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               COMMENT: Religious churches appear to know absolutely nothing about the-
               se  inevitable  consequences.  There  is  no  indication  that  the  returnees  from
               Babylon at the time of Ezra and Nehemiah were indulging in idolatry (they did
               not get a chance with their tough leaders) and these returnees were not slain
               when they had taken foreign wives. But they had to divorce their wives and
               children. Neither was Aaron slain, even if he made the golden calves under
               pressure from the mixed multitude.


               4. Read the entire chapter of Numbers 31.

               COMMENT: Moses let the Israelites keep the Midianite women alive provided
               they were virginal. Moses was unhappy about this, and the, “keep them alive
               for yourselves” that he said, does not insist they were taken as wives to pro-
               duce seed that  would consider them to be Israelites. The Midianite males
               were all slain. But why is it virgin women only? Again this seems to be an area
               of mystery that is not defined. We have to consider whether there is an un-
               known  physical  “something”  that  happens  with  the  sex  act,  or  whether  it  is
               psychological or something else.


               5.  Is  this  same  theme  about  idolatry  found  throughout  the  New  Testament
               pages? I Corinthians 10:6-14.

               COMMENT: The sin is idolatry! The Israelite sexual contact with the wom-
               en of Moab led to the idolatry. We have to take note that this is a New Tes-
               tament  admonishment,  and  any  modern  church  idea  of,  “That’s  Old  Testa-
               ment stuff”, is not rational. We can also note here that these “Gentiles” were
               Israelites!  In the words, “not lust after evil things” the  word “things” is
               (Strong’s #1938 epithumi), a word that means, “to lust for a lover”. The word
               “evil” here is “kakos” that means “intrinsically and fundamentally evil”.


               The same temptation to take a lover from foreign women is one that could be
               in the mind of every Israelite man. The fact of being tempted is not a sin.

               6. What does the God of Israel say about this? I Corinthians 10:13.


               COMMENT: His people are able to withstand this temptation and to have the
               means to escape this snare. But if they do not know it is a snare, they are the
               more likely to fall into that snare. More than that, if they are encouraged by
               their church leaders by wrong doctrine, Israelite men will be even more likely
               not to take heed to the “lest he fall” of verse twelve above.

               7.  As is  today,  what  did  the Messiah say  of the teachers in  his day?  Luke
               11:52.


               8. Of church leaders, what do we read? Jeremiah 2:8.

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