Marriage and Divorce

August 30, 2012

Keith Petersen
Dear brother Keith,

I am in receipt of your recent emails. Early yesterday morning, upon awakening, the Lord put this passage of Scripture into my heart:

"Simeon and Levi are brethren:
Instruments of violence their swords.
My soul, come not into their council;
Mine honour, be not united with their assembly;
For in their anger they slew men,
And in their wantonness houghed oxen.

Cursed be their anger, for it was violent;
And their rage, for it was cruel!
I will divide them in Jacob,
And scatter them in Israel."

Genesis 49:5-7.

Jane and I told you during our recent visit that your grandmother Stella*, shortly before she died, told my mother, "They made me divorce my husband". I don't know who all were involved in counseling your grandmother that she must divorce her husband — God knows, but I believe that the moral import of these verses applies to them. As I have pointed out in our recent emails, the counsel of these persons was contrary to the clear teachings of Scripture concerning marriage and divorce; it was, indeed, cruel and evil counsel.

God is impressing our hearts with His word concerning the institution of marriage, which is being so shamefully debased in the public arena.

"Have ye not read that he who made them, from the beginning made them male and female, and said, On account of this a man shall leave father and mother, and shall be united to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh? so that they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate." Matthew 19:4-6.
"Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, that, even if any are disobedient to the word, they may be gained without the word by the conversation of the wives." 1 Peter 3:1.

May the Lord Jesus open your eyes, as He has opened ours, to see the seriousness of this matter, which has affected our family relationships, and many Christian brethren, for so many years.

Affectionately, your brother in Christ,

Stephen Hesterman

* Stella Petersen, sister of James Taylor Jr and mother of James, Arthur, Eardly, Connie, Billy, and Marie Petersen.