Daily Manna 27 November
KEY VERSE: “But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.” – (Mark 10:6)
TEXT: Mark 10:1-12
1 And he arose from thence, and cometh into the coasts of Judaea by the farther side of Jordan: and the people resort unto him again; and, as he was wont, he taught them again.
2 And the Pharisees came to him, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? tempting him.
3 And he answered and said unto them, What did Moses command you?
4 And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away.
5 And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept.
6 But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.
7 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife;
8 And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.
9 What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
10 And in the house his disciples asked him again of the same matter.
11 And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her.
12 And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.
Read yesterday’s Daily Manna here
Little children know the great and precious value of a promise. They hold strongly to the promise made to them by their parents and are confident that they will be fulfilled. Such promises calm their nerves and make them to brighten up. How simple their faith is! This is the kind of simple faith God wants us to have in dealing with Him: trusting His promise.
Abraham demonstrated this kind of faith and confidence in the passage under consideration. The time had come for him to help his son Isaac get a wife as it was the custom in his days. He charged his chief servant to go back to his kindred to pick a wife for his son. When the servant questioned what he would do should no woman agree to follow him, Abraham assured him that God would lead him to pick the rightful
The general tendency with man is to discard the old and embrace the new. As man grows in knowledge and advances technologically and in other areas, some things are considered obsolete and no longer suitable for modern times. However, there are very essential values that must not be done away with no matter how old the practices have been. These long cherished values are what help to preserve humanity and ensure sanity in the society.
From the passage, the Pharisees confronted Jesus with the issue of divorce. They wanted to confirm its legality and alluded to the provision given to them by Moses as a result of their hardness of heart. In His response, Jesus stated that this provision was not the standard. He went ahead to point out what God established as the standard right at the beginning of the institution of marriage. In that first pronouncement by God, divorce was not permissible under whatever condition.
It is disturbing to see how so many Christians are discarding the standard of God established right from the beginning to embrace new practices and ways of life. The issue of divorce has become commonplace among many people. Sexual perversions such as homosexuality and lesbianism condemned by God are now being promoted as sexual orientations that must be tolerated. It is no longer considered sinful to tell a lie, cheat, defraud and manipulate, etc., it is seen as being smart and clever!
Whatever new practices and ways of life that are being thrown up today in the name of modernity and civilisation, we must remind ourselves that the beginning still counts. What God gave at the beginning as the standard of living in all areas of life still counts. Nothing has changed about His demand from us.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Time cannot change the standard of God because He cannot change!
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 2 Peter 1-3
Thank you for studying today’s Daily Manna – The Beginning Still Counts!- by Pastor Enoch A.
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Daily Manna 27 November 2021
