Bible Study on Matthew 22, verses 23 to 33, the Sadducees question Jesus

 

Matthew 22:23 ¶  The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, 24  Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. 25  Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother: 26  Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. 27  And last of all the woman died also. 28  Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her. 29  Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. 30  For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. 31  But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, 32  I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. 33  And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine.

 

The essence of God’s marriage for mankind, on a purely physical level, is a man and a woman uniting together for life to produce and raise children through the act of sexual intimacy. Any other definition of marriage might be civil or lawful but has no part with the God who created us. What Jesus states here is that there will be no need for sexual intimacy in Heaven. Most likely what we experience in Heaven as we spend eternity with our God will be much more fulfilling and intense than any earthly demand from our flesh.

 

Genesis 2:24  Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

 

Anthropologists call the cultural custom where a widowed woman is married by her dead husband’s brother or brothers a Levirate, if I remember correctly. This is to carry on the dead husband’s line within his family.

 

Genesis 38:8  And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother’s wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother.

 

The sect of the Sadducees follow the Herodians and the Pharisees in trying to trip Jesus up. These liberal people that comprised the ruling elite only believed in God for this life, not in the resurrection or in angels or any other unseen thing.

 

Acts 23:8  For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both.

 

Jesus makes an important point here in that a resurrection, which the Sadducees do not believe in, is absolutely essential because God is a God of the living.

 

Exodus 3:6  Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.