Chapter 157—The Example of Isaac
No one who fears God can without danger connect himself with one
who fears Him not. “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?”
The happiness and prosperity of the marriage relation depends upon
the unity of the parties; but between the believer and the unbeliever
there is a radical difference of tastes, inclinations, and purposes. They
are serving two masters, between whom there can be no concord.
However pure and correct one’s principles may be, the influence of an
unbelieving companion will have a tendency to lead away from God.
He who has entered the marriage relation while unconverted is by
his conversion placed under stronger obligation to be faithful to his
companion, however widely they may differ in regard to religious faith;
yet the claims of God should be placed above every earthly relationship,
even though trials and persecution may be the result. With the spirit
of love and meekness, this fidelity may have an influence to win the
unbelieving one. But the marriage of Christians with the ungodly is
forbidden in the Bible. The Lord’s direction is “Be ye not unequally
yoked together with unbelievers.
Isaac was highly honored by God, in being made inheritor of the
promises through which the world was to be blessed; yet when he was
forty years of age he submitted to his father’s judgment in appointing
his experienced, God-fearing servant to choose a wife for him. And
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the result of that marriage, as presented in the Scriptures, is a tender
and beautiful picture of domestic happiness: “Isaac brought her unto
his mother Sarah’s tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife;
and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.”
What a contrast between the course of Isaac and that pursued by
the youth of our time, even among professed Christians! Young people
too often feel that the bestowal of their affections is a matter in which
self alone should be consulted,—a matter that neither God nor their
parents should in any wise control. Long before they have reached
manhood or womanhood, they think themselves competent to make
their own choice, without the aid of their parents. A few years of
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