1 Kings 11:1-6
1 Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, 2 from the nations of which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel, “You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you; they will certainly turn your heart away to follow their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. 3 He had seven hundred wives, who were princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned his heart away. 4 For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away to follow other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of his father David had been. 5 For Solomon became a follower of Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and of Milcom the abhorrent idol of the Ammonites. 6 So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not follow the Lord fully, as his father David had done.
In today's religiously pluralist society, I often get asked, "why does it matter what religion my spouse is, we can all be what we want, right?"
The answer to this question usually takes a few minutes of warming up, which I will not do here because I want people to actually read this, but in the end, it comes down to this, we either believe the scripture or we do not.
2 Corinthians 6 tells us, "14 Do not be mismatched with unbelievers; for what do righteousness and lawlessness share together, or what does light have in common with darkness? 15 Or what harmony does Christ have with Belial, or what does a believer share with an unbeliever? 16 Or what agreement does the temple of God have with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, 'I will dwell among them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.'"
You see, Solomon serves as one of the best examples of what can happen to us when our hearts become set on a person who is not in tune with God. We think we will be the one to convert them, but often they become the bait that lures us out into our base desires, since the scripture tells us that our hearts want to sin to begin with.
In the case of Solomon, that was compounded by the myriad of wives that he had, which only made things worse as he followed his desires and not the scripture. Yet do we really think we are better, wiser, smarter, or more holy that Solomon, whom God hand picked to build the temple in Jerusalem?
Those who have known me for a long time know that I am not a believer in a rigid pre-destination theology. God may know what we will choose, He may also know the outcome of those choices, but the choice is still ours to make, and that includes who we attach our lives to.
It may not be a popular thing to say in today's pluralistic world, but as a believer, you have a responsibility to God to find someone who will help you to stay close to Him, and to raise your family in His ways. That means BOTH men and women.
Dating, as a form of evangelism, rarely works, often leads to a ruining of faith, and most often ends in spiritual disaster. This is why Paul warns us against it. So that we do not end up like Solomon.
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