THE AUDITORIUM SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASS

SEPTEMBER 5TH, 2004

DEUTERONOMY 24

DIVORCE AND DIVERS REGULATIONS

 

 

 

 

I.                   The Law allows for divorce in ONE instance: “uncleanness”.

 

A.         What is this “uncleanness” that is referred to in verse 1?

 

1.         The Lord Jesus shines some light on this passage in Matthew 19:3-9.

2.         Notice the word “fornication” in Matthew describes “uncleanness” in Deuteronomy.

3.         If the woman has an affair with another man while she was married, she was to be stoned to death.

4.         The word “uncleanness” in Deuteronomy 24:1 refers to a sexually transmitted disease that the woman developed from activities BEFORE marriage.

-          this was the allowed cause for divorce under the Law.

 

B.         The original intention of God was not divorce but the continuation of the marriage (Matthew 19:8).

 

1.         The “writing of divorcement” was to be an official, legal document and was considered binding until death.

2.         The woman is to be given the writing before she leaves the house (Deuteronomy 24:1).

 

C.         The woman may re-marry, assuming that she can find a man to have her. (2)

 

D.         If the second husband also divorces her, or he dies, the first husband cannot remarry her.

-          He had already declared her to be “unclean” under the Law.

 

II.                The Newly-wed Law  (5).

 

A.         The newly married man was to make his marriage the priority during the first year of the marriage.

B.         Civil and national duties were put on hold in order to establish a strong home.

 

III.             The National Slave Law  (6-7)

 

-          No Jew shall enslave another Jew, or sell another Jew into slavery.

 

IV.              The Quarantine Law concerning Leprosy  (8-9)

 

A.         This terrible disease was to be dealt with religiously.

B.         The religious leaders (teachers of the sanitary laws) were to make the rules concerning the treatment of lepers.   (8)

 

V.                 Poor laborers are to be paid daily, and their wages are not to be with-held  (10-15).

 

-     it is considered a sin for money to be with-held from the poor workers   (15).

 

VI.              Entire families could not be held responsible for the actions of one family member  (16).

 

-          Personal responsibility was the Law.

 

VII.           In verses 17-22, the Law protects the widows and orphans by giving them the extra bounty from the fields and vineyards.

 

A.         The less fortunate are to be taken care of as a remembrance of the days when Israel was poor, and needy, and in bondage.

 

B.         All of us were born spiritually bankrupt, and we owe our present riches to the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

 

 

Conclusion -     Please read Deuteronomy 25 for next Sunday.