Why Then Did Moses
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Introduction
Introduction
Have you ever been in a situation where someone was just trying to trip you up? They didn’t care about the truth at all, they just want to make sure that you look stupid because they disagree with you. For them, it’s not about seeking answers. Instead, it’s about creating more questions.
I’ve been in situations like this. I was talking to someone recently who had questions about God, but they weren’t looking for answers. Their mind was made up… They were only interested in creating more questions.
They actually told me that they weren’t interested in finding answers to their question. They were only interested in finding flaws with scripture.
The reason I bring this up is because Jesus frequently dealt with people like this. The religious leaders were just looking for ways to stump and trick Jesus. They weren’t interested in finding answer, they were only trying to create doubt and more questions.
In this lesson, I want to take a look at one specific instance where the Pharisees were trying to stump Jesus, and I want to just take a look at what we learn from the text.
Divorce
Divorce
Matthew 19:1-9.
1 Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. 2 And large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.
3 And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” 4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” 7 They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” 8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”
In this context, the Pharisees test Jesus regarding divorce.
Jesus tells them that married people should not separate. God does not endorse or support divorce.
They respond by saying, “why did God command divorce in the law.” If God doesn’t support divorce, then why is it in his law?
Here is Jesus’ answer. Matthew 19:8.
8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.
Because of your hardness of heart
Because of your hardness of heart
Jesus tells them that divorce is not a part of the law because God endorses it. Divorce is a part of the law because of man’s sinfulness.
Deuteronomy 24:1-4.
1 “When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, 2 and if she goes and becomes another man’s wife, 3 and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife, 4 then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the Lord. And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.
Does God command or endorse divorce in these verses? If the text is read carefully, then you will notice that God doesn’t command or want divorce for people. The text says, “if”
So, here’s what God is doing in this text:
God is making provision for man’s sinfulness.
God knows that man is going to do sinful things, so he makes sure that the wife is protected when the husband is being wicked.
So, God is not commanding or endorsing divorce. He’s making provision for man’s wickedness.
So, this begs the question: how do we know what God thinks about marriage? Matthew 19:8.
8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.
But from the beginning
But from the beginning
Jesus tells us that if we want to know how God feels about marriage and divorce, then we need to go to the beginning. What do we learn about marriage from the beginning? Genesis 2:24.
24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
God tells us that man and woman become one flesh in marriage. That’s not just a metaphor for sexual relationship… It’s a metaphor that describes the entire relationship.
Ephesians 5:28-31.
28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”
When people get married, it’s like they become one body. Imagine tearing off a person’s arm. If you do that to someone, they will never be the same… They will be broken. That’s what divorce does, it breaks people. God doesn’t want that, and he doesn’t endorse it.
Matthew 19:4-6.
4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
From the beginning, it was evident that marriage is for life. What God joins together, let no man separate.
This is something that the Pharisees failed to understand. They failed to truly understand God, and so they misunderstood the law as well.
You may be asking, “why is Reuben talking about divorce? What’s the point?”
Here’s the point. Some people believe that God endorses everything that is referenced in the law. This is clearly not the case.
There are certain parts of the law where God is not making endorsements. Instead, God is making provision for our brokenness, and providing protection for the vulnerable.
Slavery
Slavery
Some people in our culture are just like the Pharisees. They are more interested in creating more questions than seeking answers.
Some people would walk up to Jesus and ask, “Why then did Moses endorse slavery, more specifically, the mistreatment of slaves in the law?” Exodus 21:20-21.
20 “When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged. 21 But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged, for the slave is his money.
How would Jesus respond to this? I think that Jesus would respond the exact same way that he did in Matthew 19.
Because of your hardness of heart
Because of your hardness of heart
The reason why those specific laws about slavery are in Exodus 21 is because of man’s hardness of heart. God is making provision for man’s sinfulness.
Exodus 21:20-21.
20 “When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged. 21 But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged, for the slave is his money.
God isn’t commanding or endorsing the mistreatment of slaves… He say’s when you mistreat your slaves, here is the consequence.
Look at the surrounding context.
Exodus 21:15-19.
15 “Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death.
16 “Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death.
17 “Whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death.
18 “When men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist and the man does not die but takes to his bed, 19 then if the man rises again and walks outdoors with his staff, he who struck him shall be clear; only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall have him thoroughly healed.
Does God endorse all of this? Of course not.
Exodus 21:22-25.
22 “When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman’s husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. 23 But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
Does God endorse hitting pregnant women? Of course not.
This entire section of the law outlines different responses to man’s sinfulness. God is making provision for sin in order to protect the vulnerable
So, what’s the key takeaway? Just because something is mentioned in the law doesn’t mean that God endorses it. And that includes some aspects of slavery.
So this begs the question: how does God feel about slavery and the mistreatment of slaves. This goes back to the second phrase of Jesus’ sentence.
But from the beginning
But from the beginning
What do we learn from the beginning about how we should treat one another? Genesis 1:26.
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Here, we learn that we are image bearers for God. This means that we have certain responsibilities, but it also means that we treat one another with respect.
Genesis 9:6.
6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed,
for God made man in his own image.
You see, we shouldn’t mistreat one another. Why? Because we are all created in God’s image.
So, what does this tell us about slavery?
This tells us that mistreating people through slavery was never endorsed by God.
This begs the question: Why did godly people like Abraham own slaves?
We look at slavery, and it’s always negative because in America, slavery was a negative thing. It was filled with abuse, and the demeaning of the weaker class.
In the ancient world, the idea of slavery was much broader than today (it could mean many different things).
Don’t get me wrong; negative, abusive, and demeaning slavery did exist in the ancient world, but that’s not what slavery was supposed to be. In the ancient world, when someone sold themselves into slavery(maybe because of extreme poverty), I believe that it was supposed to be like they were joining a family.
God’s image for slavery...
Exodus 21:7-11.
7 “When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do. 8 If she does not please her master, who has designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has broken faith with her. 9 If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her as with a daughter. 10 If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital rights. 11 And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money.
Notice a couple of things.
First, just because slavery is mentioned, doesn’t necessarily mean that God endorses this.
Second, notice that this sounds much more like marriage than slavery. The man is supposed to marry this woman, and if he doesn’t, then she is free to be redeemed. So, it seems that the language of slavery overlapped with marriage.
So, if someone sold themselves into slavery, it was supposed to be like they were joining a new family. That’s why we see this: Exodus 21:5.
5 But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’
Think about this. What’s the language used to describe our relationship with God?
Sometimes it’s master/slave language, and sometimes it’s husband/wife language.
The idea is that the relationship between slave and master is supposed to be a familial one.
This makes sense when thinking about Genesis 1:26. Even though a slave was in an inferior social position, they were still treated with respect (just like a son or daughter). Why? because they are also created in God’s image.
So, slavery in America was wicked and wasn’t anything that God would endorse. But not all slavery in the Bible is like this. Slavery in the Bible could be thought of as a family relationship, and sometimes carries the same thought as marriage
So, I wanted to take some time to address this because we sometimes read scripture with western eyes and it obscures the meaning of the text at times. Slavery had a very wide meaning in the ancient world, and it’s important that we understand this.
Someone might say, “even if slavery was like family, how could God endorse owning another individual?”
We don’t like to think about this, but that still happens today. When you join the military, the government owns you.
When you have a child, the child is yours. You are the master.
The list could go on…
So, let’s get back to the question… Does God endorse the mistreatment of slaves? The answer to this is no! If we go back to the beginning, it’s clear that God wants us to love, care for, and respect one another. Just because something is mentioned in the law, doesn’t mean that God endorses it.
Conclusion
Conclusion
I want to deal with one final question: Why does God punish people for eternity? I want to answer it the same way.
Because of our hardness of heart.
But from the beginning it was not so.
From the beginning, it was evident that God wanted to dwell with man for eternity, and that’s still his plan today.