Randy Green's Blog - Posts Tagged "ezra-10"
Defensible Divorce? – Part 1
Among the sons of the priests who had married foreign wives were found of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib and Gedaliah. They pledged to put away their wives, and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their offense [Ezra 10:18-19].
For I hate divorce,” says the Lord, the God of Israel [Malachi 2:16].
“Hey, lookee at that! There’s a right proper contradiction in the Bible for you. I just proved the Bible has errors in it. So take that, God!”
Such is the blather of the run-of-the-mill atheist and skeptic. Suchlike fellows just refuse to bow the knee to the God of the universe. So they sniff out all the recesses in Scripture, in search of the lost error. They are determined to find it, so guess what? They find it!
Uh, not so fast my dear sir. With what contradiction are you regaling us, at this Bible bash you’re throwing for all your birds of a feather? I don’t see any contradiction.
“Well, then you can’t read, you bozo!” blusters our supercilious snob. “Just read the two quotations at the beginning of this study, and you can’t miss it. God ordered the Jews of Ezra’s day to divorce their wives, but in Malchi’s day He got mad at them for doing just that! He went so far as to thunder, ‘I hate divorce!’ So there.”
And then our self-styled savant parks his haunches on a comfy recliner, face glowing with pride and every pore oozing with conceit, self-satisfied that he has the last word. He is the man! He sits on God’s throne, now that he’s disenfranchised God.
Oh hum. Yawn. Zzzzzzzz. I still don’t see the supposed contradictions, you vain man. But not to worry. I have just the medicine you need for what ails you. It’s Rule #1 for Bible study, sir. It states, “A text without a context is a pretext.” Chew on it overnight and call me in the morning. Once the medicine runs its course, your eyesight will be sharp enough to see your blunder.
Let’s put the situation in Ezra’s day into context, shall we? The Israelites incessantly sinned against the Lord and refused to repent, so finally He sent them into exile in Babylon. Their crime? They worshiped the gods of the pagan peoples around them. This was spiritual adultery because they belonged to the Lord.
After the Babylonian Empire was conquered by the Medes and Persians, the Israelites were permitted to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. During this period many of the Jews married some of the pagan women in the land. The Law of Moses specifically forbade this.
It was the cause of so much of the idolatry which put them into Babylonian exile in the first place. If we don’t learn from history, we’re bound to repeat it.
We must take our rest at this roadside arbor and be refreshed by time alone with the Lord Jesus. Tomorrow we will bring this topic to a proper conclusion.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
For I hate divorce,” says the Lord, the God of Israel [Malachi 2:16].
“Hey, lookee at that! There’s a right proper contradiction in the Bible for you. I just proved the Bible has errors in it. So take that, God!”
Such is the blather of the run-of-the-mill atheist and skeptic. Suchlike fellows just refuse to bow the knee to the God of the universe. So they sniff out all the recesses in Scripture, in search of the lost error. They are determined to find it, so guess what? They find it!
Uh, not so fast my dear sir. With what contradiction are you regaling us, at this Bible bash you’re throwing for all your birds of a feather? I don’t see any contradiction.
“Well, then you can’t read, you bozo!” blusters our supercilious snob. “Just read the two quotations at the beginning of this study, and you can’t miss it. God ordered the Jews of Ezra’s day to divorce their wives, but in Malchi’s day He got mad at them for doing just that! He went so far as to thunder, ‘I hate divorce!’ So there.”
And then our self-styled savant parks his haunches on a comfy recliner, face glowing with pride and every pore oozing with conceit, self-satisfied that he has the last word. He is the man! He sits on God’s throne, now that he’s disenfranchised God.
Oh hum. Yawn. Zzzzzzzz. I still don’t see the supposed contradictions, you vain man. But not to worry. I have just the medicine you need for what ails you. It’s Rule #1 for Bible study, sir. It states, “A text without a context is a pretext.” Chew on it overnight and call me in the morning. Once the medicine runs its course, your eyesight will be sharp enough to see your blunder.
Let’s put the situation in Ezra’s day into context, shall we? The Israelites incessantly sinned against the Lord and refused to repent, so finally He sent them into exile in Babylon. Their crime? They worshiped the gods of the pagan peoples around them. This was spiritual adultery because they belonged to the Lord.
After the Babylonian Empire was conquered by the Medes and Persians, the Israelites were permitted to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. During this period many of the Jews married some of the pagan women in the land. The Law of Moses specifically forbade this.
It was the cause of so much of the idolatry which put them into Babylonian exile in the first place. If we don’t learn from history, we’re bound to repeat it.
We must take our rest at this roadside arbor and be refreshed by time alone with the Lord Jesus. Tomorrow we will bring this topic to a proper conclusion.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Defensible Divorce? – Part 2
Among the sons of the priests who had married foreign wives were found of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib and Gedaliah. They pledged to put away their wives, and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their offense [Ezra 10:18-19].
For I hate divorce,” says the Lord, the God of Israel [Malachi 2:16].
The Israelites were dispatched to Babylon as slaves in exile. It was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Their crime? Spiritual adultery, sleeping with the enemy, worshiping the gods of the heathen peoples around them, with its concomitant religious sex with the female devotees.
From the first chapter of the Bible to the last, the Lord teaches the “doctrine of separation”. It teaches that what is unclean makes what is clean to become unclean, and what is profane defiles what is holy so that the holy becomes profane too. Ergo, the people of the Lord (the holy) must not forge binding ties with the people of the devil (the profane). This is especially true of marriage ties.
Consequently, when the Lord insisted His kids in Ezra’s day divorce their heathen wives, two sins were involved. One was the violation of His Law, the other divorce. Separation was mandatory, which compelled the divorce. God’s kids had no right to marry heathen women to begin with. That had to be set right, which required the divorce.
So the Lord didn’t change His mind and suddenly “like” divorce. He ALWAYS HATES divorce. But it is non-negotiable that the Lord’s kids cannot have binding ties with the devil’s kids, so divorce was a necessary evil to set aright the wrong of intermarriage with unbelievers, a worse evil.
In Malachi’s day the situation was very different. Many Jews were divorcing their Jewish wives in order to marry heathen women! Even a blind man can see the difference between Malachi’s situation and Ezra’s. Let’s itemize it for clarity.
• God’s kids can marry only God’s kids
• God’s kids cannot marry the devil’s kids
• God’s kids divorcing the devil’s kids makes right the wrong of marrying the devil’s kids
• God’s kids divorcing God’s kids makes wrong what was right
Now remember the context, please. This applied to the Israelites in Old Testament Israel under the Law of Moses. It was the Law of the land, their legal code. It was never given to the Gentiles or the Church. (That’s us.)
What is applicable to the Christian is the “doctrine of separation” (cf., 2 Corinthians 6:14-18). Christians are not to marry unbelievers. However, if a Christian is wrongly married to an unbeliever, and if that unbeliever doesn’t prevent the Christian from practicing his/her faith, then the Christian is to remain in the marriage (cf., 1 Corinthians 7:12-16).
So it is, you see, that apparent contradictions in the Bible are just that, apparent! They are contradictions in appearance only, not in reality. We must always read the Bible in context, dear friends. God does hate divorce. He established marriage as the foundational institution of society.
Contrariwise, the devil loves divorce. He wants to destroy society and render futile everything God builds. This serves as an indisputable symptom in diagnosing whether I am walking in the Spirit or walking in the flesh. Do I approve of divorce, or do I hate divorce?
Divorce is pandemic in today’s society. This should tell us what type of society we live in. I’ll give you a hint: the word christ is in it, but the word is preceded by a prefix spelled a-n-t-i. We must choose sides, and not in word only but also in deed. What say ye?
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
For I hate divorce,” says the Lord, the God of Israel [Malachi 2:16].
The Israelites were dispatched to Babylon as slaves in exile. It was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Their crime? Spiritual adultery, sleeping with the enemy, worshiping the gods of the heathen peoples around them, with its concomitant religious sex with the female devotees.
From the first chapter of the Bible to the last, the Lord teaches the “doctrine of separation”. It teaches that what is unclean makes what is clean to become unclean, and what is profane defiles what is holy so that the holy becomes profane too. Ergo, the people of the Lord (the holy) must not forge binding ties with the people of the devil (the profane). This is especially true of marriage ties.
Consequently, when the Lord insisted His kids in Ezra’s day divorce their heathen wives, two sins were involved. One was the violation of His Law, the other divorce. Separation was mandatory, which compelled the divorce. God’s kids had no right to marry heathen women to begin with. That had to be set right, which required the divorce.
So the Lord didn’t change His mind and suddenly “like” divorce. He ALWAYS HATES divorce. But it is non-negotiable that the Lord’s kids cannot have binding ties with the devil’s kids, so divorce was a necessary evil to set aright the wrong of intermarriage with unbelievers, a worse evil.
In Malachi’s day the situation was very different. Many Jews were divorcing their Jewish wives in order to marry heathen women! Even a blind man can see the difference between Malachi’s situation and Ezra’s. Let’s itemize it for clarity.
• God’s kids can marry only God’s kids
• God’s kids cannot marry the devil’s kids
• God’s kids divorcing the devil’s kids makes right the wrong of marrying the devil’s kids
• God’s kids divorcing God’s kids makes wrong what was right
Now remember the context, please. This applied to the Israelites in Old Testament Israel under the Law of Moses. It was the Law of the land, their legal code. It was never given to the Gentiles or the Church. (That’s us.)
What is applicable to the Christian is the “doctrine of separation” (cf., 2 Corinthians 6:14-18). Christians are not to marry unbelievers. However, if a Christian is wrongly married to an unbeliever, and if that unbeliever doesn’t prevent the Christian from practicing his/her faith, then the Christian is to remain in the marriage (cf., 1 Corinthians 7:12-16).
So it is, you see, that apparent contradictions in the Bible are just that, apparent! They are contradictions in appearance only, not in reality. We must always read the Bible in context, dear friends. God does hate divorce. He established marriage as the foundational institution of society.
Contrariwise, the devil loves divorce. He wants to destroy society and render futile everything God builds. This serves as an indisputable symptom in diagnosing whether I am walking in the Spirit or walking in the flesh. Do I approve of divorce, or do I hate divorce?
Divorce is pandemic in today’s society. This should tell us what type of society we live in. I’ll give you a hint: the word christ is in it, but the word is preceded by a prefix spelled a-n-t-i. We must choose sides, and not in word only but also in deed. What say ye?
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Defensible Divorce? – Part 1
Among the sons of the priests who had married foreign wives were found of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib and Gedaliah. They pledged to put away their wives, and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their offense [Ezra 10:18-19].
For I hate divorce,” says the Lord, the God of Israel [Malachi 2:16].
“Hey, lookee at that! There’s a right proper contradiction in the Bible for you. I just proved the Bible has errors in it. So take that, God!”
Such is the blather of the run-of-the-mill atheist and skeptic. Suchlike fellows just refuse to bow the knee to the God of the universe. So they sniff out all the recesses in Scripture, in search of the lost error. They are determined to find it, so guess what? They find it!
Uh, not so fast my dear sir. With what contradiction are you regaling us, at this Bible bash you’re throwing for all your birds of a feather? I don’t see any contradiction.
“Well, then you can’t read, you bozo!” blusters our supercilious snob. “Just read the two quotations at the beginning of this study, and you can’t miss it. God ordered the Jews of Ezra’s day to divorce their wives, but in Malachi’s day He got mad at them for doing just that! He went so far as to thunder, ‘I hate divorce!’ So there.”
And then our self-styled savant parks his haunches on a comfy recliner, face glowing with pride and every pore oozing with conceit, self-satisfied that he has the last word. He is the man! He sits on God’s throne, now that he’s disenfranchised God.
Oh hum. Yawn. Zzzzzzzz. I still don’t see the supposed contradictions, you vain man. But not to worry. I have just the medicine you need for what ails you. It’s Rule #1 for Bible study, sir. It states, “A text without a context is a pretext.” Chew on it overnight and call me in the morning. Once the medicine runs its course, your eyesight will be sharp enough to see your blunder.
Let’s put the situation in Ezra’s day into context, shall we? The Israelites incessantly sinned against the Lord and refused to repent, so finally He sent them into exile in Babylon. Their crime? They worshiped the gods of the pagan peoples around them. This was spiritual adultery because they belonged to the Lord.
After the Babylonian Empire was conquered by the Medes and Persians, the Israelites were permitted to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. During this period many of the Jews married some of the pagan women in the land. The Law of Moses specifically forbade this. It was the cause of so much of the idolatry which put them into Babylonian exile in the first place. If we don’t learn from history, we’re bound to repeat it.
We must take our rest at this roadside arbor and be refreshed by time alone with the Lord Jesus. Tomorrow we will bring this topic to a proper conclusion.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
For I hate divorce,” says the Lord, the God of Israel [Malachi 2:16].
“Hey, lookee at that! There’s a right proper contradiction in the Bible for you. I just proved the Bible has errors in it. So take that, God!”
Such is the blather of the run-of-the-mill atheist and skeptic. Suchlike fellows just refuse to bow the knee to the God of the universe. So they sniff out all the recesses in Scripture, in search of the lost error. They are determined to find it, so guess what? They find it!
Uh, not so fast my dear sir. With what contradiction are you regaling us, at this Bible bash you’re throwing for all your birds of a feather? I don’t see any contradiction.
“Well, then you can’t read, you bozo!” blusters our supercilious snob. “Just read the two quotations at the beginning of this study, and you can’t miss it. God ordered the Jews of Ezra’s day to divorce their wives, but in Malachi’s day He got mad at them for doing just that! He went so far as to thunder, ‘I hate divorce!’ So there.”
And then our self-styled savant parks his haunches on a comfy recliner, face glowing with pride and every pore oozing with conceit, self-satisfied that he has the last word. He is the man! He sits on God’s throne, now that he’s disenfranchised God.
Oh hum. Yawn. Zzzzzzzz. I still don’t see the supposed contradictions, you vain man. But not to worry. I have just the medicine you need for what ails you. It’s Rule #1 for Bible study, sir. It states, “A text without a context is a pretext.” Chew on it overnight and call me in the morning. Once the medicine runs its course, your eyesight will be sharp enough to see your blunder.
Let’s put the situation in Ezra’s day into context, shall we? The Israelites incessantly sinned against the Lord and refused to repent, so finally He sent them into exile in Babylon. Their crime? They worshiped the gods of the pagan peoples around them. This was spiritual adultery because they belonged to the Lord.
After the Babylonian Empire was conquered by the Medes and Persians, the Israelites were permitted to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. During this period many of the Jews married some of the pagan women in the land. The Law of Moses specifically forbade this. It was the cause of so much of the idolatry which put them into Babylonian exile in the first place. If we don’t learn from history, we’re bound to repeat it.
We must take our rest at this roadside arbor and be refreshed by time alone with the Lord Jesus. Tomorrow we will bring this topic to a proper conclusion.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
Defensible Divorce? – Part 2
Among the sons of the priests who had married foreign wives were found of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib and Gedaliah. They pledged to put away their wives, and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their offense [Ezra 10:18-19].
For I hate divorce,” says the Lord, the God of Israel [Malachi 2:16].
The Israelites were dispatched to Babylon as slaves in exile. It was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Their crime? Spiritual adultery, sleeping with the enemy, worshiping the gods of the heathen peoples around them, with its concomitant religious sex with the female devotees.
From the first chapter of the Bible to the last, the Lord teaches the “doctrine of separation”. It teaches that what is unclean makes what is clean to become unclean, and what is profane defiles what is holy so that the holy becomes profane too. Ergo, the people of the Lord (the holy) must not forge binding ties with the people of the devil (the profane). This is especially true of marriage ties.
Consequently, when the Lord insisted His kids in Ezra’s day divorce their heathen wives, two sins were involved. One was the violation of His Law, the other divorce. Separation was mandatory, which compelled the divorce. God’s kids had no right to marry heathen women to begin with. That had to be set right, which required the divorce.
So the Lord didn’t change His mind and suddenly “like” divorce. He ALWAYS HATES divorce. But it is non-negotiable that the Lord’s kids cannot have binding ties with the devil’s kids, so divorce was a necessary evil to set aright the wrong of intermarriage with unbelievers, a worse evil.
In Malachi’s day the situation was very different. Many Jews were divorcing their Jewish wives in order to marry heathen women! Even a blind man can see the difference between Malachi’s situation and Ezra’s. Let’s itemize it for clarity.
• God’s kids can marry only God’s kids
• God’s kids cannot marry the devil’s kids
• God’s kids divorcing the devil’s kids makes right the wrong of marrying the devil’s kids
• God’s kids divorcing God’s kids makes wrong was right
Now remember the context, please. This applied to the Israelites in Old Testament Israel under the Law of Moses. It was the Law of the land, their legal code. It was never given to the Gentiles or the Church. (That’s us.)
What is applicable to the Christian is the “doctrine of separation” (cf., 2 Corinthians 6:14-18). Christians are not to marry unbelievers. However, if a Christian is wrongly married to an unbeliever, and if that unbeliever doesn’t prevent the Christian from practicing his/her faith, then the Christian is to remain in the marriage (cf., 1 Corinthians 7:12-16).
So it is, you see, that apparent contradictions in the Bible are just that, apparent! They are contradictions in appearance only, not in reality. We must always read the Bible in context, dear friends. God does hate divorce. He established marriage as the foundational institution of society.
Contrariwise, the devil loves divorce. He wants to destroy society and render futile everything God builds. This serves as an indisputable symptom in diagnosing whether I am walking in the Spirit or walking in the flesh. Do I approve of divorce, or do I hate divorce?
Divorce is pandemic in today’s society. This should tell us what type of society we live in. I’ll give you a hint: the word christ is in it, but the word is preceded by a prefix spelled a-n-t-i. We must choose sides, and not in word only but also in deed. What say ye?
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
For I hate divorce,” says the Lord, the God of Israel [Malachi 2:16].
The Israelites were dispatched to Babylon as slaves in exile. It was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Their crime? Spiritual adultery, sleeping with the enemy, worshiping the gods of the heathen peoples around them, with its concomitant religious sex with the female devotees.
From the first chapter of the Bible to the last, the Lord teaches the “doctrine of separation”. It teaches that what is unclean makes what is clean to become unclean, and what is profane defiles what is holy so that the holy becomes profane too. Ergo, the people of the Lord (the holy) must not forge binding ties with the people of the devil (the profane). This is especially true of marriage ties.
Consequently, when the Lord insisted His kids in Ezra’s day divorce their heathen wives, two sins were involved. One was the violation of His Law, the other divorce. Separation was mandatory, which compelled the divorce. God’s kids had no right to marry heathen women to begin with. That had to be set right, which required the divorce.
So the Lord didn’t change His mind and suddenly “like” divorce. He ALWAYS HATES divorce. But it is non-negotiable that the Lord’s kids cannot have binding ties with the devil’s kids, so divorce was a necessary evil to set aright the wrong of intermarriage with unbelievers, a worse evil.
In Malachi’s day the situation was very different. Many Jews were divorcing their Jewish wives in order to marry heathen women! Even a blind man can see the difference between Malachi’s situation and Ezra’s. Let’s itemize it for clarity.
• God’s kids can marry only God’s kids
• God’s kids cannot marry the devil’s kids
• God’s kids divorcing the devil’s kids makes right the wrong of marrying the devil’s kids
• God’s kids divorcing God’s kids makes wrong was right
Now remember the context, please. This applied to the Israelites in Old Testament Israel under the Law of Moses. It was the Law of the land, their legal code. It was never given to the Gentiles or the Church. (That’s us.)
What is applicable to the Christian is the “doctrine of separation” (cf., 2 Corinthians 6:14-18). Christians are not to marry unbelievers. However, if a Christian is wrongly married to an unbeliever, and if that unbeliever doesn’t prevent the Christian from practicing his/her faith, then the Christian is to remain in the marriage (cf., 1 Corinthians 7:12-16).
So it is, you see, that apparent contradictions in the Bible are just that, apparent! They are contradictions in appearance only, not in reality. We must always read the Bible in context, dear friends. God does hate divorce. He established marriage as the foundational institution of society.
Contrariwise, the devil loves divorce. He wants to destroy society and render futile everything God builds. This serves as an indisputable symptom in diagnosing whether I am walking in the Spirit or walking in the flesh. Do I approve of divorce, or do I hate divorce?
Divorce is pandemic in today’s society. This should tell us what type of society we live in. I’ll give you a hint: the word christ is in it, but the word is preceded by a prefix spelled a-n-t-i. We must choose sides, and not in word only but also in deed. What say ye?
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
Defensible Divorce? – Part 1
Among the sons of the priests who had married foreign wives were found of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib and Gedaliah. They pledged to put away their wives, and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their offense [Ezra 10:18-19].
For I hate divorce,” says the Lord, the God of Israel [Malachi 2:16].
“Hey, looky at that! There’s a right proper contradiction in the Bible for you. I just proved the Bible has errors in it. So take that, God!”
Such is the blather of the run-of-the-mill atheist and skeptic. Suchlike fellows just refuse to bow the knee to the God of the universe. So they sniff out all the recesses in Scripture, in search of the lost error. They are determined to find it, so guess what? They find it!
Uh, not so fast my dear sir. With what contradiction are you regaling us, at this Bible bash you’re throwing for all your birds of a feather? I don’t see any contradiction.
“Well, then you can’t read, you bozo!” blusters our supercilious snob. “Just read the two quotations at the beginning of this study, and you can’t miss it. God ordered the Jews of Ezra’s day to divorce their wives, but in Malachi’s day He got mad at them for doing just that! He went so far as to thunder, ‘I hate divorce!’ So there.”
And then our self-styled savant parks his haunches on a comfy recliner, face glowing with pride and every pore oozing with conceit, self-satisfied that he has the last word. He is the man! He sits on God’s throne, now that he’s disenfranchised God.
Oh hum. Yawn. Zzzzzzzz. I still don’t see the supposed contradictions, you vain man. But not to worry. I have just the medicine you need for what ails you. It’s Rule #1 for Bible study, sir. It states, “A text without a context is a pretext.” Chew on it overnight and call me in the morning. Once the medicine runs its course, your eyesight will be sharp enough to see your blunder.
Let’s put the situation in Ezra’s day into context, shall we? The Israelites incessantly sinned against the Lord and refused to repent, so finally He sent them into exile in Babylon. Their crime? They worshiped the gods of the pagan peoples around them. This was spiritual adultery because they belonged to the Lord.
After the Babylonian Empire was conquered by the Medes and Persians, the Israelites were permitted to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. During this period many of the Jews married some of the pagan women in the land. The Law of Moses specifically forbade this. It was the cause of so much of the idolatry which put them into Babylonian exile in the first place. If we don’t learn from history, we’re bound to repeat it.
We must take our rest at this roadside arbor and be refreshed by time alone with the Lord Jesus. Tomorrow we will bring this topic to a proper conclusion.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
For I hate divorce,” says the Lord, the God of Israel [Malachi 2:16].
“Hey, looky at that! There’s a right proper contradiction in the Bible for you. I just proved the Bible has errors in it. So take that, God!”
Such is the blather of the run-of-the-mill atheist and skeptic. Suchlike fellows just refuse to bow the knee to the God of the universe. So they sniff out all the recesses in Scripture, in search of the lost error. They are determined to find it, so guess what? They find it!
Uh, not so fast my dear sir. With what contradiction are you regaling us, at this Bible bash you’re throwing for all your birds of a feather? I don’t see any contradiction.
“Well, then you can’t read, you bozo!” blusters our supercilious snob. “Just read the two quotations at the beginning of this study, and you can’t miss it. God ordered the Jews of Ezra’s day to divorce their wives, but in Malachi’s day He got mad at them for doing just that! He went so far as to thunder, ‘I hate divorce!’ So there.”
And then our self-styled savant parks his haunches on a comfy recliner, face glowing with pride and every pore oozing with conceit, self-satisfied that he has the last word. He is the man! He sits on God’s throne, now that he’s disenfranchised God.
Oh hum. Yawn. Zzzzzzzz. I still don’t see the supposed contradictions, you vain man. But not to worry. I have just the medicine you need for what ails you. It’s Rule #1 for Bible study, sir. It states, “A text without a context is a pretext.” Chew on it overnight and call me in the morning. Once the medicine runs its course, your eyesight will be sharp enough to see your blunder.
Let’s put the situation in Ezra’s day into context, shall we? The Israelites incessantly sinned against the Lord and refused to repent, so finally He sent them into exile in Babylon. Their crime? They worshiped the gods of the pagan peoples around them. This was spiritual adultery because they belonged to the Lord.
After the Babylonian Empire was conquered by the Medes and Persians, the Israelites were permitted to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. During this period many of the Jews married some of the pagan women in the land. The Law of Moses specifically forbade this. It was the cause of so much of the idolatry which put them into Babylonian exile in the first place. If we don’t learn from history, we’re bound to repeat it.
We must take our rest at this roadside arbor and be refreshed by time alone with the Lord Jesus. Tomorrow we will bring this topic to a proper conclusion.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
Defensible Divorce? – Part 2
Among the sons of the priests who had married foreign wives were found of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib and Gedaliah. They pledged to put away their wives, and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their offense [Ezra 10:18-19].
For I hate divorce,” says the Lord, the God of Israel [Malachi 2:16].
The Israelites were dispatched to Babylon as slaves in exile. It was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Their crime? Spiritual adultery, sleeping with the enemy, worshiping the gods of the heathen peoples around them, with its concomitant religious sex with the female devotees.
From the first chapter of the Bible to the last, the Lord teaches the “doctrine of separation”. It teaches that what is unclean makes what is clean to become unclean, and what is profane defiles what is holy so that the holy becomes profane too. Ergo, the people of the Lord (the holy) must not forge binding ties with the people of the devil (the profane). This is especially true of marriage ties.
Consequently, when the Lord insisted His kids in Ezra’s day divorce their heathen wives, two sins were involved. One was the violation of His Law, the other divorce. Separation was mandatory, which compelled the divorce. God’s kids had no right to marry heathen women to begin with. That had to be set right, which required the divorce.
So the Lord didn’t change His mind and suddenly “like” divorce. He ALWAYS HATES divorce. But it is non-negotiable that the Lord’s kids cannot have binding ties with the devil’s kids, so divorce was a necessary evil to set aright the wrong of intermarriage with unbelievers, a worse evil.
In Malachi’s day the situation was very different. Many Jews were divorcing their Jewish wives in order to marry heathen women! Even a blind man can see the difference between Malachi’s situation and Ezra’s. Let’s itemize it for clarity.
• God’s kids can marry only God’s kids
• God’s kids cannot marry the devil’s kids
• God’s kids divorcing the devil’s kids makes right the wrong of marrying the devil’s kids
• God’s kids divorcing God’s kids makes wrong what was right
Now remember the context, please. This applied to the Israelites in Old Testament Israel under the Law of Moses. It was the Law of the land, their legal code. It was never given to the Gentiles or the Church. (That’s us.)
What is applicable to the Christian is the “doctrine of separation” (cf., 2 Corinthians 6:14-18). Christians are not to marry unbelievers. However, if a Christian is wrongly married to an unbeliever, and if that unbeliever doesn’t prevent the Christian from practicing his/her faith, then the Christian is to remain in the marriage (cf., 1 Corinthians 7:12-16).
So it is, you see, that apparent contradictions in the Bible are just that, apparent! They are contradictions in appearance only, not in reality. We must always read the Bible in context, dear friends. God does hate divorce. He established marriage as the foundational institution of society.
Contrariwise, the devil loves divorce. He wants to destroy society and render futile everything God builds. This serves as an indisputable symptom in diagnosing whether I am walking in the Spirit or walking in the flesh. Do I approve of divorce, or do I hate divorce?
Divorce is pandemic in today’s society. This should tell us what type of society we live in. I’ll give you a hint: the word christ is in it, but the word is preceded by a prefix spelled a-n-t-i. We must choose sides, and not in word only but also in deed. What say ye?
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
For I hate divorce,” says the Lord, the God of Israel [Malachi 2:16].
The Israelites were dispatched to Babylon as slaves in exile. It was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Their crime? Spiritual adultery, sleeping with the enemy, worshiping the gods of the heathen peoples around them, with its concomitant religious sex with the female devotees.
From the first chapter of the Bible to the last, the Lord teaches the “doctrine of separation”. It teaches that what is unclean makes what is clean to become unclean, and what is profane defiles what is holy so that the holy becomes profane too. Ergo, the people of the Lord (the holy) must not forge binding ties with the people of the devil (the profane). This is especially true of marriage ties.
Consequently, when the Lord insisted His kids in Ezra’s day divorce their heathen wives, two sins were involved. One was the violation of His Law, the other divorce. Separation was mandatory, which compelled the divorce. God’s kids had no right to marry heathen women to begin with. That had to be set right, which required the divorce.
So the Lord didn’t change His mind and suddenly “like” divorce. He ALWAYS HATES divorce. But it is non-negotiable that the Lord’s kids cannot have binding ties with the devil’s kids, so divorce was a necessary evil to set aright the wrong of intermarriage with unbelievers, a worse evil.
In Malachi’s day the situation was very different. Many Jews were divorcing their Jewish wives in order to marry heathen women! Even a blind man can see the difference between Malachi’s situation and Ezra’s. Let’s itemize it for clarity.
• God’s kids can marry only God’s kids
• God’s kids cannot marry the devil’s kids
• God’s kids divorcing the devil’s kids makes right the wrong of marrying the devil’s kids
• God’s kids divorcing God’s kids makes wrong what was right
Now remember the context, please. This applied to the Israelites in Old Testament Israel under the Law of Moses. It was the Law of the land, their legal code. It was never given to the Gentiles or the Church. (That’s us.)
What is applicable to the Christian is the “doctrine of separation” (cf., 2 Corinthians 6:14-18). Christians are not to marry unbelievers. However, if a Christian is wrongly married to an unbeliever, and if that unbeliever doesn’t prevent the Christian from practicing his/her faith, then the Christian is to remain in the marriage (cf., 1 Corinthians 7:12-16).
So it is, you see, that apparent contradictions in the Bible are just that, apparent! They are contradictions in appearance only, not in reality. We must always read the Bible in context, dear friends. God does hate divorce. He established marriage as the foundational institution of society.
Contrariwise, the devil loves divorce. He wants to destroy society and render futile everything God builds. This serves as an indisputable symptom in diagnosing whether I am walking in the Spirit or walking in the flesh. Do I approve of divorce, or do I hate divorce?
Divorce is pandemic in today’s society. This should tell us what type of society we live in. I’ll give you a hint: the word christ is in it, but the word is preceded by a prefix spelled a-n-t-i. We must choose sides, and not in word only but also in deed. What say ye?
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
