Monday, November 26, 2007

Plowshares, Divorce, and Jesus

Jim:

Joel 3:1-2, 9-17
Verse 10 is completely opposite from passages found in Isaiah and Micah: “Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears.” At first glance this may seem bothersome, as though it were a repudiation of peace on the part of God. But this call to arms is addressed to the nations who have oppressed God’s people and who must now face the day of the Lord and God’s judgment. God will restore God’s people and then peace and security will prevail.

1 Peter 1:1-12
In verse 8 we read, “Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy.” I like the idea of not seeing Jesus, and yet loving and believing in him nonetheless. In fact, this notion binds us together with the very earliest Christians who had not known Jesus. None of us have known him in his earthly ministry, but we love him and worship him and follow him because God has called us into this relationship and given us the power to believe. We stand in a line that stretches back to the very beginning of the church and includes generation after generation of people who have never seen Jesus but who have found an “indescribable joy” in him anyway.

Matthew 19:1-12
I found parts of verses 5 and 6 to be familiar and helpful. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” Nehemiah, on his return to Jerusalem, compelled Jewish men to send away their foreign-born wives and children. (This was a reaction to the worship practices and other traditions that these foreign women had introduced into the community, causing syncretism where Nehemiah and others sought purity.) Jesus, I believe, would have taken a different approach. According to Jesus the covenantal relationship between a woman and a man is sacred and very, very important, reflecting the relationship we have with God. Jesus is not saying divorce can never be an option, but he is saying that we should take marriage very, very seriously as a blessing from God. And he would oppose divorce when it is imposed on a woman who is then left with no support or livelihood.

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