Deuteronomy 22:5, 9-23:8; 24:1-4
"The Seventh Commandment: Love Your Neighbor III"
You Shall Not Commit Adultery.
We saw with murder that the commandment is not merely a matter of not killing people,
but goes to the heart.
It was bound up with the day-to-day relations of the people of God.
Likewise, the commandment against adultery.
Jesus makes it plain that adultery includes more than the sexual act.
It includes the heart and the eyes. (Matthew 5:27-30)
Let us look at God's instruction (Torah) in Deuteronomy to understand what God requires of us.
I suggested last time that 22:5 belonged with the seventh commandment.
Transvestites are condemned as an abomination.
The usage of the word "abomination"
suggests that cross-dressing was connected with worship in the ancient world.
Israel had been told repeatedly not to practice the pagan rites of their neighbors.
So if your wife wears your shirt, is she being abhorrent to God?
No!
The point of many of these laws is to maintain clear boundaries
-and not mix things that are fundamentally different.
We still use the word "adulterate" to refer to improper mixtures.
(Some even consider the addition of sugar to coffee to "adulterate" the coffee)
The point that Paul emphasizes in the NT is that men and women should look different.
But when the question of gender distinctions arose in Corinth,
Paul did not appeal to Deuteronomy to solve the question.
Some people try to explain some of these laws in terms of practical utility.
There may be good reasons for not plowing with an ox and a donkey yoked together,
but God's commands were not given simply for practical reasons.
Mixing things that don't belong together is adultery.
Ox and donkey-wool and linen-vineyard and crop-these are illicit mixtures.
In creation God had separated and divided things out.
He had separated the light from the dark, the land from the water, etc.
These mixtures threatened to return to the chaos.
Israel was to be a picture of the new creation.
When you looked at their fields you were not to see a jumble of mixed up things.
You were to see harmony and unity-the ordered glory of the new creation.
And, particularly in the context of the prohibition against adultery,
these mixtures suggested the mixture of Israel with the surrounding nations.
Holiness-purity-was at stake.
Moses then goes on to things that we might recognize more in terms of adultery.
Virginity was prized-together with honesty.
The man who falsely claimed that his wife was not a virgin,
would be whipped and severely fined, because he had slandered a virgin.
But the woman who had slept around prior to marriage would be stoned to death,
because she had gone whoring in her father's house.
This one is short and simple.
While the sexual laws of the OT are framed in the patriarchal terms of the day,
they are remarkably fair-protecting both the man AND the woman.
Both the man and the woman caught in adultery were to be put to death.
When they brought the woman caught in adultery to Jesus,
many have wondered what Jesus wrote in the sand.
It may well have been, "where is the man?"
The men who brought her to Jesus had no desire
for the single standard of the law to be brought against them.
There is no such thing as rape in the city.
In the close quarters and open windows (they didn't have glass!) of the ancient city,
it would be very easy to avoid rape.
Therefore if the betrothed woman didn't yell, then there was no rape.
But in the country, you assume the best about the betrothed woman.
You assume that she did yell, but that no one could hear her.
Therefore you execute the man, but the woman goes free.
These laws, if executed justly, would be pretty effective against rape.
If a woman is not betrothed, however,
then the rapist would be forced to pay her father a fine,
and then marry her-with the proviso that he may never divorce her.
This may sound pretty harsh.
But however bad it may be for the woman,
the man has it worse.
She can do anything she wants, and he can't divorce her.
He'd better hope that she's the forgiving sort...
(And Exodus 22:17 gives fathers the right to refuse to allow them to marry)
Leviticus 18 goes into greater detail on the various prohibited degrees of marriage.
The basic point here is the shame that would come upon the father
if you married his former wife.
Chapter 23:1-8 then talk about the relationship of adultery to God.
The assembly of Yahweh must be a sexually pure assembly.
Just as the priests who ministered in the temple had to be physically whole,
so also those with crushed testicles or severed male organ
must be excluded from the assembly.
This is because of the importance of the "seed."
Remember that Israel is not simply the church.
Israel is also the Messiah-the Son of God.
If a man has no seed,
then there is no chance for him to beget the Promised Seed.
This is not saying that these people could not be saved.
It is saying that these people could not be a part of the Sacred Assembly,
that met at the tabernacle as the holy Son of God.
Likewise, neither the bastard child of a forbidden union, to the tenth generation,
would be excluded from the assembly.
No Ammonite or Moabite could be included until the tenth generation.
But an Edomite could be included by the third generation,
because the Edomites were brothers-Esau was the brother of Jacob.
Likewise, the Egyptians could enter in the third generation,
because you were a sojourner in Egypt.
The book of Ruth was written because this created a problem for David.
David was only five generations removed from his Moabite great-great grandfather.
If it took ten generations to include a Moabite in the Assembly,
how could David be king of Judah and Israel!
The book of Ruth portrays Ruth as the faithful daughter of Abraham,
who walks by faith and is a better Israelite than her
Judahite husband and father-in-law.
This indicates that exceptions were possible.
Deuteronomy should not be considered an iron-clad law code,
but as God's instruction (Torah),
setting forth the principles by which Israel's judges must judge.
Allowing such excluded persons into the assembly is adultery against God (23:1-2)
It is mixing those who should not be mixed.
To allow such people into the assembly of God was a sin against God,
a violation of the holiness of his name.
In Christ, however, they are now welcomed.
Now that the promise of the Seed has been fulfilled,
it is no longer important that the assembly remain unmixed..
Indeed, now that the Seed has come,
the assembly now consists of all those who are in him.
The following section refers to the importance of purity in the war camp. (23:9-14)
Israel's warfare was holy war.
Their success in battle depended upon their faithfulness to God's covenant.
As the Son of God going forth to war against God's enemies,
he must be holy as God is holy.
1. While in the camp, keep yourself from every evil thing. (23:9)
Their conduct in the war camp was essential.
You can see, then how these laws point us to Christ.
Christ, the true Son of God, must maintain purity as he goes forth to war
against his Father's foes.
2. Impurity must be dealt with. (23:10-11)
The camp is holy.
God dwells in the midst of his people,
and the one who would fight in the army of the Lord must be holy.
A nocturnal emission is an improper use of semen.
It renders a man unclean.
Therefore the one with a nocturnal emission must be purified
3. Excrement must be buried outside the camp (23:12-14)
A holy camp cannot be contaminated by human waste.
God walks in your midst-don't let him see anything indecent among you.
The idea is that if God is walking in your camp,
you don't want him to step in your excrement!
One might ask, but if God is everywhere,
why does it make a difference whether the john is inside or outside the camp?
While God is omnipresent-he is present in all places,
he is not present in all places in the same way.
God is present in both heaven and hell-but not in the same way.
God dwells in heaven-but he does not dwell in hell.
God's dwelling refers to his presence in blessing.
The Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp;
he does not walk in the midst of the camp of your enemies.
These laws emphasize that purity is required of the people of God as they serve him.
Finally, 24:1-4 sets forth laws concerning divorce.
Dt permits divorce for a wide array of reasons.
"Some indecency" is a pretty broad category (in Hebrew as well as English).
Jesus explained that this was done "for the hardness of your hearts" (Mt 19),
and that now divorce is only allowed for "porneia"-sexual immorality.
Paul explains in 1 Cor 7 that if an unbelieving spouse deserts a believer,
that is also grounds for divorce.
But the point is that breaking the marriage bond requires sexual immorality,
whether a sin of commission (adultery) or omission (desertion).
Neither Jesus nor Paul give an exhaustive list of cases in which divorce is possible,
but rather set forth the principles that should guide the church in deciding cases.
Notice that once divorced,
if the woman marries another man,
she may never again remarry her first husband.
This is described as "an abomination before Yahweh,"
which would defile the land of Israel's inheritance.
This is an interesting command-especially since the very thing prohibited by God,
appears to be precisely what God commanded Hosea to do.
Now, it is not clear that Hosea's wife, Gomer, ever married one of her lovers.
But she was divorced for adultery,
and then continued to live in adultery until Hosea bought her back
(Suggesting that she may have been another man's concubine)
And more to the point,
after God divorced Israel for spiritual adultery,
Israel continued to live in harlotry with other gods.
Yet God called his people back.
He wooed them back, and bought them out of their whoredom.
in the OT people died for their sexual sins.
in the NT people are excommunicated.
Adultery and fornication are abominations to God.
Why?
Because marriage is the biblical picture of God's love for his people.
Anyone who violates that picture, violates God.
Jesus Christ, of course, is the one who fulfills the seventh commandment perfectly:
he loves his bride, the church, and has given himself for her only.
he is utterly faithful to her, and never fails to keep his promises.
Though he divorced her once for her unfaithfulness,
he has promised never to do this again,
but to be with her until the end of the age,
so that the gates of hell might never again prevail over her.
We are to imitate Christ in his faithfulness.
And just as his faithfulness required death,
so also we must die.
Obedience requires death--obedience is costly;
to enjoy the land and its benefits,
you must be willing to sacrifice them/relinquish them.
Blessing is promised for self-denial.
If you rejoice in what God has given, then you too must give.
Disobedience is grasping and clinging to God's gifts,
making them into idolatrous objects of ultimate allegiance, desire, and trust.
This is why Paul tells those who have wives,
to "live as though they had none." (1 Cor 7:29)
He says that he tells them this because
"the present form of the world is passing away" (1 Cor 7:31)
God has given us marriage as a good gift in this creation.
But while it shows us a picture of redemption,
it fundamentally belongs to the "present form of the world."
It is very easy to grasp and cling to God's good gifts,
and turn your spouse (or your desire for a spouse)
into the center of your life.
Adultery occurs either as a sin of commission (whether in thought, word, or deed),
or as a sin of omission (when you fail to do what purity of heart and body requires).
The Larger Catechism sets forth the duties and sins of the seventh commandment:
Q138: What are the duties required in the seventh commandment?
A138: The duties required in the seventh commandment are, chastity in body, mind, affections,[1] words,[2] and behavior;[3] and the preservation of it in ourselves and others;[4] watchfulness over the eyes and all the senses;[5] temperance,[6] keeping of chaste company,[7] modesty in apparel;[8] marriage by those that have not the gift of continency,[9] conjugal love,[10] and cohabitation;[11] diligent labor in our callings;[12] shunning all occasions of uncleanness, and resisting temptations thereunto.[13]
Q139: What are the sins forbidden in the seventh commandment?
A139: The sins forbidden in the seventh commandment, besides the neglect of the duties required,[1] are, adultery, fornication,[2] rape, incest,[3] sodomy, and all unnatural lusts;[4] all unclean imaginations, thoughts, purposes, and affections;[5] all corrupt or filthy communications, or listening thereunto;[6] wanton looks,[7] impudent or light behavior, immodest apparel;[8] prohibiting of lawful,[9] and dispensing with unlawful marriages;[10] allowing, tolerating, keeping of stews, and resorting to them;[11] entangling vows of single life,[12] undue delay of marriage;[13] having more wives or husbands than one at the same time;[14] unjust divorce,[15] or desertion;[16] idleness, gluttony, drunkenness,[17] unchaste company;[18] lascivious songs, books, pictures, dancings, stage plays;[19] and all other provocations to, or acts of uncleanness, either in ourselves or others.[20]
Jesus says that even to look upon a woman with lust in your heart is to commit adultery.
If that is true, then how many of us are adulterers?
But still Christ calls me to be faithful.
How can I do it?
If I repent when I fail.
Husbands, do you ever find yourself glancing at another woman?
Do you repent?
Wives, do you ever find yourself dreaming of someone else?
Do you repent?
You see, if you repent and ask forgiveness, then you are still faithful to your vows.
If you do not repent, then you are not faithful to your vows.
If you simply assume that it will blow over,
then you are really just waiting for it to blow up.
Sin is crouching at the door. It's desire is to rule you,
but by the grace of God, it shall not have dominion over you.