The Trap

19. February 2009 by Bernice Davis.

Hello:

Today, we start the 19^th chapter of Matthew.  Our issue is DIVORCE.  Let’s look at the text.

Matthew 19:1 When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went into the region of Judea to the other side of the

Jordan. 2 Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. 3 Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”

The first thing that we want to notice is that Jesus puts an end to his Galilean ministry.  Since the 4^th chapter of Matthew, he has been teaching and healing and doing wonderful miracles.  He has spent almost two years there and now he ends that part of his ministry and he now goes into the region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan headed to Jerusalem where his life would soon end.   There were large crowds that followed him there and included among them were the Pharisees.  They came to test him.   They attempted to trap Jesus.   But why is asking a question about divorce a trap?  Let’s explore this issue. 

The question they posed to Jesus is “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?  There were basically two schools of thought concerning divorce.   The trap was to see which side Jesus would line up with in an attempt to discredit or accuse him depending on his answer.

One school of thought was taught by the Rabbi Shammai and the other by the Rabbi Hillel.  They had strong opposing views and divorce was a major controversy between the Jewish people.  The school of Shammai taught that there was to be no divorce except for the cause of adultery.  The

school of

Hillel was the more liberal school and they taught that you could divorce your wife for any reason.  If you didn’t like the way she looked, If she burned your food, If she didn’t press your shirt right, for any reason you could obtain a divorce.  This was the more popular view and the Pharisees were major participants of this view and they constantly divorced their wives for any reason.   

 

They are hoping that Jesus would go against the popular view taught on divorce which would affect a large community that has already engaged in divorce and thereby lessen his popularity.  They were hoping that Jesus’ answer would be one that showed him to be hard-core and intolerant. 

Now, what is also interesting to note here is that Jesus is in the region where Herod Antipas is King.  Herod has already put John the Baptist in prison for his speaking against divorce because Herod was married to his brother’s (Philip) wife.  John would soon die for standing up for God’s laws on divorce.   If Jesus spoke out against it, news could get to Herod and possible Jesus would have been imprisoned and sentenced to death for that was the ultimate goal of the Pharisees to get Jesus killed. 

Well…Tomorrow, we’ll see how Jesus deals with this trap.

 Stay encouraged!!!!!!!!

Don’t forget to pray and read God’s word daily. 

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