June 3, 2024
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Matthew? Here’s today’s reading:
Matthew 19 (NIV)
Divorce
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?”……Continue Reading
Once again in the Pharisees attempts to trip up Jesus, He sets them straight about priorities of heart and mind, faith and the law. Jesus reminded the Pharisees that marriage is spiritually binding before God and not just a social contract. God has joined two in marriage and therfore He expects man to honor that rather than follow a marriage rule book. We have come so far away as a people from looking at marriage with the significance it should have and either we throw it away so easily or don’t enter into it at all anymore viewing it as antiquated and too much work.
And as Jesus goes on to show us in the second part of the chapter it is that selfish part of us that keeps us from the true blessings of God. The need for easy, fast, and what makes us happy in the moment like money, power, and sexual gratification outside of the way God intended are constant roadblocks for us to really deepen our relationship with Him and keeping us from where He really wants us to be.
Verse 10 is telling…the disciples hear Jesus’s teaching on divorce and decide…”well, if that’s the case (meaning, I can’t just divorce my wife for any reason), then it’s better that a man not get married.”
The disciples were still learning…still very much influenced by the world of sin around them…the social constructs accepted in that day…definitions of marriage, acceptable practices, established stereotypes, etc. In their comment, they are actually telling God, “We don’t like your design for marriage…your standard is too high. So, it’s better that men don’t get married because who could imagine that a marriage could actually be good under the conditions that God has set forth?”
Jesus makes it clear why He lays out the only acceptable justification for divorce…it is because in marriage, God has joined two people together into one. The marriage is God’s work, creation, and action, and no person should be allowed to destroy it.
But sexual immorality has the potential to destroy that union. By joining ourselves to someone else, either in the flesh or in the mind (Matt 5:28), we are breaking that union with the one that God has joined us to, and pain, betrayal, and destruction can follow. God is of course merciful and can heal a marriage ravaged by betrayal…but Jesus here allows for a divorce to be granted, because if the betrayer does not come to repentance, the betrayed spouse ought not continue to suffer under that person’s sinful behavior.
Jesus then goes on to say that yes, some should not marry…but there are only a select few. Why? Because human sexuality is incredibly powerful…by God’s design. Indeed, for someone to choose to be a eunuch for the sake of the kingdom of heaven would take Holy Spirit empowered self-control and absolute reliance on God. And as God teaches later through Paul in 1 Cor 7:9, if people cannot control their passions and live sexually pure lives, they had better get married! But God does not give marriage simply as a way for people to have an outlet for their sexual energies…no…Ephesians 5:32 makes it clear…the marital union is to be a representation of the relationship between Christ and His Church.
Marriage is so much more than what the world has decided it is.
Matthew 18
Matthew 19
Children are special in God`s sight. Jesus warns His disciples and others not to prevent them from coming to Him. We need to encourage them and teach about Jesus. But not only about Him, but about the foundation of creation, sin, marriage, male and female, six days of creation, and rest on the seventh day, confusion of languages, the flood, etc. The humanistic religion which is tied into evolution teach man`s words without God in the picture. It is teaching contrary to what we find in the Bible. Basically it is man`s word against God`s word. Science keeps affirming the Bible. Both views come with assumptions but I would rather go with God who was there at the beginning of our history than go with mankind who only guess what it was like. Even the worldwide flood is supported by evidence. They are finding in fossils proof of a worldwide flood. Consider that they are finding ligaments that couldn`t last for more than a few thousand years. Also finding blood in many of these fossils. The ligaments also stretch. They are finding dinosaur fossils with cancer, arthritis, etc. They are finding evidence of fish in the process of eating another fish. And so much more. We need to be teaching our children that dinosaurs lived alongside humans. They were both created on the six day, while birds and all other winged creatures were created on day five. The evidence is all there. We just need to take our blinders off and listen to God and what He says in HIS WORD. Men lie and don`t want to acknowledge the True and Living God. One of the main reasons that young people leave the church is because they believe that all that they hear in the Old Testament are just stories and not based on fact. They think that stories are just myths while in school they are taught the lie of evolution. Anyways I didn`t mean to get on my soap box but we need to be teaching our children what is right. God bless.
Matthew 19
We need to rightly divide the whole word of God. For all scripture is inspired by God. That would also include Gen. chapters 1-11. 2 Timothy 3:16,17. 2 Timothhy 2:15. Jesus in the last section addresses the rich young ruler that no one is good. Only God is good. Jesus using the ten commandments is showing him that we are all guilty sinners and no one is good. No person can save themselves by their works. It is a free gift to us and all we have to do is call on His name. { Jesus}. Jesus being the Son of God is the only ONE that could pay for our sins for He was the perfect Lamb of God. We are unworthy to be His. Titus 3:5.
God wants us to have a strong faith in Him and His son Jesus Christ, if however He is revealed in the flesh, then we would not need faith since we would know through seeing that He exists, believing without seeing but knowing in our heart and mind through faith that grows , that’s what God wants for us
”They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?” 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. 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.” His disciples said to Him, “If such is the case of the man with his wife, it is better not to marry.” But He said to them, “All cannot accept this saying, but only those to whom it has been given: For there are eunuchs who were born thus from their mother’s womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He who is able to accept it, let him accept it.”“
Matthew 19:7-12 NKJV
What Jesus tells the disciples is counter cultural for that time. I find it ironic that many women now look at the marriage rolls laid out in scripture, and not willing to “submit” decide it’s better not to marry. And in our culture that slanders masculinity, it’s no wonder that marriage is declining. It is interesting that Jesus says “he who is able to accept it, let him accept it.” Life is complicated, people are complicated. Kind of like Jesus having Peter pay His taxes – this is too complicated, let’s not offend and just pay them.
It is what it is.
Such a contrast between the rich young ruler and the apostles. I hadn’t noticed this dichotomy before. Jesus tells the rich young rulers to do what the apostles are doing. Leave your earthly possessions and follow me. The RYR walks away sad.
The apostles have left all to follow Jesus. They will be rewarded.
Matthew 19
Jesus talks about marriage that we become one with our spouses.
Jesus says do not hinder the children because the kingdom of Heaven belongs to them.
Jesus says if you want to enter heaven obey the 10 commandments. The rich man has done this but Jesus tells him to sell all and give to the poor. Then follow me. Only then will you have treasures in Heaven. The example of the camel and eye of needle. He says with God all things are possible! He told his disciples they will sit on 12 thrones and judge 12 tribes of Israel. Anyone that has left their old life behind will inherit eternal life! Those that are 1st will be last. I think it talks about coming to Christ even in later years could be 1st as opposed to those who found God early in life and followed the commandments could be last
How much our world needs God’s perspective on marriage and His power and guidance to make it work. God intends for marriage to be until death do they part, and yet the evil of men’s hearts want a quick out if things get uncomfortable or hard. Even the disciples show the condition of the heart that occurs when a throw away marriage philosophy is part of society….well it’s better to not be tied to long term commitment! But God knows the beauty that comes to a couple and future generations when the bond and commitment of marriage is maintained! And how much is broken when it is not! That is why God hates divorce, because all who suffer in its wake. And there are 2 other societal conventions that are addressed in this chapter. One is that children were considered 2nd class citizens. Jesus shares that there is far more that we can learn from them than some might think. They are models of faith and (usually) obedience. The other societal convention is that rich people were blessed by God and therefore God must be good with them. That is why the disciples are astonished when Jesus says it is hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom. And yet the rich young ruler recognized something was off, or he is just looking to show off his obedience and right standing with God. But whatever the young man thought, Jesus sets him straight. Once you think works make you right with God, let’s point out the work that is hard to do and let’s see how righteous you can be on your own. Yes salvation is impossible for man, but very possible with God. His provision for it was staring them in the face… we can only be made right by the work that Jesus does on the cross, not by any work that we do!
Matthew 19
Matthew 19
God hates divorce Malachi 2:16
Hard hearts are the reason for it.
4 “Haven’t you read,”he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ 5and 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’?6So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
7“Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?”
8Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning.9I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”