The Seventh Commandment

7.4 Regulate divorce

Deuteronomy 24:1-4

“‘When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, and if she goes and becomes another man’s wife, and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife, then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the LORD. And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance.’”

Divorce was provided for under the Law of God, not because this was agreeable to God from the beginning, but because provision must be made for the fallen and sinful state of human beings. The assumption in this case is that the woman had been adulterous, either before her marriage or since. He could thus give her a writ of divorce, assuming, of course, procedures for validating the accusation of adultery had been followed. Divorce was not something a man could accomplish on his own, apart from the oversight of the local elders. The accusation of “indecency” had to be proven to the satisfaction of the elders, and then the writ of divorce could be issued.

If the woman remarried and her husband died, she could not be married again by her first husband, for this was considered to be an abomination in the sight of the Lord.

The New Testament permits, along with adultery, abandonment as a legitimate ground for divorce (1 Cor. 7). But, again, this is not something an individual should determine. A court of the Church should be involved in determining the justice of the charges.

In this series of In the Gates we present a detailed explanation of the Law of God, beginning with the Ten Commandments, and working through the statutes and rules that accompany each commandment. For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the practice of ethics, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.MyParuchia.com and click on our Book Store.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Seventh Commandment

Leviticus 18:22

“You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.”

Leviticus 20:13

“If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.”

Leviticus 18:23

“And you shall not lie with any animal and so make yourself unclean with it, neither shall any woman give herself to an animal to lie with it: it is perversion.”

Exodus 22:19

“Whoever lies with an animal shall be put to death.”

Leviticus 20:15, 16

“If a man lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death, and you shall kill the animal. If a woman approaches any animal and lies with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.”

The Law of God condemns homosexuality and bestiality. The New Testament agrees on the former and, by association, assumes the latter (cf. Rom. 1:26, 27; 1 Cor. 6:9-11). There have always been, and doubtless always will be, homosexuals in any culture. Some homosexual tendencies are the result of imbalances in the physiognomy of a person; others are simply the result of misplaced affections. Either way, homosexuality—and bestiality—are contrary to God’s purposes.

Times change and unbelieving cultures sometimes become more agreeable toward sins of the flesh, as in our day. But people are living a lie who think they can ignore or reject God’s standards and not experience the judgment in their own flesh of their wicked ways (Rom. 1:26ff.). We do not recommend capital punishment for homosexuals. Believers should love them with the love of Jesus; however, we must also call homosexuals to repent and believe the Gospel and to lay aside this and any other practice that is contrary to the holy and righteous and good Law of God (Rom. 7:12).

In this series of In the Gates we present a detailed explanation of the Law of God, beginning with the Ten Commandments, and working through the statutes and rules that accompany each commandment. For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the practice of ethics, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.MyParuchia.com and click on our Book Store.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Seventh Commandment

Leviticus 19:29

“Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, lest the land fall into prostitution and the land become full of depravity.”

Prostitution was closely linked to idolatry in pagan practice. It was often the case that pagan centers of worship included male and female prostitutes, whose services, it would seem, were designed to “enhance” the “worship” experience and to enrich the coffers of the pagan priests. Perhaps in pagan cultures a man who offered his daughter as a cult prostitute would be considered to be doing a good thing for the community—at least, the men might think so. But in Israel it was not to be so.

Transgression done in the name of religion soon spreads transgression and depravity throughout the culture. When, in the 19^th century, scholars of religion elevated rationalist and evolutionist principles above the plain reading of the text of Scripture as the key to right interpretation, they not only compromised true religion and undermined the authority of Scripture, but they also hastened the widespread adoption of such principles as normative in all aspects of life. Revelation was thus “gobbled up” (Schaeffer) by reason, and we are still living with the depraved after-effects of this situation.

In this series of In the Gates we present a detailed explanation of the Law of God, beginning with the Ten Commandments, and working through the statutes and rules that accompany each commandment. For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the practice of ethics, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.MyParuchia.com and click on our Book Store.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Seventh Commandment

Deuteronomy 22:25-27

“But if in the open country a man meets a young woman who is betrothed, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die. But you shall do nothing to the young woman; she has committed no offense punishable by death. For this case is like that of a man attacking and murdering his neighbor, because he met her in the open country, and though the betrothed young woman cried for help there was none to rescue her.”

Unlike the previous case, this transgression takes place in the open country, where a woman’s cry for help might not be heard. This is rape. A young man, either intending to rape, or to have sex with a betrothed woman, who sought a remote location for his transgression, would fear to be found out because the violated woman’s lack of virginity would become apparent on her wedding night. All she had to do was blame him, and he would be subject to whether or not the rulers of the city chose to believe her word. Again, this statute was meant to discourage both violence and sexual promiscuity, thus protecting the dignity of sexual relations and the sanctity of marriage.

In this series of In the Gates we present a detailed explanation of the Law of God, beginning with the Ten Commandments, and working through the statutes and rules that accompany each commandment. For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the practice of ethics, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.MyParuchia.com and click on our Book Store.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Seventh Commandment

Deuteronomy 22:23, 24

“If there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.”

A betrothed woman was one who had committed to marriage and was, thus, considered to be married, to be a “wife.” Thus, for a man to have sex with a betrothed woman, even consensual sex, was a violation of the seventh commandment and was to be treated with the most severe punishment. The situation covered in this statute is considered to be consensual—the woman did not cry for help.

In this series of In the Gates we present a detailed explanation of the Law of God, beginning with the Ten Commandments, and working through the statutes and rules that accompany each commandment. For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the practice of ethics, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.MyParuchia.com and click on our Book Store.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Seventh Commandment

Exodus 22:16, 17

“If a man seduces a virgin who is not engaged to be married and lies with her, he shall give the bride-price for her and make her his wife. If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money equal to the bride-price for virgins.”

Deuteronomy 22:28, 29

“If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found, then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days.”

Under the Law of God, premarital sex was to lead to marriage, contingent on the permission of the woman’s father. If the father refused to accept the young man who had lain with his daughter, then a fine was to be paid which would be equal to the normal dowry for a marriage.

These statutes seem designed to discourage the kind of premarital sexual activity which is so widespread in our society today. Sex leads to marriage or a fine. Either way, a young man living in a community where these statutes were faithfully enforced would think twice about having sex with an unmarried woman.

God’s intention for sex is that it be reserved for marriage. He designed His Law to enforce that intention and to discourage profligate and premarital sexual relations.

In this series of In the Gates we present a detailed explanation of the Law of God, beginning with the Ten Commandments, and working through the statutes and rules that accompany each commandment. For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the practice of ethics, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.MyParuchia.com and click on our Book Store.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Seventh Commandment

7.3 Do not commit other unlawful relations

Leviticus 20:14

“If a man takes a woman and her mother also, it is depravity; he and they shall be burned with fire, that there may be no depravity among you.”

This statute is guards against a violation of marriage on two levels—a man’s own marriage and that of his mother-in-law. The fact that God considered such a rule necessary indicates His understanding of the depths of human depravity. He knows that what, for the most part, we may consider unthinkable, is hardly that, so strong is the law of sin in our hearts. Doubtless among the pagan nations, this practice was not uncommon. It was not to be permitted among the people of Israel. Here again the Law erects a hedge for marriage, which, as we have seen, is the foundational institution of a just and ordered society. The penalty for this act of depravity, being especially severe, was intended to have the effect of squelching even the thought of so depraved a transgression.

In this series of In the Gates we present a detailed explanation of the Law of God, beginning with the Ten Commandments, and working through the statutes and rules that accompany each commandment. For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the practice of ethics, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.MyParuchia.com and click on our Book Store.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Seventh Commandment

Leviticus 20:20

“If a man lies with his uncle’s wife, he has uncovered his uncle’s nakedness; they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless.”

Leviticus 20:12

“If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death; they have committed perversion; their blood is upon them.”

Here again we see the equating of uncovering nakedness with actual adultery. It’s not clear why the penalty for lying with one’s aunt is not as severe as in other instances—especially that of lying with one’s daughter-in-law. But, again, God’s thoughts are not ours. Our duty is to understand as far as we can and to obey in the power of God’s Spirit (Ezek. 36:26, 27). The instructions here—both as to prohibitions and sanctions—are quite clear.

In this series of In the Gates we present a detailed explanation of the Law of God, beginning with the Ten Commandments, and working through the statutes and rules that accompany each commandment. For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the practice of ethics, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.MyParuchia.com and click on our Book Store.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Seventh Commandment

Deuteronomy 22:30

“A man shall not take his father’s wife, so that he does not uncover his father’s nakedness.”

1 Corinthians 5:1, 2, 13

Leviticus 20:11

“If a man lies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.”

1 Corinthians 5:1, 2, 13

This statute is especially important for us today in understanding how to apply the Law of God to the believing community because of the incident recorded in 1 Corinthians 5. Here a man was having an affair with his father’s wife. The woman must not have been a believer because no sanctions were applied to her. The man, however, was in direct violation of this statute, and Paul meant for the Corinthians to honor it and to take action against him.

However, the Church does not bear the sword, and we live in the time of the Spirit, when the possibility of repentance is real. The offender was to be excommunicated, and none of the members of the Body of Christ in Corinth were to have any association with him. However, as it seems he came to his senses and repented, Paul instructed the Church in Corinth to receive him back into fellowship (2 Cor. 2:5-11).

This example does not argue for the elimination of the death penalty; rather, it teaches us that the Body of Christ must strive for holiness and repentance at all times, and must guard itself against the cancerous effects of undisciplined sin. Further, it must pray for the world, that God would work repentance in the hearts of those He is pleased to save.

In this series of In the Gates we present a detailed explanation of the Law of God, beginning with the Ten Commandments, and working through the statutes and rules that accompany each commandment. For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the practice of ethics, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.MyParuchia.com and click on our Book Store.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Seventh Commandment

7.2 Do not commit unlawful relations between men and women

Leviticus 18:20

“And you shall not lie sexually with your neighbor’s wife and so make yourself unclean with her.”

1 Corinthians 10:8

Leviticus 20:10

“If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.”

Deuteronomy 22:22

“If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.”

The language here is more explicitly directed toward adulterous activity, but we can assume that “uncovering nakedness” is also included. David shows us how the latter can lead all too easily to the former. Adultery constitutes an attack on marriage and family, the foundational institution of an ordered society, and violates the creation mandate of God concerning the proper context for sexual relations. Attaching the death penalty to sins of adultery would serve to remind the people of Israel of the sacredness of marriage and the family in the divine economy.

We do not put adulterers to death in our day (see on), but this is because of the availability of grace in this age of the Gospel. Nevertheless, we must not “wink” at adultery. The Church has proper measures of discipline which must be brought to bear whenever this or any transgression of God’s Law is uncovered within the Body of Christ.

In this series of In the Gates we present a detailed explanation of the Law of God, beginning with the Ten Commandments, and working through the statutes and rules that accompany each commandment. For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the practice of ethics, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.MyParuchia.com and click on our Book Store.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.