by erika haveman

One thing I’d been realizing is that I’ve made a lot of assumptions since starting this series. The biggest assumption, or presupposition, I’ve made is that the Old Testament is to be studied and read as a historical narrative.  I’m typically a huge proponent of over communication, so I’m going to take a moment and do just that because it will help (hopefully) put A LOT of the OT into perspective for you.

I came under the realization of my own presuppositions when realizing that the authors of these narrative books I’m blogging about had presuppositions that the original readers of their books would have naturally and obviously understood.  We are not the original readers of any of the books in the Bible.  These books weren’t written with us in mind.  Can we learn from them?  Yes, of course.  But the Biblical narrative of the Old Testament is first and foremost a historical narrative telling God’s story of redeeming His people.  It is not a bunch of allegories or illustrative moral stories about right and wrong.  We want the OT to be these things – because it’s easier for us to understand – but it’s not.  The original readers of the OT books would have understood all of what the author was saying, they would have known the names in the stories, and they would have understood the messages of encouragement, challenge, rebuke, or hope that the books were offering. Our job is to try and get into the mindset of that original reader and from there we can properly learn from what was said.  We have to read out of the OT as opposed to into it (meaning we lay aside our agendas).  Keeping that in mind, we jump into 1 Samuel and something much more specific this week.

Continue reading “Jonathan and David – What 1 Samuel Teaches Us About Sexuality”

by erika haveman

Why is the book of Ruth actually included in the Bible?  A lot of people would say, “Well Ruth is such a great example of woman in love with a holy man!” or, “We can learn about dating and romance – just look at Ruth and Boaz!” or, “God wanted to give us an example of brokenness and bitterness turned into joy through Naomi’s story!”  While all of these are good, plausible things to consider, I would dare to suggest that the reason this book is included in Scriptures is to explain one thing: 1 Samuel 22:3-4.

“And David went from there to Mizpeh of Moab. And he said to the king of Moab, “Please let my father and my mother stay with you, till I know what God will do for me.” And he left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold.”

Continue reading “Life’s Not About Finding Your Boaz – What Ruth Teaches Us About Sexuality”

by erika haveman

For quite some time, now, I would dare to suggest that the world, and many a Christian as well, has believed the lie that they are defined by their sexuality.  Self control seeking to honour the Lord has been replaced by “sex control” which seeks to honour oneself.  As a result God is painted as a Being who doesn’t care about His own standards of holiness.

When it comes to sexuality we cannot lay aside what the Bible says or the stories that we can learn from.  The book of Judges can be especially insightful as we study God’s standards for not just sexuality, but also our lives.

Continue reading “Not “Sex Control” but Self Control – What Judges Teaches us About Sexuality”

by erika haveman

“If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him.  For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married.” – Deuteronomy 24:5

Should couples take the first year of their marriage off?  I mean it’s Biblical, right?

If I had a quarter for every time I heard people use this to justify taking a year off from working during their first year of marriage…well personally I’d probably have less than $2.  But I know this is actually a common thought in many Christian circles.

Continue reading “One Year of Marital Bliss – The Deuteronomy & Joshua Connection”

by erika haveman

Sometimes life is dreamy.  Today as I write I’m on a train, riding along the eastern coast of Taiwan.  Every so often fragmented views of the ocean peek into my line of sight, but I’m definitely not bored by consistent views of the lush green growth the tropical environment here permits.  It’s rained for the past four days, but I don’t care because life is grand.  I get to teach the Bible for a living, travelling the globe to spread the Gospel (for more information on my mission work, click here).  The work I have to do is hard, but what job doesn’t have its challenges?  All jobs also have their respite, too.  Like moments on an express train between Taitung and Taipei City.  The reality for all of us is that God has called us to do something, to be responsible for something (often many things).  When God asks us to be responsible for something, He expects us to put in an effort and to authentically partner with Him in order to bring that responsibility to full fruition to make His name great.  This is the message in the book of Joshua: God makes promises He will fulfill, but we need to partner with Him to make things happen.

Continue reading “Boldness in Action – What Joshua Teaches Us About Sexuality”

by erika haveman

I left you last week only having just started to scratch the surface on some laws that we might consider offensive.  But we need to read this book remembering that we glean from it the truth of what God is saying.  This book wasn’t written directly to us – it was written directly to a people in a nation with specific and often vastly different issues than ours.  With that in mind, here are 2 things we need to consider in light of, specifically, the law about rape and the victim marrying their rapist.

Continue reading “Sexual Violations Defined: What Deuteronomy Teaches Us About Sexuality [Part 2]”

by erika haveman

“Deuteronomy can be summed up in these five words: “Devote yourselves wholeheartedly to God.”” – description from SourceView Bible Study App.

The reality is, if you are following this series, you are going to start to realize that the general message of what God has to say is the same.  Loving Christ means looking different in the eyes of the world.  Deuteronomy sums up what the rest of the Pentatuech (Genesis through Deuteronomy can be referred to as the Pentateuch) has been saying: Be holy becaues God is holy (Lev. 19:2).  But it is also the point of this study to get more specific, so let’s see where that attempt takes me today.

Continue reading “Sexual Violations Defined: What Deuteronomy Teaches Us About Sexuality [Part 1]”

by erika haveman

As many of you are aware, today is Halloween.  Regardless of whether or not you are participating in the event you can probably agree with me that there is one really, really great thing about Halloween: the day after candy sales.  Am I right?  I once bought a 2LB bag of Rockets (Smarties, for you Americans) on November 1, and it lasted me over a year.  In fact I think it lasted over 2 years.  It was amazing.  Cheap, day after candy makes Halloween an event worth having every year, in my opinion.  There’s something else to the day, though, that makes me wish, every year without fail, that this day didn’t exist.  No, it’s not the fact that it can be evil and a day to engage with dark things – though this is not something I support.  For the majority of people Halloween is about getting dressed up and eating junk food.  The junk food sales I can get behind.  It’s the getting dressed up part that always gets me nervous.

Continue reading “Seduction 101 – What Numbers Teaches Us About Sexuality”

by erika haveman

Probably one of the most explicit books of the Bible is Leviticus.  It makes crystal clear how the people of the Lord are supposed to live.  Lucky for me, it has a whole chapter devoted to “Unlawful Sexual Relations” so I’ll focus a lot on what that has to say.

However before I expound on that I need to be clear on the purpose of Leviticus.  It’s main goal was to ensure that the Israelites, as God’s chosen people, lived set apart.  God is holy, and He wants to make His people holy.  They have already been saved, but now they need to live like they believe they’re saved.  They do this by being made holy by their God.  The Lord God, the Great I am, Yahweh God of Israel does make those who follow Him holy.  He does this by seeing to it that His people are different than any other people group that is on the earth.  Followers of God are meant to follow God and not follow everything else around them.

Continue reading “Sex & Holiness – What Leviticus Teaches Us About Sexuality”

by erika haveman

What I have quickly realized about this series, and not like I didn’t know this already, but the Bible has a lot to say.  The most important thing I need to remember through it all is to be sure that I, the writer, inform you, the reader, correctly of what the Word of the God says.  It my responsibility to not take something out of context.  There is a danger in me saying, “The Bible says this!” because if I haven’t used integrity and done my part to understand what was originally being said or what was going on, I’m going to fail you – big time.  With this series I am going to commit to making sure what I say is Biblically accurate, and how it should be applied today is also done in the Spirit of honouring Scripture as God’s infallible words to us.

That said, we get to beg the question this week: What does Exodus say about sexuality?

Continue reading “Sex is Set Apart – What Exodus Teaches Us About Sexuality”