“It was said, ‘Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce’; but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” Matthew 5:31-32.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
As we continue our Life Lessons on the Sermon on the Mount, which is a sermon about the heart, the next passage we come to is when Jesus talked about marriage and divorce. “It was said, ‘Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce’; but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” Matthew 5:31-32.
The Pharisees who permitted divorce took exception to this teaching and later would bring it up again since Jesus made His teaching on this quite clear. So 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 one 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 10:2-13.
I take the marriage covenant very seriously. Most people today do not, and they did not in the time of Moses either. Jesus told them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way.” Matthew 19:8. Hard hearts against the truth.
Why is the marriage covenant so important to Me from the very beginning? It is the shadow and type of My Covenant relationship with you and of the relationship between Jesus and the church, His body on earth. Once you are in covenant with Me it is an everlasting covenant of love.
I am very serious about Covenant because it is the way you authorize Me to act in your life to protect you, bless you, prosper you, heal you, help you, and provide for you. And then through you to act for good in the earth as you offer to operate in your dominion authority in partnership with Me.
Covenant is the way I gave to the human race to come back to Me and again partner with Me as My people, My family, upon the earth. Adam had cut Me out of his life and the lives of his descendants and given his dominion to the devil so that he partnered with the devil as his new covenant lord. But I wanted to pull you back into Myself again and out of the jurisdiction of Satan. And the only way I had of doing that was the Covenant connection whereby we became one in Spirit.
After Adam’s treachery, I kept looking for a man who would enter into Covenant with Me and allow Me to again work upon the earth, Noah did to a limited extent of a promise not to flood the earth again and take away all life, but it was not until Abraham, then Abram, that I found a man willing to enter totally into a covenant with Me. And it was a covenant of faith whereby his faith was credited to him as righteousness before Me and thus allowing us to enter into fellowship. I taught him the gospel ahead of time and showed him the day of Jesus and he rejoiced.
And after Abraham I made a Covenant with his descendants when I redeemed them from slavery in Egypt to be their God and they to be My people if they kept My commandments and lived by them. This was the Law given to Moses. But My people broke that Covenant and went after other gods and this I likened to adultery. They left Me for idols. You can see now why I abhor adultery. It is a sin against covenant. It is a sin against faithfulness. It is a sin against loyalty. It is a sin of treachery. It is a sin against love. It is the height of ingratitude for the giving of oneself to another.
But the ultimate Covenant that fulfills all the covenants and makes them new is the Covenant Jesus made with Me as your representative as Son of Man that He sealed in His blood whereby your sins and offenses I remember no more and you became a new creation in Him. A member of His body, the church, the bride of Christ. Heaven is about a marriage feast. My Son and the church. And Jesus, the faithful and true, will NEVER break Covenant with Me, and in Him you cannot either for I sealed you in Him and He keeps you.
“Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. Jeremiah 31:31-32. For your husband is your Maker, whose name is the LORD of hosts; and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, who is called the God of all the earth. Isaiah 54:5.
“I will espouse you to Me forever; yes, I will espouse you to Me in righteousness and in justice, in lovingkindness and in compassion, and I will espouse you to Me in faithfulness. Then you will know the LORD.” Hosea 2:19. And under the New Covenant I told My prophet Jeremiah that ALL would KNOW Me from the least to the greatest. How? By My Spirit in you revealing My thoughts to you and conversing with your spirit as you share your thoughts with Me.
My apostle Paul wrote by the Holy Spirit a new revelation for a new creation about the New Covenant, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.” Ephesians 5:25-33.
Whoever joins him or herself to Christ becomes one spirit with Him and with Me. Earthly marriage only lasts while in the perishable flesh, for the two become as one flesh, and the bond ceases upon bodily death. Jesus made this very clear in response to a hypothetical presented to Him by the Sadducees:
“On that day some Sadducees (who say there is no resurrection) came to Jesus and questioned Him, asking, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother as next of kin shall marry his wife, and raise up children for his brother.’ Now there were seven brothers with us; and the first married and died, and having no children left his wife to his brother; so also the second, and the third, down to the seventh. Last of all, the woman died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had married her.” But Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.” Matthew 22:24-32. All are alive to Me. Abraham is with Me now and will always be. Our covenant will never end. And it is the same for you. The heavenly Covenant is forever for it is two becoming as One in Spirit and not in flesh, and the spirit of man never perishes. Nothing can separate you from My love as manifested in Christ Jesus your Lord.
Take heed then to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of your youth. For I HATE DIVORCE and the one who covers his garment with wrong. So take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously for you have wearied Me with your words. Malachi 2:15-17. Stop trying to make loopholes in the covenant of marriage. You are committed or not. You cannot end it because you decide you are no longer getting what you want out of the relationship. You spoke words promising to care for the other until death do you part. Words matter. They are not cheap. You set something in motion when you entered that covenant and I will hold you to your words.
I have committed Myself to you in Christ. I will never leave you or forsake you. I will never divorce you. Be imitators of Me as My dear children and walk in love. When in Covenant the stronger one protects, cares for, supports and looks after the weaker one, as Christ does the Church. He died for her. And He nourishes and cares for her. And when a member wanders off, like a lost sheep, He goes to seek that one out until He brings that little one back. Once I seal you in Him He is obligated to raise you up on the Last Day.
“For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” John 6:38-40.
My Words are Spirit and Life, they are the Words of everlasting Life and I have sworn My fidelity to you who are in Covenant with Me forever. Only those in Covenant can eat the children’s bread. And faith in My Word will put you there.
Divorce ruins and divides a family. I want no divisions in the body of Christ. Jesus prayed we would all be one, Him in you, you in Him, Him in Me, you in Me.
But it all comes down to commitment by the words of your mouth, about truth in the inward parts. About who you really are. You are bound by what you say. By your words you are acquitted and by your words you are condemned. Do not speak what you are not committed to keep. You will be judged for every idle word you speak.
Adultery is a sin against your own body and the body of your spouse, but if you are a believer in Jesus it is a sin against the temple of the Holy Spirit, which is your body. Adultery in a believer is more than a physical crime, it is a spiritual one as well. Be careful what you sow. If you sow to the flesh you will reap according to the flesh, which is death, if you sow to the spirit, you will reap according to the Spirit which is life eternal. You choose. Keep your eyes away from someone other than your spouse. And that goes for your covenant with Me as well, I tell you to keep your eyes on Jesus, and to keep away from idols.
Your words matter. I hold you accountable for them.
Joshua and the elders of Israel, without first inquiring of Me, made a covenant with the Gibeonites based on their deceptive appearance and flattering words. After making the covenant of peace and protection with them, the Israelites found they had been deceived by a people I had told them to cast out of the land. Joshua and the elders, however, knew they had bound themselves by their words and they could not dishonor that. So they kept that covenant and went to battle for the Gibeonites when the other nations in the Promised Land came to retaliate against them for making covenant with My people. And I gave them a great victory and even caused the sun and moon to stand still so My people could complete the victory without any of the enemies getting away under the cover of darkness. I honored the covenant My people had made and helped them to keep it with a great miracle.
I will help you to keep covenant. Invite Me into your marriage and I will show you how to love and be faithful. And Paul gave you good instructions on how to do it in his letters to the Ephesians and to the Colossians. Keep a watch over yourself. Many of the chapters in the book of Proverbs have to do with the sin of adultery, it is wise to read them.
I love you and I love families and that is why I commanded you not to commit adultery and not to divorce, but if you should divorce, for you cannot control the other party and they may leave you in unfaithfulness, or if your spouse has deserted you to sexual immorality with another, then you can separate from such a spouse, but not just because you got tired of the spouse of your youth and find them not to your liking now. Do not look for another. Always consult Me before you marry, it will save you much heartache. I will guide you to the right one and the right one ot you. Can you trust Me for that? And there are some that choose not to marry for the sake of giving all their attention to the Kingdom of Heaven and doing My work upon the earth. Both are good for ultimately I am your true spouse forever in spirit and truth. Covenant. If you love Me you keep My Word in whatever you do.