Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #8 of Genesis 34.  We have been taking a little detour into the book of  Deuteronomy 22, so we will pick up our study there, and I will read Deuteronomy 22:17-19:

And, lo, he hath given occasions of speech against her, saying, I found not thy daughter a maid; and yet these are the tokens of my daughter’s virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. And the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him; And they shall amerce him in an hundred shekels of silver, and give them unto the father of the damsel, because he hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days.

I will stop there for now.  In our last study, we were especially discussing verse 18 about the elders of the city taking that man and chastising him.  And we saw how the word “chastised” is also translated as “punished;” and how God looks at Christ’s punishment as chastisement because the Law of God stipulates that every son must be chastised.  And if he is not chastised, he is not a son but a bastard, and a bastard is someone who will not enter into the kingdom of heaven, if we turn to the next chapter in Deuteronomy 23:2:

A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of JEHOVAH; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of JEHOVAH.

In the Bible, the number “10” points to completeness, so it is the completeness of generations; that is, it is forever.  He shall never enter into the congregation of God, or into the kingdom of heaven.  And that is because God chastens every son that He receives, and we know God’s salvation program uses language that refers to those who become saved as “sons,” adopted into the family of God.  For someone not to be chastised…and not simply chastised, but to endure chastisement, which is what we read in Hebrews 12:5-8:

My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

One must endure God’s chastening, and this fits right in with that statement in Matthew 10:22: “…but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.”  It is because it would be over the course of the end stage of earth’s history – beginning with the Great Tribulation, and now the second tribulation of the final judgment on the world – that  God was (and is) chastening His people.  He is severely testing and trying all those that profess to be true believers to see if they are true men, and it is primarily related to enduring sound doctrine.  But it also involves being in humble submission to the Word of God.  Remember Jesus endured the death of the cross.  Let us read how God says that in Philippians 2:7-8:

But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

And there was the chastisement.  It has to do with obedience.  One must be obedient in enduring chastisement, and that means to be in subjection to the Law (commandments) of God that He has outlined for us. 

Another way of saying that is that in the time that God judged the corporate church, there were people who claimed to be true believers, and they refused to hearken to the truths that the Holy Spirit was bringing forth through the Scriptures about the church age being over.  And these people “stayed put” in the churches.  They continued to consider themselves true believers and God’s people.  They continued to think of themselves  as “sons of God,” but they were without chastisement, and there is a necessity for there to be obedience to the will of the Father.  If you are failing to obey,  you are failing to hearken, and you are not enduring the chastisement.

God’s true people did come out.  And it was not a pleasant experience for the church age to be over, nor was it a pleasant experience that God shut the door of heaven, ending His salvation program.  And He left His people on the earth, and gave the command to feed the sheep, and so forth.  But we were left on the earth in this Day of Judgment in order to make an appearance before the judgment seat of Christ.  It is very unpleasant because the world has “fallen apart,” and there is no longer the sanctuary of the churches; there is no place of refuge anywhere in this world.  The only place we can turn is to the Bible, and to God. 

So this is the chastisement that God has laid down.  Back in Deuteronomy 22, the man started out as the Law of God.  But the “cloth” was found that proved the damsel was a virgin.  It proved her purity, and we discussed how it points to the righteousness that came through the Lord Jesus Christ’s obedience: “… by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”   It was the righteousness that came through His humbling Himself unto death, even the death of the cross.  It is bestowed upon the elect, or “produced,” by the father and mother of the damsel.  God the Father and Christ, who is the Law, or Word of God, produce the cloth.  And in this passage it causes the man (the husband), in turn, to become a type and figure of the Lord Jesus Christ.  As soon as the cloth was produced, we read that the man was chastised or punished, in Deuteronomy 22:18:

And the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him;

They shall punish him, and this word is translated a couple of times as “punished.”  Then it say sin Deuteronomy 22:19:

And they shall amerce him in an hundred shekels of silver, and give them unto the father of the damsel, because he hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel…

That is, they fined him, and he must pay the fine, and the money is given to the father of the damsel.  Again, payment to the father is made, and the payment is made by the husband because the “cloth” has been produced, which is the righteousness of Christ.

First, we must as the question: “Was Jesus chastised, or punished, for the sake of His bride?”  Yes.  And did Jesus make a payment to the Father for the sake of His bride?  And, of course, the answer is, “Yes.”  “For the wages of sin is death.”  The payment is death, which releases the “woman” from marriage to the Law, and it allows her to be married to another.  And that is what we see here: we see a transformation of the husband from the Law that is condemning, to a husband who is now making payment for her. 

That is what this “amercing” of a hundred shekels of silver is pointing to, and this word “amerce” is Strong’s #6064, and it is found a couple of times in Exodus 21:22:

If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished…

The words translated as “surely punished” is a doubling of the same Hebrew word, which literally says, “punished, he shall be punished.”  It is the Hebrew word translated as “amerce.”  Again, it says in Exodus 21:22:

…he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.

It is just as the elders determined the payment in Deuteronomy 22.  Here again, the judges would be the Triune God.  He will have to make payment.  He will surely be punished, or “amerced, he will be amerced,” and he must make payment.

This word is also used in Proverbs 27:12, a verse that comes up at times in relationship to knowing “time and judgment.”  It says in Proverbs 27:12:

A prudent man foreseeth the evil…

That is, a wise man sees the “evil” that is approaching.  The watchman blows the trumpet to warn the sword (of God) is coming – that is the evil.  Again, it says in Proverbs 27:12:

A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself…

And that is what happened prior to May 21, 2011, as all the elect entered into the safe chamber of the kingdom of God, as God says in Isaiah 26:20: “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.” 

It goes on to say in Proverbs 27:12:

… but the simple pass on, and are punished.

Here, clearly, it is referring to experiencing the wrath of God, and the “simple” would be the “foolish,” or the unsaved, just like the five wise virgins that entered in safely when the Bridegroom came, and the five foolish were left without.  So the word “punished” is this word “amerce.”

Let us go to one more Scripture.  This word is found only nine times, so this will be sufficient.  Let us turn to 2Chronicles 36:2-3:

Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And the king of Egypt put him down at Jerusalem, and condemned the land in an hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.

The word “condemned” is the same Hebrew word translated as “amerce.”  Here, Jerusalem came under the power and authority of Egypt.  This was after good King Josiah died in 609 B. C.  Initially, it was Egypt that had been the oppressor, and that is when the 70 years began.  So this a form of punishment as it points to punishment upon Judah, historically, and to God’s punishment on the New Testament churches and congregations during the Great Tribulation period.

Let us go back to Deuteronomy 22.  Again, it said that they shall “amerce” him, or “punish” him, or “condemn” him in in a hundred shekels of silver, and give them unto the father of the damsel.  Payment must be made.  It was a condemnation.  And because of what Christ did, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,” but we not under condemnation only because Christ experienced our condemnation.  He was condemned to die.  He was condemned to pay the penalty and wage of sin, thus freeing us from having to do so.  What a marvelous, wonderful, beautiful, and magnificent thing God has done for us in making that payment that the Law required.  And this is what the husband is now called upon to do.  He is to be chastised.  He is to be condemned in a hundred shekels of silver given to the father.  Then, finally, we read at the end of Deuteronomy 22:19:

… and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days.

This is glorious!  There is no other way of saying it.  It is wonderful.  It is beautiful.  It is so tremendous that this is stated here because we are really allowed to see the principle clearly stated that we have understood for some time, and this is confirmation of that truth: God changed the Law in Matthew 19 when Jesus said, “What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”  He changed the Law for the New Testament era in order to illustrate and picture the fact that He had entered into a marriage with all those He has saved, and in that marriage there can never be separation or divorce for any reason. 

There is a spiritual marriage between Christ as the bridegroom and all the elect as the bride, and that marriage will last for all future eternity, which is why the Bible can say that we have received the gift of eternal life.  There can never be a point, no matter how many eons and eons should pass (although we cannot say “time,” but however distance is measured in eternity) for as long, and as far, and as deep, as we can go into that eternity, the Lord Jesus will never be as this husband who said, “I have found uncleanness in you, and I charge you with being impure and unrighteous.  You are not a virgin.”  That can never be because the Law of God declares it here.  And remember that this man started out as the Law condemning the bride, but it changes because it is proven she is a virgin, and that proof is good forever.  It is good for all eternity future, and she shall be His wife.  He may not put her away all his days. 

And this would be a point where it would be appropriate to say, “Hallelujah!  Praise JAH!”  Praise the Lord that He has so incredibly blessed His people by entering into marriage with us, and by assuring us that our marriage will never end.  What great confidence and security we have as the elect bride of the Lord Jesus Christ.