My mom and I have been having an infrequent conversation about courtship, marriage, and dating. (Actually, I think she's just REALLY GLAD I'm dating someone! She's so sweet.) She sent me this in an email this morning:
"In my regular Bible reading the last few days, within just a few pages I have found quite a few different ways marriage was approached in the Old Testament. Samson had his parents get him a Philistine wife against their wishes. Well, that marriage did not last long and apparently he didn't get around to marrying Delilah.
Then a Levite has a concubine that he treats shamfully and then gets angry at the perpetrators, leading Israel to war against the Benjamites. The Israelites feel guilty because the 600 remaining Benjamites have no wives and they have sworn not to let their daughters marry them. So they go wipe out a town, except the virgins (how do they know?) and give them to the Benjamites (how do they choose?). That's not enough so they throw a party, have their daughters dance and tell the remaining Benjamites to snatch the one they want!
On to Ruth. I hadn't considered that she actually slept in Boaz's bed. Sleeping at his feet outdoors didn't strike me as being in his bed. On the other hand, they made sure she went home before anyone could see her. I guess even then everyone would assume . . . what we would nowadays assume.
Okay, now we have Elkanah, who has two wives. It doesn't say how he got them, but it sure did cause trouble in the family.
All of this, just within a few pages! No prescription for sure."
Yep, I think the key is to not force things that are descriptive into being prescriptive.
Posted by mike at April 8, 2004 10:19 PM