(340) – THE TWO HOUSES 5b (continued)

 

6.   In the house of Jehovah polygamy was predominant. David, the anointed of Jehovah and figure of the promised messiah, had ten concubines solely for his carnal satisfaction. Solomon, given divine wisdom by Jehovah, had 700 princess women and 300 concubines solely for the satisfaction of the flesh. Gideon, great biblical hero of the Old Testament, had many women (1 Chr. 3:1-5; 2 Sam. 20:3; 1 Kings 11:1-3; Judges 8:30), and so on. In the New Testament, in the house of Jesus Christ, the Church, the children of God have one single wife. The Word says: “The overseer therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, modest, hospitable, good at teaching” (1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:6). “Let servants be husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well” (1 Tim. 3:12). Paul makes reference to overseers and deacons because leaders should give the example, that they might have the authority to minister and discipline the carnal people.

7.   In the house of Jehovah divorce was anticipated by the law: “When a man takes a wife, and marries her, then it shall be, if she find no favor in his eyes, because he has found some unseemly thing in her, that he shall write her a bill of divorce, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. When she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s [wife]. If the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorce, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, who took her to be his wife; her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before Jehovah: and you shall not cause the land to sin, which Jehovah your God gives you for an inheritance” (Deut. 24:1-4). This is a grave matter, for the second husband will not be able to take her back again, either. The woman goes to the third husband, and so on, until she becomes a prostitute. This law of Jehovah did not aim at the restoration of the divorced woman, but to her prostitution. The house of Jesus is different, for Jesus aims at restoration. A Pharisee asked him: Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason? He answered, ‘Haven’t you read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, “For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall join to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh?” So that they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, don’t let man tear apart.’ They asked him, ‘Why then did Moses command us to give her a bill of divorce, and divorce her?’ He said to them, ‘Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it has not been so. I tell you that whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries her when she is divorced commits adultery’” (Matt. 19:3-9). It is convenient to make clear that the law was not Moses’, but Jehovah’s, and the law says that whoever marries the divorced woman does not commit adultery; but for Jesus, whoever marries the divorced woman commits adultery. Therefore they are completely distinct houses.

8.   In the house of Jehovah there are two opposing laws. The second commandment says: “You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, Jehovah your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me, and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments” (Ex. 20:4-6). This commandment of the law clearly says that the children suffer for the sins of the parents down to the fourth generation. There is another commandment, though, that is contrary: “The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin” (Deut. 24:16). Isaiah says from Jehovah: “Prepare for slaughter of his children because of the iniquity of their fathers, that they not rise up and possess the earth, and fill the surface of the world with cities” (Is. 14:21). And Eli, the priest, died for the sins of his sons Hophni and Phinehas. Jehovah said to Samuel: “For I have told him that I will judge his house forever, for the iniquity which he knew, because his sons brought a curse on themselves, and he didn’t restrain them. Therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be removed with sacrifice nor offering forever” (1 Sam. 3:13-14). Such lack of love! What do the future generations have to do with my present sins? Jehovah cursed the house of Eli forever. And afterwards watched the evil that happened to it. One hundred years afterwards, Abiathar was a good priest, but the hatred of Jehovah reached him in the days of Solomon, who told him: “To Abiathar the priest the king said, ‘Go to Anathoth, to your own fields; for you are worthy of death. But I will not at this time put you to death, because you bore the ark of the Lord Jehovah before David my father, and because you were afflicted in all in which my father was afflicted.’ So Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being priest to Jehovah, that he might fulfill the word of Jehovah, which he spoke concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh” (1 Kings 2:26-27). In the house of the Father that Jesus edified nobody pays for the sins of another, rather Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the fathers, the sons, and also for the sins of all (Gal. 1:4). John said: “And he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world” (1 John 2:2; Gal. 3:13).

9.   In the house of Jehovah he chooses and afterwards rejects the one he chose. Where is his omniscience? Where is his omnipotence? Either Jehovah chooses without knowing the future and afterwards has to reject, or he chooses but Satan perverts. In this case Satan is more powerful than him. Jehovah chose Saul as the first king of Israel. But Saul drew back and fell. Then Jehovah said: “It grieves me that I have set up Saul to be king; for he is turned back from following me, and has not performed my commandments. Samuel was angry; and he cried to Jehovah all night” (1 Sam. 15:11). “Jehovah said to Samuel, ‘How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite; for I have provided a king for myself among his sons’” (1 Sam. 16:1). How, then, should we understand Jehovah’s declaration: “Yes, since the day was I am he; and there is no one who can deliver out of my hand. I will work, and who can hinder it?” (Is. 43:13). Jehovah also said: “Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; [I am] God, and there is none like me; declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not [yet] done; saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure” (Is. 46:9-10). Afterwards he repented from choosing Saul, and had to reject him. That is an insecure god! He says something and does something else. He swore to Abraham that his offspring would be as the stars of the sky (Gen. 22:15-18), and afterwards he changed and said that they would not be as the stars any longer (Deut. 28:62). And what about his oath to Abraham? Was not the oath true (Jer. 9:15-16)?

It is different in the house of the Father of Jesus. Jesus died in the place of those who were going to suffer the mortal vengeances of Jehovah and canceled his infernal curses, such as the ones that follow: “For a fire is kindled in my anger, Burns to the lowest Sheol, Devours the earth with its increase, and sets the foundations of the mountains on fire.   I will heap evils on them. I will spend my arrows on them. [They shall be] wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat and bitter destruction (antraz). I will send the teeth of animals on them, with the poison of crawling things of the dust” (Deut. 32:22-25). 

Dear reader: There is one single way of escaping this murderous fury: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household” (Acts 16:31).

By Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira

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