In this present perilous age and time, like towards the end of the first world of Noah, a special temptation abounds that seems to tempt the children of God to unite in marriage with the children of the world. It is not without reasons, strong reasons, that God expressly warn His people against such evil. God is not un-benevolent or lacking empathy when He gave us that unpassable boundary to guide our walk in this life.
A marriage of unequal yoke fellows where sons of God are married to the daughters of men may produce “mighty men… men of renown” (Gen 6:4), but like Ismaheel, the ungodly seed of Abraham’s union with Hagar, they will be corrupt and troublesome to the children of God when they come of age. Such homes will breed brillant and successful vipers. “The wickedness of a people is great indeed, when noted sinners are men renowned among them.” (Matthew Henry). This is one of many reasons for the chaos the world finds itself and what our societies are turning into. Children born into this kind of union are most likely to be taught the ways of the world than raised up like Isaac in God’s holy way.
Marriage is a special institution and a lifelong journey, instituted by God for the purpose of santification, procreation and illustration. The first insitituion God gave men is that of marriage. Christ’s first miracle was at a marriage ceremony, and the Bible ends with marriage feast. It is divine in all its components, because it has a special place in God’s plan for mankind.
Ungodly mothers will not train up children in the way they should go; and husbands who have taken the wrong step of marrying ungodly wives cannot prove to be very exemplary or authoritative fathers.
– Albert Barnes
In Gen 6:2-4 we read:
“And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
“That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
“There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”
The Spirit of God has pressed this truth upon the spirit of just men from time immemorial, and they have been conisistent in warning God’s people against this treasonable sin against the Kingdom, that there should not be intermarriage between a clean soul and an unclean soul, between the sanctified and the unsanctified, between the holy and the profane.
Mathew Poole (1624–1679), a faithful commentator, commented on these verses:
“The word men being here taken in an ill sense, for such as had nothing in them but the nature of men, which is corrupt and abominable, and were not sons of God, but foreigners and strangers to Him, and apostates from Him.
“These unequal matches with persons of a false religion are every where condemned in Scripture as sinful and pernicious, as Genesis 26:35 Exodus 34:16 1 Kings 11:2-3, Ezra 9:12, Nehemiah 13:23, &c.; Malachi 2:11 1 Corinthians 7:39, 2 Corinthians 6:14, and therefore are fitly spoken of here as one of the sins which brought the flood upon the ungodly world.
“[They] saw, that is, gazed upon and observed curiously and lustfully, as the sequel showeth, the daughters of men, [that] they were fair, that is, beautiful, and set off their beauty with all the allurements of ornaments and carriage; herein using greater liberty than the sons and daughters of God did or durst take, 1 Peter 3:3.
“They took them wives, possibly more than one for each of them, after the example of those wicked families into which they were matched; of all which they chose, that is, loved and liked, as the word choosing is taken, Psalm 25:12, Psalm 119:173, Isaiah 1:29, Isaiah 42:1, compared with Matthew 12:28. This is noted as the first error, that they did promiscuously choose wives, without any regard to their sobriety and religion, minding only the pleasing of their own fancies and lusts, not the pleasing and serving of their Lord and Maker, nor the obtaining of a godly seed, which was God’s end in the institution of marriage, Malachi 2:15, and therefore should have been theirs too.”
Joseph Benson (1749 – 1821) lends his voice too:
“Genesis 6:2. The sons of God — Those who were called by the name of the Lord, and called upon that name; married the daughters of men — Those that were profane, and strangers to God. The posterity of Seth did not keep to themselves as they ought, but intermingled with the race of Cain: they took them wives of all which they chosen — They chose only by the eye. They saw that they were fair — Which was all they looked at.”
Matthew Henry is more practical:
“In all ages there has been a peculiar curse of God upon marriages between [possessors] of true religion and its avowed enemies. The evil example of the ungodly party corrupts or greatly hurts the other. Family religion is put an end to, and the children are trained up according to the worldly maxims of that parent who is without the fear of God.
“If we profess to be the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty, we must not marry without His consent. He will never give His blessing, if we prefer beauty, wit, wealth, or worldly honours, to faith and holiness.
“The Spirit of God strove with men, by sending Enoch, Noah, and perhaps others, to preach to them; by waiting to be gracious, notwithstanding their rebellions; and by exciting alarm and convictions in their consciences. But the Lord declared that His Spirit should not thus strive with men always; He would leave them to be hardened in sin, and ripened for destruction. This He determined on, because man was flesh: not only frail and feeble, but carnal and depraved; having misused the noble powers of his soul to gratify his corrupt inclinations.”
Albert Barnes (1798 – 1870):
“And they took them wives of all whom they chose.” The evil here described is that of promiscuous intermarriage, without regard to spiritual character. The godly took them wives of all; that is, of the ungodly as well as the godly families, without any discrimination.
“Whom they chose,” not for the godliness of their lives, but for the goodliness of their looks. Ungodly mothers will not train up children in the way they should go; and husbands who have taken the wrong step of marrying ungodly wives cannot prove to be very exemplary or authoritative fathers. Up to this time they may have been consistent as the sons of God in their outward conduct. But a laxity of choice proves a corresponding laxity of principle. The first inlet of sin prepares the way for the flood-gates of iniquity. It is easy to see that now the degeneracy of the whole race will go on at a rapid pace.”
We can go on and on to bring holy witnesses right from the first dawn of time to this present age of the truth and warning that children of God must not unite with children of the world in marriage. The result is pernicious to you, to the Church and to the society. Avoid it at all costs!
The Bible says “there is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Using limited human logic and faculty, the decision may appear right to the unwary pilgrim, but like all baits, there is a reason why they are engineered to appeal to your base appetite and faulty logic. Watch and pray lest you fall into temptation and ruin your life, if not your soul too.
No one, on their dying bed or in their last moments here on earth, ever regretted obeying the Bible and following Christ too much. However, the reverse have always been true, always. Let’s choose the path of Wisdom for our own blessings and the world’s benefits.
