Somebody had a problem with stoning in another thread which discusses morality and evolution, and here seems a good place to mention it.
The divorce issue was addressed by Jesus in Mark 10.
He said that God ALLOWED divorce by Moses, because of their poor abilities to maintain a happy relationship.
It is certainly not God's ideal, but He is not in favor of leaving people in torturous relationships either.
He does not like polygamy at all, but Abraham and many others had extra relationships, which God put up with. The results of having another woman in the marriage caused Abraham and Sarah a lot of grief, which is not what God wanted for them at all. But if He had forced Abraham and Sarah to not include Hagar, then God would be interfering with their freedom. They had to make the choices for their marriage as if they owned it, they were to be the royalty of that family.
They could have included God in their decision making, but there was a lot of distrust going on at the time, and to include God would have been dishonest.
God prefers honesty over and above anything, because there is no such thing as love without it.
People need to be given the freedom to make their minds up, but a sensible person uses a car according to the manual, you don't put milk in the fuel tank.
(yet).
Now in regards to stoning, some see it as a very harsh punishment, like the laws in Bali against drug smugglers - it's usually death. But the consequences of allowing drug use are thousands of times worse than one death. It destroys society. (I don't want to talk about the hypocrisy of those authorities which is the another aspect of corruption).
If a man, if you can call it that, had a thing for his daughter, sheep or other men or trees, he would be stoned, because such an uprising in a nation would bring the most notorious crimes and vile misery and destruction. You can't tell me, that in parts of the world where such things are condoned by society and the authorities, that people jump off bridges because of intolerance. They are extremely tortured and miserable. And it is hardly their fault, and are betrayed by sin in others and in themselves. Very sad.
Stoning was a very quick death, large stones were hurled by a crowd of people, so it would be heavier than machine gun fire. Later the stupid Jewish leadership recommended cruelties and torture by ordering smaller stones and less throwers.
Also stoning was only intended when there was no remedy for the guilty, so it was the very last resort towards criminals, not the first resort as the Jews made it.
God never intended that any of these punishments or crimes should take place, and if Israel had listened and wizened up they would not have to have such a system of capital punishment. But in their agreement with God they decided that they would like to be part and parcel of the theocracy, and so God gave them their choices in the agreement.
For example, they were initially not going to fight in battles, God would take care of the enemies, but in their distrust, they decided to be part of it again, as if God needed them to fight, and so they entered into battles, with success but also losses.
So in essence God concedes to work with people on their level, in the hope that they will see what is happening and move upward in trust, but the general history of that nation is one of back sliding and getting worse, however many individuals and families did not do that, for example Joshua and Caleb.
In regards to marriage and sexual relationships, God does not condemn a gay person, because they, like the divorcees, are disadvantaged in some way, physically, psychologically, socially, emotionally. People cannot help who they are, and God accepts them if they come to Him, with His unconditional love. People cannot help the way they have been treated as children, or the condition or society around them, and many other factors.
In the days of Christ and the disciples, the incestuous, rapists, polygamists, were converted and put away their former life. For such a genuine change to take place, required a much more primitive and effective connection with God than proposed by the weakened power hungry and lying world of Christendom today.
God is not interested in forcing something onto us, but wants us to be comforted by His willingness to be there for us in any situation. It rains on everyone, and if our eyes were enlightened, we would see every person has guardian angels of God to heighten the senses to the fact that faith and trust which can only work by love, is a new way of life that leads to eternal life.
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