Kingdom Divorce

Introduction

Let me ask you three questions to consider:

Is it illegal for a 16-year-old to drink & Drive?

Is it illegal for a 16-year-old to drink as long as he or she is not driving?

Should it continue to be illegal for a 16-year old to drink?

My follow up statement is this; if we don’t allow a 16-year old to drink, then they will die of thirst. The question is inherently cultural by nature. I ask, “is it illegal to drink and drive?” and you hear, “is it illegal to drink an alcoholic beverage and drive a car.

As we approach Matthew, or any text of Scripture, we must ascertain what the original readers would have understood and thought about as a result of what they were hearing or reading, not what we think about. If someone in two thousand years reads a transcript of the first part of this sermon, they might wonder what you have against 16 year olds drinking a cup of water. Let’s see if we can understand what Jesus was addressing what he taught the following: Let’s stand for the reading of God’s Word

 Matthew 5:31–32 “31 “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”

Before we dive into this passage, let’s go back and consider some ideas:

What is marriage?

a contract: where valuable goods are exchanged and there is an upside and a downside with witnesses whose job it is to help the parties keep the contract, and will help in determining condemnation is the contract is broken.

The date of P(papyrus) Yadin 10 has not been preserved, but the document must have been written between AD 124, when Babatha is attested for the first time as the mother of an orphan (P.Yadin 12–13), and AD 12

“You will be my wife according to the law of Moses and the Judaeans and I will feed you and clothe you and I will bring you into my house ... together with the due amount of your food and your clothes and your bed.

—P. Yadin 10

a covenant: God is now the witness of the contract, and he will be the one helping to enforce the terms

What is divorce?

Divorce is always the result of sin, or is itself the sin

 Hillelites and Shammaites

Around Jesus’ time, the rabbi Hillel believed that the statement “if she finds no favor in his eyes” allowed men to divorce their wives for practically any reason. In contrast,

Rabbi Shammai argued that the phrase “because he has found some indecency in her”

Any Cause Divorce

Deuteronomy 24:1 “1 “When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because 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 of his house, and she departs out of his house,”

1 Corinthians 7:10–11 “10 To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband 11 (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.”

Takeaway: Marriage was created by God

Takeaway: God Hates Divorce

Takeaway: Marriage is intended for as long as both shall live

Takeaway: There is forgiveness in Jesus for any sin, including divorce where you’re at fault, sexual immorality, and anger.