The Ten Commandments Part 8

Exo 20:14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Deu 5:18 Neither shalt thou commit adultery.

This commandment is a forbidding of not only adultery proper, but all uncleanness and immorality in general.

God instituted marriage in the garden of Eden, it was one man and one woman for life. The fall caused not only a break and enstrangement in the relationship with God, but also with each other. Adam’s “bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh”, became “that woman You gave me…” The change of the nature within was mirrored by the change of nature without. Thorns and briars were first introduced. In High School Biology I remember learning that thorns are branches that grow from mutated branch nodes. Unlike normal branches that branch out and bear leaves, thorns fold inward. In other words a thorn is a self-centered branch, and shows us something of the change in our own heart that happened as part of the fall. Plants began to produce thorns to keep themselves from being devoured, people began to put themselves first. “Looking out for number one” was introduced. This attitude was and is the bane of marriage.

Once this attitude is set in it was not long before it brought forth its first evil fruit, polygamy (Gen. 4:19). While the Mosaic law never forbade polygamy, it did seek to mitigate all its evils (Passing over the firstborn of the first wife, neglecting her, marrying sisters, etc…). If the life of Jacob shows us anything, it shows us the chaos that is created by polygamy in the home. When sins are prevalent in our culture and society we can be easily influenced, and not even see how far short we fall of God’s intentions. When Jacob was in danger of his life, he sent his wives and children, in reverse order of importance to him, out in front, with himself at the back so that he could escape. This is hardly the action of a good husband or father. It does not take a genius to see that this might have something to do with the violent hatred that some of the other children had for Joseph, who was his father’s favorite. The fact that God did not give up on Jacob in spite of his serious shortcomings in his homelife should encourage everyone that God can use even our own mistakes and the difficulties they create to perfect us if we turn to Him.

By the time of the return from Babylon, the Jews had as a whole realized that polygamy was not ideal and that God’s ideal was one man and one wife. However fallen man trying to look out for himself, changed that in effect to “one wife at a time.” Divorce like polygamy was not forbidden in the Mosaic law but it’s evils were lessened. Apparently it was not a common occurrence in the earlier Old Testament times, but became a great destroyer of family life by the time of Malachi. He explains how God views it (Mal. 2:10-16). In spite of what Malachi prophesied divorce continued to be very common up to the days of Christ some 400 years later. Asked His opinion He stated it clearly and expressly, that God joined man and woman in marriage therefore man could not dissolve the marriage (Matt. 19:3-10). God is the only one who can dissolve the marriage and He does that by death. It is my conviction that the exception clause refers to fornication proper during the engagement period in Jewish custom (Eg. Matt.1). In the second century, while the church apparently did allow divorce for immorality, they did not allow remarriage. A divorced person was to remain single or be reconciled (Hermas Book 2 Chap. 1). While I would not agree with that position, it does show what was believed by the church concerning remarriage at a very early date.

When we consider the situation that the early Church experienced as compared to the Church today, we realize that they are very similar. The people of God (then the Jews, now the Church) were better than the surrounding nations in that they did not kill unwanted babies (Exposure then, now abortion) or in all the flagrant immorality, yet there was a high rate of divorce even among God’s people. Jesus came to institute the New Covenant, which has the power not only to remit sin, but to break its power. In the immoral world we live in today it is good to remember the apostle Paul’s words to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 6:9-11). First he tells us in no uncertain terms that immoral people will not get into heaven. Then he adds some of the most comforting words ever written, the beauty of the past tense, “Such WERE some of you…” Having told them that no fornicator, adulterer, homosexual, etc… shall inherit the kingdom of God, he then shows that there may be many former fornicators, former adulterers, and former homosexuals in heaven. It is not sin that keeps us from heaven, but unwillingness to turn from it. God is willing to meet us in our sin and rebellion and change us if we are willing to forsake our sin. God often will use trouble and calamity to make us willing to repent even as He did with King David. If we repent, God will begin to restore us. David knew God as “the lifter of His head” (Psa. 3:3). When he could only hangs his head in shame of the remembrance of what he had done and could not undo, God raised his head and reminded him, “You are not the same man who did that, I have changed you, and I will continue to change you…” 1 Kings 1:1-4 shows us a different David from 2 Samuel 11, it is a wiser David, a David that has learned his lesson and been changed. If we have been involved in a particular sin and come out of it, God may at times bring us into situations that would have been tempting before, He does this not for His sake, because He already knows we have been changed. Instead He does it for our sake and the sake of others around us so that we can see the work God has done and thank Him that we are different. Praise God!