Yahweh, Marriage & Israel: the Law and "Grace" Explained - February 13th, 2010

Yahweh, Marriage & Israel: the law and "grace" explained. What follows are the notes made for the program.

Saturday February 13th, 2010 

Euripides, Hippolytus, Line 962-963: "...the bastard is always regarded as an enemy to the true-born". Therefore the goats will not have an open go of it in tonight's forum. 

All of the tribes of Israel were involved in the national relationship of marriage to Yahweh. Nobody could ever dispute this. Here I will begin with Exodus chapters 19 through 24: There should be little doubt that the record here is that of a marriage between Yahweh and the children of Israel. The nation would be the bride of God, and the law was given to Israel as the terms of that marriage. The children of Israel are represented as having fully agreed to this arrangement. The tribe of Judah is clearly there, and is mentioned in Exodus chapters 1 and 31. 

Exodus 19:5-11 5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: 6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. 7 And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the LORD commanded him. 8 And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto Yahweh. 9 And Yahweh said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever. And Moses told the words of the people unto Yahweh. 10 And Yahweh said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes, 11 And be ready against the third day: for the third day Yahweh will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai.

For the next several chapters the laws are given which Israel must follow as their part in the agreement. Then in Exodus chapter 24 we see this:

Exodus 24:3-8 3 And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the LORD hath said will we do. 4 And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the LORD. 6 And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. 7 And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient. 8 And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words.

Now there is even more to the story, of course, but this is basically the marriage ceremony of Yahweh and Israel as a nation. 

Once the children of Israel adopted the customs of the surrounding Canaanite nations, broke the law, began practicing paganism, and began mixing their race - which is a practice of paganism and a part of the fertility rituals of the ancient pagan temples, they were found to be adulterers by Yahweh, the husband of the nation. 

Here is what the Law says of adulterers:

Leviticus 20:10 10 And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

Deuteronomy 22:22 22 If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou put away evil from Israel.

So we see that Israel, the wife, had committed a crime worthy of death. In our entirety, we as a nation deserved to die. This is the reason why prophecies such as that found at Jeremiah chapter 31:

Jeremiah 31:31-38 31 Behold, the days come, saith Yahweh, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith Yahweh: 33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith Yahweh, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know Yahweh: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith Yahweh: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. 35 Thus saith Yahweh, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: 36 If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. 37 Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.

While Israel deserved death under the law, we see that Yahweh promised that Israel would certainly not die, but rather would be a nation forever. There is only one way that this could be done without Yahweh's being a hypocrite and breaking His Own law: He himself had to die in order to free Israel from the law! This is why Christ professed that He came to "fulfill the law"! Paul explains this very thing in Romans chapter 7:

Romans 7:1-4 KJV: 1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? 2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. 3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. 4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

Let's take a detour and talk about this word "divorce". Many half-witted commentators make far too much of this word, imagining that because of the way that the translators treated it, it must mean something more than merely a "putting away". None of them accept or even undertake a full study of the word.

The word "divorce" appears once in the King James Version of the Bible, at Jeremiah 3:8. In the KJV the word "divorcement" appears 3 times in the Old Testament, and 3 times in the New. The Hebrew word for both divorce and divorcement is always Strong's #3748, keriythuwth, and its primary meaning is only a cutting. It is a noun formed from the word at Strong's # 3772, karath, a verb which means to cut, and it is used of covenants and contracts as well as of the cutting down of trees or other things. It is not a special legal term and bears no such connotation. In the Greek the word translated "divorcement" in the King James comes from the word apostasion, a noun which means a repudiation. Neither does this word have any special legal significance. A "bill of divorcement" is really only a written statement of repudiation. The law, found in Deuteronomy 24:1 and 3, required such a written statement be provided by a husband to a wife in order to protect the outcast wife so that she may seek shelter in the homes of others without fear of being accused of adultery and stoned. No man would take a woman in who had no such paper, for fear of being stoned. So we see that none of this has anything to do with any formal court decree. An outcast woman is a divorced woman, and the paper was only a formality the husband was required to give in order to protect the outcast woman. But the act of casting her out, called "putting away" in scripture, that was the actual act of divorce.

Here it shall be made manifest. The word "divorced" appears four times in Scripture, three of them in the Old Testament. But in the Hebrew it does not come from the word keriythuwth, a cutting. Rather it comes from Strong's # 1644, garash, which means "to drive out from a possession; especially to expatriate or divorce". Therefore "to drive out" is to divorce. This same word was translated "put away", "expel", and "thrust out" elsewhere in the KJV. In the New Testament the word "divorced" only appears at Matthew 5:32, and there it is the word apollumi, the very same word which was translated "lost" every time it described the sheep of Israel. So there is no real difference between "lost", "put away", and "divorced" conserning Israel and Scripture.

Both Israel and Judah were divorced! Here are the supporting Scriptures:

As Jeremiah 33:24 states thusly: "Considerest thou not what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which Yahweh hath chosen, he hath even cast them off? thus they have despised my people, that they should be no more a nation before them." And then Zechariah 10:6: "And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place them; for I have mercy upon them: and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I am the LORD their God, and will hear them."

Ezekiel 23:18: "So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister." In Brenton's Septuagint, the reading is "And she exposed her fornication, and exposed her shame: and my soul was alienated from her, even as my soul was alienated from her sister." The Greek word translated "alienated" here is the verb, aphistami. The same word of which the noun form apostasion is translated "divorce"! Judah was indeed divorced by Yahweh, as well as Israel. Is there any doubt now? Russell Walker, Stephen E. Jones, and all of their followers are little but fools to think otherwise.

If there was a new covenant to be made with Israel and Judah, and Judah was NOT divorced, why is there a need for a new covenant with Judah as well as Israel? If Judah was not divorced, Judah would still be under the Old Covenant! It should be manifest, that all of this stems from the confusion of those who mistake Judah with the jews. All of the arguments against Judah's being divorced are sophistic. Rather, it is the remnant which was not divorced, and while that remnant consisted mostly of Judah, there were some Israelites in it also. Even long after Israel had been taken away by the Assyrians, 2 Chronicles chapter 30 mentions "all Israel and Judah ... and he will return to the remnant of you, that are escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria", and 2 Chronicles chapter 34 mentions "all the remnant of Israel, and all of Judah and Benjamin".

Many years ago I did a word study on Isaiah 6:13 and this is how I must translate that verse:

"Yet a tenth will return to be kindled: a pillar of oak, in order to be a monument. Because of their felling the holy seed will be a monument." Translated correctly it is a good cross-reference for Romans 11:12. This passage and many others like it are talking about a remnant of Israel to be left in the land. For instance, 2 Kings 19:30 states that "the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward". Of course this is talking about true Judah, and not the jews.

Both Israel and Judah were divorced, the "two families" which Yahweh had put away. The remnant was not divorced, because they were still there in the land  they were not put away. This is why they were accepted by Christ: they stayed in the law and in the Old Covenant until He fulfilled them. With one illustration we can make this distinction: that Anna, of the tribe of Asher, had remained in the temple and was a prophetess!

Israel - including most of Judah - had lost their identity almost entirely by the time of Christ. With Christianity, the true Judahites in Judaea would lose their identity as Judaeans, and become Christians. With the conversion of the White nations of Europe, dispersed Israel, then Israel and Judah again became "one stick", Ezekiel 37. 

Claiming that Judah was NOT divorced by Yahweh is tantamount to accusing Yahweh of the very sin which caused the fall of Adam! Because Yahweh Himself said that Israel played the harlot and was put away, and that "her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also". Think about this: is Yahweh guilty of the sin of Adam? Or are there simply a lot of half-witted Bible commentators? According to the law cited above, Yahweh HAD to divorce Judah as well as Israel, and he did! This should settle the matter of divorce, and now we can return to the marriage relationship with Yahweh. All of these turkeys who think they have to help God are instead blaspheming him. They should not invent scripture: they should read it instead! 

Deuteronomy 24:3-4 3 And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife; 4 Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the LORD: and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.

Here we see that there is no way that a divorced wife can return to the husband once she has another. But if the husband should die, the wife can marry another without worry. As Paul explains in Romans 7, Yahweh died in Christ, freeing Israel from the law. But I must say that Yahweh, being God has the power to lay down His life - therefore fulfilling the law - and then to take it up again, as Christ asserted at John 10:11, 15 & 17. He died and was resurrected so that He could keep Israel, in spite of Israel's sin, while at the same time keeping the letter of the law!

The Scriptures prove that Yahshua is indeed Yahweh in many places. Here we shall see it in the context of the marriage relationship:

Isaiah 54:5:  "For thy Maker is thine husband; Yahweh of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called."

Yahweh is our husband AND our redeemer: Yahshua Christ.

Hosea 2:7: "And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now."

Hosea 2:20: I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.

Hosea proves that Israel is returning to Yahweh as the husband, which can only be Christ. that is what the Wedding Supper of the Lamb in the Revelation is all about. That is why John the Baptist referred to Christ as the bridegroom, and Christ referred to Himself as the bridegroom. For these same reasons Paul said to the Corinthians:

2 Corinthians 11:2 2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

The return of Israel to Christ is a betrothal: the New Covenant and the wedding supper are not fulfilled until His return.

What marriage is:

Exodus 22:1-7 And if a man entice a maid that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife. If her father utterly refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins.

Euripides, Trojan Women, lines 1133-1144:

She begged Neoptolemus that this dead child, who was hurled from the walls and breathed his last, the son of your Hector, be buried. She begged him also not to bring this bronze-backed shield, the Achaeans' terror, which this boy's father used to hold against his side, to the home of Peleus or to take it into the same chamber where she will become his bride [the mother of this dead boy, Andromache, so as to see grief], but to bury the boy in it instead of a cedar coffin and a stone tomb. She asked him to put it into your hands so that with funeral clothes and garlands you may deck out the corpse as well as you can in your present circumstances. For she is gone, and her master's haste has prevented her from burying the boy. 

There are many other citations from the ancient world that prove that marriage happened in a bed, and not with a state-issued license. A civilized man would first reach an agreement with the family of the prospective bride: but neither was that a requirement in reality. When you slept with a woman, and she was a virgin, she would be your wife. If she was not a virgin, you are both adulterers! 

What was Yahweh's act of consummation? Impregnating Mary and coming here as His Own Son.