God Gives You a Chance Right After the Affair. [2 Samuel 11:6-13]

One of the sins most devastating to an individual and to others is that of adultery. But there is a way to overcome and live victoriously afterwards. Join us as we study David's sin with Bathsheba, Part 2 from 2nd Samuel 11:6-13. You can join us on YouTube at https://youtu.be/OUtFTqW_DGo . Please "like" our video and also subscribe to our YouTube channel: Digging for Scriptural Gems.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

Suspicious Minds -- How and why God dealt with it then and now.

Numbers 5:11-31 Sanctification through Separation from Suspected Infidelity

Day 41 of self-isolation. Our premier just announced a re-opening plan but with all due respect, it is not worth the 13 pages it was written on, and basically says we will reopen when we reopen, but it will be very slow and very, very cautiously. I guess that after he called orderly protesters who wanted the province re-opened “yahoos”, we didn’t really expect much more. So, we all, like the famous weather groundhog, return to our cubby holes, because we haven’t seen our shadow yet. At least I have more time to get deeper into Numbers and that’s a blessing. Thank you to all those that checked us out recently – it must have been the title that did grabbed. Hopefully this one will do likewise. Read on. I am now, as I study this next passage, being reminded why you don’t hear any sermons on it and others like it.

The Passage

The last section of chapter 5 (verses 11-31) is about being separated (in order to be sanctified) from suspected infidelity. It is broken down into four sub-parts:

Verses 11-15 – describes the situation where a wife may or may not have committed adultery, and where if she had, there is no witness to it, and she is not found out. However, in either case, if the husband is overcome by a “spirit of jealousy” he is to take his wife to the priest along with an offering of jealousy, a grain offering, as a reminder of the iniquity.

Verses 16-22 – describes how the priest deals with the wife brought to her. He basically puts some dust into a portion of holy water which makes it “water of bitterness that [could bring] a curse”. The idea is that if she is innocent of adultery, she’ll be immune to the curse. If not, the Lord was to make her “thigh waste away and [her] abdomen swell”. And the woman is supposed to respond, “Amen. Amen.”

Verses 23-28 – describes how the priest writes curses on a scroll and then washes them off with the water of bitterness, which the woman then drinks. After that he takes the grain offering from her hands and waves it before the Lord and brings it to the altar. He offers a part of it up in smoke. The woman then drinks the water. If she’s guilty it will cause bitterness, a swollen abdomen, and thighs that waste away. But more importantly, she’ll become a “curse among her people”. If she’s not guilty, she will clean, free, and conceive children,

Verses 29-31—summarizes the law of jealousy which is brought into play when a wife commits adultery or when a husband suspects she does, whether she does or not. In either case, he is free from guilt, and she bears her guilt.

Thoughts on the Passage

As you can see, not a great passage to try to explain in today’s ‘gender- equality’ world. Also, not so sure who is supposed to be in the process of being sanctified here – is it the wife, or is it the husband?

Chuck Smith makes two observations worth repeating here. First, he says it really would be awful for a woman if her husband was a naturally jealous person and she had to prove her innocence weekly, having to go through all this. Secondly, he notes that woman have come a long way since those days. I would prefer to say that while God’s expressed view of how women were to be have made sense to the men of Israel in those days and the only way they would have accepted, it was in no way indicative of His own views with respect to females when He created Adam and Eve – Genesis 2:25 says both were naked and both were not ashamed. And then of course, Jesus in the New Testament has an entirely favourable view of women. For a great article on that check out Christ's View of Women. 

The whole circumstance is based on suspicion. Surely the wife would not (usually) admit to her husband that she committed adultery. It is more likely the husband senses that something is wrong and based on that hunch, wants things cleared – of course, at his wife’s expense.

On the other hand, David Guzik takes a different, more positive, approach to this whole thing when he writes:

This unique passage deals with the problem of a spirit of jealousy in a marriage. Obviously, unfounded jealousy has spoiled many a marriage, and justified jealousy has forced attention on confronting the sin of adultery - in this passage, God gives Israel a way to deal with it.

He goes on to quote Poole:

"This law was given partly to deter wives from adulterous practices, and partly to secure wives against the rage of their hard-hearted husbands, who otherwise might upon mere suspicions destroy them, or at least put them away." (Poole)

However, what the wife goes through and what the consequences are make the penalty that the adulterous woman in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 novel, The Scarlet Letter, seem like a piece of cake in comparison. While one can believe she would feel a great sense of relief if she is innocent, I would not want to guess what the relationship between she and her husband would be going forward. And as Matthew Henry reminds us that it was even worse if the husband could prove the wife’s adultery. In that case, the penalty was being put to death.

Guzik, quoting Wenham relates the unbinding or loosening of a woman’s hair in the process as being another “hint that she was viewed as unclean. ‘Lepers’ had to let their hair had to let their hair hang loose as a mark of their uncleanness.

“Your thigh waste” Guzik says is a euphemism for “your womb rot” so that you are not be able to have children. Also, we note, that the woman had to agree to the terms set out by the priest, by saying “Amen, so be it.” This was to be repeated twice implying she agreed to both the outcomes – the one if she is guilty and the other if she is not. She could not as Guzik points out:

"Well, I did it, but it was really all right in the sight of God. After all, we loved each other, or my husband neglected me, and …" At the very least, this ceremony demanded that sin be called sin - guilty or innocent!

The law of jealousy does in fact favor the husband. The question is why and what happened to this law, even for the Jews. Guzik, aided by Clarke, helps us out again:

"The rabbis say that the trial by the waters of jealousy was omitted after the Babylonish captivity, because adulteries were so frequent amongst them, that they were afraid of having the name of the Lord profaned by being so frequently appealed to!" (Clarke)

The rabbis also said that if the woman was guilty, the same disease would come upon the man she had committed adultery with; but they also said that even if the wife had been guilty, but her husband had been guilty of adultery also, the bitter water would have no effect on her.

Some more interesting facts about this passage. The “rabbin” (either an old dated form of the word ‘rabbi’ or to imply the rabbis collectively) also say that if the woman was guilty of adultery, the adulterous man would also die at the same time. Interesting.  Matthew Henry says that Jewish doctors had stated that if the husband himself had also committed adultery; the bitter water would not have the same negative impact on the woman. Fair is fair. Perhaps that was God’s way of delivery His word in Hosea 4:14 where it says, “I will not punish your spouses [or daughters; daughters-in-law] when they commit adultery, for you yourselves are separated (from Me) with whores.”

What else can we learn from this passage that we can apply to our lives today? Here are some thoughts:

1.     Guzik says clearly this is evidence that God does not want couples to live in a state of jealously. This was a ceremony intended to resolve the issue that arouse or was believed. We need to resolve our marital issues, especially those of jealousy.

2.     Clearly, God had to be involved as water with some dust in it does not cause those kinds of physical outcomes. Perhaps the mental stress of the guilt if one were indeed guilty would be more of a link to the physical conditions predicted.

3.     Knowing the whole community would learn about it was an incentive to faithfulness in marriage, and thus good for the whole nation.

4.     And the bottom line for Guzik in this resolve to be pure (as well as the former one in verses 5-10) was a desire “to make Israel a pure, Promised Land people in their personal relationships. You can't be a Promised Land person if your relationships with others stink! You must make restitution and get things resolved.”

5.     Secret sins are known to God, and Henry says, “sometimes are strangely brought to light in this life; however, there is a day coming when God will, by Jesus Christ, as here by the priest, judge the secrets of men according to the gospel, Romans 2:16.

6.     That God will find out some way or other says Henry, “to clear the innocence of the innocent, and to bring forth their righteousness as the light.”

May we be mindful of how God dealt with Israel and how He will deal with us.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

The Commonalities of Adultery, Child Sacrifice, Practicing Homosexuality, & Bestiality

Laws against – Adultery, Child Sacrifice, Practicing Homosexuality, & Bestiality

Leviticus 18:20-30

Day ten of our 14-day self-quarantine because of the coronavirus pandemic. I would never want to suggest that the quantity of sin one commits has an impact on a person’s state of being a sinner or his/her need for forgiveness, but the thought did occur to me that with all this self-isolation and social distancing going on in the world, the amount of sin along the lines of our passage today that is taking place globally must have dropped somewhat. Maybe now is a good time for many to understand that finds all these things to be an abomination, period.

It is also interesting to note that this passage may have an explanation, not for the scientific physical reason for Covid-19, but perhaps the reason as to why God is allowing it. Read on and decide for yourself.

The Passage

^20 “You shall not have intercourse with your neighbor’s wife, to be defiled with her. ²¹ You shall not give any of your offspring to offer them to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God; I am the Lord. ²² You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination. ²³ Also you shall not have intercourse with any animal to be defiled with it, nor shall any woman stand before an animal to mate with it; it is a perversion.

²⁴ ‘Do not defile yourselves by any of these things; for by all these the nations which I am casting out before you have become defiled. ²⁵ For the land has become defiled, therefore I have brought its punishment upon it, so the land has spewed out its inhabitants. ²⁶ But as for you, you are to keep My statutes and My judgments and shall not do any of these abominations, neither the native, nor the alien who sojourns among you ²⁷ (for the men of the land who have been before you have done all these abominations, and the land has become defiled); ²⁸ so that the land will not spew you out, should you defile it, as it has spewed out the nation which has been before you. ²⁹ For whoever does any of these abominations, those persons who do so shall be cut off from among their people. ³⁰ Thus you are to keep My charge, that you do not practice any of the abominable customs which have been practiced before you, so as not to defile yourselves with them; I am the Lord your God.’”

Thoughts on the Passage

Adultery

Verse 20 is pretty straight-forward. We are not to have sexual relationships with the wife of another man. (And one could assume that is also true for the opposite sex – a woman is not to have sexual intercourse with the husband of another woman.) We already know from the first 19 verses of this chapter that we are not to have sexual relations with any of our kin related by blood or marriage. There is the issue of who is our “neighbor” and whether or not sexual intercourse is permissible with the wife of someone who is not our neighbor. I believe that God intended all of us to live in harmony around the world as, if not brothers and sisters, certainly as neighbors. We read in Romans 12:18 “If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.” So, that means the emphasis in the lesson here in Leviticus 18:30 is not so much the idea of a ‘neighbor’s wife’ as it is that we are not to sleep with someone who is married, period. And that goes for single people sleeping with a person who is married to someone else. You can ignore what the Scripture says (at your own peril) but you can’t argue that it doesn’t say that.

Child Sacrifice and Abortion

Now in the very next verse (21) God says we are not to participate in any form of child sacrifice. That’s a no-no and I am sure that few, if any, of the readers of this study are involved in that. Most readers would find that to be an atrocity today and totally unacceptable to most men, let alone God.  And they would be right. The fact that we often miss, however, is where God places these things in His Word. The declaration of this abomination of child sacrifice (which most of us would not do) is sandwiched right in between the idea of adultery and homosexuality and then bestiality. God views all of these the same and to partake in them is to “profane the name of your God” (verse 21).

While we are on the subject of child sacrifice, I must admit that it is an easy leap for me to jump to thoughts of abortion. We may not see that as child sacrifice but think about it for a moment.  In the process of abortion, we are sacrificing the life of an unborn (or nowadays even a child that is about to be born). Yes, you say, but there is no idol god involved. Ah, but isn’t there? Isn’t the person having the abortion acting like a god? Or the father who is forcing the woman to have an abortion like a god? Or the whole idea of the warped concept of feminism, the god in this case? To me, at least, there are a lot of parallels.

Homosexuality

Then in verse 22 we come to the matter of sleeping with someone of the same sex. Now I do not want to get into the issue here of whether homosexuality or lesbianism is something a person is born with or something they acquire a need for due to their environmental upbringing. I have my own views on that, but I don’t pretend to solve the matter for the world when some brilliant minds on either side can’t come to an agreement, for a host of reasons. Nevertheless, whether there is a genetic or environmental cause to being non-heterosexual, it is not the condition that is being address in verse 22 of this chapter, but the practice of it. God finds the practice to be an abomination, period. I believe we can hold that view and still love a person who practices this sin just as we love any other type of sinner, or better still, just as we love ourselves.  And if you want the ultimate comparison, just as Christ loved and love us and them, when He died on the cross for them. That does not mean I condone what they are doing. Christ did not condone what the scribes and pharisees did, but He prayed to His heavenly father that they would be forgiven.  So we too are to views those we know who are homosexuals, even practicing ones, in that light.  We are to pray for their repentance, and forgiveness, but in the process, we are to continue to love them. I think you get the point.

Bestiality

Through social media and the Internet, we are becoming more and more aware of all things weird and not so wonderful. Bestiality seems to be one of those. But we note here that it has been around since the days the Israelites were in Egypt and then in the wilderness.  Verse 23 tells us to not even think of it. God calls it a perversion.  Sadly, much of mankind has lost its moral compass and perversion is what it seems to hunger for. One only needs to follow some of Hollywood’s less-brilliant celebrities (or even the smarter ones under the influence of Satan) these days to discover that.

What All These Have in Common and the Outcome

In short, all the commands of chapter 18 are intended to preserve the honor of the marriage bed.

In verses 24-30 of the chapter, God makes the following clear about the practice of any of these things:

·      Doing any one of them causes us to be defiled. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines being defiled in many ways. These include:

o   to make unclean or impure: such as

§  to corrupt the purity or perfection of

§  to violate the chastity or virginity of

§  to make physically unclean especially with something unpleasant or contaminating

§  to violate the sanctity of

§  to sully, dishonor (as one’s reputation)

o   pick your choice.

·      These things make “lands” defiled and God brings punishment on them (verse 25); punishment that causes the land to “spew” out its inhabitants (that is, they die)

·      We, on the other hand, are to keep His laws against these (verse 26) so that we do not get spewed out or die.

·      Committing these things does cut us off from being the people of God (verse 29)

·      And why, because as He says, “I am the Lord your God.” 

Does any of the above sound familiar to us today? There are a lot of practices of humanity that seem to defy God, but the violation of these laws seems to be so prevalent these days – it is even flaunted in many cases. Whether or not there is a connection between what is happening to our land once again, I will leave up to you to decide. Each one of us has their own views on that. And perhaps the real answer is not cut and dry one way or another.  But any correlation is worth it, especially if its consideration takes you, and me, and others closer, or back to, what God intended for us.  Hang in there but do think on these things.

Thankfully, while the practice of these things may cause defilement, God provides a way out for us through Jesus Christ. In that, we can rejoice.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

2 Views on Incest: God's & Hollywood's -- our study from Leviticus continues.

Leviticus Chapter 18: Laws of Sexual Sin

Laws on Immoral Relations -- Incest

Leviticus 18:1-19

Day 9 of our 14-day self-quarantine due to the Covid-19 virus. No sign of any let-up in the number of deaths based on the latest statistics. At over 25,000 deaths as of this morning (March 27, 2020), Covid-19 has far surpassed the casualties of Ebola, MERS, and SARS.  The next target to be avoided is the death toll of the Yellow Fever pandemic (1800’s) which took, it is estimated, from 100,000 to 150,000 lives. But as the U.S. President said two days ago, one life more is too many. May God continue to keep His people safe, trusting fully in Him. As for me, I continue with my study of the Word. Thank you for joining me today.

As I read Leviticus 18 again today, I realized just how relevant that may be to what is going on again with another pandemic, but we’ll discover that together later.  Also, this is long passage packed with so much, so we may well take several days to cover it.

As we read the passage below, we are to remember that the phrase “uncover their nakedness” is a euphemism for “sexual relations or intercourse”.

The Passage

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘I am the Lord your God. ³ You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you lived, nor are you to do what is done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you; you shall not walk in their statutes. ⁴ You are to perform My judgments and keep My statutes, to live in accord with them; I am the Lord your God. ⁵ So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, by which a man may live if he does them; I am the Lord.

⁶ ‘None of you shall approach any blood relative of his to uncover nakedness; I am the Lord. ⁷ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, that is, the nakedness of your mother. She is your mother; you are not to uncover her nakedness. ⁸ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is your father’s nakedness. ⁹ The nakedness of your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether born at home or born outside, their nakedness you shall not uncover. ¹⁰ The nakedness of your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, their nakedness you shall not uncover; for their nakedness is yours.¹¹ The nakedness of your father’s wife’s daughter, born to your father, she is your sister, you shall not uncover her nakedness. ¹² You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s sister; she is your father’s blood relative. ¹³ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister, for she is your mother’s blood relative. ¹⁴ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s brother; you shall not approach his wife; she is your aunt. ¹⁵ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law; she is your son’s wife; you shall not uncover her nakedness.¹⁶ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness. ¹⁷ You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and of her daughter, nor shall you take her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter, to uncover her nakedness; they are blood relatives. It is lewdness. ¹⁸ You shall not marry a woman in addition to her sister as a rival while she is alive, to uncover her nakedness.

¹⁹ ‘Also you shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness during her menstrual impurity.”

Thoughts on the Passage

To begin with God sets the stage for the laws He is about to give Moses for His people. He says we are not to do what those from whom we were drawn out from do. And we are not to do what those that we come upon, do. We are to do what God commands. (verse 4) That’s pretty simple, one would think. But oh, how often we forget it.

In verse 5 God again gives us the two main reasons for following His commands. First, “that we may live” and second, because He is the Lord. Nothing more is required. We follow His commands because doing so keeps us alive – sometimes physically, sometimes socially, always spiritually. And we don’t mind doing that because we remember what God has done for us.

Then God gets right into the topic of who we are not to sleep with just like that. Nothing shy about this Heavenly Father. This is a much fuller clarification of the seventh commandment “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”

Clearly, He knew, having created man and woman, that sexual relationships are pretty important to us, so He wants to establish the boundaries in this area right away.  And of course, mankind has been fighting these ever since. All you have to do is look at the movie industry and what it has been pushing at us in recent decades.

But what are no-nos according to God?  Well, let’s make a summary list of who you or I are not to have sexual intercourse with:

n  No blood relative

n  Not one of your parents

n  Not a stepparent

n  Not a sibling or stepsibling

n  Not a grandchild

n  Not an aunt (or uncle)

n  Not a daughter-in-law (or son-in-law)

n  Not a sister-in-law (or brother-in-law)

n  No relations with those who are related to each other (verse 17 describes sleeping with two people or more who are related) – God calls that lewdness.

n  No marriage to two sisters at the same time (this was a practice among ancient Egyptians, Chaldeans, and others; remember this is long after the story of Jacob marrying Rachel and Leah in Genesis)

n  Not a woman who is having her monthly period (one assumes for hygienic reasons and/or love and consideration)

David Guzik reminds us, quoting Harrison, that God does not want us to be like others. He writes:

"The Persians, for example, encouraged marital unions with mothers, daughters and sisters, on the ground that such relationships had special merit in the eyes of the gods." (Harrison)

Anything that smacks of what idolatrous people did is not going to be okay with the true God. Therefore, He hates these things.

Now the above list is a pretty complete list. The message is clear.  No incest at any degree level.

Does that mean anyone outside the above list is fair game? The rest of the chapter speaks to that and we’ll save that for the next study. In the meantime, let’s make sure we know where we stand on this.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.