Sermon Suggests Pastors To Select Congregation's Spouses

In a homily posted at SermonAudio, a minister assured that the text detailing how Issac obtained his bride was more descriptive (meaning it details an historical incident) rather than prescriptive (meaning the passage contains binding ethical or doctrinal imperatives).

That in no way prevented the expositor from invoking the text in the attempt to beat the listener over the head with any number of assorted guilttrips.

In the story, Abraham details for the servant the process to find a bride for Issac.

Of this, the homilist remarked that Abraham showed more faith in his servant than most modern Christians do in their pastor.

To craft an appropriately contextualized phrase, what does that have to do with the price of petroleum in the Levant?

In the case of Abraham and Issac, this was to be the genetic line that would result in the Israelite people in general and the Messiah in particular.

However, any Baptist worth his communion grape juice will admit that God for whatever reason does not intervene as explicitly at this point along the time line of redemptive history.

Anyone desiring this degree of pastoral oversight in their lives to the point of selecting the spouses of their children is only asking for trouble on par with the cult tragedies of Jonestown, Waco, and Heaven's Gate.

By Frederick Meekins