MATTHEW 19
It’s a funny thing that in First Century Judea the hot topic was ‘Divorce’, when today it is more likely to be ‘Marriage’! The Pharisees were engaged in debate about whether a person could legitimately get divorced for just about any reason, or only in the case of sexual immorality by one of the parties. This was literally known as the “Any and Every Reason” debate. Undoubtedly, the Pharisees were naturally curious what this perceptive young rabbi thought – given that he had such influence over the people and seemed to have a hot-line to God! Partly out of curiosity, and partly to test him and perhaps even to ‘trip him up’, they posed their ‘topical’ question to him in public.
Jesus did not answer it directly at first, but began by defining what true marriage is, by going back to first principles and explaining what God had first created it to be. “It is not good for man to be alone” – the first temporary fault that the Lord had found with his newly created order; “…so I will make a helper suitable for him” (Genesis 2:18). Marriage is, first and foremost, God’s best cure for loneliness through deep companionship and sexual union. “For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh” – Jesus is again quoting Genesis Chapter Two and affirming that this is all about marriage and its legitimate sexual relationship. (1 Corinthians 6:16 confirms that the actual phrase: “One flesh” describes the effect of the sexual act).
The other rather topical point is the context in which Jesus was speaking: “At the beginning, the Creator made them male and female… and said ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother…’” etc. Therefore, marriage was designed for this unique covenant of companionship between a man and a woman and was never intended to be a same-sex relationship of the so-called ‘gay marriage’ genre. It must be said that Jesus never even contemplated the existence of ‘gay marriage’, and he certainly did not approve it anywhere in the Bible.
In the ‘Divorce’ debate, he sided with the stricter interpretation, of ‘…only on the grounds of sexual sin’. Any other basis for divorce would lead those who remarried to commit adultery against their previous spouses. It also confirms that divorce in the case of sexual sin does permit re-marriage. One more exception was introduced by the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul’s writings in 1 Corinthians 7, which was that remarriage is permitted after a divorce occasioned by your previous spouse deserting you against your will.
The final part of Matthew 19 looks at the Rich Young Ruler. He wanted eternal life but wasn’t prepared to pay the price – literally in his case! Jesus quoted half the commandments, plus the ‘catch-all’ command to ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’. In reality these are not given in order to be saved, but to prove that one is saved. The rich man claimed that he had followed them to the letter. Then Jesus put his finger on the real weakness in the man’s character – greed and covetousness – which was the previously unmentioned Commandment Number Ten.
The only solution was to give away most of his great wealth and to follow Jesus. Generous giving is God’s cure for materialism – it cleanses our soul of it. The man refused, thereby refusing to make Jesus his Lord, and sadly missing out on salvation. It is not that every one of us needs to impoverish ourselves to get saved, but just that we need to repent of everything that is a barrier to our relationship with God and we need to make Jesus the ‘Boss’ of our lives. The Rich Young Ruler knew exactly what Jesus was getting at, and he made a calculated decision – but the wrong one! The disciples, on the other hand, had made the correct one. There is great reward, both here on earth and later in the Age to Come, for those who put Christ first in their lives.
Is there any ‘sin barrier’ in our lives?
JOB 8, 9, and 10
Bildad the Shuhite enters the debate rather harshly by claiming that Job is obviously getting his just deserts. Job 8:3-4 NIV Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right? [4] When your children sinned against him, he gave them over to the penalty of their sin. He was clearly upset that Job was apparently claiming innocence. He began with the view that God could not be unjust and so would not punish an innocent man; therefore Job could not be innocent and was getting what he deserved. Of course, Bildad overlooks that fact that there may be other reasons that people suffer, other than their sins. He certainly lacked compassion and empathy in his debates with Job!
Ironically, he is spot-on when he predicts: Job 8:7 NIV Your beginnings will seem humble, so prosperous will your future be. As we know from the final chapter of Job, Job’s future is indeed even more prosperous once the Lord restores him after his ‘test’ is over; but not for the reasons that Bildad asserts.
Job’s response is to point out that even though he might be blameless (which, interestingly, is the exact description that the Lord uses of Job to Satan!), it is still impossible to confront God to prove it. Job is now beyond caring whether he lives or dies, but he is incensed that his friends – who know him so well – insist on labelling him as wicked, just so that they can prove their philosophies consistent with the facts. Job makes the case that both the wicked and the righteous eventually perish and die, in any case. In his heart of hearts, Job is crying out for a mediator, for someone who can stand before God on his behalf and put forward Job’s case in heaven’s courtroom.
Inevitably, pity and depression swamp Job and he starts to declare that he has lost the will to live and wishes he had never been born. He blames the Lord for bringing him out into this world, only to suffer pain and misery.
The Big Picture 