QUESTION #32 What did Moses command you? (about divorce?)

  QUESTIONS JESUS ASKED BIBLE STUDY

 

     Read Matthew 19:1-12 KJV: 

 

 Have you not read, that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and they shall be one flesh? (Matthew 19:4-5)

   What did Moses command you? (Mark 10:3)

 

MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE

Reference: Matthew 19:1-12, Mark 10:1-12; Luke 16:18

 

Jesus put this question to the Pharisees who came tempting him asking, “Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?” Rather than getting caught up in a religious debate, Jesus makes the biblical point, God’s point, on marriage. When a man and woman marry, they are to become one for life. And what God has joined together let no man put asunder (separate or divide). 

 

Jesus draws the conclusion from this that if God joined the two together, they are one by God’s will. Divorce, then, goes contrary to the design of the Creator, and is to be considered the sin of rebellion because it tears apart what God has put together.

 

The topic of marriage and divorce is the subject matter of this particular lesson. The study is complicated by the fact that there are difficult expressions and ideas in the scriptures, and that there are many other scriptures to correlate, and this is a constant problem in life that is constantly being debated. So, in short, I will touch upon two essential points - the ideal and the practical.

 

The ideal is simply what God intended from creation: one man and one woman united for their whole life to produce a Godly seed (Genesis 2:20-24). That is simply the standard. Anything short of that, for any reason, is a failure to measure up to God’s standard, a falling short of the will of God.

 

But there is also the practical -- people do break up their marriages and marry again. The fact that divorce was permitted in both Testaments indicates that people failed to live up to the revealed will of God. And the permitting of divorce did not in any way bring with it the approval and blessing of God (Matthew 19:7-9).

 

On the whole, the teaching about the ideal for marriage is not hard to understand, it is the plan of creation. And, as some have observed, if everyone lived right there would be no questions of interpretation about divorce. But there are, and so we must consider the circumstances and the consequences of falling short of God’s will.

 

Jesus told the Pharisees in Matthew 19:8 that Moses permitted a written divorce that allowed a man to put away his wife due to a hardness of heart (refusal to obey), but even from the beginning it was not meant to be that way. So, in other words, it was never in God’s plan of creation for husband and wife to divorce.

 

Jesus then summarizes the law with an exception clause: “except it be for fornication”. The word that he uses is Greek word porneia. The term was used for all kinds of lewd and immoral acts, such as prostitution, homosexuality, public indecency, adultery, and the like. So, Jesus is making the ruling in Moses more specific; he agrees with Moses that divorce is permitted because of the hardness of heart, but he affirms that it may only be granted on the grounds of sexual sins.

 

Thus, Jesus is very clear here: there is no divorce permitted if the grounds for the divorce are extended beyond what the law allowed, divorce based on sexual violation of the marriage. In summary, then, Jesus and Moses permitted divorce if one party (or both) were involved in sexual immoral, indecent conduct that made a mockery out of the marriage. In such cases if there was no chance of repentance and change, divorce was permitted. 

 

This is why Jesus explains that the repercussions are severe: anyone who divorces his wife (for anything other than fornication) and marries another commits adultery. And if anyone marries the person put away for fornication commits adultery. In other words, the legitimate grounds for divorce would dissolve the marriage because the indecency had already occurred. But if the divorce is for other reasons, then the sexual union in the remarriage is the indecency that destroys God’s plan for marriage.

 

The Apostle Paul taught upon this also in 1 Corinthians 7. 

 

1 Corinthians 7:10-11, “And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband; But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife.” Paul was teaching to the church here, to born again Christians.

 

Note: If you have lived a life outside of God’s will and have married and remarried (even a number of times), and have committed such acts, and since, have repented of all your sins, been baptized in Jesus’ Name and received the Holy Ghost, you have been redeemed -- forgiven.

 

The disciples then asked Jesus, “If it be this way with a man and his wife, is it better not to marry at all?” Jesus responds to the disciples comment by saying that not everyone can accept this word (the idea that it is better not to marry), except those to whom it has been given. Not everyone can abstain from marriage, but some do. He refers in general to those eunuchs who were born that way, or who were castrated.

 

Jesus is not promoting castration, not by any means, (mutilation of the body was totally against Jewish law); but he was speaking of the renunciation of marriage for a higher purpose -- the kingdom of God. There are those who make themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of God - in other words a spiritual castration. If people were able to devote full time to the kingdom of God, they had the gift of celibacy. If they could not do that, it was better to marry than to burn with desire. It takes a special calling for those who are called to serve different purposes in the kingdom than others, purposes that do not include sexual gratification in marriage. If someone has been given the gift of celibacy, then it should be accepted and the work of the kingdom should dominant that life.

 

Since divorce is such an issue in this day and hour I urge anyone to search the scriptures for themselves, diligently pray and seek God, and get counseling from a man of God before deciding upon divorce.

 

Notes: