Friday, September 4, 2020

PT-4 "The Teaching of Jesus" (Matt. 5:31-32)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/4/2020 8:36 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                Focus:  PT-4 “The Teaching of Jesus”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference: Matthew 5:31-32

 

            Message of the verses:  31 “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery” (NIV).

 

            We continue to look at what Jesus said in these two verses, and one thing for sure is that Jesus gives no more approval for divorce than did Moses, for the Old Testament ideal has not been changed.  What do we see from the Old Testament?  Well we see that the permission for divorce in the OT economy were designed to meet the unique, practical problems of an imperfect, sinful people.  When you think about that, this is all that God has to work with, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God is how Paul writes to the Romans.  With this said God never condoned divorce, because what He joins together is not to be separated by Man according to Matthew 9:6.  MacArthur adds “Adultery, another reality that God never intended, is the only thing that can break the bond of marriage.  In fact, under the Old Testament law, adultery would necessarily dissolve a raring, because the guilty party was put to death (Lev. 20:10).”  I will quote this verse here:  “10 ’If there is a man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, one who commits adultery with his friend’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.”

 

            MacArthur goes on to write:  “Because Jesus specifically mentions divorce being permissible on the ground of adultery (Matt. 5:32; 19:9), and because He also specifically says that He did not come to contradict or annul the least part of the law (5:18-19), it seems evident that sometime during Israel’s history divorce was allowed to take the place of execution as legitimate penalty for adultery.  No Old Testament passage specifically authorizes divorce, but that does not mean God did not give specific revelation about it.  Based on His own recognition and regulation of divorce, and His divorce of Israel and Judah (Jer. 3:8), we can assume that divine instructions for divorce had been given orally or by written revelation not preserved in Scripture.  God divorced Israel and Judah for spiritual adultery rather than put them to death.  Also Joseph, a righteous man, was prepared to divorce Mary rather than stone her for her presumed adultery (Matt. 1:19).

 

            “Why did God allow divorce to replace the death penalty?  The answer may be that Israel had so completely immersed herself in immorality that there was not sufficient desire for righteousness left in the people to carry out executions for that offense.  Ultimately, God in His mercy chose Himself not to enforce the death penalty.  That is consistent with the divine nature revealed in Jesus, who challenged the Pharisees who were about to stone a woman for adultery and then forgave her Himself (John 8:7).  Apart from the death penalty, divorce became the divine alternative, tolerated only because of the hardness of the human heart, as Jesus states in Matthew 19:8.”

 

            We will not continue to look at Part Three of “The Battle of the Ages.”

 

“3. The Attempted Murder of David by Demon-Possessed King Saul was Satan’s third endeavor to break the promise.  On two occasions as David sat before the King, an evil spirit came upon Saul and he hurled a javelin intending to smite David to the wall.  Behind the hand of the demon-possessed King was the hand of him who was a murderer from the beginning.  Thus the enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, foretold by God in Eden, evidenced by the murder of Able by Cain, described by Paul as having marked the relationship between Ishmael and Isaac (‘he that was born after the flesh, persecuted him that was born after the Spirit.’ (Gal. 4:29) is further witnessed in the enmity between the devil-possessed Saul, and David the man after God’s own heart.  But David was preserved by God, the third attempt on the promise failed, and the line continues through Seth and Noah to David.”

 

9/4/2020 9:02 AM

No comments:

Post a Comment