The violation of the marriage covenant prohibited in the seventh commandment recalls the narrative of Genesis 2, when God brings the woman to the man and they become one flesh. Adultery violates the very nature of this relationship. The seventh command was designed to protect the basic fabric of family life.
The key word here is adultery. The Hebrew word “NA’AAP” means “to commit adultery, figuratively to apostatize, to break wedlock”. It is crucial to understand this term in light of ancient Hebrew culture. This term is distinct in an Old Testament context from “fornication”. Adultery relates to at least one party in the sexual relationship being married. The term “fornication” implies both parties are not married. The distinction gets lost in the New Testament Greek terms. God is very clear that the sanctity of the marriage relationship is to be honored by all.
Leviticus 18:20 Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor’s wife and defile yourself with her. Hebrews 13:4 Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.
Forms of marriage in the Old Testament: Beginning in late antiquity, Judaism and Christianity have strongly disapproved of non monogamous marriages, citing the creation ideal of Genesis 2. However, the Old Testament permitted several marital structures, including monogamy (the most common option), polygamy, and Levirate marriage; prescribed in the Mosaic Law where the nearest male relative of a deceased, childless male marries the widow and rears a child in honor of the deceased (Deuteronomy 25:5).
Polygamy, or more properly polygyny, the marriage of one man with multiple women, was generally the practice among the wealthy and powerful, not among the vast majority, who were peasants. At the same time, fidelity within marriage of whatever structure was an absolute requirement.
Adultery was condemned prior to the Mosaic Law being instituted and was seen as a sin against neighbor and God. In Genesis 12:10-20 and Genesis 20:2-13 we read of Abram (Abraham) trying to pass off his wife Sarai (Sarah) as his sister so that men would not kill him in order to take his wife. But the Lord inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai (Genesis 12:17). Genesis 20:3 But God came to Abimelek in a dream one night and said to him, “You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman.” Isaac did the same thing with Rebekah in Genesis 26:7-10. Then Abimelek said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the men might well have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us” (Genesis 26:10). In Genesis 39 when Joseph is tempted to sleep with Potiphar’s wife Joseph said “How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9). So as we can see from these passages, God has always taken seriously the sanctity of the marriage covenant.
The seriousness of committing adultery is further emphasized by the penalty prescribed in the Old Testament for violating this command. Leviticus 20:10 If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death. Deuteronomy 22:22 If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel. However, the Law did not permit anyone to be convicted except on the testimony of multiple witnesses (Deuteronomy 19:15; Numbers 35:30).
The Bible regards monogamy, the lifelong union of one man and one woman, as the “way that works” for marriage. This was God’s intention from the beginning; read Genesis 2:18-24. To break wedlock is to undermine the family unit, and erode the health of a nation. It brings grief, guilt, shame, and disorder to everyone involved.
In Matthew 5:27-28, Jesus showed the true meaning behind this command. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. The point that Jesus makes here is that none of us are innocent.
The Pharisees believed they were only unfaithful to their marriage covenant if they literally committed adultery. Jesus however taught a different interpretation. Some have interpreted Jesus’ words as a higher moral teaching than what was commanded in the Law of Moses. But it was always there. The last of the Ten Commandments says “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife” (Exodus 20:17; Deuteronomy 5:21). The principle of not looking lustfully at a woman had been around long before the Mosaic Law was put into effect. Job 31:1 I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman. Proverbs teaches that the way to avoid adulterous women is to “not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes” (Proverbs 6:25).
The Pharisees would boast that they had never cheated on their wives but they thought nothing of divorcing over and over again whenever they found a more attractive woman. They even thought they had book, chapter, and verse to support their perceived innocence (Deuteronomy 24:1-4). But Jesus very clearly stated in Matthew 5:31-32 that the only acceptable reason for divorce under the Mosaic Law was adultery. Matthew 5:31-32“It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
We will look at the issue of divorce in another lesson. What we want to focus on today is that adultery was sufficient cause for divorce under Mosaic Law. In Hebrew culture to divorce one’s spouse, meant to “send them away”. If one was guilty of adultery they had broken the covenant and could be “sent away” by their spouse (provided they weren’t executed for the sin of adultery). This is significant because the Bible tells us in Malachi 2:16 that God hates divorce.
Malachi 2:16 (NASB) For I hate divorce,” says the Lord, the God of Israel. The word translated “divorce” here literally means to “send away”. Divorce was sometimes necessary in the case of adultery if there was no repentance, but God still hated it. But there is a deeper meaning to this verse and to the seventh commandment.
God has always “hated divorce” (Malachi 2:16) but what he was really getting at was Israel’s covenant relationship with Him. The marriage relationship, the covenant between husband and wife, more than anything else, symbolized the relationship between God and His people (Israel). In a physical sense the Israelites were not to commit adultery because this would dishonor their neighbor and destroy a marriage thereby also damaging the family. Healthy families are a critical ingredient to a healthy society. But in a spiritual sense, Israel was not to commit adultery against God by worshiping foreign gods for this would break their covenant relationship. Yet that is exactly what Israel did.
God’s relationship to Israel is often pictured as the relationship between a husband and wife. As the northern kingdom of Israel was disintegrating because of their adultery, a word from God came to the prophet Hosea. Hosea 1:2 When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.”As if words are too weak to convey His passion, God told Hosea to act out a living parable. He tells Hosea to go and marry a promiscuous woman (Gomer), who, true to form, soon runs away and commits adultery. Only by living out this drama could Hosea understand, and then express, something of how God felt concerning Israel’s adultery. In the covenant Israel agreed to love and obey God, no matter what. But by Hosea’s time Israel’s love for God had grown dim. He had given them multiple chances but eventually he divorced them.
Jeremiah 3:8 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 divorced the northern kingdom of Israel because of her adulteries. As a result the northern kingdom fell and the people were carried away to Assyria. 2 Kings 17:6-7 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in the towns of the Medes. 7 All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped other gods.
Judah should have known that God would divorce her as well if she did not repent of her adulteries but Judah was even worse. Jeremiah 3:9-11 Because Israel’s immorality mattered so little to her, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood. 10 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. 11 The Lord said to me, “Faithless Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah. Because of her adultery God would eventually “divorce” Judah, sending her away to captivity in Babylon. 2 Kings 25:21 So Judah went into captivity, away from her land.
Jeremiah 2-3 exposes Judah’s adultery with foreign gods. Again and again God made his charges against the southern kingdom of Judah. Of all the nations he picked her; He tenderly offered His protection and care. But she kept committing adultery. He warned her again and again, but she ignored Him. God’s words in Jeremiah bleed with pain. He accuses as though He cannot help himself, although His words tear His own heart. First, He is tender, full of memories. Jeremiah 2:2 This is what the Lord says: “‘I remember the devotion of your youth,how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the wilderness,through a land not sown. But then you “broke off your yoke and tore off your bonds; you said, ‘I will not serve you! Indeed on every high hill and under every spreading tree you lay down as a prostitute” Jeremiah 2:20. In disgust, God compared Judah to a donkey in heat “sniffing in the wind in her craving – in her heat who can restrain her? Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves at mating time they will find her” Jeremiah 2:24. But the comparison hurt Him more than her. God’s love, not hers, was scorned.
How does God view unfaithfulness? I encourage you to read Jeremiah 2-3, Ezekiel 23, and the book of Hosea (14 chapters) to get a better idea of how God views adultery towards Him. The prophet Hosea was the first to draw the picture of God married to an adulteress. Jeremiah amplified it. The comparison cried out both the passionate love God feels for His people and the terrible wounded pain He feels at their betrayal. But God still had a plan for His people that would include all people and He made that plan known to Hosea in Hosea 2:16“In that day,” declares the Lord,“you will call me ‘my husband’;you will no longer call me ‘my master.
That day would come with the coming of Jesus Christ. Hebrews 10:9-10 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Jesus lived a perfect life thereby fulfilling the Law and making Himself an acceptable, once for all sacrifice for our sins. He willingly laid down His perfect life and He had the authority to take it up again (John 10:18) which he did when He walked out of that tomb. In doing this Jesus conquered the Law and death and through Him so can you and I.
Jesus is pictured as a husband or “bridegroom” at least 12 times in the New Testament. In the New Testament the church is pictured as “the bride of Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:2; Revelation 19 and 21). Read Ephesians 5:21-32. Ephesians 5:32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. How does marriage represent Christ and the church? Just as the husband and the wife are to be joined together as one (Genesis 2:24), so Christ and the church are united as one. As Christ demonstrates His love for the church and we respond by showing our love for Him, it is similar to the deepening intimacy that exists between a husband and wife. When we are baptized into Christ we enter into a “covenant relationship” with Him. We become part of His Body, the church, which is His bride.
Some of us here this morning have been victims of adultery. Remember how you felt, the pain and anger that comes when someone you have sacrificed so much for willingly and selfishly tosses that away to pursue their selfish lusts. Now, think how God feels when we do that to Him (elaborate). None of us are innocent; Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We have all cheated on God with the things of this world.
The penalty for committing adultery under the Law was death. God gave the nation of Israel (including Judah) chance after chance to repent of her adulteries. He gave her one last chance through Jesus Christ. Israel, the nation, rejected Christ as the Messiah and they were ultimately destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. with the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple (see Matthew 24; Mark 13; Luke 21). The physical nation of Israel, in essence was put to death.
Christ ushered in a new kingdom, a spiritual one that is open to all who would accept the gospel message and submit their lives to Christ. Hebrews 12:28 reminds us that this new kingdom can never be shaken, Psalm 145:13 reminds us that this kingdom is everlasting and will endure through all generations. Through Christ we can now approach God’s throne of grace with confidence and find mercy and grace when we need it (Hebrews 4:16). However, Hebrews 10:28-29 says “Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?”
If one rejects Jesus Christ, they are trampling the Son of God underfoot and the result, if the individual does not repent, is to be “sent away”, divorced from salvation, which equals spiritual death. Matthew 7:23 Jesus speaking of those who did not do His will said “Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!” Jesus said in Matthew 25:41 Depart from me, you who are cursed and Matthew 25:46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:57). We’ve all cheated on God but as Christians we can “approach God’s throne of grace with confidence”, and receive grace and mercy when we fall short.
If you’re here this morning and you haven’t been baptized into Christ, what are you waiting for? There is no other sacrifice for sins, no other way to be reconciled to God. If you are in Christ but you’ve been unfaithful then humbly and boldly approach God’s throne of grace and accept the forgiveness that is yours in Jesus Christ, then go do the next right thing.