Satan is sly and crafty and deceptive. One of his favorite strategies to pull down young professing believers is send them corpses. Obviously, I’m not talking about physical corpses. Satan loves to tempt God’s own by baiting them with romantic partners that are spiritually dead. He will send someone who will shower the believer with extravagant affection, fill their days with fun, and give them the royal treatment. Yet, there is no enjoyment of God, no cherishing of Jesus, no aim to bear fruit. This partner is a plot to assassinate any love of God in the believer’s heart masqueraded as a deceptive happily ever after fairy tale. 

As you work your way through the Bible, you’ll notice how often this exact thing pops up. You see the failures of Israel time and time again. God has given us these stories so we can be aware of Satan’s ways and our own weaknesses. Look with me at just a few:

While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods (Numbers 25:1-2). 

When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you…You shall not make a covenant with them and show no mercy to them. You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking taking their daughter for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods (Deuteronomy 7:1-3)

But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh: the women  of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomintes, Sidonians, and Hittites…Solomon clung to these in love…His wives turned his heart after others gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God (1 Kings 11:1-4).

After God had judged Israel by the hands of Babylon for her disobedience, he graciously restored her back to Jerusalem. And in the blink of an eye, Israel is back to their old patterns intermarrying with foreigners. I dare you to read Ezra 9. You’ll come across words like detestable and evil. As Ezra intercedes for his people, you see him responding by feeling appalled, ashamed, and disgraced. You’ll see Ezra mourn by trembling and pulling hair out from his head and beard. You’ll see Israel incurring once again great guilt upon them. 

Satan has launched an all out attack on your heart. And he loves to put a dead but handsome man or beautiful woman that will make much of you in every way in front of you. Why? Because he knows it’s an effective ploy to turn your heart away from God. Understand Satan’s schemes and be on guard. Choosing to date a dead person will compromise your relationship with God. And if you don’t think that’s true—look to those who have tried to hide an affair. Eventually, the affair has to end or the marriage. You can’t be faithful to both. 

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