August 14 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading:

Nehemiah 13:23-31

²³In those days also saw I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab:
²⁴And their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews' language, but according to the language of each people.
²⁵And I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves.
²⁶Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin.
²⁷Shall we then hearken unto you to do all this great evil, to transgress against our God in marrying strange wives?
²⁸And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was son in law to Sanballat the Horonite: therefore I chased him from me.
²⁹Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, and the covenant of the priesthood, and of the Levites.
³⁰Thus cleansed I them from all strangers, and appointed the wards of the priests and the Levites, every one in his business;
³¹And for the wood offering, at times appointed, and for the firstfruits. Remember me, O my God, for good.

Devotional:

Solomon, for all his wisdom, was led into sin through marriage with godless women. 'The foreign women caused even him to sin' (13:26 NASB). In this startling sentence God reaches back into history and uses Solomon as an example and warning. If Solomon, with all his wisdom, was made to sin by marriage with unbelievers, what can we expect from those who are less wise than Solomon? A woman of beauty and physical charm has often led a man into temptation which he could not resist. There are many Delilahs and Jezebels with us today.

Young men and women need the starkness of this verse. The believer cannot assume that he or she might be able to exert influence on a prospective marriage partner that will lead to his or her salvation. We cannot go counter to God's law for marriage, presuming on His grace! There needs to be realistic cold thinking concerning mixed marriages.

Sometimes in our world things are far too fuzzy. We forget what a hard line there is between the child of God and the unbeliever. From the day a child enters kindergarten he needs to be reminded by his parents that he is different. Especially is this the case when it comes to marriage. If a person is 'kind,' or 'decent' we feel that a Christian could perhaps settle for this. We point to cases where after marriage the unbeliever has been won to Christ. Certainly Scripture encourages us to see that this can occur, but this is not God's law. Because He sometimes does reach down in His grace and save the unbelieving partner, we cannot presume upon Him to do this. We cannot spoil His image of Himself and the Church! We must marry only in the Lord. It is as clear as that!

We need to be much in prayer for our young people. Let us remind them of Solomon!