The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Mark 10:1-9, “And rising up, He went from there to the region of Judea, and beyond the Jordan; and crowds gathered around Him again, and, according to His custom, He once more began to teach them.

2 And some Pharisees came up to Him, testing Him, and began to question Him whether it was lawful for a man to divorce a wife.

3 And He answered and said to them, “What did Moses command you?”

4 And they said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.”

5 But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment.

6 “But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.

7 “For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother,

8 and the two shall become one flesh; consequently they are no longer two, but one flesh.

9 “What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”

I can recall several instances when I was asked questions that I knew to be the questioner’s trap.

Remember that the Pharisees who asked the question of Jesus were religious ritualists. They always added to the Word of God. So here they are again, questioning Him about the law of divorce.

In theory, the Jews of Jesus’ day highly revered chastity and the sacredness of marriage. In practice, however, they fell quite short of the standards to which they claimed to hold.

Jesus’ reply concerning Moses was that Moses permitted divorce because the hearts of the Israelites were cold and hard. Divorce was rampant, and Moses’ permission was temporary. But Jesus said that “from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female (no LGBTQ here!), and they became “one flesh” in the act of marriage. God thus intended marriage to be permanent: “until death do us part.”

We all need to hear and heed what Scripture teaches about the permanenc y of marriage. My purpose in this letter, however, was not the subject of marriage, but how we need to be alert to questions that intend to trap us. Is it possible to be prepared for every question we are asked? Possibly not. We can, however, and must always be loving in our replies. Jesus did not need to ask the Pharisees what Moses said in the Old Testament Law. He already knew. We, however, might want to ask a question that would segue into the Gospel instead of falling into an argument that is intended simply to trap or embarrass us.

One way to forestall embarrassment in witnessing is just not to witness. But those who chose this pathway will encounter far greater embarrassment on that Great Day when we stand before the Judgment Bar of God! We, uh, just better do what He says now.

I love all of you and pray for your spiritual and physical welfare. God bless you abundantly!

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(Dado III)

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas 72764

United States of America

“We never know that God is all we need

until He becomes all that we have.”