Home | Prophetic Words | Commentary | Commentary (2) | Steps To Salvation | Index To Articles | Articles | Article (2) | Article (3) | Article (4) | Article (5) | Article (6) | Article (7) | Article (8) | Article (9) | Article (10) | Article (11) | Article (12) | Article (13) | Article (14) | Article (15) | Article (16) | Article (17) | Article (18) | Article (19) | Article (20) | Article (21) | Article (22) | Article (23) | Aticle 24 | Article 25 | Article 26 | Article (27) | Article (28) | Article (29) | Links | Bible Studies | Contact Us
Adventures In Faith
Article (23)

Paring the Nails   9/27/03

Recently, I had been pondering the situation the United States finds itself in Iraq. The butchering of American soldiers has become everyday heartache. I feel God has ordained President Bush for this very day and purpose. However, support and resolve seems to be withering within our country.

At that instance, God spoke a word into me.."paring". In Scripture, that particular word is found in Deu 21:12... "Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;" Gill says this is regarding treatment of a wife who had been a prisoner of war.

I believe Gods primary purpose in the world is to build His body. The spotlight is on Islam. "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword." Mat 10:34. The sword is beginning to be pushed into the heart of Islam. Again, as Gill says..."By the "sword" may be meant the Gospel, which is the means of dividing and separating the people of Christ from the men of the world, and from their principles and practices, and one relation from another..." In the tender love of Jesus, God is working with the will and understanding of a peculiar people unto Himself. "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all [men] unto me". Joh 12:32.

In the Deuteronomy instructions, when a soldier desires a captive wife he must allow the grace and space for the captive to return his affections and love. It must be proven genuine on both sides. The will must be free to exercise itself. Does God work any differenly today? In His love, longing and wooing of a captive people, the freedom to return that love must be exercised in free will and understanding.

How hard it is to understand the paring of the nails. Yet what Christian has not felt the grinding and chaffing of the love of God? Such is the case in Iraq. The United States and our President are as a file in the hands of God. As the Keil & Delitzsch commentary so succinctly says of Deu 21:12; "The shaving the head (a customary sign of purification, Lev 14:8; Num 8:7), and the putting away "the garment of her captivity," were designed to signify the translation of the woman from the state of a pagan and a slave to that of a wife among the covenant-people. Consistency required that she should "pare" (dress, compare 2Sa 19:24), not "suffer to grow," her nails; and thus, so far as possible, lay aside everything belonging to her condition as an alien".

I believe it is time to pray for Gods will be done on earth as it is in heaven, our President and our country, and to prepare to receive and love the incoming Islamic tribes.