30th Mar 26 | 13:54
Studies by Book
Luke 16 18 The covenantal relationship of marriage 11 Come back to His ways
📖 Luke 16:18
28Apr2020 - *Come back to His ways* - _Luke 16:18_ - Bible reading: _Matthew 19:3-9_
Luke 16:18 “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery._
We have learnt that whatever may be the circumstance concerning marriage, God is showing us that we need not hide or deny our weaknesses, for as we acknowledge and confront them, God converts our weakness into a strength.
We have also said that sexual faithfulness to our spouse is the way for us to understand faithfulness to God. To flip this thought over, if we are not faithful to our spouse in body, mind and emotions then we are not faithful to God _(Matthew 5:27-28)_
Let us now enter into the matter of divorce as that is the thought that is brought out in our verse that we are studying. _Matthew 19:3-9 The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?"_ The Pharisees were raising a question on divorce to Jesus and we see that His answer was to go back to the covenantal relationship of marriage. _(4) And He answered and said to them, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE,' (5) and 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' ? (6) So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate."_
The Lord is teaching us that marriage is not a human institution but God’s, God has joined the man and his wife to be one flesh in a covenantal relationship, and marriage is not negotiable for separation.
The Pharisees were devious in raising their follow up question. _(7) They said to Him, "Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?"_ Moses never commanded them to divorce. Moses’s instruction is given in _Deuteronomy 24:1-4_. Moses’s warning and command is based on the circumstances prevailing, where divorce was already common.
What does that tell us? It tells us how the devil has caused a serious damage to marriage, which is God’s, to make divorce common and the covenantal relationship between husband and wife, a rarity. _(8) He said to them, "Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. (9) And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery."_
Even as the Lord responds to their scheming question, He takes them back to the covenantal relationship of marriage, as put in place by God.
We are seeing divorce becoming quite common in our own families. Does that make divorce acceptable? Does it lower God’s ways?
No. We must repent and come back to the ways of God. God is merciful to us but that does not mean that God has reduced His place for marriage as His institution, which demonstrates His covenantal marriage love relationship with the church.
*Thought to ponder*
```Are we willing to be cast upon God to bring us back to His ways?```