While I have long understood that one reason God created marriage was to image His relationship with His people (Eph. 5:22-33), to a much lesser degree, I understood that a purpose for marriage is sanctification. It was not, however, until the last couple years of understanding Biblical marriage, that I began to understand how very significant the aspect of sanctification is.
Sanctification, by definition, is the process of ‘making holy.’ Holy means ‘set apart’ or ‘consecrate,’ so ‘sanctification’ means ‘the process of setting apart, or making holy.’ See the following snip from an online dictionary:
The average person in western egalitarian Christianity misunderstands the ‘my’ in ‘my man’ leading to a foundational error in man-woman relationships. So, buckle up and let us ponder something that will help us return to the ancient paths and walk after the King!
Is there a difference between a man saying, ‘my woman’ and a woman saying, ‘my man?’ Have you ever thought about it?
*not an ‘accurate’ representation of the persons or events depicted…. 😉
A central thread that runs through the whole of Scripture that both Christendom and Judaism try to hide, minimize, or ignore is polygyny. So, to expose that thread and demonstrate how very central the subject is, let’s take a gander at it by considering various angles.
Characters:
Hebrews 11 names many of the following as ‘men approved by God’…
Abraham had at least two concubines besides Sarah. (Genesis 25:6)
Jacob had four wives, therefore, all who are descended from or grafted into Israel have a father who is polygynous.
Moses married the Zipporah and the Cushite woman. The latter incurred Miriam’s displeasure and we see God’s response…. (Numbers 12)
Caleb, Joshua’s righteous companion who entered the land, had …wives.
Gideon had 70 sons, plus. (Judges 8:30-31)
Elkanah, father of Samuel, had two wives.
David, man after God’s own heart, had eight wives and ten concubines (1 Chronicles 3:1-9).
Solomon, greatest king of Israel.
Joash was given two wives by the High Priest and ‘did what was right in the sight of the Lord…’ (2 Chronicles 24:2-3, 15-16)
Oh, God, by His own Word testifies to (allegorically) having two brides. (Ezekiel 23:2, 4; Jeremiah 3:8; 31:32)
Common culture tends to believe that an orphan is a child that has no parents, i.e., father or mother, but is this Biblical?
In exploring this topic, the first consideration one should have is, ‘to whom do the children belong?’ Again, common culture tends to believe that children are jointly the possession of father and mother, but, is this Biblical?
It is not uncommon to hear the charge, or at least the undertone, when discussing what Scripture has to say concerning male and female roles that God must hate women. I mean, He requires that they submit to their husbands, desires that they be under male headship and seems not to have a problem with polygynous marriages. At the same time, men appear to have much more freedom and self determination. What gives? Does God indeed hate women? Is He a misogynist?
Few things Paul said will set people’s teeth on edge faster than 1 Timothy 2:12. We live in a western culture that has become so feminized that patriarchy is hated, masculinity is considered ‘toxic’ and breathing some passages of Scripture in the wrong audience might get you shanked! This passage is one that requires a fire retardant suit, even in some Torah circles! But, truth is truth.
12 But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.
1 Timothy 2:12
The obvious immediate question is, ‘Where does that come from in Torah? Show me the commandment that says ‘thou shalt not’, or ‘thou shalt’…’ And, this is true, there is no such command, but there is ample instruction that is quite clear. Let’s dig in…
Recently a friend of mine (Zec) sent me and several other men a video and asked for feedback before it went public. It was absolutely stunning.
Men, this fits with the focus we have had over the last few months in our Restoring Kol Israel series. It’s a bold message with a lot of challenging truth packed into it that all men, especially fathers, need to hear. Here are a couple of the responses from that conversation:
Beyond incredible. You have packed so many concepts into a short video. I’ve listened to 2 hour sermons that haven’t had 1/4 the content.
Steve Turner
Wow Zec. Awesome. Rivetting, gold…What I just saw is the fruit of a hard won education and the heart of a warrior for the Kingdom. You are a man I want my boys around, one I am glad to call a brother and fellow sojourner. Have always had Hugh respect for you, but it grew this morning! The world may not receive it well, but men who do will be better men.
Honor and shame are concepts almost completely lost on western culture. We watch memes, gifs and video clips of foibles and disasters that befall others and consider it humorous to mock and laugh at their misfortune. We even encourage and rejoice in the sin and shame inducing behavior of others while entirely ignoring our own reproach for things Scripture considers abhorrent. Our culture ignores widows and orphans, glorifies divorce, practices all manner of sexual deviance, encourages abortion and we are generally irresponsible toward all but self.
In fact, like a man with no sense of smell, we have become a people entirely unaware of our own stench or that of those around us. Like pigs, we wallow in our filth and think it okay, maybe even funny. We glorify our stench.
As I have been studying Scripture regarding the two houses of Israel, God’s relationship with each house and His use of the relationship between man and woman to image Himself and His people, I have become increasingly aware of how very wretched we are on so many levels, and, how wrong is our theology.
One of the deep concepts that God refers to over and over is that of shame and reproach, so I had to begin to search out why God uses this concept and what we need to understand in both the spiritual and the physical dimension. Foundationally, there are several basic concepts that must be understood. If these are new to you, I recommend reading and processing the links to gain understanding and insight.
“Paul is hard to understand.” Like me, you probably hear this all of the time. I finally had to start rethinking Paul. Whatever position I arrived at, I knew that it had to agree with the Apostle Peter.
Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. [15] And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, [16] as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. [17] You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. [18] But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
2 Peter 3:14-18
Peter clearly admits Paul is ‘hard to understand’, but also admits that his writings fit with ‘the other Scriptures.’ I decided that I must be missing something or not seeing Paul correctly. I had to rethink or re frame him.
Recently we had a comment here on the blog and a portion of that comment expresses exactly what has me concerned. And they are not alone in this difficulty.
“Since we know that Paul’s teachings/letters have done huge damage in getting people off track, as they are truly stumbling blocks, then why do so many messianic pastors try to ok his teaching against Torah and try to ok it? Yeshua warned us that the false tare words would remain till the end! And they sure have. Our Abba didn’t allow mixture then and He doesn’t allow it now. We had better be careful when we use Paul’s mixed teachings. I want nothing to do with stumbling blocks!.”
Part of my concern is that many in the Torah walk have minimized or even outright rejected Paul’s letters! This is a very dangerous thing to do! Supposedly, Paul upheld and taught the Torah. Is it possible we misunderstand Paul because we are looking through the wrong lens?
One thing that I think we often forget when we read Paul is one of the most basic rules of Bible study. CONTEXT IS KING. We often consider the surrounding context of Scripture, but we fail to understand the circumstantial or cultural context of his audience. So let’s consider the context of Paul and his writings.
11:3 Restoration 