Hi BukiRob ..I really appreciate Jeremiah and have been blessed by also reading many of the minor prophets . What I think is interesting is potentially seeing history repeating itself. Look in Jeremiah 23:14 and further. It is my understanding that those called to be saints are part of the priesthood and yet legally sanctioned adultery and bigamy ( called divorce and remarriage ) is commonplace in the church. Covetousness is called being a good steward and good citizen ( provided we give 10% , it is ok to use the other 90% for our own kingdom . ) Covetousness was one of the snares of the priesthood with whom Jesus was in contention.
I was born and raised Mennonite, so I know where you are coming from.
But the foundation of anabaptism (the view of throwing out the Old Testament moral law) is not Biblical.
Jesus introduced the Sermon on the Mount with "I came not to destroy the Law or the Prophets, but to fulfill."
What does fulfill mean? Does it mean to contradict? No.
What Christ did, when He fulfilled the Law, was, He BECAME all those things of the Law contained in outward ordinances. He became our Sacrifice for sin. We no longer offer animals. He became our cleanness, as Gentiles. Therefore we no longer have to carefully avoid unclean physical meats. He became all those things that were foreshadowed.
However, in His fulfillment of the Law, did Christ do away with the old moral standard? If He did, then He would have been saying that the moral law, as a standard, was imperfect, and fell short in what it required. Is this what the Word of God says? No.
Psalm 19 says the Law of the Lord is perfect. Psalm 119 says God's Law endures to all generations. Even to today.
In fact, Jesus said not one jot or one tittle of the Law could fail or pass away until heaven and earth pass. Last I checked, that hadn't happened yet.
Paul said that even under the New Covenant, he could not have known sin, except by the standard of the Law.
John said the same thing, when he gave the definition of sin under the New Covenant: "Sin is the transgression of the Law."
Paul also said the Law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good!
This includes the Law that allows divorce and remarriage. This includes the law that requires defending the defenseless.
The reason you understand it is now wrong, is because you have been taught wrong.
But God never changes. What he once said was holy, will always be holy.
What He said once was an abomination, will always remain so. (even Deuteronomy 24:3-4)
Jesus introduced no new teachings. Everything He taught was in the Old Testament.
Matthew 5 was only a rebuke to the Pharisees, who were supposed to be keeping the Law of Moses, but instead were keeping the teachings of "them of old time" who were Pharisee rabbis who had died over a hundred years before Christ.
The Law fell short only in the ability to make the comers thereunto perfect.
Not as a standard of right and wrong.
