Part 4 - Unequally Yoked Series

The Home as God Intended

Part 4 – Unequally Yoked

Rev. Bruce A. Shields

First Baptist Church of Tawas City Michigan

www.TawasBaptist.org

WELCOME

PRAYER

Part 4 of our series on the home as God intended, we will examine unequally yoked marriage.

We know from the scriptures what Gods plan for man and woman was to be.

He explains quite clearly how the house was to operate.

But man was led astray by his flesh, a path which led to the flood by the 6th chapter of Genesis.

How many men today are led astray by their flesh?

How many of us today choose what we or our flesh want over the good of our wives, family and even God?

Clearly between Genesis 1:1 and 6, man lost God’s plan for relationships.

So after the creation of man, what did God tell us about man’s responsibility to the family unit?

In Genesis 2:15-24, we see that God’s intension was for man to cultivate and keep the garden. This is sometimes referred to as the “dominion mandate”.

From the definitions we can see the responsibilities included working, serving, worshipping, guarding, protecting and saving.

Sounds like a lot of work for one guy!

But God created for him a suitable helper, a woman who would compliment Adam’s sills and abilities, a pleasing contrast that would allow Adam to fulfill his obligation to God.

It was this vision of service and harmony that mankind had lost, and because of this, we have been spiraling ever since.

Even before man fell in sin, God had a plan to redeem him back into relationship with God.

The first phase of this plan lay in the nation of Israel, God’s chosen people.

It was through this people that God intended to mend what had been broken.

He said to Abraham;

Genesis 22:17-18

“I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring [a] all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."

Unfortunately, however, Israel fell short of God’s plans.

Instead of providing an example of a people with an intimate relationship with their God, they, as the scriptures say, prostituted themselves to many idols and grew more distant with the priests, then the judges and the kings.

Like His relationship with Israel, it is God’s intention that our marriage relationships today should reflect Christ’s relationship with His bride, the Church.

Although God gave Israel many teachings, one sticks out which is important to our topic today.

They were commanded “not to marry foreign wives”

Now before we misinterpret God’s word into something racial, let me make this clear.

When God commanded the Israelites not to marry foreigners, it’s not because they are a different color, or from another country, or because they look different.

It was simply because they worshipped idols and pagan gods.

God knew that if the Israelites were to marry those who did not worship the true God of heaven, that the influences of these foreign wives would influence and eventually poison the house, the husband, the children and the bloodline.

Deuteronomy 7:3-4

“Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 4 for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the LORD’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you.”

God’s reasoning is clear.

God did not want His people to intermarry with those who were locked into sin.

He did not want them to merge in with these people, to intermarry, giving and taking wives until the cultures were so intertwined that their enemies sin became their own.

God foresaw this, and thus commanded against it.

But Israel repeatedly refused to follow His command.

And this always resulted in their adoption of idol worship.

The beautiful image of intimacy with God that He intended became corrupted and polluted by sin.

The Bible is clear on this. Time and again, God brought His people back to Himself, only for them to fall away from Him under the influence of their neighbors.

So today, can we truly believe that our faith is so strong that it could survive this test, when dozens of generations have already shown they could not?

Clearly we can see in Israel’s pattern the danger of disobeying God.

God’s commandment stands eternal, He has instructed His people to marry within the family of God, and we can easily recognize the wisdom of His command.

So, with this in mind, what does the New Testament say about the matter?

One of the most quoted verses in the Bible on this topic is;