divorce
"Paperless Divorce! Quick and Painless! Only $149!!!"
If I was anyone else, I would have thought "wow, that's a pretty good deal!" But I have not forgotten, like the rest of the world, what God teaches us from His word.
"I hate divorce," says the LORD God of Israel, "and I hate a man's covering himself with violence as well as with his garment," says the LORD Almighty. ~Malachi 2:16
Simple enough to understand. Yet how prevelant it is in today's society where the divorce rate is creeping over 50% mark. Do they not consider the vows they made "to death do us part" and "what God has joined together let no man seperate." I doubt they consider such words as more than just apart of the ritual. But to me, they were much more. My husband and I both knew that. Marriage is not to be entered into lightly for God promises that it is not all lovey-dovey. It is the testing that either makes us stronger or breaks us. "Those who perserve to the end will be saved." Alas, that is another tangent.
Just so happened, I've been reading through Ezekiel. In chaper 16, Israel, God's choosen people, is described as a woman who God took for his bride but she went off and commited adultery with all her neighbors. We are not much different from Israel. America has turned from it's God to unfaithfulness and liberalism. The one condition the Bible gives us to divorce is if a spouse is unfaithful and commits adultery.
The thought hit me then...what if God divorced us, his children?
We would be cast out, no longer heirs of the promise, no longer covered by the blood of Christ. Our only certainty would be the promise of eternity in hell and it would be rightly deserved, yes.
All have turned away, they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good, not even one. ~ Romans 3:12
But praise God and His promise to David. Praise God that in His Mercy He does not change His mind or go back on His word. He is the God of the Covenant, faithful still even while we chase after this sin and that sin, He is faithful to forgive and take us back.
Let us then consider a new perspective on divorce. Of course, I'm talking to the brethen, those who have already been elected and saved by grace and seek to obey the Lord we love. There are no limits to our unfaithfulness, nor to God's mercy, however, for fear of discipline, let us not test either.
Ndosch
To live is Christ, to die is gain!
Phillipians 1:21
