Taking a Wife (Deut. 20:10-14)

6/9/2009 8:53 AM

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY

 

My Worship Time                                        Focus:  Taking a wife

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                        Reference:  Deut. 21:10-14

 

            Message of the verses:  “10 ¶  "When you go out to battle against your enemies, and the LORD your God delivers them into your hands and you take them away captive, 11  and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and have a desire for her and would take her as a wife for yourself, 12  then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head and trim her nails. 13  "She shall also remove the clothes of her captivity and shall remain in your house, and mourn her father and mother a full month; and after that you may go in to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife. 14  "It shall be, if you are not pleased with her, then you shall let her go wherever she wishes; but you shall certainly not sell her for money, you shall not mistreat her, because you have humbled her.”

            The men of Israel were not permitted to take a Canaanite woman for a wife, but this command is for other nations with whom the armies of Israel were fighting after the wars with the Canaanites were finished. 

            This command prevented the taking advantage of those who were in the army of Israel, so that they would not just see a beautiful woman and then go and rape her and turn her away.  This process would take at least a month and one of the purposes was that the woman would begin a new life and turn from idols and trust in the God of the Israelites.  That is way there would be sexual activities with the woman for a month and why the woman would have to shave her head and cut her nails and throw away her old clothes and stay in the home for a month showing that he life had been changed.

            If after the woman was legally married and the husband decided that it was a mistake to have married her he could divorce her and then she would be free to go back to where she came from or marry another man.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  One of the purposes of this command is not to do things on impulse, and that is a mistake that I have made on different things in my life, and what I can learn from this is to wait on the Lord before making a big decision, wait in order to pray through the action and then trust the Lord to show me the right thing to do.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:

 

1.     Put on my spiritual armor:  “14  Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH, and HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, 15  and having shod YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE; 16  in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17  And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18  With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.”

2.     Continue to learn contentment.

3.     Trust the Lord to guide my path today.

4.     Keep a short list with the Lord.

 

Memory verses for the week:                                              Ephesians 3:14-17

 

14.  For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,

15.  from whom every family on earth and in heaven derives its name,

16.  that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,

17.  so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

 

6/9/2009 9:32 AM