July 21st, 2024
From The Series: When God Rebuilds…
Part 24 The Biblical Record on
Divorce
Ezra 10:18-44
Mountain View Evangelical Missionary
Church
Here we are, the final message from the Book of Ezra. I trust
that the Holy Spirit has shown you much about God's faithfulness in His
dealings with mankind. The entire Old Testament is filled with example after
example of men and women breaking the covenants made with Yahweh. We
have been the unfaithful party. Much of the Old Testament uses the word
"Unfaithful" in the context of marriage which is used as a metaphor. Metaphors
are often used to break down difficult truths of God for us to understand.
Once you reach young adulthood and have had a few personal
close relationships, you understand the concept of unfaithfulness. A broken
heart will make this concept real. Unfaithfulness inside a marriage is even
more devastating because the trust level and intimacy level is so much deeper. This
is why Scripture uses the image of unfaithfulness by mankind to illustrate how
God feels about our actions towards Him and His teachings.
The Bible makes it clear that we are the guilty party. Yet,
He still loves us enough to forgive and pursue us. A perfect example of this is
the entire Book of Hosea, where the prophet is instructed to marry a
promiscuous woman, start a family with her, and then endure, pursue, and
finally redeem her from the auction block. All as a real-world example of
Israel's unfaithfulness toward Yahweh.
Hosea 1:2 says, " 2 When
the Lord began to speak through
Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go,
marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous
wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord."
Today we are going to look at what the Bible has to say about marriage,
how it is a covenant between one man and one woman. We will also examine what
the Bible has to say about divorce and the ending of a marriage. If you are
divorced, or you are like me and have a divorce in your past, I want you to
hear me carefully. I am not beating up on you, I'm not sure anyone could be
more convicted of God's Word than I was in preparing this message.
By the same token, we can not just skip over the uncomfortable subjects
or reinterpret the teachings of the Bible to make them fit what the current
culture finds acceptable. The Lord makes it clear that we are the party that
needs to conform our lives to His standards. If you have divorce in your past,
take heart in the fact that God is able to forgive that sin through the Blood
of Jesus Christ. We opened the service this morning by singing "Are You
Washed in the Blood". Take those lyrics to heart. Washed clean with blood appears
to be a contradiction in terms. However, all sins are forgiven, once you
accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour. If you have been divorced, I promise you will
find hope in this message.
For those of us who are married, the matter of divorce in the Bible is
to serve as a warning to us so we do not take our marriage covenant too
lightly. The warning serves as a buffer against the temptations of the cultural
message of doing whatever makes you happy. We will deal with this message more thoroughly
in a bit.
First, let us look at what the last section of Ezra chapter 10 says for
us today. Please open your Bibles to the Book of Ezra, chapter 10 starting at
verse 18. Today you will find a long list of Hebrew names. Part of me was
tempted to skip over the reading of the names to save me the embarrassment of
butchering the pronunciation and to save you the difficult task of listening to
me. I thought about not reading them, but in all honesty, I felt convicted that
not reading them would be very dishonouring to God and to the men who made the
difficult decisions that they did in an attempt to honour the LORD. So, I will
read all the names, for not one word should be skipped or omitted from the
reading of God's Word no matter how difficult it is for us.
READ EZRA
10:18-44
For the sake of time, I'm going to move through these points
fairly quickly. You may have asked yourself this question: "Why are there
all these lists of names in the Bible?" The answers that I am going to
give apply to this list and to almost every list of names in the Bible. Some
lists will have specific purposes, like the two lists of names of the genealogy
of Jesus. Those lists show how Jesus is from the line of David on both His
mother's and adoptive father's sides.
But, let's examine the reasons for this list of names in this
chapter. The first reason is that the list serves as a warning against sin. We
can see from this list that sin affects every class of people. Look at verse
18, "18 Among the descendants of the priests, the following
had married foreign women:" we see that the priests were committing this sin. Verse 23 records, "23 Among the Levites:". We have seen in previous messages
that the Levites were the class of individuals assigned the duty of guarding
and protecting the Temple and all its contents. Sort of a Holy Guard
established by King David. With these two verses, we see that this particular
sin of intermarrying with other cultures had been committed by the two highest religious classes in the
region.
We have seen
today, that several high-profile pastors and church leaders have fallen because
of sin. God indeed calls religious leaders to a higher standard of living to
set an example. Still, the reality is that all of us are human, we all sin,
some sins are larger than others, and some are disqualifying sins, and some
come under Satanic attack because of their influence. What better way for Satan
to disrupt God's work than to strike the shepherd? This serves as a reminder
that we should be praying for those in ministry. That is why I include a local
church in our opening prayer every week.
Finally, look
at verse 25, "25 And among the other Israelites:". These three verses serve as a reminder that sin can happen to anyone
from any job or social status.
Point b leads us to realize that sin injures the reputation. We see in
the time of Ezra and through to today, how the reputation of leaders and their
organization are affected by the presence of sin. What better way for Satan to
slow the work of the Gospel than to injure the reputation of the church?
This leads us to point c, sin corrupts your influence. This is a result
of the injury to our reputation. This is an excellent reason for keeping in
mind that when we share the Gospel, or when we are interacting with
unbelievers, we should always exhibit an attitude of humility and gratitude for
God's mercy for His forgiveness of our sins. We must never act self-righteous,
for make no mistake, all those who accuse Christians of being judgmental jerks,
are in turn watching and judging everything that we do. Not one of us is
perfect, thus we should always emphasize God's mercy and love for the sinner.
Point d acts as a warning that this list of names shows that sin is
personal. We are always tempted to deflect from our individual sin by pointing
to how sinful the nation has become. The problem is that even the most sinful
nation is made up of individuals who each make decisions to sin or not sin all
day long every day. The nation becomes sinful because of the cumulative
effect of these individual decisions.
Another purpose of these lists of names in the Bible is it serves as an
example of genuine repentance. Look back a little further in the chapter back
to verse 1 of chapter 10. "While Ezra was praying
and confessing, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God, a
large crowd of Israelites—men, women and children—gathered around him. They too
wept bitterly." We see that the people confessed with genuine
sorrow. This genuine sorrow caused them to recognize the requirements asked of
them for forgiveness from God. According to Mosiac Law, a sacrifice would be
required from them. Look at verse 19 of chapter 10, "19 (They
all gave their hands in pledge to put away their wives, and for their guilt,
they each presented a ram from the flock as a guilt offering.)" A careful
reading of the names of the priests reveals that 17 rams would have been required
to seek God's forgiveness.
Think back with me to last week, we learned that God does not desire the
blood of animals. He doesn't need that blood to forgive us.
Instead, God chose to use the blood of animals as a foreshadowing of the
ultimate sacrifice, the one-time sufficient for all who believe in the sacrifice
of the blood of Jesus Christ.
I pray that you are beginning to see an intentionality in the writings
of the Old Testament books. The writings are historical, but they are so much
more than history. God has carefully and methodically revealed His plan to
reconcile a rebellious people back to Himself. Our forerunner, Adam was created
in a perfect environment, given a perfect mandate to rule over and steward that
perfect creation and in our rebellious nature, we disobeyed the only forbidden
thing from a good and gracious God. Instead of listening to god, we listened to
the lie of the serpent, "Did God really say…" The same damnable lie
that Satan repeats today. We see it all the time if we have eyes to see. Is
marriage really just between a man and a woman? Is two men sleeping together
really a bad thing? I mean, love is love, right? Is lying to someone else
really such a terrible thing if it means I spare their feelings?
Our forefathers listened to that lie, and we continue to listen to that
lie today. Yet, despite this rebellion, the three members of the Trinity
conceived a plan, a plan so marvelous, that only a perfect being with infinite
knowledge could birth such a plan.
A way, for sin-filled man to once again be in a righteous relationship
with the Creator God. The historical record of the Old Testament is a damning
record for mankind. It shows how time after time, it was man who broke the
covenant with God, and He still extends mercy to us. Forgiveness and mercy can
be found in the completed work of Jesus Christ on a Roman cross.
What work did He "complete"? For the three hours that Jesus
hung on that cross, He bore the wrath from the Father that we deserved for our
sin-filled rebellion. "Jesus paid it all, all to Him we owe" as the
hymn states. This free gift is a gift that we call call and Grace, and all we
have to do is accept this gift by placing our faith in that completed work. We
simply recognize that Jesus of Nazareth was the fully man, fully God, one God
who entered into His own Creation to redeem us back to the Father. We were
bought with a price, and therefore we who choose to accept this gift and follow
Jesus are bondservants to the Master. A debt that we will never be able to
repay fully.
The Israelites had to offer animals as blood sacrifices as tokens for
their faith. The third point here on the slide is all that we have to
do. This is what we have in common with the Israelites, all we must do
is follow their example and renounce our sins. Turn our backs on our
previous ways, and turn to the Father. Become His adopted children, and share
in His inheritance of a life everlasting in the presence of the Father and Son.
The final reason for this list of names in the Bible that I wish to
point out this morning is the list serves as an encouragement to genuine
repentance. When repentance is present we can see that there is forgiveness of
sins. Elsewhere in the Bible, there are supportive teachings on this point.
According to the writings of Ezekiel sometimes the LORD issues warnings
of death to mankind to have them turn back to His ways. Ezekiel 33:14-16 says, "14 And
if I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ but they then turn
away from their sin and do what is just and right—15 if they
give back what they took in pledge for a loan, return what they have stolen,
follow the decrees that give life, and do no evil—that person will surely live;
they will not die. 16 None of the sins that person has
committed will be remembered against them. They have done what is just and
right; they will surely live." We see that if we turn from our
wicked and sinful ways that God is merciful and our sins are forgiven.
The final point I want to make before we examine what the Bible has to
say about divorce is this: Once they had confessed their sins, and made the
sacrifice we see in verse 14 that they were willing to do these things "until
The fierce anger of our God in this matter is turned away from us". The
people listed here in the Bible realized that it would take time and effort to
deal with the consequences of their sins. Families would be torn apart
and there would be great heartache to deal with.
I'm really not sure that this answer was in keeping with God's will. We
see in verse 15 that at least 4 men disagreed with this decision. Is that a
sign that this was a man-made solution and not a God-led solution? Not
everything that is mentioned in the Bible is a prescription to follow.
Sometimes, things are recorded as a warning against others not repeating the
same mistake.
With that being said, let's take a quick dive into what the Bible has to
say about divorce.
Let's look
at the only opinion that matters and that is the Lord's opinion about divorce.
Malachi 2:16 says this, "16 “The man who hates and divorces his wife,” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “does violence
to the one he should protect,” says the Lord
Almighty. o be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful." That was the NIV's translation. If you have an NIV Bible, there should
be a footnote under this passage that reads "Or "I hate divorce"
says the LORD. Bible translations are a team effort. Sometimes during the
process, there will be strong disagreements on how to interpret certain
passages, and these differences or alternate interpretations will be recorded
in the footnotes.
The Legacy
Standard Bible is a newer translation and it is a more literal word-for-word
translation and it records this passage like this, "16 “For I hate divorce,”
says Yahweh, the God of Israel, “and him who covers his garment with wrong,”
says Yahweh of hosts. “Be careful then to keep your spirit, that you do not
deal treacherously.” Even the LSB has a couple
of footnotes for this passage. The first is the word "divorce"
because the literal translation is "sending away". Another is the
word "wrong" for the Hebrew word can also be translated as
"violence".
What this passage is saying literally in Hebrew is that God hates
divorce and a man who divorces his wife, covers himself in violence. Why
violence? That seems like an odd choice of words don't you think? For an
explanation, turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 19 beginning at
verse 1. Matthew 19 can be found on page 800 of the pew bible.
Matthew 19:1-12 says, "1 When
Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went into the
region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan. 2 Large crowds
followed him, and he healed them there.
3 Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a
man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?” Stop there
for a minute. For some context, Jesus has left the region of Galilee and He is
moving south into the region of Judea heading towards Jerusalem. Some religious
leaders have stopped Jesus and His disciples and they have decided to test
Jesus on how scriptural His teachings are.
We continue.4 “Haven’t you
read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and
female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his
father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one
flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore
what God has joined together, let no one separate.” Pause there for a
minute. Jesus is referring back to the creation account in Genesis 1:27; 2:24
and 5:2. Paul does the same thing in 1 Corinthians 6:16 and Ephesians 5:31.
"7 “Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a
certificate of divorce and send her away?” Pause. The
Pharisees think they are clever because they whip out the old Moses trump card
and play it on Jesus. But, notice how they twist scripture to suit their
purposes, they make it appear that it was a command from Moses to
divorce if unhappy.
Jesus
corrects them by saying, "8 Jesus
replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were
hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. 9 I tell you
that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries
another woman commits adultery.” Jesus corrects them about the cause of
divorce, "because your hearts were hard" and then He brings them back
to the scriptural standard by saying, "But it was not this way from the
beginning". Jesus is drawing their attention away from what had become the
cultural norm of the day. This is our second point regarding divorce, Moses and
Jesus permitted limited divorces. Right there in verse 9, Jesus lays out the
only acceptable reason for divorce and that is adultery.
In verse 10,
we see the disciples jump into this argument and counter Jesus with this, "10 The disciples said to him, “If this
is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.”
Jesus doesn't
correct them, instead, He acknowledges the difficulty of this godly stance
regarding marriage and He confirms, "11 Jesus
replied, “Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been
given. 12 For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and
there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who
choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who
can accept this should accept it.” Just one last clarification about
this passage. Pay attention to the words, "but
only those to whom it has been given". This is reminiscent of the
often repeated biblical words of "those who have eyes to see and ears to
hear". Who is Jesus referring to? Followers of Jesus, those who have been
indwelt by the Holy Spirit, "those to whom it has been given".
That's you
and me friend. Believers are called to a higher standard than the surrounding
culture because we have the help of the Holy Spirit. So long as we do not allow
our hearts to become hardened and we continue to see our spouse through the
eyes of Jesus, we will be given the strength to endure any hardships that come
into the marriage. As Believers, we are called to remain married.
For some cultural context of what the attitude was towards
divorce in the times of Jesus, let me read you a short quote from the
autobiography of Flavius Josephus. Josephus was a Jewish man who was captured
by the Roman Generals Vespasian and his son Titus during a campaign against the
Hebrew city Yodfat (Also known as Jotapata). Josephus was the Jewish commander
of the city of Yodfat and was captured during the surrender in 67 AD. This
battle was the site of the second bloodiest battle and the third-longest siege
of the Roman campaign. The city was destroyed and the inhabitants who were
still alive were enslaved.
Josephus writes, "75. (414) For when the siege of
Jotapata was over, and I was among the Romans, I was kept with much care, by
means of the great respect that Vespasian showed me. Moreover, at his command,
I married a virgin, who was from among the captives of that country; "
What Josephus is claiming is Vespasian took a liking to him and forced Josephus
to marry a Roman virgin. Josephus continues, "(415) yet did she not live
with me long, but was divorced, upon my being freed from my bonds, and my going
to Alexandria. However, I married another wife at Alexandria, (416) and was
thence sent, together with Titus, to the siege of Jerusalem," end quote. The
writings of Josephus give us a contemporaneous record of these historical
events as they were happening. We see from this passage that the surrounding
pagan cultures held a very low view of marriage. Oftentimes, marriage was
little more than a business transaction. A way to move up in social status, or
to make alliances with other powerful families, and to provide an heir to
ensure that your family lineage would be carried on.
There were similarities among the Israelites. For them, the
various factors in a marriage to be weighed in the negotiations involved social
parity, economic advantage and expansion of the kinship network. Social parity
was always a minimum goal. No family wanted to marry “down” socially, at least
when arranging the contract for the first wife. Thus the participants had to be
at least of the same social class and have approximately the same economic
standing. In this way marriages served not only to produce children and a new
generation to inherit property, but they also established social ties, economic
connections and a network of association that was designed to benefit both
parties. Other considerations included kinship obligations, political
advancement (think of some of King David's and King Solomon's marriages to name
a few) and, occasionally, personal desire. Which seemed to be the least
influential reason for choosing a wife.
In ancient days, and the same is true today with cultures
that practice arranged marriages, you didn't fall in love and then marry. You
chose a worthy spouse and love and respect grew within the relationship after
the wedding ceremony. That is why the Bible tells men to love their wives and
it tells women to respect their husbands.
For the Israelites, the concluding of a marriage contract
between families was a sacred compact, comparable to the covenant agreement
made with Yahweh. The “pledge” agreement set a bride price as well as the
amount of the dowry, guaranteed that the bride would be a virgin at the time of
marriage and required complete fidelity of the parties. Marriage was such an
important economic and social factor in the ancient Near East that it is the
basis of a huge amount of legislation.
In light of chapter 10 of the Book of Ezra, it is worth
spending just a minute to address the dowry or bride price that was paid to the
Father in order to make the marriage contract legal. This money was to be set
aside for the use of the daughter in case she should become widowed or
divorced. The dowry ensured that the wife would be cared for financially for some
time after the husband's death or in the case of divorce.
Divorce was the man’s prerogative, and if a man divorced his wife, the
one who sought the divorce would never again take back his former wife because
she would be considered “damaged goods”. Only men can initiate the divorce;
women are not allowed to divorce their husbands. When the prophets cry out
against divorce, they address the males of their day, since women are “kept” by
the men.
This leads to an interesting interpretation of the use of
marriage as a metaphor for the relationship between God and mankind. Since only
the man can initiate divorce, and if the woman strays from him, the man can
choose to remain married, but the woman cannot remarry until she receives her
divorce from her first husband. We don't have time to turn there today but in
Jeremiah 3:6-8 the LORD issues a divorce decree to faithless Israel, yet in
just a few verses later, 12-13 the Lord declares that He will forgive them if
they only acknowledge their guilt and He will not be angry forever. Another
example of the Lord's faithfulness and mercy.
Your homework for this week is to read 1 Corinthians chapter
7. The entire chapter. It contains great direction on how to handle a spouse
who is not a Christian, physical intimacy within the marriage covenant and a
whole list of things that we do not have time to cover today. Lord willing, I
will get to preach through the books of 1st and 2nd
Corinthians with you someday.
One other thing. The Bible only lists adultery as a suitable
reason for divorce. One modern compromise that most churches have adopted as
suitable grounds for divorce is known as the three A's. Adultery, Abuse, and
Abandonment. If a spouse is guilty of committing any of these three things,
then a divorce is permitted. Permitted but not preferred. The abuse must be
real physical or emotional abuse. Not perceived abuse. For Christians, divorce
should always be the exception. I believe that divorce is also not a reason to
be ostracized by the church either. This is a very precarious line we must walk
between the cultural influences of the day and what the Bible clearly teaches,
and the individual circumstances that surround each marriage.
I want to end on this hopeful note. If you have a divorce in
your past Jesus forgives you. If you were unaware of these biblical teachings
on divorce, go home, confess to the Lord and ask for forgiveness. Jesus is
faithful and will forgive you. He will help you through the healing that will
be required. You may have to deal with, or you may still be dealing with the
consequences of a divorce. If you are, turn to Jesus for support and strength
and try to reconcile where you are able. I don't mean you must return to the
marriage, but rather, be reconciled in the manner where you do not carry
animosity towards your ex-spouse. Forgive as you have been forgiven.
CONCLUSION
Alexander Maclaren lived 1826-1910 and was a Scottish Baptist minister. Dr.
Maclaren wrote the following about our sin versus God's mercy, "You cannot
believe too much in God’s mercy. You cannot expect too
much at His hands. He is “able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask
or think.” No sin is so great but that, coming straight from it, a
repentant sinner may hope and believe that all God’s love will be lavished
upon him, and the richest of God’s gifts granted to his desires. Even if
our transgression be aggravated by a previous life of godliness, and have given
the enemies great occasion to blaspheme, as David did, yet David’s penitence
may in our souls lead on to David’s hope, and the answer will not fail us. Let no
sin, however dark, however repeated, drive us to despair of
ourselves, because it hides from us our loving Saviour. Though
beaten back again and again by the surge of our passions and sins, like some
poor shipwrecked sailors sucked back with every retracing wave and tossed about
in the angry surf, yet keep your face towards the beach where there is safety,
and you will struggle through it all, and though it were only on some floating
boards and broken pieces of the ship, you will come safe to land. He will
uphold you with His Spirit, and take away the weight of sin that would sink
you, by His forgiving mercy, and bring you out of all the weltering waste of
waters to the solid shore."—Alex.
Maclaren, D.D.[1]
Go in peace.
You are dismissed.
Pastor
Paul’s Points:
1) God Hates Divorce!
2) Moses and Jesus permitted limited
divorce.
3) If you have been divorced, healing
and forgiveness will be found in Jesus.
