The God Of The Living (Contd) - Mark 12:18-27 Series

And in the case of the Sadducees, it’s not hard to see why. The Sadducees were aristocrats. Powerful, influential, rich—they had it all in this life. But if there’s an afterlife, then there’s a judgment day, and that spoils the party big time. So they’re on the warpath against the doctrine of the resurrection, and that’s what they come at Jesus with.

Kinsman Redeemer

One last topic I didn’t have any time for in the last message, but that I think is important enough that we give at least a brief overview of is the law the Sadducees bring up about marrying your brother’s widow.

19 "Teacher," they said, "Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother.

The first paper I ever had to write in college was on the topic of that law, and I ended up titling the paper, “The Kinsman Redeemer: Scripture’s Hidden Treasure.” Not that it’s really hidden—I just called it that because I had never heard of it before I got the assignment. But it’s a treasure because of the role it plays in the whole biblical story.

It’s known as the levirate marriage law (the word “levirate” means brother-in-law). It’s the brother-in-law rule.

Deuteronomy 25:5 If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband's brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her. 6 The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.

What if the brother doesn’t want to marry her? Maybe he doesn’t even like her. Maybe he was hoping to find his own wife and marry for love. 7 However, if a man does not want to marry his brother's wife Then it goes on to lay out the penalty for men who refused to do this. He would be publicly shamed.

There’s actually one famous example of a man who refused—Onan. Onan’s brother died and left his wife Tamar behind childless.

Genesis 38:8 Then Judah said to Onan, "Lie with your brother's wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to produce offspring for your brother." 9 But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so whenever he lay with his brother's wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother. 10 What he did was wicked in the LORD's sight; so he put him to death.

This was a big deal to God. And as you keep reading in Scripture, you get an idea why. Later on the term Scripture used for the brother-in-law was kinsman redeemer. And the role of the kinsman redeemer went beyond just having children for the dead brother. It also involved redeeming lost property and other things, even including punishing someone who murdered your family member. We don’t have time to get into all that, but I do want to mention the most famous and important passage of all that deals with the kinsman redeemer—the entire book of Ruth. Long story short, Ruth’s husband died, and when the nearest relative refused to marry her, that left Boaz as the next closest relative. So he stepped up and married Ruth.