Deuteronomy 24

It was indeed a hard-hearted people (see Matthew 19:8⁸He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. (Matthew 19:8) and Mark 10:5⁵And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. (Mark 10:5)) to whom God gave these rules. The Holy Spirit in our day has a deeper message, because of the finished work of Christ, and divorce could not now be justified among Christians on such grounds as those of this chapter.

If the people were hard of heart, God was not like them, and the greater part of this chapter speaks in kindness of the poor and defenseless, whether it were one’s brother or a hired servant, or a stranger, or an orphan, or a widow.

“Thou shalt remember,” not how great thou art, or anything of the kind, but “that thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee thence.” (verse 18)

If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus, dear reader, do you remember often enough that you were a slave of that cruel tyrant Satan until God, in Christ, redeemed you? Turn to Ephesians 2:1-9,¹And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; ²Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: ³Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. ⁴But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, ⁵Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) ⁶And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: ⁷That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. ⁸For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: ⁹Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:1‑9) and read that wonderful statement, true of everyone who trusts in Jesus.

Click here to show subject links in the text for more information.