Revering the Word
Deuteronomy 24 The challenging topic of divorce and remarriage.
Good morning, everyone. This morning we are in Deuteronomy chapter 24. Apparently there was a problem with the first recording, so I am redoing this. And it's a challenging teachings in some ways, something that I don't necessarily look forward to covering, if I'm honest, just because it is challenging the interpretation and how to apply this teaching today. But there's good in it and let's take it in. When a man takes a wife, this is Deuter he has found some indecency in her and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house and she leaves his house and goes and becomes another man's wife. And if the latter husband turns against her and writes a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband who dies, who took her to be his wife, then her former husband, who sent her away, is not allowed to take her again to be his wife since she has been defiled. For this is an abomination before the Lord and you shall not bring sin on the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance. Alright, so this is dealing with divorce and in this case, remarriage and then the possibility of even going back to the first husband and saying that in the old covenant here, and it's not advised, it's not something that God is desiring. Alright, so in order to understand the foundation of marriage, I think we should first go back to Genesis chapter two, where it says, "A man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh." God's design for marriage was for a man and woman to join together to become one and to be married for life. That's the design. That's God's design is that you'd have one wife or one husband and that your marriage would be until death do you part. And that's what honors him. Now, Moses allowed for in the old covenant a certificate of divorce. We read about that in the book of Deuteronomy and Jesus shares that the reason that Moses allowed that was because of a hardness of heart. And because of that, they allowed it but it wasn't God's design, it wasn't God's original intent to have marriage and in divorce. Jesus said that from the beginning, that's not the way that it was. And we're going to take a look at some of those passages in a moment. The first one I'd like to take a look at is from Matthew chapter five verse 31. And he's quoting actually from the passage today of Deuteronomy 24 that we went through. And it says that where it said, "Whoever sends away his wife, let him get her certificate of divorce." So Jesus quotes Matthew 24, but then Jesus says, "But I say to you in Matthew five that everyone who divorces his wife except for the reason of unchastity makes her commit adultery and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery." So Jesus is making the case that if except for sexual immorality, and by the way the word there is Pornea, which means all kinds of sexual immorality, including adultery, but it can be fornication and other things too, kind of like our word porno. And he says that except for the case of Pornea, that he doesn't allow divorce. He's saying, "Yes, Moses permitted it because of a hardness of heart, but that's not his desire." So that tells us something. In fact, the word Pornea can be translated or used for the word for homosexuality, lesbianism, all kinds of illicit sexual promiscuity that happens, inappropriate sexual promiscuity that happens outside of a marriage. Jesus allows for divorce in that way. That doesn't mean that you have to get divorced if there's a sexual problem like that in the marriage, but it does mean that it's permitted. However, that kind of gets into some interesting questions as well is what if someone has a relationship that breaks up because of a Pornea, some kind of sexual immorality, does Jesus permit people then to get remarried again? It really doesn't discuss that. It's really not talked about. So in some cases we have to rely on the grace of God and also say that some things we just don't know. There are situations that aren't really covered specifically, like for instance, let's say you were married to someone and neither one of you were believers at all. You didn't even really get married in a church or you didn't get married as believers. You didn't feel like you had a covenant of marriage and that marriage broke up, but now you want to get remarried and now you're marrying a believer. That happens all the time and I have taken part in remarriages. I believe that God's desire is up for us to marry one man or one woman and stay together forever, but many times we allow for grace in areas such as situations like that or when a marriage breaks off because of some kind of sexual immorality, there's other questions too. For instance, what about abuse? What if there's physical abuse? What if someone's getting beaten in the marriage and they try to work it out and yet things like that happen or substance abuse that just never gets rectified and as a result, it's such a dysfunctional situation that someone leaves. Some of that's just not really covered. It doesn't say. It'd be interesting if we could interview Jesus about these things. Clearly, he does not want us to be, he doesn't want divorce and he doesn't for sure want willy nilly divorce. He wants us to be together for a lifetime yet there's situations that are very challenging that are not covered. Although I know he doesn't want divorce, I think sometimes we have to rely on the grace and mercy of God and say, "God, just as we sin in other areas, people make mistakes in their marriages and they get divorced and they need to call on the grace and mercy of God, not try to justify it." With compassion, it's a failure when we get married and get divorced. It's sin that either leads to the divorce or even sin in the divorce, but his grace covers a multitude of sins and God's forgiveness that he's granted us on that cross definitely gives us mercy. Now, is that then a means for us to just permit divorce and not make a big deal of it? No, I don't think that's why God did it. I just think he set up his system of marriage and he wants to make it difficult for us to divorce. He does not want us to do it easily and I think that's why things are written the way that they are written. Another passage that I'd like to bring up to you is in Matthew 19 and it says there that some Pharisees, this is verse 3, came testing him and asking, this is Jesus now in the new covenant, even though we're taking a look at an old covenant passage today from Matthew 24, I'm trying to give you us a more fuller understanding of marriage and divorce as to what God in totality says. Now, we're not going to cover our reverse, but we are going to take a more fuller view of the whole Bible versus just in Deuteronomy 24. So in verse 3 of chapter 19, it says, is it lawful the Pharisees asked him for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all? And Pharisees are asking this because Moses did permit divorce in the Old Testament and he answered, have you not read? This is what Jesus said, that from the beginning, he made them male and female. And by the way, that says a lot. God created us male and female. You know, you can't change someone's gender. You are what God created you to be at birth and that's what you to remain. But as we go on and he said, for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. So Jesus is quoting the origin of marriage back in Genesis chapter two. So they are no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate. He's making a very holy and pure view of marriage to one man or one woman forever. And that's God's desire, as we have said. So they questioned him, the Jews did and said, why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away? So, you know, they're making a, it's a fair question because it was permitted in the Old Testament. So they're asking why? And he said to them, because of your hardness of heart, Jesus said, Moses permitted you to divorce your wives. But from the beginning, it has not been this way. So you know, again, Jesus is really reiterating God's desire to be married to one man or one woman. But because of your hardness of heart, he allowed them to get divorced because Jesus is not desiring that. I say to whoever divorces his wife, Jesus said, except for immorality, commits adultery, he says, in that passage. Now again, that word immorality there, it's probably good that it says immorality, because it's the word poor nay again, which is a broader word meaning more than just adultery, but again, homosexuality, lesbianism, inappropriate sexual, you know, promiscuity and adultery. So, you know, he permits it based on that. And I say to you, I say to you, Jesus said, in Matthew 19, whoever divorces his wife except for immorality and marries another woman commits adultery. So again, it's brought up that marrying someone else is adultery and that's very challenging. And I think again, we have some questions on that. What if someone did get divorced because their spouse was sexually immoral, and then they get divorced. So it's a permitted divorce based on the sexual immorality, then is it OK for them to get remarried? Again, the scripture doesn't really cover that. Most of us as pastors give grace and will remarry people. And you know, I would say that if you are in a marriage, honor God in the marriage that you're in. I think he would desire that if don't, if it all possible, don't get divorced in, in honor of the Lord. And in some of our remarriage situations, there's, there's probably questions as to, you know, and maybe you've had questions about is to what's right and what's honorable. And I think it's challenging, but I say to us, fall on the grace and mercy of God and try to do what's right in the situation that you're in now and honor God as best as you can to stay with the person you're with and for a lifetime. Hallelujah. You know, I'm very thankful that my parents have been married for over 50 years. My in-laws have been married for over 50 years. And my wife and I have been married for over 28 years. And I'm very happy to have that example and provide that example to not only my family, but also to my church. But there is questions that remain. Like, you know, I mentioned it earlier. What do you do with a beating situation? What do you do with, you know, substance abuse that just never gets rectified? There's questions that we have that we just don't understand. And although we know God wants us to stay together, I think sometimes we have to fall on God's grace and mercy. You know, just like all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And we've done it in other areas in our lives, right? I mean, has anyone, who's the first person that hasn't sinned, throw the stone, right? Well, that would be none of us. We'd all have to drop our stones. So in the same way, although we know what God's desire is for marriage, I think sometimes we have to fall on His grace and mercy. All right. So let's continue on in this passage and see what the rest of it has to say. All right. Verse five of chapter 24 of Deuteronomy, "When a man takes a new wife, he shall not go out with the army, nor be charged with any duty. He shall be free at home one year and shall give happiness to his wife whom he has taken." What anything that God did not allow people to go out to war when they were nearly married so that they could focus on having a strong foundation to their marriage and be together. Pretty cool to see that. And now we're going to get into and we're going to cover this quicker, various sundry laws or various laws. They're not necessarily always connected. However, a lot of these have to do with our dealings with the poor, as we'll see in a moment. All right. Verse six, "No one shall take a hand mill or an upper mill stone in pledge, for he would be taking a life in pledge. You needed both of those stones in order to operate a mill correctly or to grind your grain. So to take one stone and the person wouldn't have what they would need to continue to, you know, work so you wouldn't do that." Verse seven, "If a man is caught kidnapping any of his countrymen of the sons of Israel and he deals with him violently or sells him, then that thief shall die. You shall purge the evil from among you." And here again, God says harsh penalties for inappropriate behavior. In this case, kidnapping. And if you do that, you could be killed for it. And I think God set up those things because it prevented people from, you know, doing corrupt things such as that. Be careful. Verse eight, "Against an infection of leprosy that you diligently observe and do according to all that the Levitical priests teach you, as I have commanded them, so you shall be careful to do. Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on the way as you came out of Egypt. And in this case, God is reminding them of dangerous things such as leprosy. And he did have people separated when they were contagious because he's trying to care for people. And he's like, "Hey, be careful to do this. We don't want disease to spread in our midst." Verse 10, "When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not enter his house to take his pledge. You shall remain outside and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you. If he is a poor man, you shall not sleep with his pledge. When the sun goes down, you shall surely return the pledge to him that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you and it will be righteousness for you before the Lord your God." And although sometimes people would put up a pledge and borrow money, he's saying, "Listen, don't put someone out where they don't have what they need to be warm or to be well fed. God cares about people who are in need. We're going to see that a great deal as we close out this chapter." Verse 14, "You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your countrymen or one of your aliens who is in your land, in your towns. You shall give him his wages on his day before the sun sets, for he is poor and sets his heart on it so that he will not cry against you to the Lord and it will become sinned to you." He's saying, "You know what? You've got to pay people every day. That was what was done back in that day, especially poor people. They would get paid every day." And he's like, "Don't withhold money that you owe to the poor because they desperately need it and God will hear their cry." Verse 16, "Father shall not be put to death for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death for their fathers. Everyone shall be put to death for his own sin." And ultimately, you know what? As we grow and we become adults, we have to make a decision today to follow Jesus on our own. Our parents can't save us. We can lead our children to the Lord. But ultimately, they're going to have to choose whether they follow him or not. And we're all going to face either salvation or not going to hell if we either accept Jesus or don't accept Jesus. And we're all going to have to do that on our own one day. We're all responsible for our own journey of faith. You shall not pervert the justice to an alien or an orphan, nor take a widow's garment and pledge. But you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, that the Lord your God redeemed you from there. Therefore, I am commanding you to do this thing. In this section of Scripture, chapter 24 is going to close out with very similar things about how much God cares for a stranger, an orphan, or a widow that he wants them taken care of and that we, as people, really need to be looking out for those who have needs around us in our church bodies and even in our community and not closing our hand to those who have need. Check it out. Verse 19, "When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheep in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the alien for the orphan and for the widow in order that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the bows again. It shall be for the alien for the orphan and for the widow. And when you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not go over it again. It shall be for the alien for the orphan and for the widow. You shall remember that you are enslaving the land of Egypt. Therefore, I am commanding you to do this thing." So this is a command that God, many of us are not in farming and we don't have our own crops and stuff like that. But if we did, we were supposed to leave a portion around the edges, that kind of a thing for the poor to be able to have food, the widow, the orphan. Nowadays, we don't have that, but does that mean that we should not care or not provide for those in need around us? And God wants us to have generous spirits. He cares about the poor, the orphan, the widow, and he wants us to do that too. And I think we should all consider these things. A lot of times we make up excuses that anyone who is poor is poor for a reason and it's their own doing and they're just going to use the money to buy alcohol or whatever the case may be. And sometimes that may be true, but don't use those as excuses to not get engaged in helping people that are around you. Because if God cares about these people, then we certainly as his children, as a reflection of who he is on this world, we should care about others as well. Well, today's primary teaching was about marriage and divorce and honor God with the husband or wife that he's given you. Both of you turn to God, ask for his help, commit to being with them for a lifetime. And whatever situation you're in now, maybe you've been married and now you're remarried, honor, honor God in the marriage that you're in. Do your best to be one man, one woman of one flesh until death do you part. God bless you all.