What other scriptures warn against being led astray by foreign influences? Setting the Stage: Solomon’s Warning (1 Kings 11:2) “They came from the nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, ‘You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.’ Yet Solomon clung to these women in love.” From the Law: Early Commandments Against Foreign Entanglements • Deuteronomy 7:3-4 — “Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your children away from following Me to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD will burn against you, and He will swiftly destroy you.” • Exodus 34:15-16 — “Do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, lest they prostitute themselves with their gods and sacrifice to them, and invite you, and you eat from their sacrifices, and you take some of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters prostitute themselves with their gods and cause your sons to prostitute themselves with their gods.” • Leviticus 20:23 — “You must not follow the practices of the nations I am driving out before you, for they committed all these things, and I abhorred them.” Historical Echoes: When Israel Ignored the Warning • Joshua 23:12-13 — “For if you ever turn away and cling to the remnant of these nations that remain among you and intermarry with them… they will become a snare and a trap for you, a scourge in your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land that the LORD your God has given you.” • Nehemiah 13:26-27 — “Was it not because of such women that Solomon king of Israel sinned? … Why then should we hear now that you too are doing all this terrible evil and acting unfaithfully against our God by marrying foreign women?” • Judges 3:5-7 — “The Israelites lived among the Canaanites… and took their daughters in marriage… and they served the Baals and Asherahs.” Wisdom Literature: Personal Safeguards Against Seduction • Proverbs 2:16-17 — “It will rescue you from the forbidden woman, from the stranger with seductive words, who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.” • Proverbs 5:3-4 — “For the lips of an adulteress drip honey… but in the end she is bitter as wormwood.” • Proverbs 7:25-27 — “Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways… Her house is the road to Sheol.” • Psalm 106:35-36 — “They mingled with the nations and adopted their customs. They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them.” Prophetic Voices: Calling God’s People Back • Hosea 4:12 — “A spirit of prostitution leads them astray; they are unfaithful to their God.” • Isaiah 30:1 — “Woe to the rebellious children… who make alliances, but not by My Spirit, heaping sin upon sin.” • Jeremiah 10:2 — “Thus says the LORD: Do not learn the way of the nations.” New Testament Insight: Guarding the Heart Today • 1 Corinthians 15:33 — “Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company corrupts good character.’” • 2 Corinthians 6:14-17 — “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers… ‘Therefore come out from among them and be separate,’ says the Lord.” • James 4:4 — “Friendship with the world is hostility toward God.” • 1 John 2:15-17 — “Do not love the world or anything in the world… The world is passing away… but whoever does the will of God remains forever.” Bringing It Together: A Consistent Theme Scripture, from the Law through the Prophets and into the New Testament, consistently warns that close alliances with ungodly influences—whether foreign nations, idolatrous practices, or worldly systems—pull the heart away from wholehearted devotion to the LORD. The call is clear: remain distinct, guard the affections of the heart, and cling to the One true God. |
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