For Winter - Divorce & Ministry (1)

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(continued from part 1)

In the Old Testement, divorce is found routinely. Jesus brings a sober
light to bear on the customs and attitudes of the people. In Mark 10
He restores the focus of the meaning and extreem importance of
marriage:

 5  And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your
heart he wrote you this precept.
 6  But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and
female.  For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and
cleave to his wife;
 8  And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain,
but one flesh.
 9  What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

Moses wrote the precent, "for the hardness of your heart". The law was
amended so as to provide for continued life and ongoing opportunity
when two people of diverse natures found it impossible to live
together. There were circumstances which were delineated for the
"putting away" of a marriage partner. This was NOT desirable. These
were most grevious in the mind of God, but God determined that man was
to live on even though his imperfection made it impossible to live as
a good husband or wife.

Here is the text from Deut 24:
 1 ¶ When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to
pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some
uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and
give [it] in her hand, and send her out of his house.
 2  And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be
another man's [wife].
 3  And [if] the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of
divorcement, and giveth [it] in her hand, and sendeth her out of his
house; or if the latter husband die, which took her [to be] his wife;
 4  Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to
be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that [is] abomination
before the LORD: and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the
LORD thy God giveth thee [for] an inheritance.

The criteria allowing divorce? "uncleaness". Interpret this?
"Nakedness, shame, nudity ... being uncovered" We know that spiritual
adultery uncovers us from the protection and administration of the
Head of the Church, Zion's Righteous Governor.

We could return to Jesus to interpret it, from the "except for" clause
of Matt 19:9.

The word for divorce in the OT:

      03772 karath {kaw-rath'}
      a primitive root; TWOT - 1048; v
      
      AV - cut off 145, make 85, cut down 23, cut 9, fail 6, destroy 4
           want 3, covenanted 2, hew 2, misc 9; 288
      
 1) to cut, cut off, cut down, cut off a body part, cut out,
eliminate,
         kill, cut a covenant
         1a) (Qal)
             1a1) to cut off
                  1a1a) to cut off a body part, behead
             1a2) to cut down
             1a3) to hew
             1a4) to cut or make a covenant
         1b) (Niphal)
             1b1) to be cut off
             1b2) to be cut down
             1b3) to be chewed
             1b4) to be cut off, fail
         1c) (Pual)
             1c1) to be cut off
             1c2) to be cut down
         1d) (Hiphil)
             1d1) to cut off
             1d2) to cut off, destroy
             1d3) to cut down, destroy
             1d4) to take away
             1d5) to permit to perish
         1e) (Hophal) cut off

The DIVORCE was the same word used to denote the condition of a man or
woman with respect to the faithful of the nation of Israel who went
whoring after wizards, or who failed to bring the sacrifice to the
alter of sacrifce at the tabernacle. In other words, it means "to
suspend the covenant". 

We Apostolics do not believe that a person can enter into the gates of
salvation, and, abiding there, remain while living in sin. We believe
he will be "cut off", or "divorced" from the fellowship of the Spirit.

Israel extended the circumstances in which the destruction of the
covenant was allowed to absurd limits. Today, we have "irreconcilable
differences". It could be nothing more than, "I don't like you
anymore". Perhaps the wife could not bear a son. Perhaps he was
unhappy with the appearance of adultery. Men would put away wives for
any reason at all. Like the mentality which Jesus cited saying ...	

"Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition,
which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye." - Mr 7:13 

... the profound nature of marriage was ignored by people making a
place for their own convenience.

But knowing that the marriage covenant is the reflection of the
covenant of Christ and his church, that is the New Testement Salvation
covenant consider the reason for the "execept clause". Fornication and
adultery DESTROY the covenant of marriage, as IDOL WORSHIP does
destroy the relationship of God and people who had once known him in
faith. There is no marriage after scriptural divorce, and more than
there is salvation after wanton and unrepentant sin.

The metaphor of divorce carried through the Old Testement concerning
backsliding Israel is compelling. See God cry, "Where is the bill of
your mother's (historic Israel's) divorcement?"

Isa 50:1 Thus saith the LORD, Where [is] the bill of your mother's
divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors [is it] to
whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold
yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.

God says plainly, I DID NOT GIVE SUCH A BILL! His meaning? You are
still MINE. The fruit of bitterness and the bondage which you
experience is not my fault because I have kept you.

Jesus carries this display of God's heart toward that which he
purchases into the New Testement, and recombines it with the antetype
of the marriage coventant. Most christian people feel strongly that a
wronged party should follow God's example, and pray for the
restoration of the marriage. But, notice Deut 24:4. Here it is clear
that the former husband sins in taking back the one he is separated
>from after she has been joined to another. If there were a marriage
intact, this would be a husband and wife and a husband could not sin
by loving his wife.

In the end, divorce is not ideal under any circumstances, but it is
the result of fornication and adultery.  However, a marriage broken by
divorce (for th reasons listed in Matt 19:9) is not a fact to cite
with 1 Tim 3, since it was broken by the only sin which could break
it, a death blow to the covenant of marriage.

While we close this subject, we must deal with one more thing.

This raises the question, "cannot Christian people recover after the
sad sin of adultery, or must there be divorce?". In this, we follow
God's example in dealing with Israel's remnant and Jesus admonition
regarding forgiveness. A sin of adultery is a sin against God and
offended spouse. If the offended spouse will forgive, so will God.

However, the sinful actions associated with broken marriages discredit
the ministry, and cannot be tolerated in the high calling of public
ministry. Yet, this like other sins are washed away in repentance and
legally remitted by the name of Jesus in baptism. AS a man in Christ
is a new creature (2 Cor 5:17), and judgement begins at the house of
God, the sins which attributed to divorce (for sin ALWAYS attributes
when God's perfect pattern is absent from life) are not considered by
God or man in evaluating a call to the ministry, when they occured
before the first experience of the truth.

Notice that I have reposted this for interested partices, since I have
become aware of your practice of distributing private email bringing
me into question on this account.

May the Lord Bless you, and help you to achieve His will for your
life.


-- http://www.pcnet.com/~mbasset/life.htm
The Whole Gospel to the Whole World    -   Life Tabernacle UPC
"Preaching the Kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ,
with all confidence, no man forbidding ... " - Acts 28:31