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GOD'S PURPOSE FOR MARRIAGE
Chapter 2
Spirit World Influences on Marriage
The Unseen Forces behind the Scenes
There are two unseen forces at work behind the scenes in the lives of human being and nations. First is God, Jesus Christ and angels loyal to them. The second unseen force is Satan, helped by hundreds of millions of demons. The purpose of Satan and the demons is to oppose and try to thwart God in every purpose and project.
As will be proved shortly, marriage is a divine institution created by God for mankind only, and not an institution invented by man. God has deep purposes for creating this institution for the benefit of mankind. Satan being an enemy of God would naturally do his utmost to oppose, denigrate, and belittle this institution with all the cunning craftiness he can muster.
Under Satan’s influence there was a massive breakdown of the marriage institution that actually led God to drown the world in Noah’s Flood. The situation is quite clearly described in Genesis 6:1-12:
“1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, 2 That the sons of God [the correct translation should be ‘sons of gods’. These were the non-white descendants of Cain who had deified themselves and demanded that the rest of humanity worship them] saw the daughters of men that they were fair [white women of the line of Seth]; and they took them [meaning forcibly or otherwise married them or took as concubines] wives of all which they chose [meaning in polygamous marriages]… 5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 7 And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repents me that I have made them. 8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord…11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence [because of interracial marriages, and many trying to establish their control over as much of humanity as they could in order to collect tribute and also demand to be worshipped by them]. 12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.”
There was a massive breakdown of the marriage institution before the Flood, starting with polygamy and interracial marriages. Finally, as a result of interracial marriages, only Noah, his wife, his 3 sons and the wife of his son Shem were left racially white on earth. The rest of humanity had racially mixed through marriage.
Lamech, a descendant of Cain had started the practice of interracial marriages first and then polygamy. But lawlessness started with Cain. After he murdered his righteous brother Abel, he was separated from the rest of Adam’s descendants to develop his own civilization. He began to hate God and willingly came under Satan’s influence. As a result, lawlessness continued to multiply on earth so that ultimately “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually’ as verse 5 says, and ‘The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence” as verse 11 says. God then saw that the only way to put mankind out of its misery was to end the lives of all of humanity in a worldwide Flood and save only 8 human beings alive.
After the Flood, God again worked with all of humanity in general to get them to live according to His ways. But rebellion against God’s way of life as practiced by Noah and his son Shem was led by Nimrod under Satan’s influence [later worshipped as the pagan god Baal], his father Cush, mother Semiramis [the Astarte or ‘queen of heaven’ of the Bible], in league with Asshur (the ancestor of the ancient Assyrians and modern Germans). Within 400 years after the Flood Noah had passed away, Shem was an old man and the population of the world was expanding, the false pagan religion started by Nimrod and Semiramis, supported by the Assyrians won out over God’s way of life so that all of humanity turned to paganism.
Brief History of Ancient Israel
After all of humanity turned to paganism, God changed the way He would deal with humanity. He would no longer deal with all of humanity in general. He would first develop a model nation, give that nation His laws, bless it for obedience and let the rest of humanity learn by seeing its prosperity. God chose to start building His model nation through one man, Abraham. God made incredible promises of riches and status as a great nation to him and his descendants if he obeyed His laws. Abraham was faithful to God throughout his life. After Abraham demonstrated his willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac in obedience to God’s command, God’s promises to him became unconditional. This is described in Genesis 22:1-18:
“1 Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." 2 Then He said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. 5 And Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you."
“6 So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together. 7 But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." Then he said, "Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" 8 And Abraham said, "My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering." So the two of them went together. 9 Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. 10 And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" So he said, "Here I am." 12 And He said, "Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me."
“13 Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, "In the Mount of The Lord it shall be provided." 15 Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, 16 and said: "By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son-- 17 blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. 18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice."
God’s blessings to Abraham were passed on to his son Isaac and not Ishmael. Isaac then passed on Abraham’s blessing to his son Jacob, later renamed Israel, and not his son Esau. Jacob then conferred Abraham’s promised blessings to all his twelve sons jointly. However, the birthright blessings, which entailed incredible material prosperity and great nation status, were conferred on Joseph’s two sons Ephraim and Manasseh. But the blessings of rulership were conferred on the descendants of Judah.
During a great 7-year famine, Jacob went into Egypt with all his family where his descendants multiplied greatly over about 240 years to number between 2-3 million people. They were greatly oppressed in slavery in Egypt, but God brought them out of Egypt with great miracles under the leadership of Moses to become a nation. God gave the nation His laws through Moses which formed the constitution of the nation. The nation was promised incredible blessings for obedience to His laws, but great curses if they disobeyed the laws. The foremost requirement of the Law was that the nation worship no other gods than the God of their fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who had rescued them from slavery in Egypt. They were to utterly destroy the inhabitants of the land they were going to possess and make no league with them. The blessings and curses were recorded by Moses in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28.
Ancient Israel failed to completely destroy the inhabitants of the land they were going to possess. They also inquired about the pagan gods those people worshipped and began to worship those gods and follow their pagan practices. The consequences of disobeying God followed as described in Leviticus 26.
God had laid out in Leviticus 26 how He would punish the nation for its sins if it did not obey the terms of their covenant/agreement with Him.
Leviticus 26:14-26 (KJV), “14 But if you will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; 15 And if you shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that you will not do all my commandments, but that you break my covenant: 16 I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague [fever], that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17 And I will set my face against you, and you shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and you shall flee when none pursues you.”
During the period of Judges ancient Israel refused to keep God’s laws. As a result, they went through all the suffering and terrors described in these verses. But the Israelites were not reformed by these punishments. The punishment continued getting more severe as stated starting in verse 18:
“18 And if you will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. 19 And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass [famine conditions due to droughts]: 20 And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits. 21 And if you walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins. 22 I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate.”
The Hebrew word shibah translated “seven times” can have a dual meaning. It can mean ‘seven times’ referring to duration of punishment [prophetically ‘time’ equals one year in fulfillment of prophecy] and can also mean “sevenfold” referring to increase in intensity or severity of punishment.
Verses from 18-22 refer to intensity of God’s punishment on Israel for continued violations of the terms of the covenant. The use of the word ‘more’ with ‘seven times’ by the translators also indicates that these verses refer to the severity of punishment increasing sevenfold twice. The use of the term ‘seven times’ here is used in the same sense as in Daniel 3:19 (NIV), “19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and his attitude toward them changed. He ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual.” In this case Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had refused to bow down and worship the image King Nebuchadnezzar had made for which the stated punishment would be being thrown alive into a furnace of fire. When given a second chance to do so and still refusing to worship the image, Nebuchadnezzar ordered that the furnace be made seven times hotter than usual.
Israel continued violating God’s laws and were oppressed by their neighboring nations. When they repented and turned to their God, He delivered them from the hands of oppressors by sending a judge. But they regressed to violating God’s laws and worshipping idols repeatedly and the cycle of oppression and deliverance continued. With time, the oppression increased in severity.
Then Israel sinned even more by rejecting God as their king and asking for a human king. The kingdom prospered in the days of righteous king David and continued in the days of Solomon and tasted some of the birthright blessings. But Solomon turned to idols under the influence of his foreign wives. As a result, God stopped blessing the nation and then caused the nation to split into two kingdoms with the northern ten tribes constituting the House of Israel and the southern kingdom being called the House of Judah.
Remember God had promised to bless the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob unconditionally. But God would control the timing of conferring His unconditional blessings. Since the northern House of Israel separated from Judah, their first king Jeroboam reasoned that he faced a major problem if all of Israel went to worship God in Jerusalem during the 3 holy day seasons as commanded. He feared that the kingdom would be wrested from him by the House of David. The Bible says in 1 Kings 12:26-27 (NRSV), “Then Jeroboam said to himself, ‘Now the kingdom may well revert to the House of David. If this people continue to go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, the heart of this people will turn again to their master, King Rehoboam of Judah; they will kill me and return to King Rehoboam of Judah.”
To prevent this from happening, Jeroboam changed Israel’s religion and worship system. United Church of God booklet “The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy” describes the changes Jeroboam made:
“To prevent such a development Jeroboam established a competing religious system. For political reasons—to maintain his hold on the northern tribes—he changed Israel’s forms of worshipping God.
“Idolatry had already become popular during the last days of Solomon, so Jeroboam erected his own idols. “Therefore, the king asked advice, made two calves of gold, and said to the people, ‘It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!’ And he set up one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan” (1 Kings 12:28-29).
“Dan was in the far north of his kingdom. Bethel was in the south, just above the border with Judah and right on the major route people would travel while journeying to Jerusalem to worship.
“Believing that observance of the same annual festivals as the Jews—the Holy Days of God (Leviticus 23)—would rekindle a desire for national unification, Jeroboam also changed the timing of the great fall festival (Leviticus 23:23-44) from the seventh to the eighth month (1 Kings 12:32-33).
“He dismissed the Aaronic and Levitical priests (1 Kings 12:31; 1 Kings 13:33), men set apart by God’s own decree (Exodus 40:15) to maintain the integrity of the nation’s religious life. To Jeroboam the Levitical priesthood was a threatening independent power base. The Levites inherited their office, owed the king nothing and were largely outside his control.
“By dismissing the Levitical priests, Jeroboam established monarchical control of the nation’s religious life. As a result, many of the Levites moved to Judah, where they could continue to perform their divinely appointed functions (2 Chronicles 11:13-15).
“In place of the Levites Jeroboam created a new priesthood of “the lowest” and least-experienced people (1 Kings 12:31; 1 Kings 13:33, KJV), men who owed the king all that they had and were. These appointees would have to cater to royal preferences to retain their positions.
“Jeroboam introduced syncretism, a fusion of differing systems of belief. He combined aspects of God’s true religion with pagan beliefs and human rationalization. He may well have patterned many aspects of his religious practices after the customs of Egypt and Tyre—Israel’s allies by treaty—to strengthen his relationship with these two major commercial and military supporters. [Jeroboam himself had fled to Egypt for fear of Solomon, and was recalled from there to become king].
“From that time forward the northern kingdom appeared to the outside world as merely an extension of the powerful coastal cities of the Phoenician Empire. They were commercial partners, shared a language and likely held similar religious views.
“The distinction that God had originally intended between Israel and the surrounding nations was soon obliterated. So, it is no wonder that historians have difficulty detecting Israel’s role in the region as anything other than traders with the coastal Phoenician cities. Israel was reduced to approximately equal status with the other kingdoms. Regrettably, it had forsaken its role as a spiritual light and example to the nations.”
Once Satan was able to introduce this wedge between the House of Israel and its religion given through Moses, it was easy for the northern kingdom to be influenced by the pagan religions of its neighbors. It’s quite likely that Jeroboam also changed the weekly worship day from the seventh days of the week, the Sabbath day, to Sunday. The Sabbath was a sign between God and His people. Those who kept the Sabbath were identified with the true God who created everything in six days and rested on the Sabbath day and made it holy. The Jews who have been identified with the Sabbath have not lost their identity as God’s people, whereas the northern House of Israel after losing its identity were not known as God’s people as they had lost the identifying sign, which was keeping the Sabbath day holy.
The House of Israel began worshipping Baal and Ashtoreth, the gods of their pagan neighbors, and never turned from the sins introduced by Jeroboam throughout the remainder of its history in the land of Israel. God gave the nation every chance to repent to receive the promised blessings, even sending prophets to warn them. Increasing the severity of punishment sevenfold twice did not cause the northern House of Israel to learn from these experiences, even with the prophets telling the nation that violation of God’s laws and their covenant with God was the reason for their sufferings. But the nation under the influence of its 19 kings in 7 dynasties, despite being punished for its sins, never showed any inclination to return to God’s ways. By its conduct, the nation demonstrated that it would not return to God. As a result, God then imposed His next punishment on the nation, per the terms stated in verses 23-26 of Leviticus 26.
"23 And if you will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me; 24 Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins. 25 And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when you are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. 26 And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and you shall eat, and not be satisfied.”
After increasing the intensity of punishment sevenfold twice, when the House of Israel showed no inclination to change its ways and obey God’s laws, the nation would now be punished ‘seven times’ for its sins. ‘Seven times’ here refers to the duration of punishment. God further said that He would avenge the quarrel of His covenant by the nation being completely delivered into the hand of the enemy.
The House of Israel was delivered completely into the hands of the Assyrians in 722 BCE who removed them from their land and carried them off into national slavery. The House of Israel has so far not returned to that land over the past more than 2,730 years.
To understand how long this punishment of withholding the unconditional blessings promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’s descendants was to last, we need to understand how long a prophetic time is.
In prophecy, a ‘time’ equals a year of 360 days. There is also a ‘day for a year’ principle that applies in prophecy. Numbers 13 and 14 describe the situation when Moses sent out 12 men from each of the tribes of Israel to spy out the land that Israelites were to inherit. They spied out the land for 40 days. Ten of the twelve men brought an evil report about the land and discouraged the Israelites from going in to possess it. God was displeased with them for their unbelief and punished them for 40 years, a year for a day that they spied out the land by not allowing them to possess the land. This is stated in Numbers 14:34, “34 According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely forty years, and you shall know My rejection.” Here the punishment was to withhold blessings of occupying the Promised Land for a year for each day of sin.
This ‘day for a year’ principle can also apply in reverse. After the House of Israel rejected God as their king, He allowed them to live an additional 390 years in the land where they continued in their sins. Then God removed them from the land in the Assyrian captivity. Ezekiel the prophet was asked to bear the sins of the House of Israel for 390 days by lying on his left side in an imaginary siege of Jerusalem pictured on a tile. This is mentioned in Ezekiel 4:4-6 (NIV), “4 "Then lie on your left side and put the sin of the house of Israel upon yourself. You are to bear their sin for the number of days you lie on your side. 5 I have assigned you the same number of days as the years of their sin. So, for 390 days you will bear the sin of the house of Israel. 6 "After you have finished this, lie down again, this time on your right side, and bear the sin of the house of Judah. I have assigned you 40 days, a day for each year.”
Applying the ‘day for a year principle’ we can now understand how long the actual punishment of withholding the unconditional blessings promised to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would last, mentioned as “seven times” in Leviticus 26:24. ‘Seven times’ refers to seven prophetic years of 360 days each which equal 2,520 days. Applying the punishment principle of a year for each day in Numbers 14:34, the actual punishment on the House of Israel of withholding the blessings would thus last for 2,520 years. And that is precisely what happened in the case of America and British Commonwealth nations, descended from the House of Israel. Their ‘seven times’ punishment began around 722 BCE when they were driven out of their land, and 2,520 years later, around 1800 A.D., Britain and America burst on the world scene into unprecedented national greatness and began to experience prosperity and material blessings that no people on earth had previously enjoyed.
Leviticus 26:27-28 mentions another ‘seven times’ of punishment, “27 And if you will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me; 28 Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.” This punishment is to be applied by God in fury, meaning His full wrath can only imply sevenfold intensity of punishment than nations of Israel have ever received.
The nations of Israel have enjoyed great prosperity and blessings for over 200 years now after their ‘seven prophetic times’ punishment for 2,520 years. This can only mean that this sevenfold intensity of punishment will be applied only in the future. This punishment is poured out in God’s full fury during the three-and-a-half year long great tribulation, the time of trouble in which all life could be destroyed if God did not send Jesus Christ to intervene and stop man’s insanity under Satan’s influence. Jeremiah 30:7 calls it a ‘time of Jacob’s trouble’, meaning that the brunt of the Great Tribulation will be borne by Jacob’s descendants, the British, American [holders of the birthright promise of national greatness and material blessings] and the Jewish people [holders of the scepter or ‘rulership’ promise].
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