“…swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites…” Genesis 24:3

“When Esau was forty years old, he took Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite to be his wife, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.” Genesis 26:34-35

Clear back in Genesis, God’s Word instructs us about the sin of a believer marrying a non-believer. This was not about ethnicity, it was a spiritual matter. Throughout the rest of scripture the same message is repeated in seventy-five percent of the books of the Bible, either by direct teaching, or through narratives that record the disasters that befall those who disregard God’s revealed will in this matter.

This brevity of this column disallows citing more instances, or explaining the sad and disastrous fallout that is the result of disobeying this clear teaching of the Bible.

Why does this pastor frequently bring this matter up? Because God’s people frequently insist that they know better so that God’s Word does not apply to them—as though God speaks so often about this, but somehow didn’t realize that these people’s circumstances were unique and therefore gained them exemption.

Although this is a marriage issue, more fundamentally, it is an “authority of scripture” issue.

Let us enter into marriages as an act of worship by obeying God’s Word about who we marry.

BTW: Once a person falls in love, reason usually evaporates, so wisdom says do not allow yourself to enter a relationship that could even hypothetically lead to marriage—because once one falls in love, it is usually too late.