The Word This Week
Mark 10:1…
Jesus now heads toward Jerusalem for the final time.
On His way, He passes through the region of Judea on the east side of the Jordan River, known of as the region of Perea.
The Pharisees intercepted Him there, again seeking to trip Jesus up theologically.
In an attempt to make Him come down on one side or the other on an issue that was controversial in their day as it is in our day, they questioned Jesus about marriage. Again, they couldn’t care less about how He answered, their desire was to make His crowd turn against Him and failing that to at least divide His crowd.
So they presented the idea of divorce, which is always controversial.
In their ‘progressive’ generation, divorce had become commonplace in some circles, as advocated by a popular liberal rabbi named Hillel, who was teaching you could divorce your wife for just about any reason. He cited Deuteronomy 24:1-4 as the Biblical basis which he said allowed a husband to divorce his wife if “uncleanness” was found in her. Since “uncleanness” was not clearly defined in God’s Word, it had come to mean just about anything in man’s word.
On the other hand, there was a conservative rabbi named Shammai, who advocated divorce being allowed only in the case of adultery.
Then, as now, these two positions were divided among popular opinion.
It sure would be nice to know what God thinks about this. Interestingly, though they knew it not, this is exactly what we find here. What does God think about divorce?
But we get a bonus. Before Jesus talks about divorce He defines marriage. It is as if He anticipated at some future point in history God’s design of marriage would be hijacked to serve carnal man’s desire to serve their sexual perversions rather than God’s design.
God designed marriage for one man and one woman. Period. No exceptions. God designed marriage to last until death. Marriage was not designed by God to be a sensual experiment; marriage was designed by God to be THE fundamental building block of culture and society. Any degradation of marriage according to what men think about it rather than what God says would and will lead to a crumbling and degradation of any culture or society that seeks to redefine marriage. Ours, for example.
Jesus sided with rabbi Shammai’s position on marriage. He characterized Moses’ allowance for divorce as a concession to the hardness of men’s hearts rather than the intent of God. How can ‘one flesh’ be divided except in the case of sexual adultery?
God doesn’t bow to popular opinion. He never has and He never will – especially when popular opinion leads to the destruction THE culture He has created to represent Himself on earth.
Pastor Bill
Jesus now heads toward Jerusalem for the final time.
On His way, He passes through the region of Judea on the east side of the Jordan River, known of as the region of Perea.
The Pharisees intercepted Him there, again seeking to trip Jesus up theologically.
In an attempt to make Him come down on one side or the other on an issue that was controversial in their day as it is in our day, they questioned Jesus about marriage. Again, they couldn’t care less about how He answered, their desire was to make His crowd turn against Him and failing that to at least divide His crowd.
So they presented the idea of divorce, which is always controversial.
In their ‘progressive’ generation, divorce had become commonplace in some circles, as advocated by a popular liberal rabbi named Hillel, who was teaching you could divorce your wife for just about any reason. He cited Deuteronomy 24:1-4 as the Biblical basis which he said allowed a husband to divorce his wife if “uncleanness” was found in her. Since “uncleanness” was not clearly defined in God’s Word, it had come to mean just about anything in man’s word.
On the other hand, there was a conservative rabbi named Shammai, who advocated divorce being allowed only in the case of adultery.
Then, as now, these two positions were divided among popular opinion.
It sure would be nice to know what God thinks about this. Interestingly, though they knew it not, this is exactly what we find here. What does God think about divorce?
But we get a bonus. Before Jesus talks about divorce He defines marriage. It is as if He anticipated at some future point in history God’s design of marriage would be hijacked to serve carnal man’s desire to serve their sexual perversions rather than God’s design.
God designed marriage for one man and one woman. Period. No exceptions. God designed marriage to last until death. Marriage was not designed by God to be a sensual experiment; marriage was designed by God to be THE fundamental building block of culture and society. Any degradation of marriage according to what men think about it rather than what God says would and will lead to a crumbling and degradation of any culture or society that seeks to redefine marriage. Ours, for example.
Jesus sided with rabbi Shammai’s position on marriage. He characterized Moses’ allowance for divorce as a concession to the hardness of men’s hearts rather than the intent of God. How can ‘one flesh’ be divided except in the case of sexual adultery?
God doesn’t bow to popular opinion. He never has and He never will – especially when popular opinion leads to the destruction THE culture He has created to represent Himself on earth.
Pastor Bill