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...
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