Today’s devotion comes from Mark 10:1-12.
“Getting up, He *went from there to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan; crowds *gathered around Him again, and, according to His custom, He once more began to teach them.
Some Pharisees came up to Jesus, testing Him, and began to question Him whether it was lawful for a man to divorce a wife. And He answered and said to them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses permitted a man TO WRITE A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE AND SEND her AWAY.” But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, God MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE. FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME FLESH; so they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”
In the house the disciples began questioning Him about this again. And He *said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her; and if she herself divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery.” Mark 10:1-12.
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“For I hate divorce,” says the LORD, the God of Israel, “and him who covers his garment with wrong,” says the Lord of hosts. “So take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously.” Malachi 2:16.
“YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY.” Exodus 20:14. “And He *said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her; and if she herself divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery.” Verses 11-12.
Of course, these commandments are “holy and righteous and good” (see Romans 7:12), but if we cannot obey “YOU SHALL NOT COVET”, because “… sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind” (see Romans 7:7-8), then why do we think we can obey “YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY.”?!
Nevertheless, other doctrine still focuses on man and what man should do to avoid adultery and divorce.
But, Reformed Doctrine focuses on God and what God has done to avoid adultery and divorce.
Reformed Doctrine looks at today’s Scripture and focuses on how “God has joined together” husband and wife “so they are no longer two, but one flesh.” and thinks first of all more generally of how God has joined us to Christ as the general solution of how we live righteously.
“Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.” Romans 7:4-6.
Consider that the very example of the reasoning for this general solution concerns the specific problem of adultery and how it can be avoided.
“For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.” Romans 7:2-3.
Reformed Doctrine also looks at other benefits, that are more specific benefits, of God’s work: “God has joined together” husband and wife “so they are no longer two, but one flesh.”
First, “… husbands … love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh,” Ephesians 5:28-29.
Second, the children of a husband and wife remind them of the blessedness of their union. And, what loving parent would want to take away the parent of their child through divorce?!
Third, God made the wife to be “a helper suitable” to her husband. “Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him. … The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones,
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man.”
For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.” Genesis 2:18 and 20-24.
“11 The heart of her husband trusts in her,
And he will have no lack of gain.
12 She does him good and not evil
All the days of her life.” Proverbs 31:11-12.
Fourth, God made the wife to desire her husband, such that she is content to stay at home. “… Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.” Genesis 3:16.
“3 Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
Within your house,
Your children like olive plants
Around your table.
4 Behold, for thus shall the man be blessed
Who fears the LORD.” Psalm 128:3-4.
Fifth, God made the husband to desire his wife.
“19 As a loving hind and a graceful doe,
Let her breasts satisfy you at all times;
Be exhilarated always with her love.
20 For why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an adulteress
And embrace the bosom of a foreigner?” Proverbs 5:19-20.
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