Watchtower Scriptures for Week Commencing: July 2, 2012

Do You Really Appreciate God's Gift of Marriage?

Theme Text : Ruth 1:9 "May Jehovah make a gift to YOU, and do YOU find a resting-place each one in the house of her husband." Then she kissed them, and they began to raise their voices and weep."

Paragraph 1

(Genesis 2:23) "Then the man said: "This is at last bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh. This one will be called Woman, Because from man this one was taken.""

Paragraph 3

(Genesis 22:18) "And by means of your seed all nations of the earth will certainly bless themselves due to the fact that you have listened to my voice.'""

(Genesis 24:12-14) "And he went on to say: "Jehovah the God of my master Abraham, cause it to happen, please, before me this day and perform loving-kindness with my master Abraham. 13 Here I am stationed at a fountain of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. 14 What must occur is that the young woman to whom I shall say, `Let your water jar down, please, that I may take a drink,' and who will indeed say, `Take a drink, and I shall also water your camels,' this is the one you must assign to your servant, to Isaac; and by this let me know that you have performed loyal love with my master.""

(Genesis 24:67) "After that Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah his mother. Thus he took Re·bekah and she became his wife; and he fell in love with her, and Isaac found comfort after the loss of his mother."

(Galatians 5:18) "Furthermore, if YOU are being led by spirit, YOU are not under law."

(Galatians 5:25) "If we are living by spirit, let us go on walking orderly also by spirit."

Paragraph 4

(Song of Solomon 8:4) ""I have put YOU under oath, O daughters of Jerusalem, that YOU try not to awaken or arouse love [in me] until it feels inclined.""

(Song of Solomon 2:1, 2) ""A mere saffron of the coastal plain I am, a lily of the low plains." 2 "Like a lily among thorny weeds, so is my girl companion among the daughters.""

Paragraph 5

(Song of Solomon 8:6, 7) ""Place me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; because love is as strong as death is, insistence on exclusive devotion is as unyielding as Sheol is. Its blazings are the blazings of a fire, the flame of Jah. 7 Many waters themselves are not able to extinguish love, nor can rivers themselves wash it away. If a man would give all the valuable things of his house for love, persons would positively despise them.""

Paragraph 6

(Deuteronomy 7:3, 4) "And you must form no marriage alliance with them. Your daughter you must not give to his son, and his daughter you must not take for your son. 4 For he will turn your son from following me, and they will certainly serve other gods; and Jehovah's anger will indeed blaze against YOU, and he will certainly annihilate you in a hurry."

(Ezra 10:10) "At length Ezra the priest rose and said to them: "YOU yourselves have acted unfaithfully in that YOU gave a dwelling to foreign wives so as to add to the guiltiness of Israel."

(1 Corinthians 7:39) "A wife is bound during all the time her husband is alive. But if her husband should fall asleep [in death], she is free to be married to whom she wants, only in [the] Lord."

Paragraph 7

(Ezra 10:10) "At length Ezra the priest rose and said to them: "YOU yourselves have acted unfaithfully in that YOU gave a dwelling to foreign wives so as to add to the guiltiness of Israel."

(2 Corinthians 6:14, 15) "Do not become unevenly yoked with unbelievers. For what fellowship do righteousness and lawlessness have? Or what sharing does light have with darkness? 15 Further, what harmony is there between Christ and Beli·al? Or what portion does a faithful person have with an unbeliever?"

Paragraph 9

(Genesis 1:28) "Further, God blessed them and God said to them: "Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth and subdue it, and have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and every living creature that is moving upon the earth.""

(Genesis 2:18) "And Jehovah God went on to say: "It is not good for the man to continue by himself. I am going to make a helper for him, as a complement of him.""

(Proverbs 5:15-18) "Drink water out of your own cistern, and tricklings out of the midst of your own well. 16 Should your springs be scattered out of doors, [your] streams of water in the public squares themselves? 17 Let them prove to be for you alone, and not for strangers with you. 18 Let your water source prove to be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your youth,"

Paragraph 10

(1 Corinthians 7:1-5) "Now concerning the things about which YOU wrote, it is well for a man not to touch a woman; 2 yet, because of prevalence of fornication, let each man have his own wife and each woman have her own husband. 3 Let the husband render to [his] wife her due; but let the wife also do likewise to [her] husband. 4 The wife does not exercise authority over her own body, but her husband does; likewise, also, the husband does not exercise authority over his own body, but his wife does. 5 Do not be depriving each other [of it], except by mutual consent for an appointed time, that YOU may devote time to prayer and may come together again, that Satan may not keep tempting YOU for YOUR lack of self-regulation."

(Ruth 1:9) "May Jehovah make a gift to YOU, and do YOU find a resting-place each one in the house of her husband." Then she kissed them, and they began to raise their voices and weep."

(Ruth 2:12) "May Jehovah reward the way you act, and may there come to be a perfect wage for you from Jehovah the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge.""

(Matthew 1:1) "The book of the history of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham:"

(Matthew 1:5, 6) "Salmon became father to Boaz by Rahab; Boaz became father to Obed by Ruth; Obed became father to Jesse; 6 Jesse became father to David the king. David became father to Solo·mon by the wife of U·riah;"

(Luke 3:23) "Furthermore, Jesus himself, when he commenced [his work], was about thirty years old, being the son, as the opinion was, of Joseph, [son] of Heli,"

(Luke 3:32) "[son] of Jesse, [son] of Obed, [son] of Boaz, [son] of Salmon, [son] of Nahshon,"

Paragraph 12

(Ephesians 5:33) "Nevertheless, also, let each one of YOU individually so love his wife as he does himself; on the other hand, the wife should have deep respect for her husband."

Paragraph 13

(1 Peter 3:7) "YOU husbands, continue dwelling in like manner with them according to knowledge, assigning them honor as to a weaker vessel, the feminine one, since YOU are also heirs with them of the undeserved favor of life, in order for YOUR prayers not to be hindered."

Paragraph 14

(Proverbs 14:1) "The truly wise woman has built up her house, but the foolish one tears it down with her own hands."

Paragraph 15

(Ephesians 5:22-25) "Let wives be in subjection to their husbands as to the Lord, 23 because a husband is head of his wife as the Christ also is head of the congregation, he being a savior of [this] body. 24 In fact, as the congregation is in subjection to the Christ, so let wives also be to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, continue loving YOUR wives, just as the Christ also loved the congregation and delivered up himself for it,"

Paragraph 16

(Matthew 19:10-12) "The disciples said to him: "If such is the situation of a man with his wife, it is not advisable to marry." 11 He said to them: "Not all men make room for the saying, but only those who have the gift. 12 For there are eunuchs that were born such from their mother's womb, and there are eunuchs that were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs that have made themselves eunuchs on account of the kingdom of the heavens. Let him that can make room for it make room for it.""

1 Corinthians 7:1) "Now concerning the things about which YOU wrote, it is well for a man not to touch a woman;"

(1 Corinthians 7:6, 7) "However, I say this by way of concession, not in the way of a command. 7 But I wish all men were as I myself am. Nevertheless, each one has his own gift from God, one in this way, another in that way."

(1 Corinthians 7:17) "Only, as Jehovah has given each one a portion, let each one so walk as God has called him. And thus I ordain in all the congregations."

Paragraph 17

(Matthew 19:4-6) "In reply he said: "Did YOU not read that he who created them from [the] beginning made them male and female 5 and said, `For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and will stick to his wife, and the two will be one flesh'? 6 So that they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has yoked together let no man put apart.""

(Deuteronomy 5:21) ""`Neither must you desire your fellowman's wife. Neither must you selfishly crave your fellowman's house, his field or his slave man or his slave girl, his bull or his ass or anything that belongs to your fellowman.'"

(Matthew 5:27-30) ""YOU heard that it was said, `You must not commit adultery.' 28 But I say to YOU that everyone that keeps on looking at a woman so as to have a passion for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If, now, that right eye of yours is making you stumble, tear it out and throw it away from you. For it is more beneficial to you for one of your members to be lost to you than for your whole body to be pitched into Ge·henna. 30 Also, if your right hand is making you stumble, cut it off and throw it away from you. For it is more beneficial to you for one of your members to be lost than for your whole body to land in Ge·henna."

(Jeremiah 17:9) ""The heart is more treacherous than anything else and is desperate. Who can know it?"

Paragraph 18

(1 Timothy 1:11) "According to the glorious good news of the happy God, with which I was entrusted."