We are busy discussing God's perspective on adultery based on Jesus' teaching in Matthew 5:31-32: It has been said, “Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.” But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Maybe you'd like to refresh the context in your mind by reading posts 35 and 36 again.
Jesus always meant what He said. It
is we who do not always take Him seriously, but He is the one who will one day
do the judging. In this section, we will focus on the disasters of marrying a
divorced person.
God always has a reason for what He
says. When Israel was about to destroy Jericho as recorded in Joshua 6:18, He
said, “But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your
own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise, you will make the camp of
Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it.”
We then read that Achan had taken
some of the goods that the Lord had forbidden. Next, we read that Israel had
lost against the little city of Ai, and when Joshua sulked about it, the Lord
told him to call on Israel to consecrate themselves. We then read in Joshua
7:15, “He who is caught with the devoted things shall be destroyed by fire,
along with all that belongs to him. He has violated the covenant of the Lord
and has done a disgraceful thing in Israel!” Achan was discovered and he and his family destroyed.
Why did God forbid them to take of
the devoted things, and why was His punishment so severe? (It was not only of
Achan, but also of the whole of Israel through the withdrawal of His support
during their battles.) The devoted things were given to other gods. The spirits
of the other gods (effectively God’s enemy Satan) were attached to these things
and would have claimed their worship in due time, which is why they should have
been destroyed as per God’s command.
The same principle applied throughout
the Old Testament in Israel’s relationship with ungodly nations. God’s basic
command to His people was, “Stay away from the heathen nations, don’t mix with
them, and when you go to war against them, destroy them completely.”
They did
not destroy the people, as the Lord had commanded them, but they mixed with the
nations and learned to do as they did. They served their idols, which became a
snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons;
they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom
they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood.
Thus they became unclean by their acts and played the whore in their deeds (Psalm 106:34-39). The reason Israel
had to destroy the heathens completely, which they didn’t do, was that failure
to do so would cause them to be corrupted by the heathens, which often happened
as we read above. When Israel was obedient to this command, it went well with
them. When they committed adultery with the heathen, it went disastrous with
them.
What does this principle have to do
with our study? Jesus Christ (also the God of the Old Testament) is
the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). The heathen nations of the Old Testament were a type of the evil forces of today, and
Israel was a type of the church of today. Remember Nathan’s words to David in 2
Samuel 12:14: “Only, because by this deed you have given great
occasion to the enemies of Jehovah to blaspheme.” Every time Israel committed adultery with heathen
nations, they caused these nations to laugh at God. Every time the church
commits adultery with evil forces, she causes the evil forces to ridicule God.
The result is that God has to deal
with the adulterer. How does He do that? He may withdraw his support and
protection, causing us to experience the devil’s attacks directly (Isaiah 59:1,2). He also disciplines through circumstances (Hebrews 12:4-11).
How do we commit adultery with the
evil forces? Having a relationship with God means that we trust His commands
and judgment concerning our lives. If He decided that a certain person would be
a suitable spouse, then we need to trust His judgment. If we then use our own
judgment and ignore His commandment, we are saying to God that we don’t trust a
relationship with Him. We’d rather trust him who suggested the “better” idea,
in other words, the evil forces or our carnal nature. We then enter into a
relationship with God’s enemies and commit adultery. This affects our love for
God and violates the first Great Commandment to love Him with all our heart,
soul, strength, and mind.
God said that we are not to divorce
our spouse because it causes the spouse to commit adultery. We are not to marry
a divorced person because then we also commit adultery. As we know, both practices
occur every day. We also know that the result is often gross unhappiness for
all parties, children included. This affects our love for our neighbour, which
violates the second greatest commandment. May this be because God withdrew His blessing due to disobedience and ridicule? Deception is very subtle and we often content with a second-grade life, having chosen to harbour disobedience, instead of enjoying the fulness Jesus promised in John 10:10 by living in complete obedience. To be continued with a real-life example.
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