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Deuteronomy Chapter 24 "Persons,
Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage [1-18]." This
Bible Study is written by Roger Christopherson, and it's
transcription/ location Deuteronomy 24:1 "When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house." This applies to both the woman as well as to the man. Many so-called scholars say that "uncleanness" as used here is talking about being caught in adultery, however, it goes beyond that. It could not be adultery, for as we read in Deuteronomy 22:22, the penalty for adultery was death. "If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou put away evil from Israel." So we are not talking about adultery here, but the inability to get along with one another. It could be a number of things, but God allows for the bill of divorcement to be written and the separation to take place, but the separation requires that it be in writing and publicly stated. God didn't bring about this separation, but the man and woman brought it upon himself. Deuteronomy 24:2 "And when she is departed out of his house she may go and be another man's wife." When this woman leaves her first husband, she is allowed to be another man's wife, when she has the bill of divorcement in her hand. This form of divorcement is basically an annulment of the prior marriage. It is done for a personal reason that he or she considers necessary because the marriage could not stand. Deuteronomy 24:3 "And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife;" Remember, though it is talking about the woman, it applies to both the husband and the wife. In this case this woman could not get along with her second husband also, and her second husband gave her a bill of divorcement just like her first husband did. This also applies when her second husband dies and leaves her a widow, for in any case she is free from that second husband. Deuteronomy 24:4 "Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the Lord: and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance." "Her former husband" was "her first husband". When she has been bound in marriage, is what is meant by "defiled", because she has had the relations of a husband and wife with him. When a woman divorced her first husband and then remarried, and the second marriage ends like the first marriage, or the husband of the second marriage dies, by God's law she may not remarry her first husband. She may marry another man, but not her first husband, by God's law. God is a divorced person, and Jeremiah points this out in Jeremiah 3:8; "And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also." This is speaking of the time after king Solomon died and the kingdom was split into two separate kingdoms; the house of Israel, and the house of Judah. The "house [nation] of Israel" were the ten tribes that formed the nation to the north, and the "house [nation] of Judah" was made up of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin to the south. God dealt with each of these two nations separately, and that is why a person can get confused in their understanding of prophecy today. When Israel split into two separate nations, the Israel to the north made two golden calves for their worship, and stopped going to Jerusalem which was located in the nation of Judah. They turned from God's ways to idolatry and the heathen forms of their neighboring nations, such a baal [the groves] worship. From 745 to 722 B. C. God cut the nation of Israel lose, and sent the Assyrians down on them and removed the nation of Israel from off their land. Remember that the house of Judah remained for over a hundred years more as a nation, before they fell deeper in sin than what her sister nation Israel fell into. God then used king Nebuchadnezzar, and the Babylonians to clear the house of Judah from the land and take them off to Babylon in captivity. So this is speaking here in Jeremiah of that time when the house of Israel is removed from the land, and God gave Israel a bill of divorcement, and that bill is written here in the book of Jeremiah. When God gave that divorce He sent the entire nation off His land, the promise land, and they were brought to an area in northern Iraq, where in time they broke into groups or tribal clans, and together moved through the Caucasus mountains, to scatter out over Europe, and the Americas. Jeremiah 3:9 "And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks." God is a divorced person, or entity, but when Christ died on the cross, than that left her [Israel] free to remarry back into the Father's house. When Jesus Christ shed his blood on the cross to pay the price for the sins of fallen Israel [all sins except for one], it was absolute that the sins of that first marriage were wiped out, when these sins were confessed in Jesus name. This is why it is possible for a divorced person to remarry, even to a prior husband, for when both parties, the husband and the wife have confessed their sins to the Father, those sins have been remove for them for ever. It then become a matter of forgiveness between themselves, and in their own hearts and minds. Luke 12:8 "Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess Me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God:" Luke 12:9 "but he that denieth Me before men shall be denied before the angels of God." The name of Jesus Christ before the Father will forgive any sin except one. That sin cannot be committed until Satan is here on earth in his role as the Antichrist. When you know that Satan is coming first to deceive the world, you are ready for Satan's time of arrival. If you worship Satan as the True Christ, fully knowing he is the fake, there is no forgiveness for you. God's elect will be called up to witness against Satan, and when one of God's elect [sealed] refuses to allow the Holy Spirit to witness through him or her, that is the unforgivable sin. Luke 12:10 "And whosever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven." Luke 12:11 "And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say:" Luke 12:12 "For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say." This refusal is what is know as the unpardonable or unforgivable sin. So the only thing that matters is; Does Christ have the power and ability to forgive sin? and your answer had better be "yes". If divorce is the sin of adultery, not the rejection of the Holy Spirit, can Christ forgive the sin of divorce? Of course that answer is also yes. This is an absolute and not negotiable with any man. It is not like man's "law of precedent" that our land goes by today, where by one judge can create laws by making a ruling on a case and the rest of mankind has to live by it. God forgiveness of divorce by a person is not a tradition of men but an absolute law, written in God's Word. Therefore when the husband [Christ] died on the cross for his wife [the bride of Christ], He gave His life for her, He can forgive her sins all the way back to the beginning. If a woman is married to an husband, or man to a woman, and they are divorced, and one of them marries another person. If that person repents of all their sins, being completely honest with God, the moment he or she repents, he becomes a new person. They can have a new start in life, and if he or she chose to return to the prior husband or wife it would be no sin, because they are new persons in the Lord. The Lord said that when you repent of your sins in My name, your sins are forgiven, I don't want to hear of them again. Don't bring them back up to Me, because if the sins is forgiven and is washed away, then that sin is gone also. In the eyes of Christ you are as a virgin to Him as far as marriage is concerned. Even though you have the right to do it, and you go back together with the first spouse, in the physical sense it may be hard to remarry one that you have divorced, for many thing could have happened. However, God gave these laws as types. So why would God say these things in His law? If a couple divorce and lives with another person for a period of time and goes back to the first person, it is just part of nature to hold jealousy when things come up that would allow for comparisons. Legally you can remarry that person, but it is difficult to forgive and forget the past. However, if you are both in love with each other and you are able to forgive all sins and matters of jealousy and put the past behind you, you can have a peaceful marriage. It is hard for two people to go back and make a go of it, and it requires great patience and a forgiving heart. This is why God put this command in His law, for He knew how the mind of man and woman is living in the flesh. It will take the love of Christ in the hearts of the couple to overcome the troubles that a remarriage will bring. When you share your problems with other people, they will not forgive or forget, but Christ will forgive and He will put all sins from you when you repent of them. Deuteronomy 24:5 "When a man hath taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war, neither shall he be charged with any business: but he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer up his wife which he hath taken." Naturally this is not part of our society any more, however, there is lot of wisdom in this verse. The first thing that this year of seclusion with the wife would do is to bond the marriage. This time is a very emotional time, and the purpose for this time was to cheer up his wife and start the family. This time would break down those barrier that may exist upon marriage between the couple, and give them the foundation for their future years together. If a man takes the time to try to understand what pleases his wife, there would be far less divorces taking place. When you please her, then she will go out of her way to satisfy you in those matters that you are sensitive to. There will be no trouble getting along in your marriage. Deuteronomy 24:6 "No man shall take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge: for he taketh a man's life to pledge." The "millstone" is what produces the bread that gives man life, it is his livelihood. If you take the "nether or upper millstone", there can be no grinding, and you put the entire mill out of business. God is warning us that we should never put a man out of business over a pledge. Today this is done through usury, and when a man is paying high interest in house and credit card payments, it is taking away much of the bread money to support his family. It is taking away the upper millstone that makes the bread that feeds his family. Deuteronomy 24:7 "If a man be found stealing any of his brethren of the children of Israel, and maketh merchandise of him, or selleth him; then that thief shall die; and thou shalt put evil away from among you." This holds true for all the races and nations of the world. It is not right to make slaves of any soul. However, in the religious sense there is a far more serious matter that is going on today, and that is the stealing of souls and holding them as slaves to their evil traditions. There are many examples of this of this when a man practices mind control over his congregation that even goes to the point of death. We have the Jimmy Jones case in San Francisco, where thousands of people picked up and moved to Guyana, and there committed suicide. There is the case in Los Angeles were many people took the poison by their leader's instruction to follow the lies of their leader. Then through mind control they committed suicide together thinking that they would go chasing after a comet. We do have the right to worship as we desire, but when these religious charlatans use mind control to lock the minds of their subjects through fear and deception, it becomes a thing of the devil. The point to this verse is that people will steel souls and put them in bondage to themselves, or to traditions. God is telling us not allow ourselves to be in bondage to any one or system. When we see that a so-called religious man of God is getting on an ego trip, it is time to get out and away from him. When the attention is drawn more to the man than to God, that work is not a work of God. If God gives a gift, than that gift is to be used to draw people to God, not to the one with the gift. If it draws others to the man rather than God, than that person is not of God. All gifts belongs to God, not the person that the gift was was placed in, and only God can get the credit for its use. Deuteronomy 24:8 "Take heed in the plague of leprosy, that thou observe diligently, and do according to all that the priests the Levites shall teach you: as I commanded them, so ye shall observe to do." "Leprosy" in Moses day has the same meaning as we would approach AIDS of today. AIDS is the plague of the Sodomites and to those that Sodomites have passed on to. The sickness represents a point of defiance in the land against God's laws. Moses is telling the people to listen to the gifted teachers and you will never have to worry about the "plague of leprosy", or in our case AIDS, to have it become a part of your life. The teacher of God's Word will teach you the matters concerning the health laws, as well as how to live your life according to God's Word. When you live your life as God instructs you, those things will not plague you. Deuteronomy 24:9 "Remember what the Lord thy God did unto Miriam by the way, after that ye were come forth out of Egypt." God is giving this verse as an example to us. Miriam was the sweet sister of Moses, and as kind as she was in Egypt, after they had left Egypt she, along with Aaron her brother, turned the entire camp of Israel to idol worship. Though she was strong for the Lord through her life, when Moses went up on mount Sinai to receive the ten commandment, the words from her mouth convinced the people to make an idol and worship it. Is Moses trying to cover up the sins of his own family? Of course not, but Moses is using those sins as a reminder of those things that happened after the people follow his sister. Many in the camp died when God opened the ground and swallowed them up. It is completely up to you who you will listen to and the words that you will follow, but God is telling you that you will pay a price for going against Him and His Word. You can count of those curses. Deuteronomy 24:10 "When thou dost lend thy brother any thing, thou shalt not go into his house to fetch his pledge." When your poor borther makes a pledge to do or borrow something and it comes time to receive that pledge back, no man is to go into that man's house make him pay up. Why? Because you humble him in his own house, and God will not stand for that. You tare your bother down before his family, in his own home. This is directed to collecting from a poor brother. It doesn't matter how poor anyone is, their house is their castle. They may even have a dirt floor, but that person has the right to reign is his own home. A man has the right to have dignity within his own home before his family, and God is commanding that we never take a man's dignity from him. This applies to both the man and the woman. You don't loan something to a person, and go into his home and threaten him to recover that debt. Deuteronomy 24:11 "Thou shalt stand abroad, and the man to whom thou dost lend shall bring out the pledge abroad unto thee." God is telling you not to even enter on his property for the sake of retrieving the item or money, unless he or she asks you to enter. This is set up to indicate how we are to deal with the poor. If that pledge is necessary for maintaining his life or livelihood, than we are to allow him to keep it. If it is a matter of his family eating and going without, God demands that you walk away and give him that pledge. Don't put him out of business but give the guy a chance to earn his living. When he is capable of giving it back to you, he will bring it to you. We are talking about a brother here, part of and a member of your family. Deuteronomy 24:12 "And if the man be poor, thou shalt not sleep with his pledge:" The pledge spoken of here is his upper garment, or his mantle. It was his clothes that classifies him as being poor. Deuteronomy 24:13 "In any case thou shalt deliver him the pledge again when the sun goeth down, that he may sleep in his own raiment, and bless thee: and it shall be righteousness unto thee before the Lord thy God." God commands us to help our poor brother that is trying to live his life God's Way. The difference between the ones that we are to assist and the other poor is the dignity that is in that poor man's minds. Some people have just given up, and they don't care where they sleep, what they eat, or what happens to their physical body. These are not the people that are spoken of here, for this is in reference to those that have their personal pride in themselves and their family, and they earnestly strive to provide for their family. When you have lent something to one of these persons, we are not to expect to even receive it back, for when we lend it to them, it becomes a gift to them. If you do receive it back from the poor person, than it becomes a blessing to you from God. Even your poor brother deserve dignity and respect. Deuteronomy 24:14 "Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy strangers that are in thy land within thy gates:" Now we are changing the focus from your brother and immediate family, to the people of the neighborhood and strangers that are passing through. This is directed to the person that has hired these people and they are working directly for you. God is telling you that when any man is working for you, then you become responsible for him. Deuteronomy 24:15 "At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it: lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee." When this man is poor, God demands that you pay the man at the close of the workday. You don't wait to Friday, or the end of the month, but you provide for his needs as the wage is earned. This is when the man or woman is poor and the wage is required to sustain the man or woman's life for even that day. This man may have some little babies that need milk and food, and if the man has wages coming and you withhold the wages and cause him to sin to get it, you become part of that sin. If you are going to hire someone, make sure you pay attention to your employees that you don't violate this law. If your employee has earned wages and you have withheld that pay from him and cause him to sin because of your withholding, you become part of that sin. You are not to force them to even ask for the pay, for if they have to come to you as a begger for what is rightfully their, you have damaged their dignity. It demands common sense on your part. Deuteronomy 24:16 "The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin." This is another good example of what we read earlier from Jeremiah 31:29; "In those days they shall say no more, `The have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge.'" Jeremiah 31:30 "But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge." When the father bites on a sour grape that bitter taste does not enter the child's mouth. When a father sins a sin, then he pays for his the sins of his own actions himself. When the father commits a crime demanding for his death, it shall not be put on his children, but it is the the father that sinned that pays the price. Certain people believed that when the father sinned the whole family was to be put to death. The punishment was to end with the enforcement of the law upon the one that sinned. Deuteronomy 24:17 "Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless; nor take a widow's raiment to pledge:" God is telling us that we are not to even accept a pledge from the stranger, the fatherless or a widow when the pledge of promise is the last thing that she has. We are to help them in any manner we can without perverting them and making a begger out of themselves. Deuteronomy 24:18 "But thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee thence: therefore I command thee to do this thing." This is the reason that we are to pay attention to these laws that God had put upon us. When the children of Israel were down in Egypt, they had nothing, they were slaves and beggars for everything that they had received. When the Pharaoh came to them and made a demand, there was no choice or dignity within them, they had to follow the orders, for they were allowed nothing. In this teaching God divorced the people of Israel, and He let them go into captivity in Egypt. They were booted out of their promised land in Canaan for a set time of four hundred years. While they were in Egypt they worked like animals in making bricks and building the Pharaoh's cities. Their dignity was taken from them completely, which gets to this lesson as a type. So this is not a threat as to warning the people of Israel of what He will do to them, as it is a reminder of how they use to be. Moses was telling them to look back when they were slaves back in Egypt. God is telling the Israelites that if I did it once to you, don't think that I can't do it again to you. Nothing will bring children back home to the Father than a good depression and very hard times. Hard times brings a family closer together. It is just human nature, and as long as a person is trying we are to use our wisdom to help them maintain their dignity and get back on their feet. God will bless you for your part. Deuteronomy 24:19 "When thou cuttest down thine harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow: that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands." God is telling us that when we are bringing in a harvest, and some of the profits of the crop fall by the wayside, leave it for those that need it. When you do something to save the dignity for person that is poor and allow him to get ahead a little, God will bless you in all the other works of thy hands. Deuteronomy 24:20 "When thou beatest thine olive tree, thou shalt not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow." When your orchards are ready for the harvest, you are to take the basic picking of the fruit, but you are not to go over it again to get the very last of the fruit, for that is for those of the poor and the widows. Here again the point to be considered is that we pay attention to the poor and needy, that we do not hurt their dignity. For when we consider them, God will bless the rest of the work of our hands. Deuteronomy 24:21 "When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean it afterward: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow." This is the third example that God has given to us to cause us to pay attention to the poor, and try to give them dignity. This is a ministry all in itself, and when you take a person that is down and out and put dignity back into their souls, you have given them a reason to live and you have put value back into their lives. God is trying to show each of us, regardless of what our business is, that it applies to you and I personally. Deuteronomy 24:22 "And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt: therefore I command thee to do this thing." This is one of the ways that God used to allow us to have more of God's blessings. We not only help our fellow man (woman) but we are providing a way for God to give us back His blessings. This doesn't just apply to money and things, but it applies also to the words that we say about and to someone that is down and out. Sometimes to give money to someone that refuses to work is just as bad as not giving money when it is absolutely needed. However, the thing that determines when to give, or when not to give is based on the dignity that is instilled in the person receiving it. Wisdom then is telling someone how to get ahead, and in some cases leading them to that avenue.
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