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
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