30:1
The previous verses have been speaking of a time when salvation will come, when people will be transformed. But does that mean we do nothing, we have no part to play? Absolutely not. God addresses Jacob in her current state. They are stubborn children. They have plans, but it is not God's plan. How true this is of all humanity today. Judah made alliances with various nations in order to try and avoid being crushed by Assyria. But these plans were not of the Holy Spirit, and all they did was add sin to sin. The world recognises the problems caused by sexual immorality, but comes up with the wrong solutions, just adding sin to sin, making things worse. Let's look at abortion, a subject which is very contentious in the US just now, with various states passing laws either to make aborion more difficult, or to make it even more common. Those who are "pro-choice" talk about the rights of the woman and her body, and the "pro-life" cause is portrayed as not caring about the rights of the woman and her body. Let's look at this more closely. Both the world and the Bible say the woman's body is important. The world's solution is to kill the baby in the womb, thus adding sin to sin. The pro-life groups usually focus just on the baby in the womb, and someone certainly needs to speak up on behalf of the truly voiceless. But we miss a trick here as well. The Bible does say that the woman's body is important, but it gives a different solution to the problem. God's solution is that men respect women, that sex is confined to marriage between one man and one woman. It is also that women truly respect their bodies. The Biblical restrictions on sex are not about denying pleasure, but about truly respecting our bodies, both male and female.
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