Question 2

I’d like to answer my questions from my last blog...
This time I’ll try to cover: Why do you think it was necessary for the Israelites to divorce or separate from their wives, and why did God condone it?

To start, I’d like to point out that the Israelites were already involved in a covenant before they “married” or united themselves to the evil nations surrounding them. There was already in place a holy covenant between their nation and the Lord God almighty. As such they were no longer their own, they belonged to God. In fact the very act of marriage outside of their own people, on the side of the priests and Levites, was a breach of that and against God’s law. They were disobeying the Lord at a time when they had just received forgiveness and the ability to return to the land of promise. They were in truth committing adultery against God. The importance of them remaining a holy nation set apart by God was being jeopardized. To remain God’s priests, and chosen people they had to turn away from all of their wickedness and immorality. If this movement had gone unchecked they would have become unfit to be God’s holy nation and ultimately destroyed. Therefore, in this situation it was necessary to separate themselves from the nations around them, and to become once again sanctified unto God.

I am by no means condoning divorce, God hates divorce. After all, one of the reasons God instituted marriage on this earth, was as a representation of the mystery that is found in the union of Christ Jesus to the church. Divorce is a separation from that truth.

Malachi 2:10-16 Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously with one another by profaning the covenant of the fathers? Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, for Judah has profaned the LORD’s holy institution which He loves:
he has married the daughter of a foreign god. May the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob the man who does this, being awake and aware, yet who brings an offering to the LORD of hosts!
And this is the second thing you do: You cover the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping and crying; So He does not regard the offering anymore, nor receive it with goodwill from your hands. Yet you say, “For what reason?” Because the LORD has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously; yet she is your companion
and your wife by covenant. But did He not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, And let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth. “ For the LORD God of Israel says That He hates divorce, for it covers one’s garment with violence,” Says the LORD of hosts.

Now if you notice that in the prior text there are two troubles:
1. They were joining themselves in marriage to peoples of other faiths and gods.
2. They were divorcing their own wives, and renouncing the commitment they had made to them before God.

Jesus said of divorce:
"Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." "Why then," they asked, "did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?" Jesus replied, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery. Matt. 19:4-8"

I’m also by no means trying to judge any one either;
“Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor? James 4:11-12"

I’m just trying to share what I’ve learned of the truth, with whatever ability the Lord supplies me with.
“Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.1 Peter 4:9-11"