FROM THE PASTOR’S HEART
OP-ED BY DR. ROBERT KENNEDY
I have spoken to many women who have said what a young lady said to me recently. In expressing her pain about her husband’s infidelity, their shattered marriage, their divorce, and challenges with their children, who are caught up in the struggle of the separation, she walked away from her church. She states that she left her church because she had come to accept that the Ten Commandments were for the Jews and were nailed to the cross.
Although I knew her focus and that of others who have spoken to me was directed at the Sabbath Commandment, I asked the young lady, “which commandment”? She went silent. For a little while, I stood quiet, then I said to her, “You know, if your husband were following the commandments, he would not have been practicing infidelity and would not have taken off with another woman.”
After stating what I did, and she said, “That is true,” we talked about God’s love and grace and what resources for grief counseling I could provide for her and others in similar situations. The point, I said, is that a divorce is worse than death, for when the one separated is dead, that person is gone forever. But a divorce leaves the dark shadows that seem to be around forever. The shadows continue to find a way to fight you. Unfortunately, most of them never seem to go away. As we separated, I assured her that I would seek support for her.
Now, as I reflect on her words that too many people are duped into believing that the commandments of God are “old hat,” things to be thrown away, I am giving serious attention to them. I know this reference is especially about the Seventh Commandment, which says, “You shall not commit adultery.” (Exodus 20:14 NKJV)
The same is said about the Fourth Commandment, which says, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it, you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” (Exodus 20:8-11 NKJV)
These two commandments were given to preserve the two institutions – the family and the Sabbath rest – established in the Garden of Eden. If observed as they are to be, both would become the greatest preservers of society and the wholeness of our individual lives and relationship with God.
Destroy the family and marriage, and you destroy society. Destroy the Sabbath, and you destroy the true worship of God. I have stated in past reflections that we are bringing great curses on ourselves by abandoning these Laws of God.
Let me return to the Seventh Commandment, which caught my attention first as I spoke with the young lady. What it brings to mind is that while a lot of effort is being made by the social systems to preserve family, I assert that such systems will not work until there is a return to following the simple commandment that God has given to us.
Therefore, I am asking you to think about the following redundant questions:
- What would happen if the seventh commandment, “You shall not commit adultery,” were followed?
- What would be the difference if people did not establish their own rules for intimacy?
- What would happen if society did not promote sexual promiscuity as a norm?
- What would happen if there was no infidelity?
- What if there were no multiple partnerships?
- What would happen if efforts were not being made to change the definition of marriage, to suit any form of relationship concocted?
- What if there were no co-habiting (“shaking up,” as the temporary relationships are otherwise called)?
- What if there was no male marrying male and female to female?
- What if we did not say that marriage is based on “pure love” instead of the divine order?
- What if we removed the curse that we have brought upon the family?
I think you know the answers, so I will leave you to meditate. But let me point out that Jesus was thinking about the answer to these questions when He stated that in the last days, we need be careful that what happened in the flood will happen to us if we cast aside the divine order. “For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” (Matthew 24: 38-39 NKJV)
What was it that led to the flood? What caused the Israelites to be taken into exile again and again? What was it that caused the fall of many great empires?
You might be surprised if you do not take the word of the Lord with seriousness. My simple answer is the abandonment of God’s laws, especially in my present referencing, the abandonment of the Seventh Commandment. I am arguing that we can break the curse upon the family and if we seek to restore the family according to the divine order of the Seventh Commandment.
