How Does God View Divorce?
A. HOW DO WE VIEW GOD? HAVE WE MADE GOD IN OUR IMAGE?
B. CHRISTIANS BELIEVE THAT GOD MADE THEM.
1. They subject themselves to what HE thinks.
2. His thoughts are expressed in the Bible.
3. No room for opinion where God has expressed himself.
C. GOD HAS EXPRESSED HIMSELF CLEARLY & CONCISELY IN THE BIBLE.
1. God has a low view of aloneness.
2. God has a high view of marriage.
3. God hates divorce.
A. PROBLEM: "It is not good for man to dwell alone."
B. GOD'S SOLUTION: "I will make him an help meet for him."
A. GOD'S WISDOM REFLECTED( Isa. 55:8-9; Gen. 2:18 ).
B. Eph. 5:25-32. COMPARISON - MARRIAGE/CHRIST AND THE CHURCH.
A. CONTEXT:
1. Spoken to priests who should have known better( 2:1 ).
2. People didn't take God seriously - They mocked him( 1:13 ).
3. God's response( 2:1-3 ). "And I shall take you away." Why?
a. High rate of divorce.
b. Idolatry.
c. Selective in what they taught of God's word.
d. Adultery.
e. Genuinely poor neglected and oppressed.
f. Priests said there was no real problem in evil done.
g. They robbed God in the tithes.
h. Priests insisted there was no real benefit in serving God.
4. Of all these problems, it is divorce that God hates!
B. WHY DOES HE HATE DIVORCE?
1. Historical background:
a. Cultural difference between Gentile & Jewish women.
b. Jewish desire for sex object; priests taught divorce.
c. Child custody to man and Gentile step-mother.
d. Children raised by pagans.
2. Result:
a. Fathers treated children with hate & indifference.
b. Children resented fathers taking them from mothers.
3. God's reaction:
a. 4:5-6. Repentance in language of the divorce problem.
b. Silence 400 years until Luke 1:12-17. First issue.
C. GOD HASN'T CHANGED, HE STILL HATES DIVORCE( Mat. 19:1-12 ).
1. If you are looking for any other position than God hates divorce, you will not find it in the Scripture!
2. God hasn't gone soft on divorce, why must we?
A. WE THINK TOO MUCH IN TERMS OF "RIGHT TO REMARRY."
B. WE NEED AS A PEOPLE TO HATE DIVORCE.
