Relationship Brokenness (Ecc 9-10)

"But all this I laid to heart, examing it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him. It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice."

In one event of the Bible, there is a woman who has been caught in the act of adultery by the Pharisees. Her background is unknown. When she was caught, Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground before he said anything. Then he faced the Pharisees and challenged them to throw a stone at her if they are without sin. But they dropped the charge and walked away for no one is without sin. Then Jesus told her, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more."

We do not know if she fell once again into the adultery after this. But we all knew that she was transformed after this! She finally found the hope in restoration. She knew that she can now sin no more through Jesus. Her relationship brokenness with God is now finally restored through Jesus. Now her life is written in the Bible.

The same goes with those five women mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus Christ in the book of Matthew! Tamar lost her husbands and later acted like a whore to restore her relationship with her father-in-law in effort to correct the Jewish customs that her father-in-law had broken. Despite her action seemed unconventional, she was named for her courageous. Rahab was a prostitute of Jericho who lied to save the two spies, which also saved her and her family and named her for her courageous in the Bible. Ruth lost her husband and abandoned her home to go into a new culture to be with her mother-in-law and her true God, but for her courageous she found Boaz! Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, lost her first husband and her first son due to the act of adultery with King David, but for her courageous she raised Solomon into a wisest son and a king. Mary was an unwed mother who almost lost her engagement to Joseph, but God took care of it and she gave the birth to Jesus!

Those women experienced a relationship brokenness, but they all were honored in spite of their background. God took care of the matter because He is the only One who may examine what is in our heart for the same event may happen to anyone, but our responses are what set us apart!