PT-5 "The Teaching of the Old Testament"

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/31/2020 9:57 AM

 

My Worship Time                                          Focus:  PT-5 “The Teaching of the Old Testament”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:   OT Passages

 

            Message of the verse:  As mentioned earlier we are looking at different passages from the Old Testament that deal with divorce, and looking at them we find that God hates divorce, and that God intended one man and one woman to be married for life.  We will now try to pick up where we left off and also pick up where we left off in the quotation from “The Battle of the Ages.”

 

            We want to begin this SD by talking about how divorce was clearly taught to be defilement for a priest as seen in Leviticus 21:7 and 14.  “7 ’They [a priest] shall not take a woman who is profaned by harlotry, nor shall they take a woman divorced from her husband; for he is holy to his God.”  “14  ’A widow, or a divorced woman, or one who is profaned by harlotry, these he [a priest] may not take; but rather he is to marry a virgin of his own people,15 so that he will not profane his offspring among his people; for I am the LORD who sanctifies him.’"

 

             Now we want to look at Ezra 10:1-5 to show that in the Old Testament God does not condone or bless divorce as seen in this very unique case described here:  “1 Now while Ezra was praying and making confession, weeping and prostrating himself before the house of God, a very large assembly, men, women and children, gathered to him from Israel; for the people wept bitterly. 2 Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, said to Ezra, "We have been unfaithful to our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land; yet now there is hope for Israel in spite of this. 3 “So now let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives and their children, according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law. 4 “Arise! For this matter is your responsibility, but we will be with you; be courageous and act." 5 Then Ezra rose and made the leading priests, the Levites and all Israel, take oath that they would do according to this proposal; so they took the oath.”  John MacArthur writes “God actually commanded divorce through His priest, Ezra, because the existence of His covenant people was threatened (cf. Deut. 7:1-5)’ but that single exception did not negate His hatred of divorce.  Ezra’s call for divorce is an extreme historical example of following the lesser of two evils, and it applied only to the covenant nation of Israel in that one situation.”

 

            We have studied in the past the book of Hosea and that entire book is a picture of God’s forgiving and patient love for Israel as it is dramatized by Hosea’s forgiving and for his patient love for his wife Gomer.  Gomer prostituted herself in a similar that Israel did and yet like God, Hosea forgave his wife even though this happened more than one time.  He had to buy his wife back from a place where she would be sold as a slave.  Jesus Christ bought His bride from the slave market of sin, and we were in the worst shape we could be in but because of His great love for us He died in our place.  MacArthur writes “God looks on the union of husband and wife in the same way He looks on the union of Himself with believers.  And the way of God should be the way of His people—to love, forgive, draw back, and seek to restore the partner who is willing to be restored.”

 

            MacArthur concludes this rather long section:  “There must be forgiving love and restring grace in a marriage.  That alone makes marriage a proper symbol of God’s forgiving love and restoring grace.  That is the magnificence of marriage.  To pursue divorce is to miss the whole point of God’s dramatization in the story of Hosea and Gomer, the whole point of our Lord’s love for His church, and thus the whole point of marriage.  God hates divorce.”

 

PT-2 of “The Battle of Man”

 

            “Having instilled a doubt in the woman’s mind, Satan boldly proceeds:  ‘Ye shall not surely die.’  Then follows an appeal to the woman’s pride:  ‘For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.’  ‘Ye shall be as gods!’  That did it!  “It is not right to frighten you with this penalty of death.  This dogma is retarding your progress.  You have within yourselves the possibility of being gods.’  It was an echo of Lucifer’s own ambition—‘I will be like the most High.’  It is suspiciously like the preaching we hear in these days concerning the spark of the divine in man with minifies Deity and deifies humanity.’

 

            “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat.  And the eyes of them both were opened and they knew that they were naked.’  In that moment innocence died in the heart of man, the image of God in man was marred, sin rears its ugly head over a disordered creation, and fallen Lucifer exults over fallen man.  The first engagement in the Battle of Mansoul is over and Satan is triumphant.

 

            “But the Battle itself is not over.  The wheels of God grind slowly.  The Battle has just begun.  To fallen man, standing amid the ruins sin has made, God gives the promise of ultimate victory.  ‘The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent.’  The Warrior Christ shall come and the serpent shall lick the dust.  Satan has ruined God’s man, God’s man shall destroy Satan.  The first Adam is conquered, the second Adam shall triumph.  The seed of the woman shall one day rise, and under the conquering heel of the Christ, Satan’s head shall be crushed.

 

            “My friend in the great Battle of the Ages, the hottest part of the fight today rages in the heart of man.  The Battle of the first Man is the battle of every man.  The Battle of Mansoul is the battle of your soul.  There are two contending forces striving for the mastery of your soul.  One desires your ruin, one your salvation.  The same tremendous issues—life and death—are at stake now as then.  You are faced with the same old serpent and the same old temptation.  The first lie was so successful that the Evil has never troubled to invent a new one.  He just dresses up the old lie in new clothes.  When a convicted soul is wrestling with God’s decree, ‘The soul that sinneth it shall die,’ what is the serpent’s whisper but the same old, ‘Yea, Hat God said?’  When you turn a sympathetic ear to ‘Yea, hath God said?’ you are ready to receive the next poisoned shaft in your soul, ‘Ye shall not surely die.’  Believe that lie and you are doomed!  Who shall win the battle of your soul?  It is for you to decide.  God help you to decide aright.” 8/31/2020 10:37 AM