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Ezra 10:1-8 - God Hates Divorce · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio.
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  Speaker 2: Hi there, faithful listeners, Welcome to the Bible Explain to
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  Speaker 2: podcast on this absolutely lovely, lovely Monday morning. Man, I
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  Speaker 2: cannot complain about the weather these past couple weeks. It
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  Speaker 2: has been so beautiful. The sun has been out, there's
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  Speaker 2: been like hardly any clouds. The trees are so green,
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  Speaker 2: everything is beautiful. There's not a lot of humidity. Man,
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  Speaker 2: it has been just a gorgeous couple weeks and I
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  Speaker 2: am so so excited for it. So contact me and
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  Speaker 2: tell me what the weather is like where you live.
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  Speaker 2: I love to hear about all of that. You can
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  Speaker 2: also contact me with a prayer request. I do read
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  Speaker 2: all of my emails, and I will write you down
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  Speaker 2: in my prayer journal and I will pray for you
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  Speaker 2: for the week. But, faithful listeners, today we're going to
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  Speaker 2: be discussing a really weird portion of Ezra. You know,
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  Speaker 2: the entire book felt pretty positive until now, until now,
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  Speaker 2: and then it gets real dark very quickly.
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  Speaker 1: It escalated very fast.
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  Speaker 2: So we're gonna talk that right after this first message
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  Speaker 2: from a sponsor. Okay, hopefully you had some time to
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  Speaker 2: grab your Bible out of the version that you prefer,
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  Speaker 2: but I will be reading from the World English Bible today,
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  Speaker 2: which is the version I always read from the web
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  Speaker 2: because it is a public domain version of scripture, so
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  Speaker 2: I won't get in trouble if I use it. The
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  Speaker 2: web is really funny. If you go to their website,
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  Speaker 2: they're very snarky. They actually say, we believe the Bible
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  Speaker 2: should be free for everyone, and that is why we
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  Speaker 2: made the web version. So I really do like the
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  Speaker 2: web and also the mission behind it as well, so
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  Speaker 2: that is why I use the web. But of course
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  Speaker 2: you can feel free to read the version of the
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  Speaker 2: Bible that you prefer. This morning, Let's go ahead and
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  Speaker 2: read Ezra ten one through eight. Grab your delicious cup
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  Speaker 2: of coffee or cup of tea this morning to share
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  Speaker 2: with me as we read this portion together. Now while
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  Speaker 2: as we're prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself
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  Speaker 2: down before God's house, there was gathered together to him
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  Speaker 2: out of Israel, a very great assembly of men and
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  Speaker 2: women and children. For the people wept very bitterly. Shaikania,
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  Speaker 2: the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam,
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  Speaker 2: answered Ezra, we have trespassed against our God and have
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  Speaker 2: married foreign women of the peoples of the land. Yet
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  Speaker 2: now there is hope for Israel concerning this thing. Now, therefore,
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  Speaker 2: let's make a covenant with our God to put away
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  Speaker 2: all the wives and those who are born of them,
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  Speaker 2: according to the counsel of my Lord, and of those
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  Speaker 2: who tremble at the commandment of our God. Let it
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  Speaker 2: be done according to the law. Arise, for the matter
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  Speaker 2: belongs to you, and we are with you. Be courageous
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  Speaker 2: and do it. Then Ezra arose and made the chiefs
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  Speaker 2: of the priests, the Levites, and all Israel to swear
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  Speaker 2: that they would do according to this word. So they swore.
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  Speaker 2: Then Ezra rose up from before God's house and went
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  Speaker 2: into the room of Jehoahan, the son of Eliasheb. When
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  Speaker 2: he came there, he didn't eat bread or drink water,
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  Speaker 2: for he mourned because of the trespass of the exiles.
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  Speaker 2: They made a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all
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  Speaker 2: the children of the captivity, that they should gather themselves
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  Speaker 2: together to Jerusalem, and whoever didn't come within three days,
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  Speaker 2: according to the count until of the princes and the elders,
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  Speaker 2: all his possessions would be forfeited, and he himself separated
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  Speaker 2: from the assembly of the Captivity. So you can see
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  Speaker 2: here that Israel has a pretty big problem, the problem
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  Speaker 2: being what we talked about last week, which was that
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  Speaker 2: the Israelites were marrying into pagan families and also giving
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  Speaker 2: their children into pagan families and taking pagan husbands and
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  Speaker 2: wives for themselves. So there's a lot of idolatry going
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  Speaker 2: on in Israel once again. And this was a problem
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  Speaker 2: because God told the Israelite nation to be holy to Him,
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  Speaker 2: and we talked about how this has nothing to do
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  Speaker 2: with ethnicity or race. It had everything to do with paganism.
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  Speaker 2: And by the way, I say the word pagan a
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  Speaker 2: lot on the Bible explained, and I want to let
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  Speaker 2: you guys know that I in no way mean that
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  Speaker 2: as a slur. Biblically, the definition of pagan is just
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  Speaker 2: somebody who does not worship Yahweh essentially, so anybody that
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  Speaker 2: worships a god other than Yahweh biblically is a pagan.
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  Speaker 2: So I'm not saying it as a slur, And I
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  Speaker 2: just want to clarify that for you guys, because I
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  Speaker 2: don't think I've ever clarified that. I use the word
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  Speaker 2: all the time and never told you guys why I
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  Speaker 2: actually use it. But yeah, So the Israelites were not
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  Speaker 2: supposed to intermingle with the Pagans of the region because
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  Speaker 2: of the main reason that God wanted his people to
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  Speaker 2: be spiritually healthy, and worshiping the other idols was not
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  Speaker 2: a spiritually healthy practice. It was inherently unspiritual and unhealthy
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  Speaker 2: for these nations because idolatry comes down to one thing.
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  Speaker 2: I've talked about this before on the podcast, and I'm
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  Speaker 2: not really going to go into this for very long,
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  Speaker 2: but idolatry comes down to innate selfishness. Because you are
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  Speaker 2: making up the God that you want to worship. You're saying, oh,
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  Speaker 2: that this God wants this, so we're going to give
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  Speaker 2: it that so that we can gain all this stuff
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  Speaker 2: in return. So idolatry comes down to selfishness and pride,
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  Speaker 2: and selfishness and pride always leads to more selfishness in pride,
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  Speaker 2: which all as leads to violence and corruption and bribes
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  Speaker 2: and other terrible things that societies don't actually want. So
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  Speaker 2: idolatry is a spiritually unhealthy practice. And unfortunately, the Israelites
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  Speaker 2: were always engaging in idolatry because they looked at the
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  Speaker 2: other nations. They saw the prosperity of the other nations,
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  Speaker 2: and they said, we want that for ourselves. The one
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  Speaker 2: thing the Israelites always did was say we want to
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  Speaker 2: be like the other nations. And again in the Book
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  Speaker 2: of Ezra, they're falling into the exact same trap. They're
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  Speaker 2: finally back home, and they've been back home now for
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  Speaker 2: about eighty years, and yet they're doing the exact same
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  Speaker 2: thing that led to their captivity in the first place.
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  Speaker 2: They're engaging in idolatry and marrying men and women that
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  Speaker 2: are pagan that do not worship Yahweh, that worship their
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  Speaker 2: own gods, and most likely going along with this pagan worship.
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  Speaker 2: So Ezra when he finds out about this after being
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  Speaker 2: in Israel for about four months, he is distraught. But
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  Speaker 2: he was like ripping his hair out, he was tearing
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  Speaker 2: his clothing, he was prostrating before God. He wouldn't even
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  Speaker 2: lift up his face to Heaven. He was embarrassed, he
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  Speaker 2: was praying, he was crying, and he was doing this
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  Speaker 2: pretty publicly. And this is what it says now in
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  Speaker 2: Ezra tenh verse one, our passage for today. It says, now,
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  Speaker 2: while Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself
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  Speaker 2: down before God's house. There was a gathering together to
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  Speaker 2: him out of Israel, a very great assembly of men
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  Speaker 2: and women and children. For the people wept very bitterly,
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  Speaker 2: and you might be like, why the change of heart
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  Speaker 2: suddenly from all these people. Well, you can imagine if
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  Speaker 2: somebody very powerful came into your city, your town, wherever
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  Speaker 2: you live, and you respected this person very greatly because
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  Speaker 2: they were considered to be a great scholar, they were
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  Speaker 2: an expert in something, they were close to very powerful people,
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  Speaker 2: and they themselves were very powerful. You can imagine if
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  Speaker 2: you saw that person in your city crying over the
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  Speaker 2: state of your city, and not just crying, but like
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  Speaker 2: deeply mourning and weeping over the state of your city,
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  Speaker 2: you'd probably be like, oh, boy, our city's about to die.
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  Speaker 2: This person that I respect very greatly, that has a
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  Speaker 2: lot of power, does not like what he sees here,
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  Speaker 2: and something is happening that is very terrible. So you
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  Speaker 2: can imagine this really scared the townspeople because Ezra was outside,
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  Speaker 2: he was prostrating before the temple to God, weeping and crying,
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  Speaker 2: and he was in a state. You know this was
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  Speaker 2: not something that was common. We don't see any public
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  Speaker 2: figure acting like this, you know, we don't see any
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  Speaker 2: politician or preacher or teacher acting like this, like being
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  Speaker 2: so mournful and so distressed. And Ezra's distress was distressing
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  Speaker 2: everybody else around him because they start to see the
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  Speaker 2: sorry state of Israel. They actually start to realize their
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  Speaker 2: own sin. So the people who are watching Ezra doing this,
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  Speaker 2: watching his emotions, they're becoming very emotional themselves, and it
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  Speaker 2: says they begin to weep very bitterly. So now finally
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  Speaker 2: a man comes forward. His name is Shakania, the son
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  Speaker 2: of Jahiel, who is one of the sons of Elam. Now,
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  Speaker 2: the fact that his ancestry is written out here probably
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  Speaker 2: means that he had some standing in the community, could
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  Speaker 2: have been a leader of some sort. And he seems
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  Speaker 2: like he is also very distressed at Ezra's distress. So
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  Speaker 2: he goes up to Ezra and he's like, look, Ezra,
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  Speaker 2: I've got this great idea. I know how to fix
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  Speaker 2: this entire problem and make it go away completely. So
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  Speaker 2: here's what he says in verse two. Shaikanya, the son
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  Speaker 2: of Jahiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered Ezra,
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  Speaker 2: we have trespassed against our God and have married foreign
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  Speaker 2: women of the peoples of the land. Yet now there
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  Speaker 2: is hope for Israel concerning this thing. Now, therefore, let's
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  Speaker 2: make a covenant with our God to put away all
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  Speaker 2: all the wives and those who are born of them,
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  Speaker 2: according to the counsel of my Lord, and of those
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  Speaker 2: who tremble at the commandment of our God. Let it
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  Speaker 2: be done according to the law. Arise, for the matter
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  Speaker 2: belongs to you, and we are with you. Be courageous
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  Speaker 2: and do it. So if you didn't pick up on that,
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  Speaker 2: here's Shaikhania's solution, Ezra, why don't we have every single
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  Speaker 2: man that married a foreign woman just divorce her and
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  Speaker 2: completely abandon any child you had with her, and just
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  Speaker 2: make her go on her way. That is the solution
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  Speaker 2: apparently to this problem. And Ezra in verse five agrees
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  Speaker 2: with it. It says, Ezra arose and made the chief
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  Speaker 2: of the priests, the Levites and all Israel to swear
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  Speaker 2: that they would do according to this word. So they swore.
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  Speaker 2: You guys can't see my face right now. But okay,
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  Speaker 2: before I dive into the problem that is happening here,
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  Speaker 2: let's talk about what Chikania is suggesting. Okay, he says,
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  Speaker 2: let us divorce our foreign wives according to the law.
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  Speaker 2: So what is he talking about here, Well, he's probably
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  Speaker 2: talking about the law from Deuteronomy twenty four, verses one
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  Speaker 2: and two, which says, when a man takes a wife
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  Speaker 2: and marries her, then it shall be if she finds
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  Speaker 2: no favor in his eyes because he has found some
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  Speaker 2: unseemly thing in her, that he shall write her a
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  Speaker 2: certificate of divorce, put it in her hand, and send
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  Speaker 2: her out of his house. When she has departed out
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  Speaker 2: of his house, she may go and be another man's wife. Okay,
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  Speaker 2: So that is one of the most misunderstood Old Testament laws.
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  Speaker 2: In fact, this Old Testament law was so misunderstood that
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  Speaker 2: even Jesus commented on it and clarified to the people
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  Speaker 2: what it meant, because the people in Jesus's day believed
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  Speaker 2: that any man, for any reason whatsoever, could just divorce
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  Speaker 2: their wives and do it without any repercussion and whatsoever. Now,
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  Speaker 2: before I get into what Jesus says about this law,
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  Speaker 2: I do want to point out that this law did
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  Speaker 2: protect women if you think about it, because in the
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  Speaker 2: days that the Old Testament law was written. The man
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  Speaker 2: had all the power, the woman had nothing. She was
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  Speaker 2: essentially glorified property. But God put certain protections in place
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  Speaker 2: for women actually in the Old Testament laws, and this
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  Speaker 2: was one of them, because a man couldn't just decide
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  Speaker 2: he no longer wants the wife and just desert her somewhere,
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  Speaker 2: and yet she'd still be considered married to him. Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 2: this is still the case in some very very fundamental
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  Speaker 2: societies throughout the world. The Amish is actually one of them.
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  Speaker 2: If an Amish man cheats on his wife and just
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  Speaker 2: completely deserts her, she is still considered to be his
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  Speaker 2: wife and cannot get remarried. Now. Granted, I don't know
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  Speaker 2: if that's still the case in the Amish communities, but
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  Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure it is. A woman that is Amish
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  Speaker 2: cannot get remarried much under any circumstances unless her husband dies.
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  Speaker 2: So you can see how this was actually a protection
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  Speaker 2: for women. A man couldn't just desert his wife. It
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  Speaker 2: was against the law. He had to give her a
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  Speaker 2: written legal paper of divorce, and this legal paper basically
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  Speaker 2: granted her her freedom. She was considered to be completely
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  Speaker 2: unmarried and she was free to go and get married
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  Speaker 2: to any man that she wanted after that, or she
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  Speaker 2: could remain single. Now there was one more protection for
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  Speaker 2: women when it came to divorce. Traditionally, in Jewish culture,
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  Speaker 2: if a man divorced the wife, the children also went
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  Speaker 2: with the divorced wife. The man did not have custody
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  Speaker 2: of those children any longer. I believe there was no
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  Speaker 2: Old Testament law about that, But that's taken from Genesis
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  Speaker 2: twenty one, verse fourteen, which says Abraham rose up early
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  Speaker 2: in the morning and took bread and a container of
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  Speaker 2: water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder,
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  Speaker 2: and he gave her the child and sent her away.
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  Speaker 2: She departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beer Sheba.
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  Speaker 2: So Jewish people actually took that story of Abraham and
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  Speaker 2: Hagar to say that any woman that was divorced from
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  Speaker 2: her husband got custody of the kids. So that is
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  Speaker 2: what you're seeing in Ezra chapter ten when Shikania suggests
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  Speaker 2: putting away the wives and all those who are born
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  Speaker 2: of them, so basically completely abandoning your family. This what
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  Speaker 2: Shikanya was suggesting here. Now, yes, in a way, having
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  Speaker 2: the divorced wife gained custody of the kids, was a
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  Speaker 2: protection to her and also a protection to those kids
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  Speaker 2: from the potentially abusive husband in this situation, but still
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  Speaker 2: divorce was cruelty in spite of these protections. And unfortunately
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  Speaker 2: Ezra agreed with all of this. He agreed with it.
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  Speaker 2: He's like, this is a great idea, and he commands
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  Speaker 2: the people to do according to this word, and they
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  Speaker 2: all swore that they would because don't freek Ezra was
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  Speaker 2: given so much power from the King of Persia that
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  Speaker 2: he was able to enact the judgment of killing somebody
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  Speaker 2: if that person did not follow one of God's laws.
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  Speaker 2: So this probably made the people even more afraid of
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  Speaker 2: Ezra because he had a lot of power, so they
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  Speaker 2: went along with all of this. And I got to
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  Speaker 2: say something before I continue here, because I'm going to
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  Speaker 2: go off on a little rant, because I'm pretty irritated
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  Speaker 2: about this. When I was researching this topic and reading
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  Speaker 2: through all of the commentaries about Ezra chapter ten, I
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  Speaker 2: did not find a single commentary that disagreed with this stance.
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  Speaker 2: Pretty much all of them were like, this was the
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  Speaker 2: right way to handle this. They should have divorced those
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  Speaker 2: women because the marriages were illegal from the very beginning.
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  Speaker 2: You know, this is where I get so frustrated with
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  Speaker 2: theologians and Bible teachers and Biblical scholars. I get so
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  Speaker 2: frustrated sometimes because it feels like they just repeat what
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  Speaker 2: they were taught by their professors, and it really grinds
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  Speaker 2: my gears sometimes. The other thing that I get frustrated about,
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  Speaker 2: and I'm not saying every single Bible teacher does this.
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  Speaker 1: They don't all do this, but a lot of them do.
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  Speaker 2: They act as if you know, the Bible is prescriptive,
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  Speaker 2: when a lot of times it's just descriptive. And what
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  Speaker 2: I mean by that is, you know, the Bible has
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  Speaker 2: stories in it, and sometimes those stories are not so good,
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  Speaker 2: Like somebody does something evil or does something wrong, and
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  Speaker 2: it's just a description of what they did. Just because
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  Speaker 2: it's in the Bible does not mean it's a prescription, right,
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  Speaker 2: It's not prescribed. For example, David, he's the best one
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  Speaker 2: that I can give. He had a million wives, right,
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  Speaker 2: caused him a lot of trouble. But because he was
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  Speaker 2: blessed by God in spite of the sin of polygamy.
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  Speaker 2: A lot of people say, oh, David was blessed and
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  Speaker 2: so because he was blessed, that must mean that polygamy
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  Speaker 2: is a good thing. So I must also be allowed
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  Speaker 2: to engage in polygamy. That is somebody taking a description
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  Speaker 2: in the Bible and making it a prescription, even though
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  Speaker 2: there is vast amounts of evidence in scripture that talk
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  Speaker 2: about the dangers and even evils of polygamy. These people
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  Speaker 2: ignore all of that stuff. They don't look at the
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  Speaker 2: context of scripture, they don't read it as a cohesive book,
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  Speaker 2: and they take descriptive stories and make them prescriptive. And unfortunately,
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  Speaker 2: Bible scholars have a tendency to do the exact same thing,
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  Speaker 2: to act as if every single person in the Old
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  Speaker 2: Testament they must have just been living a perfect life
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  Speaker 2: with only a few recorded sins, and they never sinned
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  Speaker 2: other than these few recorded sins that are specifically mentioned
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  Speaker 2: as sins.
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  Speaker 1: No, that is not true. What Ezra did hear was wrong.
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  Speaker 2: And I'm so sad that these commentaries didn't see this
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  Speaker 2: for the problem that it was. God hates divorce. Now, granted,
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  Speaker 2: the Israelites committed a big sin here right when they
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  Speaker 2: married the pagan peoples. They were not supposed to do that.
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  Speaker 2: God was very, very clear about that. In fact, if
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  Speaker 2: you turn to Malachi chapter two and read verses eleven
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  Speaker 2: through twelve, this is from the NLT version, and this
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  Speaker 2: is God himself speaking to his people. He says, Judah
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  Speaker 2: has been unfaithful, and a detestable thing has been done
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  Speaker 2: in Israel and Jerusalem. The men of Judah have defiled
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  Speaker 2: the Lord's beloved sanctuary by marrying women who worship idols.
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  Speaker 2: May the Lord cut off from the nation of Israel.
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  Speaker 2: Every last man who has done this, and yet brings
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  Speaker 2: an offering to the Lord of Heaven's armies. The Book
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  Speaker 2: of Malachi was written one hundred year, approximately one hundred
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  Speaker 2: years after the Israelites came back into the land from
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  Speaker 2: Babylonian captivity, so this was written. Malachi was written only
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  Speaker 2: about twenty years after Ezra first arrived there. And apparently
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  Speaker 2: this was an ongoing problem. Apparently the men in women
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  Speaker 2: of Judah, we're marrying people who worship idols. That's what
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  Speaker 2: it says. Right here, you are defiling the Lord's beloved
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  Speaker 2: sanctuary by marrying women who worship idols. And yet God
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  Speaker 2: was angry because his people were going into the temple
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  Speaker 2: and pretending to be Yahweh followers, and at the same
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  Speaker 2: time they're going home to their wives and children and
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  Speaker 2: sacrificing incense and food to some random idol. God was
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: sickened by this. He says, I'm going to cut those
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: people off from my land because I am sick and
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: tired of this kind of behavior.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: But what's really.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: Interesting if you continue on here in Malachi chapter two,
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: verse thirteen, God goes into divorce. Here's what he says.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: Here's another thing you do. You cover the Lord's altar
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: with tears, weeping and groaning because he pays no attention
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: to your offerings and doesn't accept them with pleasure. You
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: cry out, why doesn't the Lord accept my worship?
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you why.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: Because the Lord witnessed the vows you and your wife
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: made when you were young, but you have been unfaithful
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: to her, though she remained your faithful partner, the wife
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: of your marriage vows. Didn't the Lord make you one
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: with your wife in body and spirit?
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: You are his?
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: And what does he want? Godly children from your union?
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: So guard your heart, remain loyal to the wife of
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: your youth, for I hate divorce, says the Lord, the
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: God of Israel. To divorce your wife is to overwhelm
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: her with cruelty, says the Lord of Heaven's armies. So
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: guard your heart, do not be unfaithful to your wife.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: And that was all taken from the NLT version. So
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: in the first sentence, God says, I am tired of
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: my people being unequally yoked. That's Christianese to say marrying
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: an unbeliever while still going through the motions by the
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: way of worshiping yahweh. But he was also tired of
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: the people divorcing their wives. He says, you cover the
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: Lord's alter with tears, weeping and groaning because he doesn't
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: pay any attention to your offerings and doesn't accept them
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: with pleasure. And they ask, why doesn't the Lord accept
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: my worship? God says, I'll tell you why, because I
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: witnessed the vows you and your wife made when you
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: were young, and you have been unfaithful to her, though
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: she remains your faithful partner. The wife of your marriage vows,
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: and God actually says, right here, what do I desire
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: from your union? Godly children, That's what he says right here,
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: So guard your heart and remain loyal to the wife
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: of your youth. God desires from these marriages godly children.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: And yet in the Book of Ezra, twenty years prior
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: to this, Ezra expects the men of Israel to divorce
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: their wives and put away those children, just abandon those kids.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: Let me ask you a question, what child, when they
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: are a bandon and to buy their dad becomes a
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: godly person. It does happen. I know people who it's
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: happened to because of God's grace and because they found
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: that God the Father is a better father than their
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: earthly father. But man, what a stumbling block is put
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: in front of those children because their dad abandons them.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: These men of Israel, by following Ezra's advice, were actually
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: making sure that their children grew up bitter against Yahweh.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: By the way, because they were all doing this in
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: this attitude of righteousness. Oh you know, my pagan wife
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: is definitely good enough to marry and sleep with and
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: have children with. But she's dirty, and so I'm going
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: to divorce her for a better, more righteous woman. Oh
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: you know what, let's go back to that law from
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: Deuteronomy chapter twenty four, the one that I mentioned at
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: the very beginning, You know, the one that says, give
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: her a written notice of divorce. Let's see what Jesus
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: has to say about that law in Matthew chapter nineteen.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: This is from the Web, starting in verse three. Some
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: pharisees that came up to him or Jesus, testing him
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: and saying, is it lawful for a man to divorce
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: his wife for any reason? He answered, haven't you read
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: that he who made them from the beginning made them
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: male and female? And said, for this cause, a man
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: shall leave his father and his mother and shall be
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: So they are no more too, but one flesh. What
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: therefore God has joined together? Don't let men tear apart?
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: They asked him. Why then, did Moses command us to
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: give her a certificate of divorce and divorce her? He
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: said to them, Moses, because of the hardness of your
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: hearts allowed you to divorce you wives. But from the
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: beginning it has not been so. I tell you that
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality, and marries
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: another commits adultery. And he who marries her when she
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: is divorced commits adultery. So Jesus makes that pretty clear
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: that that law in the Old Testament was done because
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: of the hardness of men's hearts, and not just men,
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: but women too. And what Jesus gets around to saying
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: is that there is only one legitimate reason in the
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: eyes of God for a divorce, sexual immorality in other words,
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: cheating or adultery. That is the only reason in the
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: eyes of God that a man or a woman are
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: to divorce each other. So let's go back to Deuteronomy
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: twenty four and read this law with these new eyes
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: that Jesus gives us. Starting in verse one, when a
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: man takes a wife and marries her, then it shall
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: be if she finds no favor in his eyes because
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: he has found some unseemly thing in her, that he
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: shall write her a certificate of divorce, put it in
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: her hand, and send her out of his house. So
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: Jesus clarified that divorce was only permissible through the act
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: of adultery. So what then, is this unseemly thing this
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: man finds in his wife according to this law. Well,
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: I would guess it's some sort of sexual immorality, because
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: that's the only reason a man is supposed to divorce
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: his wife and think about it. You know, adulterers and
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: adulteresses did not matter your gender. Back in the Old
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: Testament days, you could get stoned to death. If you
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: were found to be an adulterer or an adulteress, you
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: could get killed. It was a capital punishment. So, say
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: a man loves his wife and he finds out she
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: had an affair. He probably doesn't want to stone her.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: He might dislike her deeply, but he doesn't want to
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: stone her. He still has some love for her. When
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: he finds this unseemly thing about her, instead of making
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: her go and get stoned to death, he can write
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: her a certificate of divorce. We actually do have a
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: biblical example of a man who tried to divorce his
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: wife without her getting stoned. That is Jesus's own parents,
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: Joseph and Mary. When Mary was pregnant with Jesus. Joseph
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: thought that she was cheating on him, but because he
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: loved her and because he didn't want her to get
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: stoned to death. Though he was probably deeply hurt by
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: this supposed betrayal, he was thinking in his head, how
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: can I divorce her quietly so that she doesn't get
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: stoned to death? How can I do this so that
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: she is still protected. And of course it all worked
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: out in the end, and he ended up marrying her, obviously,
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: because the entire situation was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: and so was Jesus. But that is a great example
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: of a man that tried to divorce his wife silently
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: and make sure that she did not get publicly shamed
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: or killed because of her adultery. So Jesus says, the
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: only reason for divorce is adultery. So let's go back
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: to Ezra chapter ten and finish up here. So Ezra
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: rose up from before God's house in verse six and
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: went into the room of Jehoahan, the son of Eliasheb.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: When he came there, he didn't eat bread or drink water,
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: for he mourned because of the trespass of the exiles.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: They made a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: the children of the captivity, that they should gather themselves
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: together to Jerusalem, and that whoever didn't come within three days,
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: according to the Council of the Princes and the Elders,
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: all his possessions should be forfeited, and he himself separated
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: from the assembly of the captivity. So now Ezra is
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: using that power that he was given by the Persian king.
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: He is saying, anybody that does not come to Jerusalem
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: for this big meeting that I'm holding, I will take
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: away all of their writes, all of their property, and
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: they will get kicked out from the community of the Jews.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: You know, the people are probably afraid of Ezra and
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: what he can do and the power that he has. Now.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: I do want to say here before I conclude, there
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: were some things that Ezra did right. Ezra did not
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: think God was just winking at this sin. He took
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: this very seriously, I believe, as he should have. In fact,
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: I argued last week that Christians don't take sin seriously enough,
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: but Ezra did. He took this sin very seriously, and
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: that is something I believe that was very good that
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: he did. But unfortunately he went about it in such
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: a bad way. For as learned as he was in
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: the Old Testament laws, he couldn't see that God was
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: against divorce, and he thought that this was the only
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: way for the Jewish people to be cleansed of this paganism,
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: which was to completely abandon in their children. Okay, faithful listeners.
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: I have one last point I'd like to make before
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: I end today's episode. But before I do that, here
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: is one last message from a sponsor. I think there
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: are about two hundred other can of worms I could
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: open up regarding this passage and why it was wrong.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: For example, vows.
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: If you make a vow, then you are supposed to
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: keep it, and marriage was a vow that somebody took.
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: They weren't supposed to go back on these marriage vows.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: Another thing why this was so wrong is found in
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: one Timothy five, verse eight. It says if anyone doesn't
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: provide for his own and especially his own household, he
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever man.
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: There is so much evidence in scripture that what Ezra
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: and the Jewish leaders were doing was so off based,
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: it was so incorrect. It was such a terrible solution
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: to the problem at hand, and it was a problem,
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: but it was a bad solution. To talk about what
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: the right solution was on Wednesday, and we're going to
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: talk about some people that actually stood up to Ezra
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: as well and did not go along with all of this.
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: So we will discuss the last portion of Ezra on Wednesday,
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: and after that we will be done with the Book
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: of Ezra. So I hope all of you guys have
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: been enjoying this book so far. It is an interesting
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: little book, isn't it. And also tomorrow we will be
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: in the Book of Hebrews. So I hope to see
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: all of you guys then as we get close to
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: wrapping up Hebrews as well. Faithful listeners, have a fantastic
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: and wonderful rest of your day. I'll see you guys
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: tomorrow at six am or whenever you choose to listen
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: for an episode from the Book of Hebrews.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: Happy listening, and God bless.
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: I just want to take a second to thank the
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: team at Life Audio for their partnership with me on
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: the Bible Explain podcast. In fact, if you go to
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: lifeaudio dot com you'll find dozens of other faith centered
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: podcasts in their network. They've got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting,
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: and more.