Incest, Adultery, Fornication, And Divorce

INCEST, ADULTERY, FORNICATION, AND DIVORCE

I thought it necessary to start this particular study with incest, because after Adam and Eve, the bible did. "And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch." (Gen. 4:17) We know that if Adam and Eve were the first man and woman, the family tree had to be forced not to fork somewhere in order for mankind to spread out and subdue the planet as it has today.
On top of this also started out natural to have more than one wife, which is currently a violation of God's desire that we be monogamous; "And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah." (Gen. 4:19) Considering how tight the gene pool was, most likely Lamech was married to his relatives, too. Because of the purity of the human genetics, our patriarchs typically lived over 700 years, and the oldest, Methuselah, lived 969 years!

Now the legalism seems a little wishy washy in this next paragraph, because it seems Sarai told Abram to have an adulterous relationship with her maid for the sake of having a child, and then gave Hagar to him for a second wife, but later took away her concubine rights! " And Sarai said unto Abram, 'Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her.' And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. And Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. And Sarai said unto Abram, 'My wrong be upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the LORD judge between me and thee.' But Abram said unto Sarai, 'Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee.' And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face." (Gen. 16:2 - 6)

More incest occurred right after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, but it still was not labelled a sin by God; after these cities were destroyed, Lot's daughters got their father drunk and both got themselves pregnant to him! (Gen. 19:30 - 36) Their incest created children later known as the Moabites and the Ammonites. The Moabites were at odds with the Israelites in such cases as when their king Balak wanted Balaam to curse the Israelites, and the Ammonites did likewise, as when Saul slew them in 1 Sam. 11:11. The Lord had no favor for either of these peoples sprung from this incest, except in prophecy of the antiChrist to come; "He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon." Dan. 11:41 (KJV): "Unto the men of the east with the Ammonites, and will give them in possession, that the Ammonites may not be remembered among the nations. And I will execute judgments upon Moab; and they shall know that I am the LORD." (Ezek. 25:10 - 11)

Still another marital anomaly was Jacob marrying two women who were sisters. (Gen. 29:21 - 30) He married Laban's firstborn daughter, Leah, which was a trick on him by his new father-in-law, and then, in one week, he was also allowed to marry the youngest daughter, Rachel, whom he truly loved. Rachel bore him Joseph and Benjamin, and he favored these over all his other children to Leah, and Joseph paid heavily for the favoritism, but God's will caused it to come to pass for good. "But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive." (Gen. 50:20)

Fornication comes in two forms; consentual, and nonconcentual (rape), just as does adultery. The first nonconcentual fornication is recorded in Gen. 34:2; "And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her." This rape was met with a massacre at Shechem! Another fornication which is not given as to whether it was consentual or not was that of the son of Israel with his father's concubine! "And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine: and Israel heard it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve:" (Gen. 35:22) In this instance the consequence was the forfeiture of his birthright!

Prostitution is either fornication or adultery, depending on whether one is married or both are not. But Gen. 38:13 - 19 has Tamar, the daughter-in-law of Judah, playing as a harlot, and Judah was seduced into causing her to conceive! When he found out his daughter-in-law was pregnant, he meant to have her killed by fire for her conception out of wedlock, but when she proved him the father of the twins she bore with his pledge property..."And Judah acknowledged them, and said, 'She hath been more righteous than I; because that I gave her not to Shelah my son.' And he knew her again no more." (Gen. 38:26) He was twice wrong; he failed to give her his son for a husband, and he committed adultery with her.

The next adultery is Potiphar's wife with Joseph. While he never allowed himself to be seduced into the act, she did her best to attempt to force herself on him, and remember Jesus' stand on adultery; "But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." (Matt. 5:28) The incident between her and Joseph is in Gen. 39:7 - 20, and Joseph was falsely imprisoned because of the matter. According to Jesus' words, Potiphar's wife sinned adultery, but Joseph did not.

As we finally leave Genesis, we come upon the Ten Commandments in Exodus, and the two concerning carnality are the 7th and 10th commandments; "Thou shalt not commit adultery...Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's." (Exod. 20:14, 17) These same commandments are repeated in Deut. 5. While the 7th covers the act, the 10th is worded to cover not only the act, but also the thought, and Jesus restated it in His own words in the Gospel!

Lev. 18 further laid down standards from the Lord concerning sexual relationships, including one for no more marital relationships as the one Jacob had to two sisters! He further gave laws against homosexuality and bestiality, (Lev. 18:22 - 23),and commanded death penalties for the acts (Lev. 20:13, 15), and even some of the other acts, particularly the incestuous ones (Lev. 20:10 - 21)

Deut. 24:1 - 4 covers divorce and remarriage. It explains that once a man divorces a woman, and she remarries a different man, and then divorces him, she may not be remarried by the first husband, because it is abomination. Imagine how many people in the world today have committed abomination because of their ignorance of this statute from God? Further, Jesus spoke against divorce happening at all, except in the case of infidelity, and even then, remarriage was only allowed in the case of one spouse dying, or reconciliatory remarriage. I will give chapter and verse soon after below.

In Deuteronomy curses were spoken of anyone who had incestuous relationships; "Cursed be he that lieth with his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be he that lieth with his mother in law." (Deut. 27:22 - 23) There recently once was a TV show that paraded these kind of people around as somewhat to glorify what they were doing; what a sick way to make your money, hosting THAT show!

One of David's sons raped his own sister, and while it took a while, he paid for his sin - with his life! "And when she had brought them unto him to eat, he took hold of her, and said unto her, 'Come lie with me, my sister.' And she answered him, 'Nay, my brother, do not force me; for no such thing ought to be done in Israel: do not thou this folly. And I, whither shall I cause my shame to go? And as for thee, thou shalt be as one of the fools in Israel. Now therefore, I pray thee, speak unto the king; for he will not withhold me from thee.' Howbeit he would not hearken unto her voice: but, being stronger than she, forced her, and lay with her." (2 Sam. 13:11 - 14) These sins have consequences! Incest was somewhat a common sin, and called an abomination in the days of Ezekiel! "And one hath committed abomination with his neighbour's wife; and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter in law; and another in thee hath humbled his sister, his father's daughter." (Ezek. 22:11)

"It hath been said, 'Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement': But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery." (Matt. 5:31 - 32) Jesus here contends that divorce should only have one allowed reason, and otherwise, should not happen at all. Luke 16:18 is similarly worded. Divorce traps the divorcees in celibacy, and remarriage is asserted by Jesus to be a state of adultery, even fornication, because the commitment first made in the eyes of God cannot be broken asunder in the eyes of God, and therefore, the remarriage is not recognized. This means the divorcee remarried and they whom has married the divorcee are in a sinful relationship until the other divorcee dies, at which time the commitment before God has been satisfied. Then in Matt. 19:3 - 12, Jesus tells the Pharisees that celibacy is better than marrying with the potential for divorce, and thus they can more completely serve God. However, not all can handle being celibate all their lives, so for them, they should marry with the intent on remaining that way in a lifelong commitment. Mark 10:2 - 12 is similarly worded without reference to celibacy.

Can you imagine someone would kill to cover up a sin such as adultery, and even to marry their own brother's wife? Such it was in the days of Jesus, but it had to be done of strategy in the case of the wife, Herodias; "For Herod himself had sent forth and laid hold upon John, and bound him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife: for he had married her. For John had said unto Herod, 'It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife.' Therefore Herodias had a quarrel against him, and would have killed him; but she could not:" (Mark 6:17 - 19) 2 Sam. 11 has a similar story concerning David, only he commits adultery with one of his soldier's' wife, then has him killed on the front line. If I were David, I think he rued the day he fell in love with Bathsheba, in that no good and many consequences befell him for following through with the adultery. How many people today suffer consequences for committing adultery!

Paul wrote to the Corinthians an interesting concept concerning marriage and resisting divorce; "And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband: But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife. But to the rest speak I, not the Lord: If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away. And the woman which hath an husband that believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy. But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace." (1 Cor. 7:10 - 15) If divorce occurs, they must be celibate permanently, or reconcile back to one another permanently. While Jesus didn't teach about unequally yoked marriages, Paul does so here. He promotes the believer to stay with the unbeliever because the Christian in the marriage still sets the home apart by the believer's influence in Christ.

Paul preached against fornication, which is sex outside of marriage: "Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." (1 Cor. 6:18 - 20)

Homosexuals will not inherit the kingdom of heaven any more than adulterers and fornicators and all those who practice carnality outside of God-defined marriage unless they repent and fall into God's accepted form of the use of sex. "For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." (Rom. 1:26 - 32) "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." (1 Cor. 6:9 - 10)

So here we have much enlightenment on how God wishes us to live concerning incest, adultery, fornication, and divorce. We now know all are frowned upon, and most importantly, we understand what constitutes each lifestyle. The ignorant who have not read this group of passages from scripture are unaware of the importance of avoiding practicing committing any of these things which are sinful in the eyes of God.