Week 11; Day 2

Deuteronomy 20-23
“Today, you are about to engage in battle with your enemies. Do not be cowardly. Do not be afraid, alarmed or terrified because of them. For the Lord your God is the One who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.” Israelites enemies were the pagan people in their land. Our enemy today is sin and Satan. After the two weeks of situation after situation begin brought to my husband and me regarding heartbreaking tragedies in people’s lives, no one can argue with me that Satan is not a “roaring lion seeking who he may devour.” He is not only the enemy of our soul but He is the enemy of our love for God. His one desire is to devastate the heart of God and accomplishes that by ruining our lives. If He can get to us, He gets to God. There is no greater hope found than in these verses as we consider the cruel schemes of our enemy. If you think living to honor God isn’t a battle, open your eyes and then read Ephesians 6. Today and every day, we engage in a battle against our enemy. In these verses filled with hope and promise, God covers everything that Satan uses to defeat us: cowardice, alarm, fear, terror. Do not coward down to him, do not be afraid of him, do not feel overwhelmed by him. Be aware of his schemes but have confidence that your God will fight for you.

Now, in today and tomorrow’s reading, we as women tend to get defensive. We take offense to verses like “Then if you are not satisfied with her, you are to let her go….” I will try my best not to soapbox here, but I am going to shed some light on these verses. It is impossible to accurately read verses like this without considering the cultural context. In fact, we often make the mistake of reading these verses from the perspective of our own context. We live in a sexually oriented culture and therefore read ideas into these verses that have nothing to do with what they are discussing. Furthermore, when we make assumptions about their meaning, we are dismissing what we know to be true about God. What do we know to be true about God? He is entirely good. He is love. He is just. No individual is more valuable than another in His sight. Why, then, do we so quickly jump to the conclusion that we as women are getting the shaft? It is made clear from reading the instructions regarding slaves, widows and orphans that God places dignity on every human life. In fact, the ethical laws He gave to govern the Israelites placed far more value on human life than every other government during that time. When we assume that women are being treated unfairly, we reduce God to a chauvinist. Probably not the best idea. While many of us have been hurt by men, we cannot transpose our perception of  men onto our perception of God. I’m going to throw out a rant here then I’ll be done! The whole feminist movement has invaded our thinking and caused us to fear the idea of submission. If we understand Biblical submission, rather than believing some warped concept painted by those who know nothing about God, we would have an entirely different attitude. This is an example of being tarnished by the world and why we need to have our thoughts transformed. Now, let’s look at the verse I’ve quoted above.  Women were viewed as property in their culture.  A man could just see a pretty woman and claim her as his. Before you get all stirred up about this, realize that God brings dignity to the woman, just as he did for the slave and the widow and the orphan. Deuteronomy 21:14, for example, is speaking directly about a foreigner who has been taken captive and been chosen by an Israelite male to be his wife. “Then if you are not satisfied with her”; satisfied means delight and it is regarding the whole person; emotions, character, soul, mind. This is not simply sexual in nature. Next, it states “you are to let her go where she wants.” This literally means “set her free.” Remember, this passage is speaking specifically about a woman who has been taken as a captive from an enemy nation. She is released from a marriage where she will not be loved and she is released from being a captive. She go can go home. Before you jump to any conclusions about what I’m implying, do not take this as me stating that women have free pass to walk away from a marriage. Remember, if it’s not explicitly restated in the New Testament, then it’s not ours to claim. The entire purpose for this discussion is for you to correctly understand these difficult passages and understand more fully the character and nature of God. “But you must not sell her for money or treat her as merchandise, because have already humiliated her.” Remember from the previous few verses that because she was a foreigner, she’s already had to shave her head. How humiliating must that have been? Other translations state, “you must not take advantage of her.” This means, in the literal translation, “mistreat her” or “treat her as a slave.” Ladies, let’s please get rid of these absurd thoughts that women are regarded as less than men in God’s Word. We see clearly from one single verse, that God comes to our rescue. He regards us in highest esteem and fights for us when no one else will. When I hear women “go off” about submission and so forth in the Bible, I really want to just scream, STOP IT! Our thoughts about God’s Word cannot contradict what we know to be true about God. Sometimes, I think we just like being victims. Pathetic, really. Here’s the thing; are there men who are jerks? Well of course, just as there are women who are scandalous. Guess what, we are all selfish and cruel when we exist in our own nature. However, part of the sanctification process that we discussed yesterday, is living our lives in the power of the Holy Spirit. Galatians tells us that if we live in the Spirit, then we must walk in the Spirit. Every one of us who have been redeemed by Christ, live in the Spirit. It is our choice, however, to walk in His Spirit; to allow His power to work and rule and transform. Think about the fruits of the Spirit. Everything you want your husband to be, God already is. When your husband surrenders to the Spirit of God, begins walking in His Spirit, His character begins to transform your husband. Stop assuming the worst about God and about your man. Stop comparing them to lost men; lost people do lost things. Stop looking for or wishing for a better man and start praying that your husband becomes a Godly man. Perhaps if we focused more on our own character and submission to the Spirit of God and stopped looking for ways to get offended, we would find ourselves in marriages where our husband delights in us and we delight in him.