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Marriage

When the family of a man are introduced to the family of a woman, and both consent to the two individuals living together. When the two live together, they are married. Individuals, however, have to search for their potential partners, whom God had predestined for them, Proverbs 18:22; He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favour from the Lord.

Genesis 24:66-67; Then the servant told Isaac all he had done. 67 Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah. So, she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.

When God has indeed blessed a union, then the Laws do not apply, because there is no Law against Love or God. God is the Law Giver. Acts 10:14; The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”

There are marriages not blessed by God, such as the case of David and Michal (proud woman), the first wife of David, see 1 Samuel 18:22-28, that David stuck with even after she was involved in adultery by being married to another man. David demanded that she returns to him in 2 Samuel 3:12-21, and she did.

Adultery and Divorce

Matthew 5:27-32

Adultery

27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

Divorce

31 “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Deut.24:1-4; If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, 2 and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man, 3 and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies, 4 then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the Lord. Do not bring sin upon the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

Matthew 19:1-12; When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went into the region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan. 2 Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. 3 Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?” 4 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.” 7 “Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?” 8 Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was NOT THIS WAY FROM THE BEGINNING. 9 I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.” 10 The disciples said to him, “If this is the situation between a husband and wife, IT IS BETTER NOT TO MARRY.” 11 Jesus replied, “Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. 12 For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who CHOOSE TO LIVE LIKE EUNUCHS FOR THE SAKE OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. THE ONE WHO CAN ACCEPT THIS SHOULD ACCEPT IT.”

Adultery is more complex than the secular world views it, while many men are or were engaged in polygamy in the biblical sense, some of them unaware of it. The original plan of God was monogamy, but this had been modified to accommodate polygamy due to the activities of man. (Abraham, Sarah and Hagar; Jacob, Leah and Rachael; David and Solomon) While the sin of adultery is not the only sin committed by the active party, there is the sin committed by the passive party, of indirectly causing the active party to commit adultery. Within these contexts, the onus is on the man, to initiate divorce proceedings, however, matters become complicated when the woman does not commit adultery and the man or woman initiates divorce. The divorcees then marry again or remarry, which actually results in adultery and the sin of instigating to adultery. Man has, and sometimes do, dig himself into a hole, that he can not get out of, and only God can and does lifts man out of the hole, not man by himself, not through reparations, or whatever other means concocted by man.

The enemy is within. While you are pointing fingers at others as the source of your misfortunes, “attacks” and troubles, you are looking in the wrong place. Your enemy is within, you are the worst enemy of yourself. Your house, you, your faith, your hope, upon what is it built? Jesus Christ said in Matthew 7:5; You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Is your house divided? Upon what is your house built? Is your house built on prophecy or prophetical utterances from a “spiritual assembly”? Is your house built on works? Or is your house built on Love? The love of God that is in Christ Jesus.

Matthew 12:22-25; Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. 23 All the people were astonished and said, “Could this be the Son of David?” 24 But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.” 25 Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. 26 If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? 27 And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. 28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

Matthew 7:24-27; “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

1 Corinthians 13:1-9; If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part.

1 Corinthians 13:13; And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

There is a Yoruba expression that can be roughly translated into English, which goes something like this: God will not come down, it is people that He will send. This expression brings some questions into play, such as.

• Does this expression have a basis in the Scriptures?
• Is this expression 100% accurate or correct?
• Where is God?
• Where would He not come down from?
• Where is the location that God would not come down from?
• If God will not come down, why not?
• If God will not come down, is that a limitation on His part?

The writer of this piece does not have access to source material about Yoruba people and culture and cannot therefore address the above questions using documentation on Yoruba people and culture. However, this author has access to the Scriptures, therefore references and sources used in addressing the subject matter comes from there.

Right from the time of Adam, the first man, God comes down, see Genesis 3:8-13, on to the time of Abraham, see Genesis 18, followed by Isaac in Genesis 26, and then to Jacob, this guy even wrestled with God, in Genesis 32. The case of Moses was also special, what with the giving of the Law, this guy was having regular tete a tete with God, so much so that it affected his sight. Fast forward to Samuel, the Lord appears to Samuel, and the reference citation can be found in 1 Samuel chapter 3. We also have the instance of God appearing to David in 2 Chronicles chapter 3. While the case of God appearing to Solomon can be found in 1 Kings chapter 9. Based on all these citations, it can be deduced that the Yoruba expression does not have a basis in the Scriptures.

Since the Scriptures states that God does come down regularly, this means that the expression is not 100% accurate. With regards to the question, where is God? God is in Heaven, reigning in His kingdom, see Matthew 6:9. So let us recap: God comes down regularly from Heaven.

Let us address the next question, which is, where is the location of Heaven or the Kingdom of God? Well Jesus Christ, the only person who came from Heaven, revealed the location of Heaven to us in Luke 17:20-37. This renders the subsequent two questions redundant and obsolete; these questions are why God will not come down, and whether that is a limitation on the part of God. There are no limitations to God’s capabilities, there is nothing God cannot do, He can, and does come down, furthermore, He uses people to carry out some tasks, that He has planned and preordained, such as when The Lord appeared to Paul, see Acts 23:11. Everything and all things fall within the remit of His capabilities. There are no limitations to the Almighty God.

God wrote His story in a book known as the Bible, and the story can be summarised in three words, which are: God is Love. When you look up the definition of love in the Bible, and you substitute the word love, with God, what you get is below.

Love according to 1 Cor.13:4-8; Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. When you now substitute the word Love, with God, what you get is, God loves man, despite the fact that man keeps disappointing God, and He knows that, but God is patient, kind, does not boast, is not proud, does not dishonour man. God is selfless (He died for our sins, took on the punishment we deserved, upon Himself). God is not easily angered, and He keeps no record of our wrongs, once we are repentant. God does not delight in evil. He is the Spirit of Truth. God always protects, always trusts, God always hopes (that man will change, repent, even to the last moment). God always perseveres, and finally according to Psalm 62 verse 12; and with you, Lord, is unfailing love”. God loves man unfailingly. His love for man is forever. He created man out of His Love and He rescued (saved, redeemed) man, because of His Love and through His Love, that is in Christ Jesus.

God’s story is already written and completed, finished, according to John 19:28-30; Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” 29 A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. 30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. However, there are so-called men of God, servants of God, who believed that the story is not finished and are adding to it, forgetting that God had said something about this in Matthew 24:4-8; Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. 6 You will hear of wars and rumours of wars but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.

The story of God is a living story, that is being acted out by successive generations. Man is a bit part player on the stage, in the play, the dramatization of God’s story. Each man’s role is temporary, with God, the only Actor with a permanent role. When certain bit part players claim to have visions from God, in which they claim to have been instructed to construct mega structures to “glorify” God, one wonders which script they are reading. When you go back three thousand years ago and consider David and Solomon who constructed a megastructure to glorify God (Temple), God said He didn’t need it, even though God appreciated the sentiment of these bit part players, and allowed the construction to go ahead and be completed. Of course, this megastructure didn’t last for more than 400 to 1000 years. The only thing that lasts is the Love of God. Various religious denominations have down the ages embarked on similar redundant activities, from the Catholic church to the new age African Christian evangelic movements of the present age. There are regularly CEO (popes, general overseers, founders, presidents etc)of these organizations competing with each other in the race to build megastructures, whose length of time would be recorded by posterity. Despite the fact that God had specifically stated in His story in the book of Isaiah chapter 58, verses 6-7, the kind of communion or fellowship that He desires, “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? This makes you wonder; from which script these bit part players are reading. You even have rulers, presidents, prime ministers, kings and queens embarking on prejudice and differential treatment of those different from themselves on the basis of geography, economic abilities, race and colour, that is oppression and injustice.

However, God being such a magnanimous God, allows these bit part players with their own script, their own company vision to go ahead with their plans and constructions, knowing fully well, that their megastructures (churches, border walls, roman empire, british empire, ussr/soviet union, united states, brexit, european union)are temporary, not lasting for more than a day or two in His sight, Psalm 90:3-6; You turn people back to dust, saying, “Return to dust, you mortals.” 4 A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night. 5 Yet you sweep people away in the sleep of death— they are like the new grass of the morning: 6 In the morning it springs up new, but by evening it is dry and withered. God is the only permanent actor in the stage play called “LIFE”. It is His Story. He is the main Actor, the Star of the show, the story has already been written, it is the book called The BIBLE, man cannot add to it or remove from it, no matter how hard he tries, no matter what gimmicks (“miracles” and “wonders”), he employs, no matter what visions he claims to have, Colossians 2:18; Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. God is Love, and He has finished His work (play), He doesn’t need helpers or workers to help Him to do what has already been done (Job chapters 38 and 39). It is finished.