Adultery According to Scripture

Adultery is defined as voluntary sexual intercourse between a married woman and someone other than her husband. Adultery is condemned in both the Old and New Testaments. The term "whore" or "harlot" refers to a prostitute, while "fornication" refers to any illicit sexual intercourse. Adultery is also metaphorically used to describe idolatry. The commandment "thou shalt not commit adultery" is well-known, and the Apostle Paul affirms the importance of marriage and condemns adultery in his writings. So, before we get into too much detail on what is and isn't adultery and what the scripture says about it, we first need to get a good understanding about what adultery is and the terminology surrounding the issue of adultery, especially as it comes into context of the scriptures. So, we want to look at definitions. So, what is adultery? Well, if you look it up in a modern dictionary, like the Merriam-Webster here on your screen, Merriam-Webster defines adultery as voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and someone other than that person's current spouse or partner. It goes along with our modern day understanding of what adultery is. Likewise, the Encyclopedia Britannica states, sexual relations between a married person and someone other than the spouse. And that's what we in today's day and age think about adultery. In just a moment, we'll be diving into the biblical understanding of what adultery is. Now, when we get into scripture, of course, we need to know, well, we don't need to know, but it helps to know the original words that were used. And of course, in the Tanakh, it's going to be Hebrew. The Hebrew word for adultery is na'af. And it means, according to Strong's here, to commit adultery, apostatize, adulterous, committing adultery, woman that breaketh wedlock. Notice here, this last definition it gave here in the Strong's definition, a woman that breaketh wedlock. Keep that in mind as we go through this. Look at Jesenius' Hebrew lexicon, and it states, to commit adultery, use both of the male and female to commit adultery with a woman. It's very generalized, but we're going to get specific here in a minute. It goes on to say that it is applied to the turning aside of Israel from the true God to the worship of idols. Jastrow's Dictionary of the Targum states, to be unchaste, voluptuous, especially to have illicit intercourse, to commit adultery. Again, very generalized. Then we go on to the Browndriver-Briggs definition for na'af, and it says to commit adultery. It says, usually of a man, always with wife of another, with accusative woman. Of women, only participle, figurative, idolatrous worship. We'll get into more of that as we go through tonight's drash. But notice how here it's starting to get more specific than what our modern-day understanding is. Now, we go into the Greek and the Brit Hadashah, or aka New Testament. The Greek word here is going to be moikuyo, yeah, well, there it is on the screen. But anyways, Jastrow's definition for this Greek word is commit adultery. Plain and simple. You don't get a lot from Jastrow's a lot of times. But anyways, you go down to Thayer's and it says to commit adultery, to be an adulterer, to commit adultery with, have unlawful intercourse with another's wife. Keep that in mind. Says, wife, to suffer adultery, to be debauched, used of those who had a woman's solicitation, are drawn away to idolatry, to eating and being sacrificed to idols. Look at the Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament. And I really like this one for the most part. Or the whole lexicon anyways, put it that way. But here for the definition of adultery, moikuyo says sexual intercourse of a man with a married woman other than his own spouse to commit adultery. From the standpoint of the New Testament, adultery was normally defined in terms of the married status of the woman involved in any such act. In other words, sexual intercourse of a married man with an unmarried woman would usually be regarded as pornea or fornication. But sexual intercourse of either an unmarried or a married man with someone else's wife was regarded as adultery. Both on the part of the man as well as the woman. In view of the married status of the woman being the determining factor. Now you can say this is just lexicon definitions, etc., etc. It should be the same for both men and women. Okay, we're going to get into scripture in just a moment and show you what scripture says in regards to adultery and how these definitions, these lexicons, whether or not they do or do not line up. So stay tuned. Some more words that kind of fall in the same realm is what we think of as whore, whoring, or harlot. Prostituting, right? The Hebrew word here is zanot. Means in some senses to commit adultery, less often of simple fornication, involuntary ravishment, etc. Whore, whoredom, go a whoring. Jastrel's Dictionary of the Targums, to run about as a prostitute, to be faithless, to be unchaste. Same also to invite faithlessness, to excite the senses. Then the brown driver Briggs for zanot says to commit fornication, be a harlot, act as a harlot, fornication. Down here at the bottom, if you look, it says both sexual and religious. Now adultery and fornication and whoring, this all goes into a metaphorical sense when it comes to Yahweh and false gods. Like I said, we'll get into those scriptures here later on. Then Jesenius' Hebrew lexicon for zanot, commit fornication attributed properly and chiefly to a woman, whether married or unmarried. And is construed with an accusative following of the fornicator or adulterer, etc., etc. And then for whore, whoring, or harlot in the Greek, this is going to be porne. Sounds familiar and it should. We get one of our modern English words from this word. Anyways, the Strong's definition for porne means a strumpet, figuratively an idolater, or a harlot or whore. Thayer's Greek lexicon says pretty much the same thing. Properly, a woman who sells her body for sexual uses. Properly, a prostitute, a harlot, etc., etc. Metaphorically, an idolatress, or Rome, the chief seat of idolatry. The Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament, a woman who practices sexual immorality as a profession, prostitute. Since prostitution is an almost universal behavioral trait, it is not difficult to obtain terms for such a person or activity. And of course, if you would like the full entries for each of these terms, you can go to our website, click on the post for tonight's dross, and it'll be in our research notes all right there. And you can see the full entry for each of these definitions here. And then we have the word fornication. Slight nuance, but it's along the similar vein as adultery and whoring. In the Greek, this is going to be pornea, or pornea, which means harlotry, including adultery and incest, figuratively idolatry, fornication. Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament states that pornea, or pornea, to engage in sexual immorality of any kind, often with the implication of prostitution. In Thayer's Greek lexicon, he states this about pornea, fornication, fornicatio, properly of illicit sexual intercourse in general. It is distinguished from pornea, use of adultery in accordance with a form of speech, and among the Jews, close relationship existing between Yahweh and his people. Again, going back to that metaphor of idolatry and adultery in the marriage and all that. But, like I said, we're going to get into that when we get into the Scripture portion, which is right now. So, as we go through Scripture, there's going to be a lot that we don't have in tonight's draws for the sake of time, because there's already a bunch of slides. It is 70 slides in total. So, we're going to be not hitting on some passages that you may be thinking of. And if we don't, like I said, please be sure to leave those down in the comments below. You'll be able to help other people get a further education about adultery and all these related terms. And, of course, you can go check out the research notes that we have provided for you. And there's a lot more there that wasn't included also. Let's start out about adultery between humans, right? This is not to say that there's adultery with animals. That's a different form of abomination. But this is distinguished between adultery between us and Yahweh, figuratively speaking. So, adultery between humans. We start out with the command that everyone knows from the Ten Commandments. Exodus 20, verse 14. You do not commit adultery. Or as King James would say, thou shalt not commit adultery, right? This is also, this subject is also stated in the New Testament as well. We look at Romans 7, verses 2 through 3. For the married woman hath been bound by Torah to the living husband. But if the husband dies, she is released from the Torah concerning her husband. So then, while her husband lives, she shall be called an adulteress if she becomes another man's. But if her husband dies, she is free from that part of the Torah. So that she is not an adulteress, having become another man's. So, this is starting to get into those nuances that we looked at when we looked into the definitions or the Strongs and the Brown, Driver, Briggs and the Thayers and the Lexicons and stuff like that. We start seeing those nuances that don't really line up with our modern understanding of adultery. Here, the Apostle Paul is writing to the church in Rome, and he's also got the same biblical understanding of adultery. Because nowhere do you see in all of Scripture that a man is bound to one wife and as long as she lives, he is bound to her. But he does say this here in regards to a woman, that she is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives. But if he dies, she's no longer bound and she can go and remarry this. Not a problem. Also notice that this is being written and stated well after the death, burial and resurrection of Yeshua. So, for those who state that the law or the Torah has been done away with on the cross, here we can see the Apostle Paul still saying that the Torah is in effect and that the woman, the married woman, the wife, has been bound by Torah still to that day to her husband. Then we go on to Hebrews 13, 4. Let marriage be respected by all and the bed be undefiled. But Elohim shall judge those who whore and adulterers. So, again, strong condemnation from Scripture regarding adultery. Now, just to back up and review, what we've seen so far, and we'll see more here as we go on, but what we've seen is that adultery is between a man and a married woman. I'm sorry, let me say this more specifically and clearly. Adultery is between a man and a married woman who is not his spouse. Adultery is sexual intercourse between a man and another man's wife. We've seen that already. That's the biblical description and definition of what adultery is. We see this from the Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics. They state that, but the law continued to regard as adultery only the intercourse of a married woman with any man other than her husband. Thus, a married man was not regarded as guilty of adultery unless he had intercourse with a married woman other than his wife. Jewish Encyclopedia states, sexual intercourse of a married woman with any man other than her husband. The crime can be committed only by and with a married woman. For the unlawful intercourse of a married man with an unmarried woman is not technically adultery in the Jewish law. And what they're referring to here is the Torah, right? We know it's not the Jewish law. It's God's word, God's Torah, Yahweh's Torah, right? Not the Jewish law. So, just to recap this. A husband and his wife, this is all according to scriptural definitions that we've seen so far and we'll see it again and again. A husband having sex with his wife, that's not adultery, obviously, easy one. A man having sex with another man's wife, that is adultery. Now, we don't want to get into the weeds here and all the rabbit trails, but just as far as adultery goes, an unmarried man, unmarried woman, that's not considered adultery according to scripture. I'm sorry, according to scripture. That goes into other areas. Like I said, I'm moving to the tangent here. But a married man having sex with an unmarried woman, that's not the biblical definition of adultery. Again, because in other areas, we're not going to get in on rabbit trails. Just so you understand, the biblical definition and the way scripture uses adultery is illicit sexual intercourse between a man and another man's wife. For instance, we see in Exodus chapter 20, verse 17, you do not covet your neighbor's house. You do not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox or his donkey or whatever belongs to your neighbor. Leviticus 20.10, and a man who commits adultery with the wife of another man, who commits adultery with the wife of another man, who commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, the adulterer and the adulteress shall certainly be put to death. Here we can see that difference between the biblical understanding of adultery and our modern understanding of adultery. We're seeing this time and time again as we go through scripture here. But here, let me read that one more time. Leviticus 20.10, and a man who commits adultery with the wife of another man, who commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, the adulterer and the adulteress shall certainly be put to death. That's how serious Yahweh was about people committing adultery. That it deserved the death penalty, along with things like, well, murder, idolatry, et cetera, et cetera, right? It was so abominable to Yahweh, adultery was, that the punishment prescribed was death. Now, there's also another nuance that goes along with everything that we've learned as well. So far, we've understood that the biblical definition of adultery and the way that scripture uses adultery is as with a man and a woman who is married to another man. But like I said, there's also another nuance that applies to betrothed or engaged women as well. Deuteronomy chapter 22, verses 23 to 29. When a girl who is a maiden is engaged to a husband and a man finds her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city and shall stone them to death with stones. The girl because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he has humbled his neighbor's wife. Thus you shall purge the evil from your midst. But if a man finds the girl who is engaged in the field, and the man takes hold of her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die. But you shall do no matter to the girl. The girl has no sin worthy of death, for the matter is like a man who rises against his neighbor and murders him, a being. For he found her in the field, and she cried out, the engaged girl, but without anyone to save her. When a man finds a girl who is a maiden who is not engaged, and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are found out, then the man who lay with her shall give to the girl's father fifty pieces of silver, and she is to be his wife because he has humbled her. He is not allowed to put her away all his days. So three different things to take away from this passage, okay? And this is all regarding betrothed women, okay? The wedding hasn't taken place yet, but they're betrothed, or what we would call engaged today. And that was considered the same back then in regards to adultery. In the first instance we see here in this passage, if a man has sex with a woman who is engaged to another man, and they do it consensually together, they are both to be put to death because that's the same as adultery, right? Scripture is considering that to be adultery. However, if the man takes this woman who's betrothed to another man and rapes her, well, that is a serious offense too, but only the man is guilty at that point. The woman gets to go back free because she hasn't done anything wrong, but the man who did the raping, he is to be killed, okay? Put to death. Then the third instance here is where a man finds an unmarried, or I'm sorry, an unbetrothed unmarried woman and has intercourse with her, forcefully or not, then he is to go to the girl's father, pay him the bride price for the girl, and then they're to get married, and he can't divorce her all his life, okay? There's a lot more that goes into that as far as the whole rape situation goes, but here's three different scenarios in showing you that Scripture even treats engaged women as if they were wives when it comes to the subject of adultery, and it's worthy of the death penalty. That's how serious it still is even with a betrothed or engaged woman. Look in the Jewish Encyclopedia, and they state about this, that unlawful intercourse with a woman betrothed to a man was adultery because the betrothed woman was deemed as inviolable as the married woman. The betrothed or engaged woman was still seen in Scripture as being a part of that man, right, that she was going to be getting married to, like a wife. So in regards to adultery, she's treated the same as though she were a wife. We see this play out in, well, before the birth of Yeshua. In Matthew 1, verses 18 through 19, but the birth of Yeshua Messiah was as follows. After his mother Miriam was engaged to Yosef before they came together, she was found to be pregnant from the set-apart spirit, and Yosef, her husband, being righteous and not wishing to make a show of her, had in mind to put her away secretly. So here we see that Yosef and Miriam, they're not even married yet, but they are betrothed. They're engaged, right? Lo and behold, Yosef sees Miriam and finds out she's pregnant, but he's taken no part in the getting pregnant process. So he thinks that she's committed adultery, and he's going to put her away. And then, of course, and that's even though they weren't married. But you see how scripture still treats engaged or betrothed women just like they were married. Now, of course, we know the angel comes in, explains everything, and it's all good from there on out. Then we go back and we look at the story of King David in 2 Samuel 12, 7 through 10. And it states here, King David was described as a man after Yahweh's own heart. But we know that he wasn't perfect because he majorly screwed up by committing adultery with another man's wife, Uriah's wife, Bathsheba. Now, of course, that all came down to be turned into good eventually because through Bathsheba and Dawid, we get Shalomo and then eventually Yeshua. That's where the lineage of Yeshua comes from. But Dawid should not have committed adultery with another man's wife. That was an absolutely abominable thing to do. And Yahweh here is telling Dawid that he had given him all these things. And if that hadn't been enough for Dawid, that Yahweh would have given him so much more. That he didn't have to go out and do this great evil of committing adultery. And as we looked at last week, King Dawid committed physical adultery with another man's wife. And then we saw that King Shalomo committed adultery against Yahweh in the form of idolatry. We'll get into that in just a moment too. But in the book of Proverbs, Proverbs 6, verses 27 through 29, Would a man take fire to his bosom, and his garments not be burned? Would a man walk on hot coals, and his feet not be scorched? So is he who goes in to his neighbor's wife, none who touches her goes unpunished. Keep those words in your mind, write it down, put it on the wall. Put it on the wall. This is important stuff to remember. That when you go and you mess with another man's wife, or if you're a married woman, and you mess around on your husband, there is going to be great wrath that comes on because of that. It's going to be very troubling to what degree that depends on each person's situation. That's not something you want to gamble with for a momentary amount of perceived pleasure. Proverbs 6, verses 32 through 34, He who commits adultery with a woman lacks heart. He who does it destroys his own life. He finds smiting and shame, and his reproach is not wiped away. For jealousy enrages a man, and he does not spare in the day of vengeance. Again, you really don't want to roll those dice. And the sad thing is, in today's day and age, adultery is really considered nothing, right? People go around, they commit adultery, they destroy families, they mess up children, and it's not, you know, anything sexual that's to do with the children, but the effects of the adultery that they commit and the tearing apart of families, this has a profound effect on children, psychologically and emotionally, how they develop and how they come to be adults. And that affects the world as a whole, simply because you wanted that momentary pleasure in committing adultery. I mean, it's so sad. I looked into this at one time, and certain, here in America anyways, certain states don't even criminalize adultery. Other states that do criminalize adultery, and where it is a crime on the books for someone to commit adultery, those states don't even prosecute when adultery happens. So, I mean, what good is the law against adultery if you're not enforcing the law? That's what I'm saying. Today's day and age has little to no respect for the sanctity of marriage. We see that in the cases of adultery and it not being treated the way it should. We see that in the perversion of marriage that people have started doing here in, at least in the past 20 years. It's sickening. And it's no wonder we see society and the world going down the tubes the way it is. Because when you start destroying and messing up the very foundations of society, the family units, then by extension, that's going to extend to the rest of society. And when the family unit goes down, society goes down. James chapter 4, verse 4, adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with Elohim? Whoever, therefore, intends to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of Elohim. So if you've got the same attitude about adultery as our modern day world does, to where it's nothing and you can do whatever you want, scripture's stating here that you're making yourself a friend of the world. And those who are friends with the world are an enemy of Yahweh. And that includes adulterers and adulteresses. Matthew chapter 5, verses 31 to 32. And it has been said, whoever puts away his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce. But I say to you that whoever puts away his wife, except for the matter of whoring, makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries a woman who has been put away commits adultery. Here Yeshua is given the only clear-cut statement and justification in scripture for divorce. If your spouse commits adultery, that is scriptural grounds for divorce. If they burn the biscuits or if they forget to pick up milk on the way home from work, that's not grounds for divorce. The only clear-cut stated reason in scripture for divorce is adultery. It makes it a little bit clearer in a further passage, Matthew 19, 9. And I say to you, whoever puts away his wife, except on the ground of whoring, and marries another commits adultery. And whoever marries her who has been put away commits adultery. Now, take close notice of what Yeshua is saying here. Yes, like we said before, he's stating that the only grounds for divorce that is clearly stated in scripture is adultery. Also notice here that he's saying that a man who divorces his wife, and it's not because of adultery, then he causes his former wife to commit adultery. Okay, so the former wife is committing adultery. However, since the man did it unjustly, unrighteously, the guilt of that adultery is on him. The responsibility of that adultery is on him, not her. It says here, at the very beginning, that the man who puts away his wife, except for whoring, adultery, that he commits adultery. And whoever puts her away, I'm sorry, whoever marries her has been put away commits adultery. So, you see the sin is on him, not her. And we look at Matthew chapter 5, verses 27 through 28. You heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that everyone looking at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Now, some of you earlier may have been thinking about this very passage when we're going over the definitions and the nuances that were different from the biblical definition of adultery as compared to our modern definition of adultery. And you may be saying to yourself, okay, this is before we got into all the scripture, right? You may have been saying to yourself, well, it's not with a married woman, it's just any woman. Because of what Yeshua said there in Matthew 5. This is the passage you were probably thinking of. Take a note of this word here for a woman. The word in the Greek is Strong's D1135, the word gune. Strong's definition says that it can be defined as a woman, especially a wife. Wife or woman. Greek English Lexicon of the New Testament defines it as a woman who is married to a man. So, take that into account, a wife. Then it says later on down that entry right there for the definition, also a woman. For the Thayer's Greek Lexicon, it has universally a woman of any age, whether a virgin or married, or a widow. So, it can even include widows there. Look at the second entry here. It says a wife or of a betrothed woman. Remember, we went over that earlier too. And here are some of the scriptures where this word gune is used in scripture and where it is translated as wife in the King James translation. Here is the use of gune in scriptures and where it is translated as woman in especially King James. But when we look back at that passage in Matthew 5, 27 through 28, says that everyone looking at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery. That doesn't really line up with the rest of scripture, right? And if this word can be translated in, well, at least three different ways, right? For a woman, regular woman, a betrothed woman, whose scripture treats the same as a wife in the cases of adultery, and then a wife, right? So, three different ways it can be translated. As with all translation, you have to make sure to take it into context as to what is being said here when you have a word that can be translated into English multiple ways. When we take this verse or this section of verses into context, especially with the rest of scripture, just regular old woman would not really fit the context, right? Because we've already seen that scripture uses adultery to mean sex with a man with a, I'm sorry, sex by a man with a woman who is married to another man. So, it would be a wife. So, a more contextually accurate translation would be that everyone looking at another man's wife to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Now, we see this difference in translation with the word, Gunay in Romans, I'm sorry, Revelation 19, 7. It states this, Let us be glad and rejoice and give him praise for the marriage of the lamb has come and his wife prepared herself. Another instance where you need to take it into context. Here we see the marriage supper of the lamb. Okay, the marriage hasn't taken place yet, but the lamb's there and the bride of the lamb is preparing herself and bringing herself to the lamb for the marriage, right? So, they're not married yet. So, wife would indicate they're already married, even though that hasn't happened yet. Hasn't happened yet. Other translations translate it like this, and his bride has made herself ready. So, bride would indicate a pre-ceremony status of a woman. In the ECB, it states, And his woman prepares herself. Kind of weird to say it that way in our day and age English, but yeah, I guess it would work. But anyway, as you can see, there's different ways that you can translate this word, guneim, and it all depends on the context. So, you should take everything into context when translating, and this is one word that can be translated in a multitude of ways. It just all depends on the context. In that verse in Matthew 5, everyone looking at another man's wife would be a more contextually accurate way of translating that. Then, in Scripture, we also see a relation and the relation of us to Yahweh, metaphorically speaking, we are his wife. You see that, especially back in Scripture, and I'm sorry, I'm going to turn them straight. We see that, especially back in the Tanakh, right? And in the New Testament or the Brit Hadashah, we see the body or the church or the assembly as the bride of Yeshua. Second Corinthians 11, 2. For I am jealous for you with a jealousy according to Elohim, for I gave you in marriage to one husband to present you as an innocent maiden to Messiah. Revelation 19, 7 through 9. Let us be glad and rejoice and give him praise, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife prepared herself, and to her it was given to be dressed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteousness of the set-apart ones. Then we'll go back to the Tanakh, and Jeremiah 31, 31 through 32, and this is in relation to Yahweh, and it states, See, the days are coming, declares Yahweh, when I shall make a renewed covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Yehudah, not like the covenant I made with their fathers in the day when I strengthened their hand to bring them out of the land of Mitzrayim. My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, declares Yahweh. And if the people were a wife to Yahweh, and we are the bride of Christ, this can turn into adultery if we go after other gods. Right? This makes sense when you're speaking of adultery in a figurative or metaphorical manner. Jeremiah chapter 5, verses 7 through 8. Why should I pardon you for this? Your children have forsaken me and sworn by those that are not mighty ones. When I had filled them up, they then committed adultery, and they thronged to the house of a whore. They were like well-fed horses, every one made after his neighbor's wife. Ezekiel 16, 17 through 19. And you took your splendid adornments of my gold and my silver that I gave you, and made for yourself images of a male and whored with them. And you took your embroidered garments and covered them, and you set my oil and my incense before them, and my food which I gave you, fine flour and oil and honey which I fed you. You set it before them as sweet incense, and so it was, declares the master Yahweh. So here he's stating that the people of Israel, his people, the chosen people, they were like his wife, and they went whoring, committing adultery, when they went and committed idolatry. Ezekiel 16, 30 through 34. How weak is your heart, declares the master Yahweh, seeing you do all this, the deeds of a shameless whore. You built your arched place at the head of every way, and built your high place in every street. You were unlike a whore, you scorned a harlot thief, the wife who commits adultery, who takes strangers instead of her husband. To all whores they give gifts, but you gave gifts to all your lovers, and bribed them to come to you from all around in your whorings. Thus, you are different from other women in your whorings, because no one whores after you, and in you given a harlot thief, while a harlot thief was not given to you. Thus, you are different. Therefore, oh whore, hear the word of Yahweh. And here he's really giving it to them, right? Calling them a whore, saying pretty much they're going around worse than a prostitute, because even a prostitute will take money for what she's doing. But the people, they were giving money away. That's the image that we're getting here. That's how much worse he's saying that they have been. And again, it goes back to the people committing adultery and whoring against Yahweh, because they were going after other gods. Jeremiah chapter 3, 6 through 9. And Yahweh said to me in the days of Yoshi-Yahu, the sovereign, Have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there committed whoring. After she had done all these, I said, Return to me. But she did not return, and her treacherous sister Yehudah saw it. And I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Yehudah did not fear, but went and committed whoring too. And it came to be, through her frivolous whoring, that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and wood. So, we've got the metaphor of Israel being the wife of Yahweh, and that Israel, the wife of Yahweh, committed adultery by going after other gods. Now we see Yahweh divorcing them. And again, we'll go back to that concept that the only clearly stated justifiable reason for divorce in scripture is adultery. We'll get into some nuance on that in just a moment, so stay tuned if you've got a certain thought in your head. Jeremiah 3, 20 But indeed, as a wife betrays her husband, so have you betrayed me, O house of Israel, declares Yahweh. Jeremiah 3, 1 Elohim said, If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and becomes another man's, does he return to her again? Would not that land be made greatly unclean? But you have committed whoring with many lovers, and would you return to me, declares Yahweh? Again, going back to that whole idolatrous streak that Israel was having. And here's another point to bring up too, that if a man and wife are married, and she commits adultery, and he gives her a certificate of divorce, he divorces her, and if she goes out and marries another man, then she cannot, by scripture, come back to her first husband. That is absolutely impossible at that point in time. There are times when people do commit adultery, and divorce is not necessary, it's not required by scripture. And there can be reconciliation there. But it's only clearly stated scriptural justification for divorce. Like I said, we'll get into the nuance here in just a moment. However, even though Israel, here in this metaphorical situation, was the wife of Yahweh, and they committed adultery, and Yahweh divorced them, there's still hope. We look at Hosea chapter 2, verses 16 through 20. And in that day, and it shall be in that day, declares Yahweh, that you call me my husband, and no longer call me my Baal. And I shall remove the names of the Baals from their mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name. And in that day, I shall make a covenant for them, with the beasts of the field, and with the birds of the heaven, and with the creeping creatures of the ground, when bow, and sword, and battle I break from the earth. And I shall make them lie down in safety, and I shall take you as a bride unto me forever, and take you as a bride unto me in righteousness, and in right ruling, and loving commitment, and compassion. And I shall take you as a bride unto me in trustworthiness, and you shall know Yahweh. Now, if you're not familiar with scripture, and the plan of redemption, salvation, and all that, please feel free to write us. We've all sinned, we all need salvation, we all need Yeshua. If you're in a situation where you have committed adultery, there is hope. Repent, and pray, and ask for forgiveness, both from Yahweh, and from whoever you have sinned against in your adulterous affair. There is hope. Repent, and turn away, and don't do it again. However, let's get into some consequences of adultery itself. Consequences of adultery. Number one, it's a grievous, abominable sin against Yahweh. Not only in the idolatry part of it, but in the down-to-earth, just between a man and a woman part of it. It's a grievous sin against Yahweh. Next, someone sees you committing adultery, that tarnishes the faith. So that affects all Christian messianic believers. They see you acting like this, committing adultery, they're gonna think, well, they don't really believe what they're preaching, believe what they're preaching, or what they say they believe. It tarnishes the faith. It brings guilt and shame, not only for the offender, but those who have been offended as well. And that's something that can be hard to live with. There is definitely a loss of trust. When you commit adultery, there are lots of people that will lose their trust in you. Not just your spouse, but the sometimes people connected with the person you committed adultery with, your children, your family, your friends, co-workers. There's gonna be a loss of trust there because of this abominable sin of adultery. There's definitely gonna be loss of intimacy. And this is referring to between a married man and woman, where there is adultery. And with that loss of intimacy, comes a lessening of the quality and the purity of the marriage relationship for obvious reasons. Adultery can also lead to divorce a lot of times. And that destroys homes, that messes up children, and that extends out into society and out on into the children's lives. And then it could affect their relationships and it could affect their children. And it just branches out all because of that one little single nexus point where you decided that you wanted that momentary good feeling, that momentary passion for yourself. And then the consequences just branch out, not just for you, but for people around you for years to come. It can lead to loneliness for the one who committed adultery or for the one who was the victim of adultery. It could be divorce and it could be extreme loneliness because of that decision that was made in the moment. It can lead to sickness, STDs, STIs, however you wanna put it, et cetera, et cetera. Counseling, if there is some sort of reconciliation that can be had, usually counseling is gonna be involved and that can get expensive. That is definitely gonna take time. So it's gonna cut hours out of your month every time you go. So it can be expensive monetarily and time-wise. It can lead to illegitimate children. And for those of you who don't know what an illegitimate child is, that is a child that is produced and born to parents who aren't married to each other. That is the traditional definition of an illegitimate child. It can lead to disappointment in children and family like we said before. When people find out about this and this is one of those things that only in extremely rare circumstances is never found out. But when it is found out and it usually is, it can lead to your family and your friends, anyone connected to you being extremely disappointed in you. This is an inane thing that's just built within us to know that adultery is just this absolutely horrid thing to do and that we should not be doing it. We look again at the Jewish Encyclopedia and it states that although in ancient society and law, adultery was regarded as a private wrong committed against the husband. Public law later on exercised control of its investigation and punishment. For organized society was impossible unless it punished this crime, which saps the very root of the social life. Thou shalt not commit adultery is not merely a command not to tamper with the domestic affairs of another, but a warning to refrain from unsettling the foundations of society. That's the truth is that adultery can destroy a family and the family is the basic building block of society. If you destroy the family, you destroy the basic building block, then that helps to bring down society and destroy society. So again, that decision you make to commit adultery, you know it's wrong, but in that moment you are thinking about you and the momentary pleasure, but that decision branches out in so many ways that it's really difficult to even state the effects and the consequences of just one person making a decision in one instance can affect so many people in so many ways. Now that nuance I told you about before, remember we read in scripture how the only clearly stated, defined justifiable reason for divorce is adultery, but there is a another concept that we see from scripture as well. Again, this is something that you definitely want to research on your own and you may disagree with it and that's fine. But this is something that used to, I thought there was only one reason for divorce and of course that would be adultery and everything and anything, now do you mean anything else was not grounds for divorce? I've recently or since then changed my mind on that and this is for the concept of preservation of life. In Judaism, they call it the Pekua Nefesh. Okay, so if you want to look at that term to get that perspective on it, there it is. But this is the concept of setting aside the Torah and the commands and the mitzvot for the preservation of life. So can you disregard parts of the Torah and the commands of Yahweh in order to preserve life? Good question. Let's look in scripture. Matthew chapter 12 verses 3 through 5. But he said to them, have you not read what Dawid did when he was hungry? He and those who were with him, how he went into the house of Elohim and ate the showbread, which was not right for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priest. Or did you not read in the Torah that on the Sabbath, the priest in the set-apart place profaned the Sabbath and are blameless? So here everyone probably knows this already. So the setup is the Pharisees are coming against Yeshua and they think he's breaking the Sabbath. He sets them straight. This is one of the many places where he sets them straight. But for the drash tonight, the part we're going to look at here is how Dawid and his men went into the temple and ate the showbread because they needed to, right? It's for preservation of life. Now, none of them were priests and that showbread was only for the priest to be used inside the temple. So according to Torah, it was wrong for Dawid to do that. But given that there's this understanding that the Torah can be bent or set aside for the preservation of life, it's being illustrated here by Yeshua. Let's look at another verse, Matthew 12, 7. And that is a reference to Hosea 6, 6. So we see that Yahweh desires mercy and forgiveness for the people of Israel. And we see that Yahweh desires mercy and forgiveness for the people of Israel. And we see that Yahweh desires mercy and forgiveness for the people of Israel. And we see that Yahweh desires mercy and forgiveness for the people of Israel. Desires mercy and compassion. Keep that in mind as we talk about this preservation of life. Matthew 12, 11-12. And he said to them, what man is there among you who has one sheep and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath shall not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more worth is a man than a sheep? So it is right to do good on the Sabbath. And here Yeshua is illustrating to them that if the life of a sheep was in danger on the Sabbath, that you could go and save that sheep's life. Which normally work is forbidden on Shabbat, right? We all know that part. But if life is in danger, then you can do work on Shabbat to preserve that life. Then we look at Matthew chapter 18 verses 15-17. And if your brother sins against you, go and convict him between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not hear, take with you one or two more that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word might be established. And if he refuses to hear them, say it to the assembly. Say it to the assembly. And if he refuses even to hear the assembly, let him be to you like the nations in a tax collector. Like an unbeliever, in other words. So how does this fit in what we've been talking about? Well, the nuance I was wanting to talk about here is with a situation where someone, and you probably say the wife in this case, is being beaten, right? This would fall into a preservation of life scenario. Abusive situations can turn deadly. We know that. So if you're in a situation where you are receiving abuse, then the way we see it, according to scripture, and this concept of preservation of life, preservation of life, then another reason for divorce is not only adultery, but for the preservation of life. So the only clearly stated reason in scripture is adultery. But we see the concept of preservation of life, that's something that could be applied to marriage as well, and another reason for divorce. Again, this is something that you want to pray about. Definitely try to resolve if you can, but I understand it's a dangerous situation, and if you need to get out, definitely get out. This verse we just read here, this passage, if at all possible, try to bring the abuser in front of your local church, wherever you go to. Try to get the elders and those there to convict them of what they're doing, and try to get them to turn from their ways. That would be the ideal outcome. It's not going to happen in all situations. So again, according to the concept of preservation of life, if you're in an abusive situation, divorce is acceptable. We'll put it that way. So, in summary, adultery is sexual relations between a married woman and a man who isn't her husband. Even sex with a betrothed or engaged woman is considered adultery according to scripture. And unjustly divorcing your wife is adultery. We saw that from the words of Yeshua himself. And we are considered to be the bride or wife of Yahweh and then Yeshua. So, that back in the Tanakh and then with the Rishad Hashav. Adultery has severe consequences on everyone associated with it. And like we said, that trickles down in so many ways that it's hard to even define them all or list them out. It affects your marriage, the person you're married to, the person you commit adultery with, your children, your extended family. It goes on and on just for that momentary perceived pleasure that you wanted. That's the consequences of adultery. And adultery is an absolutely abominable sin. And that's just the God honest truth. Once again, if you have committed adultery, Scripture states that, among other people, that adulterers and adulteresses will not enter the kingdom of heaven unless you repent. You have to be repentant and be forgiven of not only the sin of adultery, but other sins as well. So, if you repent and you're forgiven, then yes, you can enter into the kingdom of heaven. But if you die unrepentant and still continue to do it, there's no hope. Please, this is you, repent and seek forgiveness because I want you there with me in heaven. Just a quote that I happened to come up with myself, actually. The perceived momentary pleasure of adultery produces lifelong misery and unhappiness, not just for the person committing adultery, but also for those around them and connected to them. That's just the God honest truth. Thank you for joining us for another production from God Honest Truth Ministries. We hope that we have been of service to you. And if you have any feedback, then please reach out to us by email. And make sure to visit our website at GodHonestTruth.com for more information, resources, and contact.