overheard

when joseph finds out that his future bride is pregnant, he is in quite the predicament. what should he do?

"he has some friends just fresh from the synagogue who say, 'just do what the bible says. you can't go wrong with what the bible says.' what about that for an answer? i've heard that all my life. 'just do what the bible says.' well, i will tell you what it says. from deuteronomy 22: 'she is to be taken out and stoned to death in front of the people.' that is what the bible says.

i get sick and tired of people always thumping the bible as though you can just open it up and turn to a passage that clears everything up. you can quote the bible before killing a person to justify the killing. 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,' the bible says. do you know what the bible says? 'if a man finds something displeasing in his wife, let him give her a divorce and send her out of the house.' it's in the book. do you know what the bible says? 'let the women keep their heads covered and their mouths shut.' do you want me to find it for you? it's in there. i run into so many people who carry around a forty-three-pound bible and say, 'just do what the book says.'

joseph is a good man, and he rises to a point that is absolutely remarkable for his day and time. he loves the bible and he knows his bible and bless his heart for it. but he reads his bible through a certain kind of lens, the lens of the character and nature of a God who is loving and kind. therefore, he says, 'i will not harm her, abuse her, expose her, shame her, ridicule her, or demean her value, her dignity or her worth. i will protect her.' where does it say that joseph? in your bible? i'll tell you where it says that. it says that in the very nature and character of God.

i am absolutely amazed that joseph is the first person in the new testament who learned how to read his bible. like joseph, we are to read it through the spectacles of grace and the goodness and the love of God." -fred craddock, cherry log sermons, pg. 5