Matthew 19:1-9 - Reading the Bible Holistically

Matthew 19:1-9

1 When Jesus had finished these words, He departed from Galilee and came into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan; 2 and large crowds followed Him, and He healed them there. 3 Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?” 4 And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined 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 no man separate.”7 They *said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?” 8 He *said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. 9 And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”

Message: Reading the Bible Holistically

Time: The date of Matthew's composition is anywhere from 55-60 AD probably in Antioch of Syria. The writing is most likely to the Jews. His purpose was to show them that Jesus of Nazareth was the expected messiah and both his genealogy and his resurrection were legitimate proofs of this.

What the Lord is Saying:

I need to be careful about how I read the Word of God each day. I thank you that it illumines my path and as I seek nourishment in it each day, it delivers me closer to Jesus and following God. I am enjoying this understanding of Scripture and the different literary styles being used. It is like an English lesson with the Bible. I learned yesterday to make sure I let the explicit meaning of passages define those that may be more implicit. In essence, scripture interprets scripture or scripture defines scripture. The Latin phrase Scriptura sacra sui ipsius interpres means sacred scripture is its own interpreter.

As I read and understand these words of Scripture, as I walk in them and see that they are a light to my path I conclude that God has inspired them. Paul wrote those words that All Scripture is inspired by God. But, I am still piecing together what He meant my All Scripture at that time. Today I can say that this means the canon of the Bible. I Corinthians 14:33 stated explicitly that God is not of confusion but of peace. This tells me that his inspired word does not contradict itself and I must be careful then about it is interpreted. God would not teach one thing in one passage and then contradict that teaching in another passage.

Take these 2 passages - Deuteronomy 24:1-4 and Matthew 19:1-9 that spoke speak of divorce. In Deuteronomy it states that When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her he writes her a certificate of divorce. In the first century, rabbi Hillel embraced the idea that any time any situation arises in which there are irreconcilable differences then a man is permitted to divorce his wife.

Jesus states here in Matthew 19 - He *said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”

I think in Moses's day and in the day of Jesus there was an issue of the hardness of people's hearts on this issue. People are bent towards divorce being an acceptable practice; this was true thousands of years ago and is true today.  Moses and Jesus both come back to the issue of God's plan is for people to marry and not divorce, but both provide their own allowances. We should be focused on the standard and not the exception. But since exceptions occur, we want to make sure we are still on the same playing field as the original expectation. Yet, I am not sure we are. But, I am also not sure any of us are on any issue. I think when we start talking exceptions, Jesus is saying that we need to not do what was often done in the time of Moses and afterwards and that is allow for multiple reasons. Jesus is more strict in stating it is only to be about sexual immorality. Man took a word like uncleanness in Deuteronomy and made it to mean many different things. People then focused on the idea that they could get out of a relationship. The union of man and woman is to be upheld. It is interesting that people looked for the way out and somewhat ignored the consequences.

I think this is what is meant by reading Scripture Holistically - to read all of Scripture and think about the context of each writer. On this issue we focus on the fact that Jesus wants commitments to remain, if at all possible, but if a divorce occurs it needs to be rare. Our divorce rates have improved but mostly because people have stopped getting married.

Promise: We need to read scripture in its context. I need to be a entire-Bible or whole-Bible Christian. I must diligently study all that God has revealed.

Prayer: Lord, help me with the understanding of Your Words. I need Your help.


Note: I follow the readings from the Tabletalk Magazine devotional, though I am a little behind and working through 2017 devotionals. 2017 is a study of key biblical doctrines with February being about the doctrine of revelation and the various aspects of the doctrine of Scripture that sola Scriptura seeks to preserve.