that what actually inspired the dissent by Miriam and Aaron was not zealousness for God but envy. 

Blessings.

Victor Ibosiola © 2023