Unequally Yoked

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Deuteronomy 7;3-4, 11, 25-26     You shall not intermarry with them,  giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods.  Then the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. . . . You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today. . . . . The carved images of their gods you shall burn with fire.  You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the LORD your God.   

Exodus  34:15-16     You must not make a treaty of any kind with the people living in the land.  They lust after their gods, offering sacrifices to them.  They will invite you to join them in their sacrificial meals, and you will go with them.  They you will accept their daughters, who sacrifice to other gods, as wives for you sons.  And they will seduce your sons to commit adultery against me by worshiping other gods.          

1 Kings 2:1-4     When David’s time to die drew near, he commanded Solomon his son, saying, “I am about to go the way of all the earth.  Be strong, and show yourself a man, and keep the charge of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his rules, and his testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn, that the Lord may establish his word that he spoke.

1 Kings 6:11-13      Now the word of the LORD came to Solomon, “Concerning this house that you are building, if you will walk in my statutes and obey my rules and keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will establish my word with you, which I spoke to David you father  .And I will swell among the children of Israel and will not forsake my people Israel.”  

1 Kings 11:1-11      Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the prophet of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.”  Solomon clung to these in love.  He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines.  And his wives turned away his heart.  For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods,  and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.   For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.  So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and did not wholly follow the LORD, as David his father had done.  Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods.   “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the LORD, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me,  says the Lord Almighty.”

Ezra 9:1-2     After these thing had been done, the officials approached me and said, “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their abominations, from the Canaanites, the Hittitites. the Perizzites. the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.  For they have taken some of their daughters to be wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands,  And in this faithlessness the hand of the officials and chief men as been foremost,”  

2 Corinthians 6:14-18      Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.  For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness?  or what fellowship has light with darkness?  What accord has Christ with Belial?  Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?  What agreement has the temple of God with idols?  For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the LORD, and touch no unclean things; then I will welcome you,

1 Peter 3:1-6       Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct.  Do not let your adorning be external–the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear–but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious..  For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord.  And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

 

God initially gave the Israelites commands to not intermarry with the nations they were going to conquer and defeat.  It was not about differences in culture, but knowing the differences in God, and the false hand-made gods the people made.   They did not believe in the ho the ONLY true God. 

God is the only God, Creator, not the wooden or molten objects created by man that for some reason, folks would begin to pray to, to ask for favor in certain areas, to believe this man-created object was God, had power, offered protection, could make someone fertile.  But because so many of the pagan nations believed these man-made objects could offer them their wishes, grant their prayers, they continued to seek them out.  They are inanimate, and God, His Son, and the Holy Spirit are ALL living.  And then these crazy folks believed these “gods” demanded that they sacrifice their children in order to receive what they were asking for.   Sacrifice your children?  How can anyone rational do that?  How could anyone believe that a “god” would ask that?

God, knowing David’s heart, promised him a member of his family would always rule.  The humans who came after David, descended from the royal family of David did not always do the kingship and rule so well.  There were more in Judah who ruled and loved the Lord, but not all.  So God had no choice but to capture the Israelis, and have them conquered by Assyria.  But Judah, although somewhat better than Israel, were not following the Lord’s commands 100%.

When David died and Solomon became King, he was initially all in.  He wanted to follow his father’s steps, doing God’s will, follow the way God led.  He prayed and when God asked what his desire was, Solomon asked for knowledge and wisdom.  God gave him knowledge, wisdom, and discernment.   Initially, Solomon ruled with wisdom and tried to find fairness and justice in the cases which came before him.  When two harlots who were roommates had babies within a couple days of one another.  One woman rolled over on her infant son and suffocated him.   She then snatched up the other infant while the second mother slept, and placed her son near the second mother, and when that woman awoke, the first lied and said it had been her child that died, and the first held her true son.  The women argued and the case came before King Solomon.   As he listened to the two women argue over the remaining baby, he decided that the only “fair” and “equitable” outcome was to threaten to cut the child in two.  Only then did the actual mother scream “NO” so at least the child could live.  The wisdom God had given him allowed him to be able to discern that the actual mother would not allow the child’s death to satisfy the argument.  She loved her child more than the outcome of who would raise him.

But gradually, even against all God had warned about not getting involved with foreign countries and their gods–Solomon was suckered in and had 700 wives.  I cannot imagine a man being willing to have more than three at one time, never mind having 700 and 300 concubines.  But he allowed himself to be drawn into their worshiping of foreign gods–when he knew the one and only TRUE God, but he allowed himself to be drawn into sin.   That is the first couple of commandments.  Yet, somehow his weakness for women, pulled him totally away for the only God, to following other gods, and committing sinful acts.

God did not want his people joining closely with cultures who believed in false gods.  I remember when to see a white woman with a black man was unusual.  Certainly, there would be different struggles for a like couple, but all couples have struggles and stress–whether it be stress, work, or just the scorn of others judging this couples’ love and dedication.  And I believe many of these mixed couple suffered greatly from the prejudice they endured–and their children endured.  Now it is not uncommon to see a mixed race couple.  But God’s words were designed for a believer to hesitate to move forward on a  relationship where there is one who believes strongly in God, Almighty and the other who does not believe in a deity.

Many of these people who worshiped the foreign gods, would be willing to sacrifice their own children to be granted their desire, their prayer.  I cannot fathom believing for an instant that a man-made object could grant me ANYTHING that would be worth me sacrificing my child.

But then he gathered over 700 wives.   Oh my, I would have gone nuts with all the chatter, sniping, and caterwauling!   I am sure they lived in many separate houses, but they ended up turning this good and wanting to be righteous, God loving man to every other false deity there could be.   How could you fall so low?   To have known the Lord, and his father’s love and dependance on God, and decide because of a beauty, a body, and something female, that he should tie himself to that and give up his righteousness?  You were between a breeding cow and an ox.   So very sad–and your crazy decisions–I know, I know, God gave each of us free well and free choices. . .   But how the mighty have fallen  This was NOT what God had discussed with Solomon early on in his kingship.  He blatantly disobeyed God’s statutes and followed these women and their idols. . . and in the end was the cause of God allowing the Assyrians to destroy Israel.  He threw away his father’s covenant with God by choosing to follow many women who followed false gods, and took 700 wives, many foreigners and those who followed idols.  He knew the Old Testament and the laws God had laid out in the Torah.  Yet, these women from other cultures who believed in false gods, he let himself e swayed into believing the and their false deities.  

But as much as the royal line of David messed up in Israel and to a lesser degree in Judah–they still messed up badly, and cost the kingdom to fall.  But even with all of that God ensured that descendants of David came to rule as God sent His only begotten Son , no sin within, and a loving teacher, to take our place in hell, taking on our sins, so we did not have to face that agony and instead be able to reside and know we were to live in eternity with Him, only believing in Him and acknowledging Him as Savior, repenting of our sins–past and present.

Lord, thank you for all you have done for me.  You have so blessed me and guided me in my walk with You and ‘mybellaviews.’