The Daily Fountain Devotional of the Church Of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) 5 August 2024 — Unequal Yoke
TOPIC: Unequal Yoke
READ: Genesis 28:1-9 (NKJV)
- Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, and charged him, and said to him: “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.
- “Arise, go to Padan Aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father; and take yourself a wife from there of the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother.
- “May God Almighty bless you, And make you fruitful and multiply you, That you may be an assembly of peoples;
- And give you the blessing of Abraham, To you and your descendants with you, That you may inherit the land In which you are a stranger, Which God gave to Abraham.”
- So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Padan Aram, to Laban the son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.
- Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Padan Aram to take himself a wife from there, [and that] as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,”
- and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Padan Aram.
- Also Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan did not please his father Isaac.
- So Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife in addition to the wives he had.
THE MESSAGE:
A man’s life will either be made or marred by the type of yoking or entanglement he finds himself in, especially those that are of life-long consequences, such as marriage. For Isaac to fulfil destiny and fall into God’s ordained pathway, he needed to marry according to God’s will. His mother perceived this and made plans towards it (Genesis 27: 46). There were daughters of Canaan but having lived with them for a while, Rebecca did not want Isaac to marry a Canaanite lady. Quickly, she arranged for her son to go to Padanaram and get a wife of the daughters of Laban.
The scripture, in 2 Corinthians 6: 14-18, is explicit regarding the associations to be kept by believers. It does not imply that believers should not relate with unbelievers but it does imply that things that will yoke them together should be avoided. The Bible regards such unequal yoking as unhelpful. Therefore, things that will bring believers to an inextricable relationship must be avoided. Many believers have shipwrecked their faith and destiny and suffered untold hardship because of unequal yoking. Are you thinking of marriage or getting a business partner? Strive to avoid unequal yoking by seeking God’s will in your prayers.
PRAYER: Lord, help me to always identify and avoid any form of unequal yoking, Amen.
