YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY Exodus 20:14
Moses thundered the command, ‘ you shall not commit adultery ’. One version reads, ‘ No adultery ’ while another stresses, ‘ You shall not break wedlock.’ It is uncompromising, from the eternal God. The creation account is so clear, ‘The rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and he brought her to the man. Adam said, ‘ this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man’. Then the following decree, ‘ therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And they were both naked ( clothed with heavenly glory -Shekinah radiance). The man and his wife were, understandably, not embarrassed.
The original union was spiritual, when the spirit of man and woman were unified: they were soulfully unified, whereby mind, emotions and will or volition were integrated: and God in His creative perfection has blue-printed the physical joining of husband and wife. God decreed that husband and wife are therefore totally united. God also lifted all constraint, relaxing and freeing a relationship which is best indicated in term ‘ intimacy’, where endearment is reserved for some close oneness. Matthew Henry skillfully describes a woman as a blanket before her husband ’ s eyes. Bless God for this effective, feminine safeguard. Marriage therefore prescribes an individual oneness, and explains why God intended a one-by-one closeness for life. A dear friend confided that he and his wife held hands nightly - often awakening still holding hands. God grieves when some endure an unholy pact, which has miserably failed God’s conditions, and practical, protective measures preserve a woman ’ s well-being.
Leviticus frankly and nauseatingly defines ‘ uncovering nakedness of close family members, from verses 6-19 . Petersen ’ s ‘ The message ’ says, ‘ Don ’ t have sex. ‘ Such union is ‘ wickedness ’ . God designed womanhood with cyclical and hormonal safeguards. v19 God ’ s sensitive Word is authoritative. This chapter comforts manhood and dignifies womanhood. It demonstrates the heart of man as desperately wicked, defying God ’ s normative preservation of chastity for married oneness of husband and wife. Surprisingly, this chapter protects children from being offered in the fire, lest such parents profane the name of the Lord. Practical, life-sparing. Man to man (sodomy ) and bestiality (union with a beast). I recall the groaning relief when a believer was delivered from this revolting pollution. God ’ s Word associates the pollution of a nation with those who practice these deviations. Does this apply to our nation: is God displeased?
Floods, high tides, fires, epidemics, such as swine fever. !
The Judge of all the earth delivers His verdict on adultery, the severity of which will jolt our generation. God decreed death to each participant to rid the land or nation of this accursed practice. ‘Everybody is doing it ’ should be countered with God's solemn edict, ‘ You shall not commit adultery’. What an outcry if this truth should be proclaimed widely today! The accepted, widespread practice is regarded with amusement, dominating novel writers, television and radio presentation. Yet, God has spoken- and man is silent in condemning this practice. Leviticus 18
Spiritual implications of adultery surprise: e.g. apostasy or backsliding, which grieve God ’ s heart. In Judges 2, the angel of the Lord (that is, our Lord Jesus) spoke to Joshua and the children of Israel, who did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals. And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers; and they followed other gods; and they bowed down to them, and they provoked the Lord ’ s fury. ‘ The anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. They provoked the wrath of God. ‘ They would not listen to their judges, but they played the prostitute with other gods, and bowed down to them. The disastrous outcome: ‘ They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, in obeying the commandments of the Lord; they did not do so.’ v17
Strong ’ s Concordance describes ‘ prostitute’as harlot, practicing fornication, and adultery.
Any departure from the right path with our Lord is the colossal sin of spiritual adultery. This staggered many of God ’ s people who revolt at sexual adultery, yet commit spiritual adultery in their hourly abandonment of the Lord. God ’ s reaction reveals this.
The same Hebrew word described the unfaithfulness of the half tribe of Manasseh. They were unfaithful to the God of their fathers, and played the prostitute after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them. 1 Chronicles 5:25 The Lord responded by stirring up the spirit of an unbelieving nation, Pul King of Assyria. Our sensitive Lord still discriminates between the faithful and unfaithful. North Korea has threatened South Korea this day, which nation intercedes early (5 am)( every morning. They will pour out their hearts calling on the name of the Lord in simultaneous prayer, in which Gwenda and I participated.
He will marvelously safeguard His special people. The revival in South Korea , which is the foremost missionary nation of South East Asia, began in North Korea in Pjongyang one hundred years ago. Prostitution led to nuclear threat. Expect our God to preserve His holy people.
David was sensitive to this grievous error, for he wrote in Psalm 106:39, ‘ The people of Israel mingled with the Gentiles, and learned their works; they served their idols; demonic forces operated as ‘ they shed innocent blood of their sons and daughters , and the land was polluted with blood ; and they were defiled with their own works, and played the prostitute by their own deeds. We can predict the Father ’ s response, ‘ The wrath of the Lord was kindled against his own people, so that he abhorred His own inheritance.’ Thus we glimpse the heart of our God, who abhorred or as Strong ’ s concordance shows ‘ He loathed, detested, regarded as abominable’ His own precious people. The Laodicean church made Him vomit; how does our Lord view our worship which is often destitute of intimate fellowship with our Beloved.
Ezekiel used vivid language to describe how God ’ s heart was shattered, broken in pieces, destroyed as from the word ‘ crushed ’ . 6:9 His heart must have been heavy, ‘ Those of you who escape are among the nations where they are carried captive, because I was crushed by their adulterous heart, which has departed from Me, and by their eyes which play the prostitute after their idols; they will loathe themselves for the evils which they committed in all their abominations. ’ The same Hebrew word describes the adulterous heart as with the loathsome term, ‘ prostitute. ’ God ’ s Spirit contrasts the most tender oneness between husband and wife with the waywardness of the nation that He has nurtured. Indeed, the term committed is one of the great creation terms, showing that spiritual adultery is intelligently, though wickedly designed and cobbled together to contravene God ’ s gracious law.
Worship of idols pollutes lives; ’ ’ I will do these things to you for you have gone as a prostitute after the Gentiles, because you have become defiled by their idols. Ezekiel 26:30, while the Lord says, ’ How can the Lord ’ s people forget their saving Lord- how can He be pushed outside the memory of His tender care? ’ ‘Because you have forgotten Me, and cast Me behind your back, therefore, you shall bear the penalty of your lewdness and prostitution.’ v35
Strong ’ s speaks of ‘ lewdness ’ as unchaste, licentious, adultery, harlotry. ’ We’ve falsely excused ourselves on the ground of memory lapse, while the Lord views it differently. It is adultery!
Israel ’ s idolatry is shown in Hosea 4 as biblical adultery, Verse 11 seems to have been written for our generation, where ‘ binge drinking ’ of alcohol concludes each week ’ s University studies. *
What happens to our intelligentsia? When ‘ prostitution, wine and new wine enslave the heart. ’ We speak of chemical dependency, which enslaves the person to the drug. God ’ s dear Word is chemically correct. The spirit of prostitution has caused them to stray, and they have played the whore against their God. ‘ They offer sacrifices on the mountain tops (despite creation wonder and atmospheric crispness), and burn incense on the hills, under oaks, poplars, terebinths your daughters commit prostitution and your brides (observe the term) commit adultery. God ’ s Spirit writes forthrightly and distinctly. Sexual prostitution tyrannizes. These truths are seldom taught and virtually unknown by Christians. 5:4 and 9:1 embody the same warnings.
Our God is jealous and sensitive. He likens His oneness with the children of Israel as equivalent to the marriage covenant. Husband and wife exchange golden wedding rings witnessing to the world their oneness. Our dear son and his wife have the word of God inscribed on their wedding rings. That ’ s how valuable Israel is to their God. Fractured covenant grieves the dear Lord. ‘ Not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. Jeremiah 31:32
In Jeremiah 3, God ’ s yearning heart breaks for a faithful partner. In verse 2, He said, ‘ You have played the prostitute with many lovers: yet return to Me; says the Lord. Our omniscient God discerns all unfaithfulness: hence the Lord described many lovers. Then our miracle-working God suspended the showers, distressed with their ingratitude. Significant in our state of South Australia, having endured the most disastrous drought for decades, ‘ You have polluted the land with your prostitutions and wickedness. Therefore, the showers have been withheld, and there had been no latter rain, you have had a prostitutes ’ forehead, stubborn, defiant, unbending, refusing to be ashamed. Many believers innocently accept their climatic drought without linking it with the spiritual adultery of our nation and leaders.
The same impressive chapter shows backsliding as adultery. ‘ Backsliding Israel has played the harlot on every high mountain and under every green tree. V6 Such deceit is infective, ‘ Her treacherous sister Judah saw it; though frighteningly intense, ‘ For all the causes backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce , yet her treacherous sister did not fear, but went and played the prostitute also. ’ Depressing to continue, but God does. No wonder we appreciate Jeremiah, which Know Your Bible currently follows.
The degeneration continued, ‘I t came to pass, through her casual prostitution she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees, ‘ v9 Her ‘ sporty ’ unfaithfulness is light-hearted or frivolous. Amazing is our flippant attitude to such grievous deep-dyed sin.
The simple, yet profound solution to this sexual depravity is found in the same chapter. Courageously teach saintly truths from God ’ s holy Word. ‘ Return, O Backsliding children, says the Lord; for I Am married to you. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. Here is the thrilling counsel, ‘ I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding ‘ . V15 When God ’ s people appreciate that their Lord is justly dispensing His right judgments, especially rewarding loyalty and punishing disloyalty, they confidently draw near to the living God,
’ The Lord said to me, ‘ Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Ohoibah. Declare to them their abominations, that is, Jerusalem is an adulteress. Ohoibah means ‘ Her own tent ‘ . They have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols, and even sacrificed their sons whom they bore to me, passing them through the fire, to devour them. ‘ Then I said concerning her who had grown old in adulteries, ‘ Will they commit prostitution with her now? And she with them?’ Ezekiel 23:37 It is a heinous crime. ‘ Righteous men will judge them after the manner of adulteresses; after the manner of women who shed blood, because they are adulteresses, and blood is on their hands. Plundering purity.
Respect God ’ s Ten Commandments.
David ’ s defection from his loved one and fascination with Bathsheba , cunningly promoting Uriah at the palace, scheming carousing after alcohol, tempting him to unfaithfulness; urging him to return to his wife, thus obscuring accountability for pregnancy; the schemed desertion of Uriah near the enemy, with inevitable execution, and the announcement that Bathsheba was pregnant. He deviously concealed his infamous disloyalty as part of the grievous sin of adultery.
David flouted each of the Ten commandments, when He yielded to his lust: h e broke each of the holy commandments . He did not worship the Lord; he forged an idol of this woman ; he disgraced his parents, in rejecting their counsel; he dishonored the Lord ’ s day; remiss when called to battle; lying and deceptive; he coveted Uriah ’ s wife. He stole her. David shattered every command in the brutal handling of God ’ s clear direction. Psalm 51 is one of the most searching confessions in God’s Word. Nathan challenged the lustful David, when no other accountable priest dared to. Sin’s devastating harvest : The child died, the judgment of God ’ s displeasure, calling a little babe into heaven; stern conclusion for a father/mother, despite being ruler of the nation. David lost 4 of his sons: principle of restitution is 4:1. A son publicly lay with his concubines. He fled, renouncing the throne . No one can limit the flotsam and jetsam of adultery. Adultery offends our heavenly Father , and grieves loved ones on earth. There is a far-reaching trail of devastation.
God ’ s Word so wisely decreed, ‘ Thou shall not commit adultery ’ Oh, the peace, the stability, the security when holy, chaste living unites husband and wife, We justly proclaim from an all-wise God , ‘ You shall not commit adultery.’ Let every believing husband and wife praise the Lord for their heavenly, holy relationship.
pr overbs records much of God ‘ s mind concerning temptation to sexual looseness. A preliminary description of sexual allurement is wicked speech, abandoning godly living choosing shadows, reveling in man ’ s crooked fallen nature; selecting underhand manner of life, en route to the debauched woman. More penetrating than medical MRI is the revealing mind of our God. Oh, the need to teach this in our homes, schools and churches. The seductress is flattering, competent in her language, regardless of whatever tongue it be; and scorns God ’ s righteous agreement.
Proverbs 2:12 ‘ To deliver you from the way of evil from the man who speaks perverse things, from these that leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness. Who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perversity of the wicked. Whose ways are crooked, and who are devious in their paths: to deliver you from the immoral woman. From the seductress who flatters with her words who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God. For her house leads down to death and her paths to the dead. None who go to her return, nor do they regain the paths of life. ’ Only God ’ s Spirit could have taught Solomon these precious truths. We were elated with a granddaughter, ‘ Please, GP and Gran, teach me Proverbs. ’
Our Lord claimed to be the Light of the world: especially in sexual activity. Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light to my path ’ preserves us from the soul-destroying goings-on of the godless woman. Also it warns us of the danger of the provocative mistress. God ’ s Word forbids a man lusting in his heart. To hanker after a prostitute, a man will deny himself a nourishing meal, and be reduced to a dry crust. An adulteress is a predator for a man, a lioness crouching in her den. Sinful, sexual awakening ignites the fallen nature, whereas a holy marriage oneness refines both husband and wife: and God gives children from holy unions. Satan protects the soles of walkers on hot coal- which sears the lives of ungodly. Adultery shatters the character of man and woman. Thanks be to God for the warnings in His eternal Word. Our righteous God vindicates the just fury of an aggrieved husband, who will not be propitiated by material compensation . V35 Proverbial truth should be hung around the necks of all our people as once the ten Commandments were publicly displayed in churches and Sunday day schools.
‘The commandment is a lamp, and the law its light; reproofs of instruction are the way of life, to keep you from the evil woman, from the flattering tongue of a seductress. Do not lust after her beauty in your heart, nor let her allure you with her eyelids. For by means of a prostitute, a man is reduced to a crust of bread. And an adulteress will prey for his precious life. Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one walk on hot coals , and his feet not be seared? So is he that goes in to his neighbor ’ s wife; whoso touches her will not be innocent.
Whoso commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding. He who does so destroys his own soul. Wounds and dishonor he will get and his reproach shall not be wiped away. For jealousy inflames a husband ’ s fury. ’ Proverbs 6:23-35
This temptress borrowed from Egypt, a corrupt lifestyle, the world ’ s external beauty plus seductive cologne to trap him. ‘ I have spread my bed with tapestry, colored coverings of Egyptian linen, I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. Come, let us make our fill of love until the morning. Let us delight ourselves in love’. Strong’s defines ‘Delight’ as the flapping of an ostrich’s wings- futile and accomplishing nothing. ’ (Olympic athlete and iron man couple dissolve their marriage after 22 years. They boasted of their hours together- and relationship with their Lord.) The temptress pursued, ‘ For my husband is not at home. She won the day with bribery. He has gone on a long journey, with her enticing speech, she caused him to yield, with her flattering lips, she seduced him. ’
‘An ox to the butchering ‘ is not smooth talk. Immediately he went after her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of stocks. Till an arrow struck his liver (in my medical training, I read amazingly of the syphilis spirochete piercing the liver when only 3 STD ’ S were recognized, while now 13, possibly more, are. As a bird hastens to the snare , he did not know it would take his life. Oh, we must be aware! ‘ Now, listen to me, my children. Pay attention to the words of my mouth.’ Summarizing, leaders in every realm, sport, professions, Christian life, have been her quarry. She has cast down many wounded, and all that were slain by her were strong men. Many tossed out heaven ’ s offer, preferring momentary pleasure to eternal security in Christ. Her way is the way to hell, descending to the chambers of death. Proverbs 7: 18-27
Jeremiah reinforced Solomon ’ s conviction . 5:8, 9; 29:22-23. Malachi wrote of the audacious, sexually impure, in the concluding prophecy of the Old Testament, ‘ I will come near you for judgment, will be a swift witness against adulterers; because they do not fear Me, says the Lord of hosts. ’ 3:5 While the ‘ fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’, its absence is adulterous.
Our Lord Jesus spoke forcefully concerning adultery .in the sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew 5;27, showing how eyes and heart must be subject to the law of God.
Christ commanded purity- not an optional extra. ‘ You shall not commit adultery. Out of the heart of man proceed evil thoughts, adultery, fornication etc. ’ The inward life is the seat of longing for holiness or depravity. God regards the lustful craving of a man for a woman out of wedlock as the virtual act of adultery. But I say to you, ‘ That whosoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart‘. The deed is done!
The right eye and hand are organs of honor and authority. Bring both eye and hand to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that no such temptation shall grip God ’ s child. Better for each to be nailed with Christ to His cross, than that the person finish in the fire of hell. ‘And if your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish , than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. ’ Christ did not pull punches concerning adultery.
The thick-skinned Pharisees challenged our Lord on the sensitive question of marriage.
The Pharisees came to our Lord testing Him, ‘ Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce (release, dismiss, repudiate or declare marriage null and void). And to put her away.’
Jesus answered, ‘ because of the hardness of your heart, He wrote this precept.’ Then He reminded them of creation, ‘From the beginning God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh’. Peterson ’ s Message records ‘ What God has created in this organic union of the two sexes, no one should desecrate His art by cutting them apart. ’ God is rightly sensitive of His extraordinary achievement. Therefore, what God has joined together, let not man separate. A clear command. This is the final decision on homosexuality, which dominates President Obama ’ s term of office, in allocating an entire month to recognize the lopsided, unnatural claims of homo-sexuality. We live in bible- illiterate days. Then followed a discussion in the house, presumably cherished followers of Christ, ’Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her. Conversely, If a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.’ Mark 10:2-12 Divorce and remarriage may confer legal rightness to corrupt relationships.
In Paul’s discussion of marriage, the physical death of one partner dissolved the union.
Paul wrote, ’The woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband, as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. ’ He continued, ‘ So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she shall be called an adulteress.; but if her husband dies, she marries another man, she will not be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. ‘ Peterson’s Message reads, ’ When Christ dies, he took the rule-dominated life down with Him and left it in the tomb, leaving you free to ‘ marry ’ resurrection life, and bear offspring of faith for God. ’ Paul used this inexhaustible truth of His dying and rising again as a marriage type, to show how we are eternally married to Christ, who died and was raised from the dead.
The Greek word ‘ pornea ’ , from which the English term pornography hails covers the whole range of extra-marital relationships: namely, adultery -with married partners; fornication- with single persons; - homosexuality - or sodomy; lesbianism - two women imitating marriage; and also bestiality- most degrading, dehumanizing physical union with an animal.
The Oxford Thesaurus admits to a toppling comedy when given unprincipled synonyms for this term: extra-marital sex or relationships; unfaithfulness, affair, liaison, hanky-panky, coupling. God’s standards are whittled down, even at our finest Universities.
The fifth chapter of Ephesians throws light on true love of husband wife (agape). Surprisingly, the early part of this chapter is a trumpet warning about sexual looseness. 5:2, 3 The continued practice of sexual anarchy rules out each person from eternal inheritance. God forbid that our western world will legislate, forbidding this discussion as ‘ hate-talk ’ : for the precious gospel releases from all forms of slavery- and delivers us from God’s final judgment.
Filthiness of mind includes all smear jokes, still common with suggestive media programs; and detract from the true giving of thanks. ‘ Fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as it is fitting for saints. It continues, ‘ Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, not coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks . For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. This ghastly portrait contrasts with the dignified, bejewelled, glorious comment in the same chapter, ‘ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and (on Calvary ’ s cross)( gave Himself for it. 5:25 The Hebrews writer confirmed that the marriage bed is upright and spotless. The Lord confirms the perfection of His creation, and that the holy union of man and woman attracts God ’ s richest blessing. Dazzling light in marriage contrasts with the murkiness of evil as expressed in pornographic relationships of polluted unions. The unfaithful in their marriage vows will merit the fierce judgment of a righteous God. ‘ Marriage is honorable among all things and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. Hebrews 13;4 Honor or judgment!
God ’ s Word warns both adulterers and adulteresses, male and female. The latter term also applies to those fickle in their principles and treacherous to the nation God had raised up. It includes the sexual aspect, but extends to the faithfulness of the personal and national life. God yearns for loyalty; and richly rewards such. We believers cannot fellowship with the secular world, which is way-out and incompatible with the Lord of glory. Companionship to the world is antagonism to God.
James wrote, ‘ Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God. Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. ’ 4:4 If we prove disloyal to the Lord, He rightfully names us spiritual adulterers.
The closing chapter of God’s Word reveals decisive purity of life. God rewards victorious living with His eternal inheritance; becoming our God and adopting us into son-ship.
Right in the heart of this dismal collection of human depravity is the Greek term ’ pornea ’ (sexy peddlers)( Then it is followed by sorcerers, which is ‘ the drug pushers, revealing how God ’ s eternal Word is up to date. Drugs rouse sexual misconduct, leading to the entire range of sexual confusion. Show these truths to those who doubt the accuracy of God ’ s Word. ‘ He who
overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be His God and he shall be My son.
But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. ’ Revelation 21:8
What decisive conclusion to the study on unfaithfulness. One of the seven angels came to me, and talked with me, ‘ Come, I will show you the bride, the LAMB’S wife, and he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God.’ v9
The chapter concludes, ’ There shall by no means enter into it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those, who are written in the Lamb ’ s book of life. ’
Redeemed by God, your name is written there. It cannot be expunged. Never.