Everything that King Solomon did was on a massive scale. His accumulation of wisdom was known worldwide. His palace was huge and took years to build. The temple that he constructed was awash with gold and cost tens of millions of dollars by today's reckoning. If you remember the dedication of the temple, the number of sacrifices and burnt offerings was not in the tens, but was in the tens of thousands. And when it comes to marriage and family, he is more excessive. We've come in the text of 1 Kings to that strange, dark season of Solomon's life. 2 Chronicles, which usually is closely paralleled to 1 Kings, doesn't even mention what our text speaks about. Solomon has a crashing moral fall that is a two-step fall. Just like his father, David, who first step committed premarital adultery, premeditated adultery, and second step, premeditated murder. What we're going to see tonight is Solomon's first step is he marries several, and by several, I mean hundreds, several pagan women, which leads to the second step, the tragic step, his heart being turned away from the Lord. Tonight I want to ask you, especially those of you who are married, those of you who are raising children that you hope will be married, those of you who are struggling in your marriage, those of you who think that marriage will be the answer to all of your problems, I want you to listen very carefully tonight because we're going to see Solomon and his downfall. And you would think, well, he got better at it as he added the 600th and the 700th wife and the 250th concubine. No, what Solomon was was the worst advertisement for marriage ever. And what we'll see as we look at his downfall, And it comes through intermarriage with unbelieving women. And then we're going to see what Solomon knew, what the Bible's doctrine of marriage was and is. Nothing has changed from the Old Testament and so what the canon of scripture Solomon held in his hand, he would know everything I'm going to say. but he knew it and disregarded it. We're going to reset what the Bible's historic teaching is on marriage and how to guard your own marriage. Let's seek the Lord's help now. Our Father, we confess that we prefer the words and productions of men to your holy, perfect word. But now we ask that you would turn our thoughts and our attentions away from that which is trivial to that which is lasting and true. The psalmist said that he hungered and thirsted for your word. Give us that same passion now to hear you speak to us by your word. Correct our errors, teach us truth, mature us through this word, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Hope you have your Bible open to 1 Kings 11. As I said, if you're looking for the parallel text, you'll usually find it in 2 Chronicles, but you won't find this text in 2 Chronicles. It's almost as though, for the Chronicler, this saga is too despairing, too sad, too dark to include in his collection. So what I want us, first of all, to do is think about Israel's enemies. So when you're Solomon, you're the wisest man on earth, you would know this very well. You don't marry your enemies. Well, look at verses one and two. Solomon begins in middle age and we'll see as we go on that this is definitely Solomon in middle age because as an old man Solomon is sadder but wiser and he says so in the book of Ecclesiastes. He talks about this period of time. Solomon begins though in his middle age to collect wives like you would collect stamps. And one of the many problems with this is Solomon begins to marry women from nations who have always been the sworn enemies of Israel. Let me cite a few examples. Look at verse 1 of your text where we're told King Solomon loved many foreign women as well as the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites. The Edomites are listed for us in verse one. Who are they? Solomon has some Edomite wives. So just in case that doesn't ring a bell to you, Esau was the founder of the Edomite clan. Esau, of course, is the reprobate brother of Jacob. God said, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. Esau is the patriarch of the Edomites. Esau is the older son of Isaac. He's the grandson of Abraham. His descendants are the Edomites. And by the time of Moses, 450 years after the death of Esau, the Edomites had become such haters of God's people that they refused the peaceful overtures of Moses. They wouldn't even let Israel pass through their territory according to Numbers 20, even though Moses promised to harm nothing and pay for whatever water the people drank. And then there was Amalek, the grandson of Esau. He became Israel's sworn enemy. And by the time of Amaziah, the sons of Esau had become full-bore devil worshipers. Because Amaziah and his people worshiped the gods of Edom, the Lord directed that they be destroyed. The psalmist prays imprecatorily against the Edomites in Psalm 137. The Edomites, they have a lengthy life as a tribe. And during the days of our Lord Jesus Christ, they are still in control of the region where Herod the Great came from. He was an Edomite. And so this is one of, look at verse 1, this is one of whom Solomon marries. He marries an Edomite wife, a daughter of Esau. That's as reprobate as you can get. But he doesn't stop there. Look at verse one again. Moabites and Ammonites. For those of you who don't remember this little bit of trivia, Moab and Ammon are the sons of Lot when he sinned by having incestuous relationships with his two daughters in Genesis 19. Moab was born. His very name is like a boast of incest. It means from the father. Sister was his mother. His father was his father. The Moabite women seduced God's people into immorality in Numbers 25. The Moabites were idolaters, polytheists. They were to be excluded from the assembly, said the Lord in Deuteronomy 23. They would conspire to cut off the Israelites in Psalm 83. The Moabites were constantly the focus of God's judgment. Solomon marries a Moabite. But he can't stop there. Look who else is in verse one. The Ammonites. Ammon, Ben-Ammi, was the father of all the Ammonites. He also was born as a product of Lot's incest as well. The Ammonites settled right in the territory next to the Moabites. And all through the Old Testament, we see them oppressing and laying siege to Israelite cities. And we hear in Exodus 25, God's judgment upon the Ammonites. In Deuteronomy chapter 7, the Lord names some specific nations and categorically forbids intermarriage with them. One of those is the Ammonites. Moses prophetically gives warnings in Deuteronomy 7 that these tribes, the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Edomites, they will turn Israelites away from following the Lord to following their idols. So notice who it is who Solomon loves. Look at verse 1 and 2. And what we will see is Solomon, he doesn't just, he's not just enamored with these women. We are told twice in verse one and two, King Solomon loved many foreign women. He loved them. At the end of verse two, Solomon clung to these in love. Now the theory has been advanced that all of these hundreds of marriages were just political in nature. All that Solomon was doing was trying to make peace with all these warring tribes and so These marriages were marriages of convenience. But that's not what the text says. Look at verse 1 and 2. Solomon loved many foreign women. Solomon clung to these in love. His heart was set upon them. These were not marriages of convenience. These were marriages of romance and affection. Now, I want to dig the hole for Solomon pretty deep. I want you to see how far wrong he goes. Keep one finger here and look back to Deuteronomy 17. And I want to remind you that Solomon, when he took the throne of Israel, he had to write out his own copy of the existing canon of scripture at that time. And so the words that you'll see, Solomon had read them. He had written them. He made a copy of them. And so what Solomon has to do in order to marry these 700 women, take on 300 concubines, is he has to go against text that he's written, that he's memorized, that he's taught, that he's shown the wisdom of. Deuteronomy 17. What we'll see is Solomon as an Israelite king was forbidden from plural marriage. Look at Deuteronomy 17, pick up the narrative at verse 14. When you come to the land which the Lord your God is giving you and possess it and dwell in it and say, I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me, you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses. One from among your brethren you shall set as king over you. You may not set a foreigner over you who is not your brother, but he that is the king shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses. For the Lord has said to you, you shall not return that way again. Neither shall he multiply wives." I think 700 counts as multiplication. Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away." And so one of the things Solomon does that he knows better is he's forbidden from plural marriage. There it is in the text. Simple to understand, Deuteronomy 17. But it's bigger than that. He could make the argument, perhaps it would fall flat on its faces. We'll see that. Well, I'm marrying 700 women, but every one of them is a believer. Every single one. They're just like a Proverbs 31 woman. Every one of these women, they're all believing women. Well, not only was Solomon forbidden from marrying a plurality of women, he's forbidden from marrying unbelieving women. Look at Deuteronomy 7 and the fascinating thing you're going to see about this text is the Apostle Paul picks this text up and carries it over to 1st and 2nd Corinthians and says, never. Ever is it lawful for a believer to marry an unbeliever. Never. Even if you have the most evangelistic intent and say, the reason why I'm dating them and marrying them is I think they're ripe for conversion. Both Moses and Paul say, you're a fool. Well, notice what Solomon is forbidden from. Look at Deuteronomy 7. When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you. And when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them, nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son or take their daughter for your son, for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods." Solomon knew these words. As I said, he probably had it memorized. He'd had to write them out because he had to write out his own copy of the existing canon of scripture. So not only was Solomon forbidden by the law of God from marrying a plurality of women, not only was he forbidden from marrying unbelievers, the New Testament then repeats this prohibition in even stronger language. The Apostle Paul says it this way in 2 Corinthians 6. Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? That's a rhetorical question. The answer is no. What communion has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Baal? What part has a believer with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? Now I want to give Solomon a tiny bit of a pass just for this long. Where did Solomon learn to marry several women and to marry unbelieving women? This is no excuse, but where did he learn this? From watching the example of his father David. David, we're told, in 2 Samuel 3, listen to his pedigree. It's not 700, but he's down the road a ways. Listen to what we're told in 2 Samuel 3. Sons were born to David in Hebron. His firstborn was Amnon by Ahinoam the Jezreelitess. His second, Chelieb, was by Abigail. She was a Gentile. The third son was Absalom, the son of Maccah, the daughter of Talmi, king of Geshur, a Gentile. The fourth, Adonijah, the son of Haggad. The fifth was Shaphatai, the son of Abital. The sixth, Itherium, by David's wife, Eglah. Then there's the seventh son, seventh child, who is born by Michael, Saul's daughter. And then, of course, Bathsheba, Solomon's mother. This is just a sampling. There are more, but eight are listed for us in 2 Samuel 3. Now part of what I want to stress to you is what Solomon is doing is just what he always saw Dad doing in terms of being a womanizer. Not just marrying a lot of women, but marrying foreign women, pagan women, unbelieving women. And what you see here is the covenantal power of an example, a model, generational sin. Those curses of generational sin are hard to break and Solomon does not succeed. Now think with me for a moment about the numbers. When you look at verse 3, sometimes you have to say, really? 700 women. And then among them, I guess some of these are queens, some are princesses, and 300 concubines. Solomon's sin was supersized. He was called like every other man, as we're going to see in a moment, to give all his affection to one woman. He had no special privileges as a king. In fact, he'd been warned as king not to marry a plurality of women. But he was called just like you are to give his affection to one woman. In a believing marriage, there's only room for one emotional connection, one passion, one sexual bond. And to say Solomon was obsessed with women is a little bit of a profound understatement. But I want you to notice, and this is the more serious aspect, When we look at Solomon and all his attachments to women, foreign women, unbelieving women, plurality of women, you're saying, this is really just awful, isn't it? Oh, it gets much worse. Look at verses 4 through 8. These are the gods who Solomon begins to pursue as a middle-aged man and even an older man. And what we're told in verse four through eight is Solomon not just marries these women who are idolaters, who are pagans, he goes after their gods. He becomes one flesh in the worship of their gods. Now let me trace some of the aggravations of Solomon's sin, some things that make his sins even worse. The first was, he begins to do this not as a 20 year old, but it looks like about a 40 year old and on. And so, what we have to say is, Solomon, by the time you're older, you should have been progressively sanctified. You'd been writing Proverbs, you know wisdom. He's had, by this point, spiritual highs that no man has ever had. He's seen the glory of God descend in the temple at its dedication. He's had two, not one, two separate, distinct appearances of the Lord bringing a personal revelation to him. then not only is that an aggravation, he has several acts, and you can count them up in verses 4-8, several acts of idolatry, violating the first and second commandment. Now let me give you a reminder about the law of God and how it functions. The law of God, the ten commandments, is divided into two tables. The first table All the sins of the first table, violation of them, are infinitely more heinous because the sins of the first table, idolatry, false worship, taking the name of God in vain, breaking the Sabbath, those sins are against God. And so you think, well, Carl, isn't murder the worst sin? No. The second table, disobedience to parents, murder, adultery, theft, lying, covetousness, those are all diminished under the first table. The first table, idolatry, false worship, taking the name of God in vain, Sabbath breaking, those are sins that are directly against God. And what we notice here is Solomon joins his pagan wives in violating the first and second commandments. So what makes his sins more aggravated is he joins in to idolatry. We read it in verses 4-8. Notice who it is he worships. Look carefully at verses 4-8. We're told in verse 5, Solomon went after, he pursued Astreth, the goddess of the Sidonians. This is the Canaanite female fertility goddess, the partner of Baal. Her worship, the worship of Ashtoreth, was marked by lewdness and temple prostitution. In 1 Samuel 7, Solomon would have known this. It's his history. In 1 Samuel 7, the Lord had had to urge Israel to repent of worshiping Ashtoreth and return to him. But Solomon, look at verse 5, the key word. went after. He pursued idol worship. But that's just one. Look at verse 5 as well. He also pursues Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. Again, who's doing the chasing? It's Solomon. He's pursuing these false gods. And then look at verse 7. There's more. Solomon is a polytheist by this point. Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab. And I want you to notice what happens in verse 7. He does this on the hill that's east of Jerusalem. And so Solomon goes to great trouble and expense to rework the grading in that direction from Jerusalem so that Chemosh can have a high place and be exalted. Solomon patronizes funds and subsidizes idol worship. And by the time this chapter is through, you can walk out of the Solomon's palace or the temple and look in any direction. Look at the words in verses four through eight. You can look in any direction and you can see a high place that Solomon has erected for one of his wives and the worship of her God and Solomon gladly joined him there. But I think probably the worst, because I think we have the sin of Malik in our own nation. Look at verse seven. Solomon also worships with one of his many wives, Malak of Ammon. The worship of Malak, of course, involved offering infant children and sacrificing them. If you've never seen some of the archaeological digs, Malak was a statue who was made with open arms like this. And the worshippers would come and lay one of their newborn children in the arms of Molech, and the newborn child would be burned to death. Child sacrifice. And again, our nation has done this 70 million times in the last 52 years. And so, once again, Solomon exalts Molech by a high place. Now if Solomon, just in case you want to know what Solomon knew and what he didn't know, Solomon had written out his own copy of the law of God. He'd had to, that was a requirement for a king. In Leviticus chapter 20, it says that any Israelite who goes to worship Molech is to be stoned to death. It's a death penalty offense. And so when you read verses four through eight and you read what Solomon is doing, especially in verse seven, going after Molech, He should have been stoned. But no hill in any direction around Jerusalem was free from an altar for idol worship. Now Solomon, if you're going to say he had one stroke of genius, he was inclusive. He funded a massive ecumenical movement. He engaged in syncretism, the blending of all kinds of religions, gods, and worship. And notice the key word in verse 4. We read in verse 4, When Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart. This wasn't lip service. His heart went after other gods. And then we read of his heart, his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God as was the heart of his father David. Now another aggravation of Solomon's sin. Solomon betrays Israel's purpose. Israel's calling was to be a light to the Gentile. And instead, Solomon becomes a partaker of their darkness. He's not a light at all to these Gentile women. The darkness becomes deep in Israel because Solomon joins his wives and his concubines in the darkness. Now all of that is Solomon's sin. It's staggering. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to try to address how did Solomon end up. I think it becomes pretty clear when you read all the literature, all the wisdom literature, that we end up with Ecclesiastes. Solomon is sad, broken-hearted, wiser, and has a lot of wisdom to pass on to us. I want us to think about what Solomon knew. Because Solomon knew God's plan for marriage, and it turns out that God's plan for marriage is not one inch different for you. And what you see Solomon doing with his 700 wives and 300 concubines, you're thinking, well, he must have been under some kind of different lot. No, he was not. The same exact principles that you and I live under as Christians in a marriage, Solomon did. So let's begin thinking about what Solomon knew and understood about marriage, what he had to push aside, what he had to cubbyhole and say, well, doesn't apply. I'll get back to that later. That's too rigorous. That wouldn't serve the nation well and a hundred other excuses. So the first thing you need to know, if you're going to have a biblical outline of marriage, is marriage is a creation ordinance. Creation ordinances, of course, are those three or four mandates that are given to man in the garden, the creation ordinances, and Solomon knew these well. He knew them better than you and I do. Our Genesis 2.15 labor which includes the dominion mandates subduing the creation. God has endowed man since the garden with a desire for meaningful activity, not leisure. And men will be purposeless until they're performing what God has made them to do. This is the basis for the doctrine of vocation. The first of the creation ordinances is labor. God made us to work. If you're not working, you're not doing what God made you for God made and work is not a product of the fall. Adam and Eve worked before the fall. First creation ordinance is labor, the second is Sabbath. We see it in Genesis 2. Not inactivity, but cessation from one kind of activity, self-focused activity, to another kind, God-focused. And then the third creation ordinance, there in the garden, it's given clearly twice in Genesis 1-28 and Genesis 2, is marriage. Adam and Eve were married before they were fallen because there have been some who said, well, marriage is a product of the fall. Well, no, marriage was a creation ordinance in the garden. It was an act of blessing. The sexuality and procreation are given as well there. Monogamy is clearly stated. Now I want you to look and see. The laws for monogamy. Look very carefully in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. Solomon would have known this. He would have written this. He would have copied it. And so notice what the Lord says to Adam in Genesis 2, 24 and 25. There's not an inch of room for polygamy here. Genesis 2, 24 and 25, right after the Lord officiates at the wedding ceremony of Adam and Eve, the Lord gives this statement. This statement about the creation ordinance of marriage. His model for marriage. Genesis 2, 24 and 25. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh. They were both naked. The man and his wife were not ashamed. Notice what God's plan is. Nothing's changed in 6,000 years. The parameters are this. One man, one woman, No polygamy or polyandry, multiple husbands, multiple wives. Solomon knew this. Now this statement in Genesis 2 forbids seven things. All of these get spelled out in the law of God, especially in Leviticus, but this forbids seven things. And by my reckoning, Solomon engages in at least four and maybe more of these. Forbids seven things. The first is incest. This is inferred in Genesis 2.24, when the Lord tells Adam and Eve they are to leave parents. In other words, they are to leave that relationship with family. That's made explicit later in Leviticus 18. Incest is forbidden. Secondly, polygamy is forbidden. Notice what the Lord says in Genesis 2.24. The two shall become one, not the three shall become one or the four shall become one. And if you have your head in the sand someplace, Most of Western Europe now not only approves homosexual marriage, but approves polygamous marriage. The third thing that's forbidden in God's plan for marriage is homosexuality. Look at Genesis 2, 24 and 25. Explicit in the original creation ordinance, a man shall leave and cleave to his wife. And so God's plan is starting to shape up here. One man, one woman. By the way, homosexuality in the Old Testament law, whether it's Leviticus 18 or Deuteronomy 23, always punishable by death. Paul repeats these prohibitions in Romans chapter 1. The fourth thing that's forbidden in God's plan for marriage is what I'm using to try to be euphemistic and without trying to just be overly gross, aberrant one-flesh relationships, bestiality. This is always a capital crime in scripture every time it's mentioned. The fifth thing that's forbidden is premarital one-flesh relationships, also known as fornication. Then the sixth thing that's forbidden is adultery. I think what Solomon does consists of adultery. I think it's safe to say that. And the seventh pedophilia, the sexual harming of a minor. Jesus speaks clearly in Matthew 18 that it'd be more preferable for anyone that harms a child in this way that a millstone be hung about his neck and he'd be drowned in the depths of the sea. Why all these prohibitions, these seven prohibitions that I named? Because all these safeguards and protections are for one thing. for the sanctity of one man, one woman, for life, marriage. All of these are guardrails put up to guard the sanctity of one thing, marriage. Well, with this, I want you to specifically look at Genesis 2, 24, and 25, and I want you to dig in deep and think about what was going through Solomon's head when he married, oh, number 682. What was he thinking? And how can you do this? How can you fulfill God's plan with 700 women and 300 more? Because God's original plan for marriage is simple. It's beautiful. It's glorious. When you look at Genesis 2, 24 and 25, Solomon knew these words. He knew them better than you and I did. The first is the principle of severance. God tells Adam and Eve in Genesis 2.24 that a man shall leave his father and mother, be severed from them. It's God's plan for a married couple to separate from their mother and dad and create their own home and life. It's not healthy. It's not God's plan for you to get married and then live in the basement. Parents, especially moms, Your goal is to prepare your children to leave, to be severed from you, not to stay. Don't cling to them and create sinful loyalties. So the first principle, let's ask if Solomon can do that. Well, it looks like he's left father and mother, his father's dead. And so we'll give Solomon that credit. He has severed himself from his father and mother. And then the second principle, look again at Genesis chapter two. shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife." This is the principle of permanence. To be joined to is the old King James term, to cleave to, to be stuck together. Husbands don't say, thinking it's romantic, I'm stuck with you to your wife tonight. I can't help you in a counseling sense if you do that. But to cleave to, to be joined to means you are stuck together. According to the Old and New Testament marriage is an irrevocable covenant to which we're bound. And then comes the problem for Solomon. Look at the end of verse 24, Genesis 2. Man shall leave his father and mother, be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. How can you be one flesh with 700 women? How do you do this with hundreds of people? Because God's stated plan and desire for each marriage is tight unity. Being one flesh means striving for unity in at least the following ways with one person. Unity of mind on roles and responsibilities. Unity of mind on goals and finances. Unity in the realm of sexuality. Unity of shared philosophy and practice of child nurture and discipline. Unity of biblical understanding. God's intention when two people get married is that they share everything. Their bodies, their possessions, their funds, their ideas, their abilities, their problems, their successes and their failures, their trials and their sufferings. A husband and wife should be a team, a unit. How can you be a team with 700 women? And then there's the end of the biblical model for marriage, Genesis 2.25, they're both naked. Not a shame, the nakedness of Adam and Eve is not a recommendation of public nudity. This happened before there were other people around. Adam was the only human being that Eve saw naked and vice versa. So why marriage? Maybe you're asking that, Carl, why is it such a big deal? Why do you think there are these seven prohibitions set like guardrails around marriage to guard the sanctity of marriage? Why marriage? Whether for the impoverished or the fabulously wealthy like Solomon. Well, our confession picks up on this and says marriage is for something. It's for at least three things. Marriage is for, our confession rightly says, for the mutual help of husband and wife, for committed companionship. The first time in scripture we're told that something is not good is Genesis 2.18, still in the garden, still before the fall, but up until then God had pronounced everything good when they were complete, but up until then Adam was incomplete. Because he lacked a suitable companion. Sorry, your dog or your cat is not man's best friend or a suitable companion. Or else God, after creating animals, would have said to Adam, there you go. There's a suitable companion for you. But no, God, until he's created Eve, Adam does not have a suitable helper. Our confession states one of the purposes for marriage is for the mutual help of husband and wife. A second reason for marriage. Why marriage? Why is it so sacred? It's for the increase of mankind with a legitimate issue. For the propagation of the race. It's to fulfill the dominion mandate. To be fruitful and multiply. In scripture, Genesis chapter 1, marriage is followed by childbearing. This is how God intends the dominion mandate to be fulfilled. And our confession rightly stresses a legitimate issue. For the increase of mankind with a legitimate issue. Legitimacy is defined as a child born of a marriage union. A third thing marriage is for, it's for the preventing of uncleanness. This is the solution to sexual immorality. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife and each woman have her own husband. God has provided a very practical help for Christians as they struggle in this day where there's more sexual temptation than there's ever ever been in the history of the world. Sexual temptation is this far away from the stroke of a key. God says marriage is four. Help for Christians as they struggle with sexual temptation, that help is called lawful sexual activity. God has made us for the inside of marriage as sexual beings and nothing is to interfere with that. One of the distinct purposes of marriage, what it's for, is the lawful satisfaction of sexual desire. Let me make a couple of brief applications of this text. I want to speak to middle-aged and seniors here because you're thinking, I hope you youngsters are listening to this. But when Solomon fell into his sin. Marital sexual sin idolatry. He was at least middle-aged Solomon didn't fall into idolatry until he was middle-aged. And so if you're thinking I'm 40 50 I'm immune from that you're not immune from sexual sin and idolatry Guard your heart But I would tell you I should say it more often But I would tell you if there is a takeaway lesson from this, I know so much heartbreak in the church because of this one principle. Marrying unbelievers almost always, I would say at least 95% of the time in my experience. Marriage to unbelievers almost always results in the believer being dragged down, not the unbeliever being evangelized. Solomon is Exhibit A. Parents, as you raise your children, you must repeat constantly this principle. An unchurched unbeliever is not a legitimate candidate for marriage. The takeaway message from Solomon is he was born before him. Don't marry idolaters. He thought he was smarter than God, and so he married idolaters, hundreds of them, and he ended up enmeshed in idolatry himself. Pay careful heed to the Word of God. Let's pray together. Our Father, we ask that you would give us grace and power To guard our hearts, to protect them from idolatry, Lord, we confess that we're not nearly as smart or wise or as intelligent as Solomon. Lord, protect us from his foolishness. Protect us from his sin. Lord, we pray that you would give us grace that we might set our affection on one woman or one man and be content with that person all the days of our life. Lord, we pray that we would not even look longingly towards an unbeliever, but we would wait on that believing husband or wife until you raise them up and bring them into our life. Lord, we pray that you'd bless us in this way.