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Chapter 9: Adultery Now that we have looked at an overview of God’s rules for sexual conduct we will take a closer look at the one most often mentioned subjects in the scriptures, adultery. Marital unfaithfulness is the subject of more verses in the bible than any other sexual sin. The verses we will cover in this section are only a small sampling of what the bible has to say about this subject. To keep from being overly redundant I have used only a small portion of what is actually available. Marital unfaithfulness or adultery is in God’s view a comparison to idol worship. (Remember earlier we said that God uses parables and metaphors to enable us to understand how he feels, and that we as men should do the same for wome? Well, here are some examples) God compares himself, for the benefit of us understanding how he feels, to a husband who has an unfaithful wife. When we worship or place anything ahead of God in our lives, it is spiritual adultery. In the old testament the penalty for adultery was commanded by God to be death. The Jews rarely ever enforced this law, as they were constantly committing both physical and spiritual adultery from the day that God brought them out of the land of Egypt. If they had enforced it even the great king David would have been put to death after he consorted with Bathsheba, a married woman. The purpose of God in giving this command was to show the seriousness of committing spiritual adultery and worshipping anyone other than himself. The penalty for spiritual adultery is eternity in the lake of fire, which is called in the bible, the second death. Deu 5:21 NIV "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. You shall not set your desire on your neighbor's house or land, his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." Leviticus 20:10 NIV "'If a man commits adultery with another man's wife--with the wife of his neighbor--both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death. God hates the sin of adultery, and commands against it for both men and women. Adultery is a forgivable sin, but those who indulge in it will at the very least, lose some of their rewards at the resurrection. What good is it to you to be charitable and do good if you are going to erase it all by committing adultery? Proverbs 6:23-29 NIV for these commands are a lamp, this teaching is a light, and the corrections of discipline are the way to life, keeping you from the immoral woman, from the smooth tongue of the wayward wife. Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes, for the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread, and the adulteress preys upon your very life. Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned? Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched? So is he who sleeps with another man's wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished. God compares adulterers to horses, to lusty well fed stallions. Jeremiah 5:8 NIV they are well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing for another man's wife. It is the mans responsibility to set the standard for his household. There has been a double standard in almost all societies down through the centuries that allowed men to commit adultery, while the women were punished severely for it. God has no such double standard, in fact God holds the man of the house responsible for the adultery and fornication of his wife and his daughters if he himself is involved in this sin. Hosea 4:14 NIV "I will not punish your daughters when they turn to prostitution, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery, because the men themselves consort with harlots and sacrifice with shrine prostitutes-- a people without understanding will come to ruin! It is not necessary to complete the act of adultery to be guilty. The mere thought of it with the intention of doing it if the opportunity becomes available is enough to render one guilty of it. This is not just true of this particular sin, but all sins. The person who would steal money if they thought that they could get away with it is just as guilty as if they had stolen it already. Our former president, Jimmy Carter, confessed to "lusting in his heart" but not to commiting actual adultery. President Carter understood the scriptures and he is still happily married to his first and only wife, Rosalyn. He is a good example for us all, when it comes to marriage and working for humanity. God has blessed the Carter's with a long, happy and productive lives, and he can do the same for you and your spouse if you commit your life to doing God's will. Mark 7:21 NIV for from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, Matthew 5:28 NIV but I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. In Proverbs, God gives us an example of the modus operandi of an adulteress. Proverbs 7:6-27 NIV At the window of my house I looked out through the lattice. I saw among the simple, I noticed among the young men, a youth who lacked judgment. He was going down the street near her corner, walking along in the direction of her house at twilight, as the day was fading, as the dark of night set in. Then out came a woman to meet him, dressed like a prostitute and with crafty intent. (she is loud and defiant, her feet never stay at home; now in the street, now in the squares, at Every corner she lurks.) She took hold of him and kissed him and with a brazen face she said: "I have fellowship offerings at home; today I fulfilled my vows. So I came out to meet you; I looked for you and have found you! I have covered my bed with colored linens from Egypt. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. Come, let's drink deep of love till morning; let's enjoy ourselves with love! My husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey. He took his purse filled with money and will not be home till full moon." With persuasive words she led him astray; she seduced him with her smooth talk. All at once he followed her like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer stepping into a noose; till an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare, little knowing it will cost him his life. Her house is a highway to the grave, leading down to the chambers of death. Adultery Defiles A Nation And Incurs God’s Wrath
Divorce is often caused by adultery, a married man desiring another woman, or vice versa. God is not pleased with such behavior and the entire nation suffers because of it. Jer 23:10 NIV The land is full of adulterers; because of the curse the land lies parched and the pastures in the desert are withered. Sexual sin, no matter what type, be it adultery, homosexuality, or something else, brings down the curse of God on the entire nation. Some say that it should not matter what anyone does, every type of vice should be legal between consenting adults. The truth is that sin in a nation affects everyone in the nation. When God curses a land with poverty and high food prices because of sin it affects both the just and the unjusts' standard of living. They both go down, and prices go up. It's no coincidence that as homosexual marriage rages across the USA, inflation, especially gas and food prices are going up. There is a connection there, even if most people don't know it. So do yourself and your country a great favor, be a patriot, be faithful to one woman in marriage, and the land will be blessed. Ezek 22:11 NIV In you one man commits a detestable offense with his neighbor's wife, another shamefully defiles his daughter-in-law, and another violates his sister, his own father's daughter. Ezek 33:26 NIV You rely on your sword, you do detestable things, and each of you defiles his neighbor's wife. Should you then possess the land?' Hosea 4:2 NIV There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. Mal 3:5 NIV "So I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me," says the Lord almighty. The roaring 20's were followed by the "The Great Depression." After the poverty of the 1930's people returned to God in the 1940's and 1950's. Then things got liberal again beginning in the 1960's. As of today the stock market is below 10,000, nearly 2000 points below it's all time high. Inflation is on the rise and interestet rates will probably go up after the 2004 election. It is not the politicians that are causing these things to come upon us, it our sins as a nation. Let's get straighened out and get our acts together before God sends us the "2nd Great Depression." Even though God hates divorce and violence, he himself uses these tools when it becomes necessary. God split the nation of Israel into two parts during the reign of Solomon, and cast off one part. God, in a spiritual sense, is divorced. One nation he called Judah, and the other he called Israel. He characterizes them in the scriptures as two sisters married to one man and both are unfaithful to their husband. Jeremiah 3:6 NIV During the reign of king Josiah, the Lord said to me, " have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on Every high hill and under Every spreading tree and has committed adultery there. Note: (They worshipped idols on hills with trees) Jeremiah 3:8 NIV I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries. Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear; she also went out and committed adultery. God hates divorce, but, he had put up with their idol worship for hundreds of years and sent them prophet after prophet to urge them to repent, but they would not listen, so he figuratively divorced them by letting them be conquered by another nation and carried into captivity. In 721 B.C. God divorced the House of Israel and they were carried off to Assyria. Jeremiah 3:9-11 NIV Because Israel’s immorality mattered so little to her, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood. In spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, but only in pretense," declares the Lord. The Lord said to me, "faithless Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah. Marriage and divorce in Gods eyes is a picture of how he deals with the nations, especially his two chosen nations, Judah and Israel. God divorced Israel and yet even after the kingdom of Judah had seen what God had done to her sister Israel, after he had destroyed their nation and sent them off into captivity, Judah still did not repent and worship the true God, but continued to worship idols. Isaiah 50:1 NIV this is what the Lord says: "where is your mother's certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of my creditors did I sell you? Because of your sins you were sold; because of your transgressions your mother was sent away. God never did divorce Judah, (the Jews) Even though they were scattered after they rejected Christ, God has not divorced them to this day. God divorced Israel, the lost tribes, but he is still married to Judah. Judah’s punishment was nearly two thousand years of wandering, almost two thousand years of spiritual whoredom before God would forgive her and gather her back to his land, which he is doing today. (Note: the Jews were kicked out of Israel in 70 A.D. Due to their rejection and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. They became a nation again in 1948, after 1,878 years of punishment of being without a country as punishment for their sins) The Lord will probably make them the #1 economic power in the world when 2000 years of punishment has been fulfilled, by the year 2070 or before. See " COUNTDOWN TO 6000 " Some may ask, what should we do if we are in an adulterous relationship now or have been in one in the past? Read on. The Woman Caught In Adultery
John 8:2-11 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, "teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "if any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, "woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" "no one, sir," she said. "then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "go now and leave your life of sin." Jesus showed and example her of new testament mercy here, and did not enforce the death penalty on this lady. One wonders though why the Pharisees did not bring the man along also. Did he jump out the window and they couldn’t catch him? In truth, they were hypocrites, only trying to enforce the law on others, especially women, and not on themselves. They were self righteous, as explained in the example below. Luke 18:10-14 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or Even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' "but the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." Let us not despair because of our past, but try to go forward and do what is right in the future. For most of us that may mean we should remarry if we have a strong sexual desire. When we do get our lives in order with the guiding of the Holy Spirit, let’s not be like the Pharisee and glory in the works of the flesh as if we were earning our own salvation, but follow the example of the tax collector who simply prayed, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Matthew 7:1-4 NIV "do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. "why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? Luke 6:37 NIV "do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Chapter 10: > 10. Biblical Definition of Marriage |