I have not found in the Old Testament Law the idea of a woman divorcing a man. In our changing, upside down feminist world it is quite common.
The prophet Malachi tells us, the men, that we do not get answers to our prayers or God’s attention if we have not considered and treated the wife of our youth properly. He tells us that God hates divorce! If God hates it for men, how much more does he hate it for women to rebel against and leave their husbands?
As I have been meditating on the Scriptures regarding marriage and women, the pieces of a new puzzle picture came together in my mind, revealing a picture that I had never seen before.
As man was created to please God so woman was formed, from man, to please man. Paul says that woman was made for man, not man for the woman.
Paul also informs us of a spiritual concept that he considers to have been a spiritual mystery. It is the parallel between the relationship of man with Christ to the relationship of woman (a wife) with man in Ephesians 5.
Would it be even conceivable for a man to divorce himself from his relationship to Christ, the Bridegroom, after becoming one of the brides; a part of the church?
There is a presumptuous arrogance in certain parts of the bride that claim certain rights and privileges that the groom may have given to some parts of the bride, but not all. There are also a lot of things that the modern bride believes she knows about the Groom that are really not true. She has not discovered them because she spends more time playing with the world than being intimate with the Groom. She does not know it, but the Groom IS jealous! That form of adultery is grounds for divorce!
Parts of the bride consider it their privilege (or even a necessity) to commit adultery with the world without suffering any consequences. As a matter of fact certain parts of the bride do not see it as even possible to be totally pure, without at least a little bit of adultery, as they associate with and conform themselves to, the world. They were told to come out of, by the Groom; but it must have gone over their head, or someone, they respected more than the Groom, told them it wasn’t possible. The Groom actually told the bride, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, because all that is in the world (the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the arrogance produced by material possessions) is not from the Father, but is from the world.” The most important person in the Groom’s life is His Father! The parts of the bride that do not please the Father could miss or be shut out of the wedding.
Ephesians 5 applies to men, husbands, who are (good or bad, 1Peter 3:1 & 2:18), the representative of Jesus Christ in the life of their wife. “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord, because the husband is the head of the wife as also Christ is the head of the church — he himself being the savior of the body. But as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.”
What I have shared is in a sense part of the law and can be followed as a law, missing many blessings. What did Jesus say about the law and the prophets? He said that He came not to destroy them but to “fulfill” them. “Fulfill” in the Greek means “to make replete, that is, (literally) to cram (a net), level up (a hollow)…” So, because of what Christ’s death did for us in making it possible for Him to actually live in us as His Temple, we are responsible to keep the Temple clean and pure as we meditate on His laws. Paul tells us that we can and should have the mind of Christ. It is no longer the actions in our lives that God is looking at; it is the meditation and the motives that come before the action.
Matthew 5:27-28 "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
Matthew 5:31-32 "It was said, 'Whoever divorces his wife must give her a legal document.' But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. (Please notice that this was clearly to the man, as it was not heard of for a women to divorce her husband.)
The new picture… what does it look like to the Father when a woman divorces her husband? What are the consequences when the woman separates herself from the source of her salvation? 1 Timothy 2:15?
I truly feel sorry for those women who have or are in the process of divorcing their husbands because they want half of everything their husband is worth. Greed, retaliation, etc. appear to be the driving spirits in their minds. God looks on the heart, the mind. Is it possible for them to see that it is as if they were divorcing Jesus Christ when they divorce their husbands?
I am truly glad that I am not the judge!!!! I know that God is forgiving and merciful. I know that the punishment is more severe for those that know right and choose to do wrong. My encouragement for those who know they are wrong is to repent. As God directs and enables you begin to trust and obey His Word and His Holy Spirit.
The key in my understanding is to stop doing what is wrong in God’s eyes and start doing right. God can then heal and deliver.
My summary; the solution of the picture that I see is impossible! The world that we live in is broken beyond repair; as in the days of Noah. With God all things are possible and He reaches out to the truly humble and contrite hearts.
Why do I even write this? I am not sure, but there is a starting point and a stopping point to all things. How can a wrong be stopped if it is never seen to be wrong? How can a life style be known as wrong, unless someone says stop, it is wrong. Feminism, as I see it in the light of God’s Word is evil! It is powerful both inside and outside the church. It is a part of this evil world that is destroying the bride of Christ.
