SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/11/2023 9:46 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-2 “The Answer”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
19:4-6
Message of the verses: “4 And He answered
and said, "Have you not read, that He who created them from the
beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, 5 and said, ‘FOR THIS CAUSE A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS
FATHER AND MOTHER, AND SHALL CLEAVE TO HIS WIFE; AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE
FLESH’? 6 “Consequently they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore
God has joined together let no man separate.’”
We begin this SD by looking at the third reason why
divorce was never in God’s plan and that is that, in marriage, the two…become
one flesh. Paul speaks of this in 1
Corinthians 7:4 “The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the
husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over
his own body, but the wife does.” Now because of this Jesus said, when a man
and woman are joined in marriage they are no longer two, but one flesh.” The only way that they are not individuals and
inseparable, is through death. So in God’s
eyes they become the total possession of each other, one in mind and spirit, in
goals and direction, in emotion and will.
So what happens when they have a child? It becomes the perfect emblem
and demonstration of their flesh and carries the combined traits of both
parents.
John MacArthur writes “But it is
not, as some foolishly argue, that becoming one flesh in the sex act is what
constitutes marriage. If that were true,
there would be no such thing as fornication, because as soon as an unmarried
man and woman engaged in the sex act they would be automatically married,
rather than guilty of wickedness. Under
the Mosaic Law, the act of fornication obligated the man to marry the woman or
pay compensation to her father (Ex. 22:16-17), further indicating that the
sexual act itself is not the equivalent of marriage.”
So on the other hand the act of adultery
as terrible as it is to the marriage relationship, does not in itself dissolve
a marriage. Marriage is a mutual
covenant, a God-ordained obligation that is between a man and a woman to
lifelong companionship. Here is what the
Lord in rebuking the Israelites for their adultery and frequent divorces: “14 “Yet you say, ‘For what reason?’ Because the LORD has
been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have
dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. 15
“But not one has done so who has a remnant of the Spirit. And what did that
one do while he was seeking a godly offspring? Take heed then to your
spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of your youth. 16 “For
I hate divorce," says the LORD, the God of Israel, "and him who covers his garment with
wrong," says the LORD of hosts. "So take heed to your spirit
that you do not deal treacherously’” (Mal. 2:14-16). “In God’s eyes, every wife is a
“wife by covenant,” never merely a wife by fornication, convenience, or whim,”
writes John MacArthur.
We
will look at the forth reason that Jesus gives for divorce not being in God’s
perfect design in our next SD.
2/11/2023 10:08 AM
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