The Power of Influence
Choosing a life’s companion is next to the most important decision one has to make in life—second only to the decision to accept Christ as one’s Savior. Many times it helps or hinders one’s entrance into heaven. So with a burdend heart for your spiritual welfare, the following thoughts are given with a prayer that they may help guide you in choosing the one who will share your life.
“And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.” (Genesis 2:18) After God had created man, He saw that man needed a companion, one to share his life, his experiences, his interests, and be a “help meet.” So God took from Adam’s side a rib and made a woman and gave her to the man. “And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” (Genesis 2:21-24)
When God created man and woman, they were holy and pure and had companionship with Him. But because Eve, Adam’s wife, yielded to the deceptive influence of Satan (“The serpent beguiled me and I did eat” (Genesis 3:13)), she fell from the holy state in which God had created her, and took her companion with her. “And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” (Genesis 3:12) It is still true today that if one who has lived for God falls from grace, the holy state, he rarely falls alone, but most probably will cause someone else to lose out with God. Many times when husband and wife are both living for God, and one or the other loses his experience of salvation and turns again “to the weak and beggarly elements” (Galatians 4:9) of the world, the companion will be influenced or discouraged, and give up the Lord, also.
“The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.” (Genesis 6:2) Those who knew God were beguiled by the beauty of the daughters of men. “[They saw] that they were fair,” which was all they looked at, and followed the choice which their corrupted affections made. They had known God, but were beguiled by those who were strangers to God and godliness. They married strange wives and were unequally yoked with unbelievers. They did not consider God’s will in choosing wives, but followed their own desires instead of letting God choose wives for them. And what was the result of this? “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.” (Genesis 6:5-6) The offspring of these mixed, or unequal, marriages went farther and farther away from God and became so wicked that they were no more the sons of God. Iniquity abounded on the earth and it grieved God.
Dear saved young people, do not be beguiled by the ungodly daughters of men or sons of men. Some are very fair, very intelligent, educated, have charming personalities, but they will prove a snare to you. The sons of God got their eyes off God and were beguiled. That is the way Satan works. That is what happened to Eve. “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat.” (Genesis 3:6) When Eve looked at the forbidden fruit, the devil began to beguile her—how good, how pleasant to the eyes—and she disregarded God’s commandment and took of the forbidden thing. If we keep looking at something that is forbidden, the devil will reason with us of its good qualities; the fruit Eve ate was good for food and was pleasant to look upon. But God had said, “Ye shall not eat of it.” (Genesis 3:3) God desires His people to obey Him implicitly because He knows that to disobey, to become entangled with something or someone, however fair, however desirable, that is not pleasing to Him, will bring spiritual disaster.
It is far better to not keep company with the unsaved; to do so will be a snare to the saved. To go ahead and associate with and let one’s affection go out to the unsaved is treading on very dangerous ground, exposing one’s self to the wiles of the devil, and will most probably result in one’s losing out with God.
In Genesis 24 we read the story of Abraham sending his servant to his kindred to obtain a wife for his son, Isaac. He said to his servant, “And I will make thee swear by the LORD, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell: But thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac.” (Genesis 24:3-4) This passage of scripture shows how very important Abraham considered it to be that Isaac should take a wife who would worship the true God with him. The Canaanites did not know or worship the true God, but were idol worshippers. Abraham said unto his servant, “I will make thee swear by the LORD… that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites.” This is a most definite cornmand—“Thou shalt not.”
“And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite: Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.” (Genesis 26:34-35) Why were the Canaanite wives of Esau a grief of mind to Isaac and his wife Rebakah? The Hittite women were heathens, as were the people of the land, not knowing or worshipping the true God. In the Encyclopedia Brittanica there is an extensive account of the Hittite people. They were an ancient Oriental people, highly civilized, who ruled a great part of Asia Minor and Syria from 2000 to 1200 B.C. They worshipped many gods—the weather god, the sun goddess, the god of the fields, the heavens, the earth, mountains, rivers, wells, winds, clouds and many others. So these two Hittite women (daughters of Heth) were heathen, and did not worship the one true God, the God of Abraham and Isaac. They no doubt continued their worship of their heathen gods after they became the wives of Esau, and this could well be the cause of the grief of mind of Isaac and Rebekah. Oh, what sadness, heartache and grief godly parents suffer when their children take wives or husbands who do not know or worship the true, Living God, but worship and follow after the gods of this world, and influence the companions away from God. Esau’s marriages to the Canaanite women have been called foolish marriages, because the Canaanites were strangers to the blessings of Abraham. How foolish for one of God’s children to unite in marriage with one who is a stranger to God’s blessings.
“And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.” (Genesis 28:1) Isaac here commands Jacob not to become yoked up with the daughters of the heathen Canaanites, as did Esau. And Jacob went back to his mother’s homeland and took wives of his mother’s people, and through his lineage came our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.