Matthew 19:1-12

Matthew 19:3 ESV

And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?”

Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?

They are testing Jesus with this question. What’s the test?

The Law of Moses, is Jesus going to disregard the Law given by Moses here as well (ie Sabbath, ceremonial washing, purity or cleanness laws lepers).

Where does Jesus go to begin the discussion on divorce? & 2, Man’s pre-fall existence, the way God had intended.

The Laws of Moses are not’s perfect ideal for mankind. They are a way to accomplish the lesser of two evils.

His perfect ideal is &2, man created in God’s image to be fruitful and multiply, cultivate and fill the earth, for man to be joined to his wife, two become one, bring forth image bearers to fill the earth, naked and unashamed.

That man (homo sapiens), male and female, husband and wife, would leave their mother and father and be joined to their spouse.

The fall changed all that, relationally between homo sapiens and God and between man and woman. A rift now exists, selfishness, pride, shame, sin, twisted desire, distorted purpose, etc.

What is the meaning or purpose of ones life as we believe it to be today? To be good to one another, to be happy and to find fulfillment.

The good to one another is a start, the other two are also not ultimately wrong, but sought after in the wrong places. They were never meant to be objective goals, but rather bi-products of a life lived well and right in regard to God and His design.

Matthew 22:36-

Matthew 22:36–40 ESV

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

The heart-the sum total of all a human is encompassing and including their mind, soul and strength

This was the pre-fall existence and in that mankind was happy, fulfilled, and good to one-another.

In we see the enemy convince Adam and Eve that they are not fulfilled, not satisfied, missing out, therefore not happy, God is keeping them down and holding out on them, there’s more to life and they want it, this act or rebellion and disobedience will actually ultimately fulfill them, make them happy. Instead we see the opposite happen, they realize they are naked, fear, betrayal, blame

(The satan doesn’t ask for Eve to bow down and worship it, he is just trying to shift Eve’s focus off of God and His will and onto herself and her will.)

Genesis 3:1–7 ESV

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

Genesis 3:1-

eyes—in Hebrew a word that means sin, iniquity, an act or state contrary to the will of God

delight—longing, desire, a want for something for the pleasure it brings

desired—covet, lust, strongly desire another’s possessions

Naked-relates to shame, pre-fall they had no concept of shame, of inadequacy, of being different in a bad way, they were complementary and now are competitive, they were together and now are apart and so they sew fig leaves to cover what it is that is drastically different about them, not bad, just different.

Genesis 3:13 ESV

Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Genesis 3:

The serpent deceived me-the serpent tricked me, what he said wasn’t true. The three effects of the lie

They did die, relationally with God, with themselves, and in life and also had to witness death, the killing of a lamb to cover them and shed its blood for forgiveness.

They were not like God in this regard, they were created to be “like God” they didn’t need to do anything.

They were not like God because they performed evil and that’s how they knew it.

Man had to be driven out of the Garden, out of God’s presence, out of the home and environment created for them, pushed into separation and a toilsome and burdensome existence. God had to guard the way back because I’m sure, with a rebellious nature now, man would try to go back.

Fractured existence, broken, within one human descendent murder would be committed, the knowledge of good and evil.

The Bi-product of a fractured relationship with each other and with God. These are descriptions, not prescriptions or curses

Biblically- a woman’s greatest fulfillment will come as a wife and a mother, because she is now broken by sin and her relationship with Adam is broken, her consequences will be

Mother—pain in child birth multiplied—a consequence of life outside the garden, no pain, no suffering, no tears and now she will experience pain and suffering and tears in child birth

Wife—in original created design Adam and Eve were to co-rule as equals, now Adam will be over Eve and she will want and desire to overrule and dominate him.

Biblically a man’s greatest fulfillment will come as a worker.

Separated from God and outside the garden Adam’s labor will come with pain and suffering, much toil and frustration, and he will be identified with the success or failure of his labors.

Man had to be driven out of the Garden, out of God’s presence, out of the home and environment created for them, pushed into separation and a toilsome and burdensome existence. God had to guard the way back because I’m sure, with a rebellious nature now, man would try to go back.

Fractured existence, broken, within one human descendent murder would be committed, the knowledge of good and evil.

How quickly man has fallen from the original intended existence for man and woman and what marriage could’ve looked like.

By the time God pulls Israel from Egypt, polygamy and divorce are rampant.

Deuteronomy 24:1 ESV

“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,

Deuteronomy 24:1

No favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her

Man was in control of divorce

For any reason of unpleasentness

For finding indecency-Jesus defines this in verse 9, sexual immorality, breaks the marriage bond, severs the covenant

Any of the other reasons of a wife not finding favor in her husbands eyes are unacceptable

This is not about a wife trapped in abusive relationships.

Who is Jesus talking to and who is he defending here?