The Law and Sexual Purity

The Defamed Wife
De.22:13-19

The Unchaste Wife
De.22:20-21

The Raped Woman
De.22:22-29

• If a husband accuses his wife that she is not a virgin, her parents were to provide evidence of her virginity with the garment of her wedding night.

If the husband’s charge is not disproved, the wife is to be stoned at the door of her father’s house (v.21).

Then both shall die

Then both shall die

• Most likely this refers to a man lying with his father’s wife (stepmother)
• Le.18:6-18 describes incestuous relations.

Then only the man shall die

Maybe the man is trying to recover the bride price (50 shekels, De.23:29) he paid to the girl’s father when they got married.

Notes

2If the rape occurred away from the city, then the engaged woman was given the benefit of the doubt.

Sexual immorality is treated with capital punishment. Death is the result of sexual promiscuity. Israel is to be pure from these sexual sins. Israel is to be different from the nations around her.

Jesus’ Treatment of an Adulterous Person

Answers / Comments

• John 8:1-11

Is Jesus contradicting the O.T.?

• The question brought to Jesus is not motivated by righteousness indignation. Jesus is fully aware of their intentions. They were trying to trick or test (v.6) Jesus with a political issue.
• The O.T. law would have her stoned to death. But Roman law reserved for itself the right to inflict a capital sentence. Plus under Roman law adultery was not a capital offence. Jesus must choose to follow the Mosaic law or the Roman law. He chooses neither one.
• Jesus did not condemn the woman. The O.T. teaching was to stone the person(s) to death. Jesus forgave her sin. This is an act of Deity, for only God can forgive sins.

Jesus and the Source of Adultery

• Matthew 5:27-32

• What did Jesus say about adultery?
• What is the source of adultery?
• Is Jesus talking about the natural desire for the opposite sex?

Answers / Comments

• Jesus was teaching the Pharisees that they were only looking at the outside. Jesus went beyond mere externals to man’s inward spirit. The Pharisees believed that adultery is committed only by the act.
• Jesus said that adultery begins in the mind. The lustful desire in the heart indicates that we are not rightly related to God.
• Jesus goes beyond the scope of the O.T. and expounds the thought.
• Verses 29-30 are not teaching mutilation, for a blind man can still have problems with lust. And a one handed man can still steal. Jesus was teaching removal of the inward cause, that is, the lustful heart must be changed.

• If lustful thoughts are sin, then why not go ahead with the act?

1. It causes people to excuse sin rather than eliminate it.
2. It destroys marriages.
3. It is deliberate rebellion against the Word of God.
4. It hurts others (family, friends) besides those directly involved.

Acting out is more dangerous, but dwelling on the sinful thought is just as damaging to righteousness.

Spiritual Adultery

Answers / Comments

Is idolatry like adultery?

• Just as Hosea’s wife, Gomer, was eventually unfaithful to him, so the nation of Israel had been unfaithful to God.
• Israel sought "illicit" political relationships with other nations.
• They mixed Baal worship with the worship of God.
• Like Gomer, we may chase after other loves—power, pleasure, money, recognition.
• See 2 Corinthians 6:14 "Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?"