Deut 21:10-21
In the scripture address I have attached a short video of this Torah portion given by Rabbi Gordon. It gives the background behind this Torah Portion laws.
The one point that he makes is that for the events described in this portion, God made so many hoops to be jumped through that these events rarely if ever happened.
What I see is a God who has given instructions for us to follow yet He also allows some leeway in our disobedience. He says, "ok, you want to go against what I've instructed, you have to do all this other stuff first, then if after all that you still want to do it, do it. However, the end outcome will not be honoring to you. In this reading it starts with a man wanting a pagan woman, and ending with a rebellious offspring and a torn apart family.
God does not force us to follow His instructions. He will go out of His way to keep us from falling into the pittfalls that He has told us how to not fall into but if we choose to ignor Him and do what He's instructed us not to anyway, the final results will not show us to be as good as we could have been....like Abraham with Ishmael. Doing things His way from the start is always the best choice.
In the scripture address I have attached a short video of this Torah portion given by Rabbi Gordon. It gives the background behind this Torah Portion laws.
The one point that he makes is that for the events described in this portion, God made so many hoops to be jumped through that these events rarely if ever happened.
What I see is a God who has given instructions for us to follow yet He also allows some leeway in our disobedience. He says, "ok, you want to go against what I've instructed, you have to do all this other stuff first, then if after all that you still want to do it, do it. However, the end outcome will not be honoring to you. In this reading it starts with a man wanting a pagan woman, and ending with a rebellious offspring and a torn apart family.
God does not force us to follow His instructions. He will go out of His way to keep us from falling into the pittfalls that He has told us how to not fall into but if we choose to ignor Him and do what He's instructed us not to anyway, the final results will not show us to be as good as we could have been....like Abraham with Ishmael. Doing things His way from the start is always the best choice.