Well, I have to admit, I jsut learned something knew (to me). The history on the death penalty for the Jewish people gives a meaningful perspective to the teaching of Jesus on the issue of divorce and remarriage. Very interesting.
What about physical abuse. You mary a man or a woman (depending, of course, as to whether you are a woman or a man -- counter to popular opinion -- and you "realize" that your new partner is physically abusive -- perhaps dagerously so. Don't get me wrong, here. I am not arguing for any one point -- just asking your opinion.
JD
In a message dated 7/10/2004 6:32:16 PM Pacific Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
BUT GOD SAYS, "I HATE DIVORCE"!
Hello again brother John.
So far, we know that God's plan is one man for one woman, for life. He joins them together, makes them one, He separates them in His own time. What God has joined together, no man has any right to separate.
When I taught this, some argued that this was for the Jews, since the book of Matthew was primarily a Jewish book. My response was that God not only made no exceptions for any Gentile, he went to great pains to show that this also applied to Gentiles. You will recall that John the Baptist lost his head precisely because he told a Gentile that he could not have his brother's wife as his wife. The guy was called Herod. His brother was named Phillip. His brother's wife was named Herodias. Herod was an Idumean. Not a Jew, not a Christian. John said,"You can't have her. That ain't right. God don't like that."
I should point out here that the term wife, or husband, or marriage, does not always mean a relationship approved by God. In the fourth chapter of John's Gospel we see a woman who has had five husbands. The implication is that she has not been widowed five times. God has not given her five husbands. In Hebrews 13:4 by contrast, God speaks of a joining that is approved by Him. Deut.,chapter seven speaks of marriages that are not God's doing, and in fact He forbids such actions. The same is true when the Bible speaks of wives in Ezra 10:44. I said all that simply to point out that when the Bible says husband or wife or marriage, it does not always mean an event that was planned by Him. The one thing, or one word I have found, that seems to most imply a joining together by God, is the word "Bound". An example is found in Romans 1:2 The woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. First Cor. 7:27 Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be loosed.
So let's sum up what we know so far about marriage. It appears to me that when you both (groom and bride) enter into your first marriage, it is God's doing. He expects that union to last for life.. He has made you one flesh. Only He has the right to end this union. I say "appears", because there may be something I am assuming, or something I am missing, but until someone can show me otherwise, this is what I believe that the Bible teaches.
Someone at this point is possibly thinking, "Under Moses, God allowed divorce". That is true. That however does not reflect God's will. Jesus Points out in Matt.19:8,"Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning, it was not so. Jesus does not go back to Moses, or the law. Jesus goes back before there was a law, to Adam and Eve. He says, "This is God's plan, for Adam and Eve, for Pharisees and their wives, for Herod and Herodias, for Terry and Vee. Moses made allowances, to protect the innocent, not to please the sinner, and it was never pleasing to God to see a marriage end. Liberal Rabbis added to that until you could divorce for any reason. Just get the paperwork right and the union is dissolved.
I stated before we began this discussion, that there are rare times when a person can do what God hates without committing a sin. I also pointed out that there are exceptions to most rules. During old testament times, the penalty for sexual sin, sex outside of a union blessed by God, was death. The guilty party was put to death. This freed the surviving spouse to marry again. When Jesus began His ministry, both He and the Jews were still under the law. Adulterers at that time should have been put to death in accordance with the law, but there was a problem. The problem was that the Jews were not free to rule themselves. They were under Roman domination, an occupied country. The Romans did not see adultery as a big deal. They did not see much of what the Jews considered important to be a big deal. They thought that the Jews were being too harsh in their penalties, so three years before Jesus began His ministry, the Romans took away the right of the jews to inflict the death penalty.
What to do? The law would free the innocent party if it could be carried out. but it could not be carried out. We have an innocent party who cannot be free from an adulterous mate, no matter how long that mate wallows in sin, and we have a sinner who can live any way he or she pleases with no penalty. The wrongdoer prospers while the innocent suffers. This is not the way God would have it . That appears to be why, in Matthew 5:32 Jesus makes an exception to the rule."I say to you, that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marrys a divorced woman commits adultery." Maybe you can't stone him to death, but you do not have to stay with him, and you do not have to live alone the rest of your life. When the cause of the divorce is sexual sin, you are free to divorce, and to remarry, just as though the guilty spouse had been put to death.
"But God hates divorce, for any reason. He did not give a list of exceptions", someone may say. This is pretty much true. God does hate divorce, for any reason, but God Himself set the precedent. He divorced Israel, for spiritual adultery, and allows the innocent party to divorce for sexual adultery. Even though God hates it, it is not a sin, because God set the precedent, and God does not sin.
Thems my thoughts. What's yours?
Terry
