The Covenant of Works, also known as the Edenic Covenant, is the covenant that God had with Adam in the Garden of Eden where Adam would maintain his position with God through his obedience to the command of God to multiply and fill the earth, subdue it, and also not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. 7:1-3, 1 Cor. The onus remains on those who interpret those texts as justifying remarriage, to establish how that meshes with the Biblical concept of marriage as covenant. I took my staff Favor and cut it in pieces, to break my covenant which I had made with all the peoples. But as for you, you have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble by the instruction; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says the Lord of hosts. It is not necessary to prove that the “a-marriage-covenant-cannot-be-annulled” position is the only one that makes sense out of the “exception clause.” If it provides a viable way of reading Matt. So the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He said, “Because this nation has transgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers and has not listened to My voice. We concentrate, then, on covenants between people, and predominantly between equals, since these give us the best basis of comparison with the marriage covenant. Leviticus 26 makes this clear: But if you will not listen to me . Living by alien wisdom amounts to forsaking Yahweh, the husband of Israel’s youth (v.17a; cf. Now choose life . 19:1-12) reads: Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. While these laws and examples do not teach the legitimate occasions for divorce, they assume its existence in Israelite society. LAW. When a covenant is violated, the primary concern is with the restoration of the relationship. 1 Cor. “The Matthean Divorce Texts and Some New Palestinian Evidence.”, Kaiser, Walter C., Jr., “Divorce in Malachi 2:10-16.”, Wijngaards, J. Jesus then answered their objection. It was not uncommon for the husband to take a second wife when he was financially able to do so. The text indicates that if the father/husband breaks the woman’s oath or vow, “the Lord will forgive (salach) her.” The word salach is used in the Old Testament in connection with the forgiveness of guilt or sin. 13), particularly regarding the offerings and sacrifices. Debt covenants are not used to place a burden on the borrower. I am distinguishing between violating a covenant and annulling a covenant. By smooth words he will turn to godlessness those who act wickedly toward the covenant, but the people who know their God will display strength and take action. He is implying thereby that if one’s marriage fractures, those who are members of the Kingdom are willing to live with the burden of remaining in a state of celibacy. . 20:10; Deut. The burden of proof for the conditional nature of the marriage covenant lies with those who would argue that some human act can bring that covenant to an end. Furthermore, there are other marriage practices which we recognize as violations of the divinely ordained pattern of marriage which are not explicitly condemned. . I will not reject or abhor them so as to destroy them completely, breaking my covenant with them. Those who witness such marriage(s) without objecting on religious grounds share the guilt (v. 12) with those who contract such marriages. Second, this interpretation makes the most sense out of the eunuch saying (Matt. Proverbs personifies both Lady Wisdom and Dame Foolishness. Neh. The blessings as well as the judgments belong to the covenant itself. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty. The second reference in this verse is to marriage itself. The explicit teaching of the Scriptures weighs heavily on the side of the fact that unfaithfulness to the covenant partner may “break” the covenant in the sense of transgressing it, but that does not constitute a voiding or an annulment of that covenant. . Jonathan gave David his robe, tunic, sword, bow, and belt as symbols of the covenant. The condition, “if she marries another while her husband is still alive,” assumes an intervening divorce. If ever a covenant should be capable of being annulled, it should be such a one which was won by the Gibeonites under such pretenses. When it was discovered that the Gibeonites had tricked {86} Israel into making the covenant. A contract is rendered null and void by misrepresentation. While I am not strongly attracted to this interpretation, it indicates that the traditional reading is not the only one which addresses the Matthean divorce texts. Neither the legal acts of divorce nor remarriage sever the marriage bond in God’s eyes (remarriage is called adultery against the “former” spouse). The covenant remains intact until all of the curses have been visited on the covenant-breaker, resulting in that party’s death. The men of Judah had played fast and loose with their marriage vows. That argument assumes that Matthew’s Gospel was the first one in circulation and that it was circulated throughout the scattered Christian community before the other gospels were written. 41. Five primary texts bear upon the subject. Repeatedly, the Old Testament cites God or people as saying, “You/Israel have broken (parar) the/my covenant.” One could argue that the term parar suggests that the covenant has come to an end. The Lord said to Moses, “Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers; and this people will arise and play the harlot with the strange gods of the land, into the midst of which they are going, and will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them. Lev. . Instead it introduces the corrective judgments of God. 19:11-12). 13), has married a foreign woman, a worshipper of a foreign deity, or it refers collectively to the men of Judah who have contracted mixed-faith marriages. Therefore, it carries no weight as an objection to this position. “Death and Resurrection in Covenantal Context (Hos. Why do we deal treacherously each against his brother so as to profane the covenant of our fathers? 6 “I the Lord do not change. Though this was the husband of the marriage arranged by the parents, the designation of the husband as her ’alup indicates that their relationship was characterized by intimacy, love, and strong bonding (cf. The creation marriage text (Gen. 2:24; cf. An inference drawn from the text on this interpretation is that if a person divorces the spouse because of the spouse’s infidelity, remarriage is then not adultery, that is, remarriage is then permitted. Three statements may be offered in response. .”) on the subject. In-game, it replaces the Blow Me Away from the Halo 2: Original Soundtrack. A final text, Zechariah 11:10, describes the prophet’s symbolic action of breaking the covenant: “Then I took my staff called Favor and broke it, breaking (parar) the covenant I had made with all the nations. If so, a marriage is ended when the covenant is violated. These are, however, still part of the earlier covenant, inasmuch as repentance restores the sinner to the original relationship. Polygamy and concubinage are two of these. Violations will occur, inasmuch as humans are fallible. That covenant may be violated in a number of ways, but violation is not to be interpreted as annulment of the marriage covenant. 1 Sam. Therefore . {97}. The texts in Ezra (10:1-4, 11-17, 44) and Nehemiah (13:23-28) imply that Ezra and Nehemiah acted morally in calling for the men of Judah to divorce their wives who came from prohibited nations. They do not imply that an earlier covenant has been broken, as Luck would have us believe. Divorce is permissible when occasioned by porneia. They are God’s way of returning his people to the intended blessings. God has withdrawn his blessings because his people have violated the covenant with their original marriage partner (haberet). 14-39). It is a terrible things to fall into the hands of spirit spouse. In the case of David and Jonathan, the terms of the second covenant-making ceremony were different than the first. (vv. Furthermore, the action represents the judgment of God previously described: “Let the dying die, and the perishing perish . . In a more technical sense, a covenant is an agreement between two or more persons, entered into in writing and under seal, whereby either party: Stipulates for the truth of certain facts. By means of a ruse, they tricked Israel into enacting a covenant of peace with them. It can be described as an agreement between two or more people to establish a relationship in which promises, responsibilty and punishment for breaking the convenant are made. The adulteress’s desertion of her husband is described as “forgetting the covenant of her God,” implying either that violating her marriage relationship was a violation of her relationship to God as contained in the Sinaitic covenant, or, more likely, that in the marriage covenant ceremony God was called upon as a witness and a guarantor. then I will . 2 The second covenant-making text (20:1-17, 41-42) reaffirmed the original terms and then extended those terms to include Jonathan’s descendants: “And do not ever cut off your kindness from my family—not even when the Lord has cut off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth” (v. 15). He has put forth his hands against those who were at peace with him; For their heart was not steadfast toward Him, He said, “I have been very zealous for the, Then he said, “I have been very zealous for the, because they did not obey the voice of the, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the, Then they will answer, ‘Because they forsook the covenant of the. The repetitions in their covenant-making illustrate the fact that the Biblical language does not distinguish between the initial act of covenant-making and the reaffirmation of that covenant, either as a renewal due to intervening failure or as a recommitment to the continuing character of that relationship. Third, whatever the meaning of the “exception clause,” (Matt. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”, Then he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. Covenant breaking is immoral and sinful and we need to stop this soft-soaping of sin. “Covenant” is one of those words that just keeps coming up when you read the Bible—and certainly when you study it. That distinction is at the heart of this discussion on covenant making and breaking. The same law applies to the woman as to the man if she initiates the divorce suit. I have argued that Scripture teaches explicitly that marriage is a covenant involving two equally responsible partners who promise in the presence of God to be faithful to one another until death separates them. . Arise, for it is your task, and we are with you; be strong and do it.” Elsewhere the covenantal character of marriage is described through metaphor or analogy with the Yahweh/Israel or Christ/Church relationship. Mental illness (2.) 22:13-19; cf. A bond violation is a breach of the terms of the covenants of a bond. That leaves the companion of her youthAnd forgets the covenant of her God; I will give the men who have transgressed My covenant, who have not fulfilled the words of the covenant which they made before Me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between its parts—, New American Standard Bible Copyright ©1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. The Pharisees objected to the idea of such permanence and referred to the Mosaic legislation of Deuteronomy 24:1-4 to point out that divorce itself fell within the divine will (v. 7). The second part of the Adamic covenant is how God deals with the breaking of the Edenic covenant. Rarely is that insight developed by probing the unique character of covenant as represented within the Scripture and by applying those perspectives to the marital relationship. Not like the covenant which I made with their fathersOn the day when I took them by the handTo lead them out of the land of Egypt;For they did not continue in My covenant,And I did not care for them, says the Lord. No single Scripture expressly develops the covenantal nature of marriage. The argument is a strong one. if, instead, you reject My statutes, and if your soul abhors My ordinances so as not to carry out all My commandments, and so break My covenant. And Jesus explicitly states that there is one exception, under which remarriage is also permissible. Till the end of time. If you breach a restrictive covenant, its terms can be enforced by the court if a beneficiary of the covenant objects to the breach. 22:19,29. Defilement Breaking God's Law Breaking The Covenant God, The Eternal Ecological Concerns Polluting The Land Covenant, God's with Noah The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant. Jesus does not accept the societal norms and practices as the norm for his followers. For such charges to have meaning, there must be a legal code on which they are based. Jesus responded that God never intended husband and wife to divorce. Malachi 3:6-7 New International Version (NIV) Breaking Covenant by Withholding Tithes. Covenant-breaker is a term used by Baháʼís to refer to a person who has been excommunicated from the Baháʼí community for breaking the 'Covenant': actively promoting schism in the religion or otherwise opposing the legitimacy of the chain of succession of leadership. Yet, inasmuch as we have a significant number of human to human covenants, these throw light on the duration of the marriage covenant. They try to establish a sexual covenant between a man and woman in the spirit realm. That is why instruction as in Malachi 2:10-16 is necessary. That remains the principle. The king of Babylon had advanced against Judah, taken Jerusalem, and carried off her king and nobles into Babylonian captivity (vv. The covenants between David and Jonathan (1 Sam. The court will make a decision on the matter and may grant an injunction that upholds the covenant, prohibits changes being made or forces any completed changes or building works to be reversed or demolished. Only exile—the removal of the covenant blessings—may restore Israel to her right mind. Confession of sins, Leviticus teaches, will result in restoration, though the nation must “pay for their sins.” God assures them. Moreover, they have also put them among their own things. Apart from the examples of Joshua 9 (Israel and the Gibeonites) and Ezekiel 17 (Jehoiachin and Nebuchadnezzar), there is no Biblical evidence of what happens when human covenants are violated. 5:31-32: “Anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness (porneia), causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries a [no article in Greek] divorced woman commits adultery.”, Mark 10:11-12: “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. He also acknowledges that he knows that David will assume the monarchy and he himself will be reduced to a supporting role. That question will have to be answered by the entire Christian community. A covenant, because of its relational character, and because it is inherently perpetual, and because it is made under oath before God, cannot be annulled even though it results in disadvantages to the one(s) making the covenant. agreement, “the Israelites did not attack them because the leaders of the assembly had sworn an oath to them by the Lord, the God of Israel” (Josh. Put the trumpet to your lips!Like an eagle the enemy comes against the house of the Lord,Because they have transgressed My covenantAnd rebelled against My law. Then men will say, ‘Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. A third text which contributes direct evidence to the perpetuity of human covenants is Ezekiel 17. Etc. According to Paul, only death of one of the partners ends the marriage covenant. Those who married close kin should not remain married because that marriage was contrary to the expressed statements of the Mosaic law. 2:2). I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery (vv. The texts identified above have pointed out the perpetuity of human covenants, one form of which is the marriage covenant. Jeremiah pleads that God should “Remember! Second, he set forth his own teaching (as he had done in Matthew 6:21-48, introducing it by, “but I say to you . . 22-27). In other words, this act of “breaking” the covenant represents the pouring out of the covenant curses. In other words, this act of “breaking” the covenant represents the pouring out of the covenant curses. . In a contract, the consequences represent retributive punishment or punitive damages. Bible verses about Breaking Covenants. A covenant is an accepted decision between two parties. In fact, this feature of the covenant is carried into the New Testament language of having “died in/with Christ.” This accords with the language of life and death so pervasive in the covenant contained in Deuteronomy. First, he explained Moses’s divorce legislation as “permission” necessitated by the people’s hardness of heart. What is the meaning? when you brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary to profane it, even My house, when you offered My food, the fat and the blood; for they made My covenant void—this in addition to all your abominations. 9:18). When we hear of “covenant” today, it sounds like lofty legalese for “contract,” or “agreement.” But covenant is a weighty theme that dominates Scripture: it’s good to get an idea of what it means in the Bible. The original covenant between Jonathan and David applied only to them. So a person can be declared "dead" even though they may still be alive. Members of that Jewish community were also forbidden to marry persons of close kinship (cf. a part of a formal written agreement in which it is stated what must or must not be done, or in which someone promises to do or pay something: The lease contains a covenant that no … If violations continue, the witness(es) continue to send curses until the covenant-breaking partner is restored or dies. In chapter two, the prophet turns against the priests (2:19) for violating the covenant of Levi by failing to provide moral guidance. This means either that the leader of the community, possibly the religious head (cf. As surely as I live, I will bring down on his head my oath that he despised and my covenant that he broke. The prophet also scores the people for their injustices against one another (2:17-3:5). 1Vol. Third, this interpretation of Matthew 19:9 makes for a natural harmony between this “divorce saying” and the three others in the Gospels. This was more likely if the first marriage did not “gel” into a warm, caring relationship or if there were no children by the first marriage. 28:1-14); disloyalty invites the judgments of God (e.g., Deut. 23:15-17). Its name alludes to the band that performed Blow Me Away, and to Ezekiel 17:18, "He despised the oath by breaking the covenant." A final point should be made regarding the interpretation of the Matthean “exception clause.” I have offered one interpretation which makes it consist with the perpetuity-of-the-covenant teaching; there are others. because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed His covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded; they would neither listen nor do it. 30:15-16,19-20): See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. Wisdom leads one away from destructive interpersonal relationships. 7 Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. . This article explores the relevance and implications of covenant for divorce and remarriage. Furthermore, God speaks of himself as divorcing adulterous Israel (Jer. 16; Hosea 2). See more. This usage of parar is typical, and reflects an essential {91} element of the covenant. Thus, in a number of covenants, a subordinate king is said to have been "killed" and driven into exile (Wijngaards, 230-1). Remarriage is always adultery. Paraphrased, with the assumption made explicit, the statement reads, “Since the marriage covenant cannot be annulled, a husband and wife may divorce only if porneia has occurred, but remarriage constitutes adultery because it intrudes on the oneness God has created.” It is possible to defend this interpretation of Matthew 19:9 as at least as viable as the standard reading. Fitzmyer, a Catholic New Testament scholar suggests that the proper understanding of Matthew 19:9 involves the meaning of the word porneia. If one assumes, then, that a marriage covenant is not rendered null and void by any human act or sequence of acts other than the death of one of the spouses, Jesus’ saying becomes a two-fold coordinated and interdependent statement, namely: 1) it identifies infidelity (porneia) as an or the only acceptable basis on which a (faithful) spouse may pursue a divorce, and 2) it declares remarriage after an unjustified divorce to be adultery. 13:1) when they became guilty of Baal worship. Furthermore, there is no evidence that this concept of "death" is intended in Paul’s statement that “a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage” (Rom. But like Adam they have transgressed the covenant; There they have dealt treacherously against Me. . {82}. Hos. My personal response is that God forgives our sin if we repent, confess and recommit ourselves to faithfulness in the marital state in which we find ourselves. Israel, too, treated marriage as an exchange of goods and services. And if she, after divorcing her husband, marries another man, she commits adultery.”, Luke 16:18: “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”.