BIBLE
DIGEST - Number 53 May
1995
DIVORCE AND A JUST MAN
By Allon Maxwell
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“When Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before
they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit; and her
husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved
to divorce her quietly.” (Matthew 1:18-19) Under the law
of Moses a new wife found guilty of fornication, (premarital sex with another
man), was condemned to death by stoning. (Deuteronomy
22:13-21) On the face of
it, Joseph's refusal to inflict this penalty on Mary was a breach of the Law.
He was refusing to “purge the evil from the midst of the people”.
(Deuteronomy 22:21) However Matthew
tells us that Joseph's unwillingness to put Mary to the public shame of a
trial (and its awful penalty), was the action of a just man. How could this be?
How is it possible that a man who refuses to implement the demands of the
Law, can be called “just”? The answer
lies, of course, with Jesus. When faced with temptation, men must not live by
the Devil's subtle and selective and inadequate use of
Scripture. (Matthew 4:4) Instead, men
must live by every word from the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:4) Joseph was not
breaking the Law of Moses, any more than Jesus was when He refused to condemn
that woman taken in adultery but gave her another chance. “Go and do
not sin again”. (John
8:11) The truth is
that Joseph had found another word from the mouth of God about the sin
of fornication, which was far more merciful than stoning, and much more to
the taste of a just man. The penalty did
not have to be inflicted! God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. God
would much prefer that the wicked should turn from their ways and live. That provision
was enshrined in the Law of Moses. Joseph found it
there. So too, later, did Jesus. He kept the Law
perfectly. And He also found the provision for our forgiveness there, when He
made Himself the sacrifice for our sins. That woman
taken in adultery, and we also, have been saved from a judgement which would
have exposed us to public shame, and condemnation, and death for our sins.
(and Mary was saved from an undeserved open disgrace). What other
word from the mouth of God did Joseph find, to justify his proposal to
deal with Mary without public shame, and yet ..... “justly”? The answer lies
in Deuteronomy 24:1, where Moses
made provision for divorce of a woman in whom a husband finds “some
indecency”. The hard
hearted Jews argued much about the meaning of “indecency”, using it at will
to divorce for all sorts of reasons which ignored another word from
the mouth of God. Jesus quoted that
other word ..... from Genesis 2:24,
..... to conclude that, “What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder”.
(Matthew 19:6). At the same
time Jesus also concluded that the “indecency” of Deuteronomy 24:1 was limited to “fornication”
alone. (Matthew 19:9). Divorce and
remarriage for any other reason, is the same as committing adultery in other
more obvious ways. Of course Deuteronomy 22:21 does call for stoning in the case
of “fornication”. But the other merciful word from the mouth of God,
about the indecency of fornication, is that of Deuteronomy
24:1. That is the
operative word from God, for just men like Joseph, ..... and Jesus, .....
and us also! As well as
dealing mercifully and justly with the fornicator, that same word from God
also rejects all other grounds of divorce! Carnal men (and
women) with ulterior motives, still use what Moses said, ..... subtly,
selectively, and inadequately, ..... to take away the meaning of
the words of Jesus about divorce , in order to condone what Jesus calls
adultery. All such are in
mortal danger of the consequences of another word from the mouth of God. “Everyone who hears these words of mine and
does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the
sand”. Matthew 7:26. |