![]() ![]() After marriage she could be bartered by her husband. When a girl reached a marriageable age, she was bartered by her father. Incidentally, a man was not to touch any woman except his wife, not even if she was his cousin and the touch accidental. To touch a menstruating woman was to undergo defilement that required ritual purification. ![]() When she began her menstrual cycle, a woman was unclean and needed purification (Leviticus 15:19–30). They were closely supervised in order to prevent anything that might be viewed as unchaste. In their younger years, daughters were often treated with suspicion. Yet it is undeniable that generallyĪ woman’s lot in that patriarchal society was difficult. Love and the personality differences of the Hebrew men in the lives of women created a wide variety of experiences. Husbands also differed in how controlling and restrictive they were with their wives. It’s difficult to generalize, because rabbis differed among themselves on this issue, and fathers differed in the upbringing of their daughters. Israel was a patriarchal society in which women occupied a subordinate position and in many ways were treated as social and spiritual inferiors to men. He declared that anyone who causes a child to go astray will suffer severe punishment (Mark 9:35–37, 42). Not only that, he declared that children were to be welcomed in his name and that they-so dependent, so trustful, so teachable, so innocent-serve as models of the faith needed to enter God’s kingdom (matthew 18:1–5). Jesus embraced them and even prayed God’s blessing on them, much to the surprise of his disciples, who he later rebuked (Mark 10:13–16). Nevertheless the children who sensed Jesus’s love for them, clustered about, waiting to be picked up and held in his welcoming arms. They ordered them to be quiet or to go away. The disciples of Jesus were annoyed by restless children and tried to push them to the outskirts of the crowds. Some were in the grip of demonic powers (Mark 9:17–18). Some were sick with all-too-common ailments. Some of the children in the crowds that followed Jesus were acutely hungry or at least malnourished. ![]() He had an acute understanding of their need for warm acceptance and adult help. During his ministry, he was delighted to welcome them whenever they clustered around him. While the Gospels give no specific information about the family relationships in the home of Mary and Joseph, we have good reason to believe they were sensitive, caring, and God-fearing parents.Īs his own attitudes were influenced by the attitudes of his parents, Jesus became a lover of children. He thus acquired realistic insight into the characteristics and needs of children (Mark 3:31–32 6:3). Growing up with brothers and sisters, Jesus, no doubt, had opportunity and responsibility to help care for his younger siblings. They hailed every birth with joy and gratitude. Abortion and child exposure-leaving children outside to die-which were practiced by the pagan nations surrounding the Holy Land, were sinfully abhorrent to God’s elect people. The people of Israel were a society that prized their children. Jesus appropriated those significant words spoken by God himself to defend his tradition-violating compassion. One Old Testament text that he continued to emphasize was Hosea 6:6, where God said, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings” (Matthew 9:13 12:7). Gently, without judgment, Jesus tried to strengthen the weak and ignite their faith. He realized too that in the crowds pressing around him were people whose faith was not burning brightly but was at best smoldering (Matthew 12:20). He was aware that the multitudes he ministered to were made up of sinners, most of whom were spiritually weak and emotionally brittle. Because he was sinless and most acutely sensitive to sin, Jesus sympathized with sinful people who were suffering the consequences of inherited depravity and personal sinfulness. The controlling attitude and behavior in this born-again society was to be compassionate, demonstrate love in action, and to provide caring concern for others-all of which was modeled by Jesus himself.Īs God incarnate, Christ flawlessly reflected his Father’s nature, not only the divine holiness but the divine heart. Love was its one all-inclusive law, a love that Jesus spelled out in his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5), and a love that fulfilled the Ten Commandments (Romans 13:10). It required loving obedience to the King and Father, as well as loving service to brothers and sisters in God’s family and to every member of the human family. Jesus came with his revolutionary message of God’s kingdom-a kingdom accessible only by faith. ![]()
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