Divorce Part II

18. June 2008 by Bernice Davis.

Hello: Yesterday, we talked about Jesus’ response to the Pharisees.  Today, we want to talk about the Pharisees response to Jesus again.  Our text is as follows: 

Matthew 19: 3 Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?” 4 ”Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.” 7 ”Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?” 8 Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. 9 I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery.” (NIV)  

Once Jesus tells the Pharisees that from the beginning, God never intended for divorce, the Pharisees quickly rebut with then why did Moses allow it?   Jesus goes on to say that Moses allowed it because of the hardness of your heart; in other words because you refused to obey God’s word.  You refused to be faithful and honor each other, you refused to take care of each other, You refused to love and cleave to each other, etc.   

Divorce was actually put in place to deal with the sins that were being done in the covenant of  marriage. 

After the fall of man, there had to be something put in place to deal with the rebellion of man concerning marriage.   Since the married couples  refused to obey the word of God in terms of “till death do us part” Moses allowed divorce in order to provide guidelines on what would happen mainly to the woman when she was dismissed by the husband.   In the ancient world most of the divorces were being requested by the men. 

Divorce became a treatment to deal with sin.    In the creation age before the fall, Jesus teaches, that it was not so.  It was never meant to be; “from the beginning, it was not so.”     

Once sin entered into the world, things drastically changed and laws were created to deal with the sins of “mankind.” 

Tomorrow, we will look at the disciples response to Jesus concerning this teaching.    They too had comments on the subject matter.   

God Bless. Don’t forget to pray and read God’s word daily. 

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