Today,
reply is on divorce and the divine use of life companions through
marriage. One of the most revealing incidents regarding the divine
character, sanctification, and use of marriage appears in the
accounts from Nehemiah the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest and scribe.
Rather than the issues of emotions, love, or pride of family, the
issues of accountability to GOD, duty, and sacred promise were
primary. The two served as leaders and organizers of the Jews who
returned home from the 70-year captivity of Babylon. Their efforts
to restore Jerusalem included rebuilding the city walls, reinstating
the Levitical priesthood, and reestablishing worship in the Temple.
When it became clear that many of the Levites were now defiled by
having married women who were not in covenant with GOD (we say,
foreign or strange women) and had fathered children by them, hundreds
were required to “put away” their profane marriages in a process
of divorce. Those who would not willingly dissolve their unlawful
union would lose their standing and family inheritance as men of
Judah. It is written: Ezra 9: 1-3, King James Version (KJV): 1
Now when these things were done, the princes came to me, saying, The
people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not
separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing
according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the
Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites,
the Egyptians, and the Amorites. 2 For they have taken of their
daughters for themselves, and for their sons: so that the holy seed
have mingled themselves with the people of those lands: yea,
the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this trespass.
3 And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle, and
plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down
astonied. Also, Ezra 10: 10-17, KJV: 10 And Ezra the priest stood
up, and said unto them, Ye have transgressed, and have taken strange
wives, to increase the trespass of Israel. 11 Now therefore make
confession unto the LORD God of your fathers, and
do his pleasure: and separate yourselves from the people of the
land, and from the strange wives. 12 Then all the congregation
answered and said with a loud voice, As thou hast said, so must we
do. 13 But the people are many, and it is a time of
much rain, and we are not able to stand without, neither is this
a work of one day or two: for we are many that have transgressed in
this thing. 14 Let now our rulers of all the congregation stand, and
let all them which have taken strange wives in our cities come at
appointed times, and with them the elders of every city, and the
judges thereof, until the fierce wrath of our God for this matter be
turned from us. 15 Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahaziah the
son of Tikvah were employed about this matter: and Meshullam
and Shabbethai the Levite helped them. 16 And the children of the
captivity did so. And Ezra the priest, with certain chief of
the fathers, after the house of their fathers, and all of them by
their names, were separated, and sat down in the first day of
the tenth month to examine the matter. 17 And they made an end with
all the men that had taken strange wives by the first day of the
first month. A fighter in the “Yahoo!
Answers” public forum on Religion and Spirituality who uses the ID
“Anonymous” (no profile is shared) posted the following:
Why's
divorce wrong in Christianity, what if you're married to an abusive
person?
THE
GOLDEN ARROW: Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your
own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without
the word be won by the conversation of the wives; While they behold
your chaste conversation coupled with fear. Whose adorning
let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and
of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; But let it be
the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even
the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of
God of great price. For after this manner in the old time the holy
women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in
subjection unto their own husbands: Even as Sara obeyed Abraham,
calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and
are not afraid with any amazement. Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with
them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as
unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of
life; that your prayers be not hindered. (1st Peter 3:
1-7, King James Version, KJV)
THE
DOUBLE DAGGER: Transgression of Sacred Law? (10/25/2018); Applying
The Divine Standards (10/02/2018); Two Become One Flesh (01/07/2018);
When Believers Practice Divorce (12/10/2017); Marriage Is A
Sacrament? (06/11/2017); The Wife of Your Youth? (12/22/2015); The
Mistakes In Youth? (08/24/2015)
“Anonymous”,
counsel and instruction for those who enter into covenant with
divinity through the blood of Jesus Christ includes the following:
1.
Deuteronomy 24: 1-4, King James Version (KJV): 1 When a man hath
taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no
favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her:
then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in
her hand, and send her out of his house. 2 And when she is departed
out of his house, she may go and be another man’s
wife. 3 And if the latter husband hate her, and write
her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and
sendeth her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which
took her to be his wife; 4 Her former husband, which sent her
away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is
defiled; for that is abomination before the LORD:
and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the LORD
thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.
2.
Malachi 2: 11-16, KJV: 11 Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an
abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath
profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved,
and hath married the daughter of a strange god. 12 The LORD
will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out
of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto
the LORD of hosts. 13 And this have ye done
again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears,
with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the
offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your
hand. 14 Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD
hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against
whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion,
and the wife of thy covenant. 15 And did not he make one? Yet had he
the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a
godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal
treacherously against the wife of his youth. 16 For the LORD,
the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one
covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD
of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not
treacherously.
3.
Matthew 19: 3-9, KJV: 3 The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting
him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife
for every cause? 4 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not
read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male
and female, 5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and
mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one
flesh? 6 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What
therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. 7 They
say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of
divorcement, and to put her away? 8 He saith unto them, Moses
because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your
wives: but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say unto you,
Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for
fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso
marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.
4.
1st Timothy 1-3, KJV: 1 Now the Spirit speaketh
expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith,
giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; 2 Speaking
lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; 3
Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God
hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe
and know the truth.
There
is far more that should be said, correctly examined, and spiritually
apprehended. (For example, 5. 1st Corinthians 7:
10-16, KJV: 10 And unto the married I command, yet not I, but
the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband: 11 But
and if she depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her
husband: and let not the husband put away his wife. 12 But
to the rest speak I, not the Lord: If any brother hath a wife that
believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put
her away. 13 And the woman which hath an husband that believeth not,
and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him. 14
For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the
unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your
children unclean; but now are they holy. 15 But if the unbelieving
depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in
such cases: but God hath called us to peace. 16 For what
knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or
how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?)
Even so, I trust this fragment will be
useful. Be it unto you according to your faith.
Washington,
DC
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