What makes divorce justifiable?
Hi, welcome to today’s Little Lesson. We’ve already spent two of the lessons looking at Jesus’ words in Matthew chapter five regarding divorce and remarriage, just into the edge of it and I’ve just come to terms with the fact that there’s no way that I’ll be able to fully expound on this subject.
Although at our website, Davidservant.com I have a number of articles that I’ve tried to dig a little deeper into the subject of divorce and remarriage. For this teaching on Little Lessons, in the limited amount of we have, I’m trying to show that the standard doesn’t change from old covenant to new covenant. Under the old covenant divorce and remarriage were institutions allowable within the Law of Moses, that’s very clear, we’ll read a passage of scripture that makes that very clear.
Because God doesn’t change, fundamental morality doesn’t change and so on so forth, I’ve said this so many times, but we’re looking at what Jesus said, made divorce lawful and he’s very plainly said, unchastity, unfaithfulness, he said on the part of the wife, I have to believe it’s on the part of the husband as well, right? Right.
Nevertheless, that’s one reason that a person may lawfully divorce. Of course, I mean you’ve broken the most fundamental vow of the marriage, it’s an offense that’s a highest offense, having a sexual relationship with somebody other than your spouse. It’s a betrayal, it’s treachery, you’ve broken your solemn vow. It’s so offensive that divorce is allowable.
This is a case where obviously you’re not turning the other cheek are you? See. We talked about that, I’m only bringing that up just for the sake of those who listened to the previous Little Lessons when I talked about when you should and you should not resist an evil person. Well this is obviously a time where Jesus said, your wife commits this kind of evil against you, it’s okay to resist her by divorce.
Nobody can argue with this one, I’m just reading from the, reading from Jesus. So we’re looking at what the scribes and pharisees, what their position was on it because in all these you have heard it said, I say to you statements. Jesus was correcting their false teaching. So we’re looking into their false teaching about divorce and remarriage and we’ve just jumped ahead to Matthew chapter 19. They asked Jesus, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause at all?
Jesus, I’m so proud of him, he was so patient with these guys, I don’t know, I think he would’ve been tempted to pull his hair out. These guys were so far from a biblical frame of reference to even be asking such a question shows your morally bankrupt. If you even entertain the idea that you can divorce your wife for any reason. It’s enough to make the angels weep, it’s such a pathetic question.
Jesus patiently says to them, he takes them back to the beginning because morality starts at the beginning and he answered and said to them, have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female? Well that’s pretty basic, he made them male and female. Okay so there’s supposed to be something going on there between the males and the females, and what’s it called? It’s called marriage. There’s certain privileges that are exclusive to marriage.
So Jesus can go all the way back to the beginning and he said, for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. Excuse me, he’s just quoting from Moses. Basic fundamental truth about marriage. The gist of it is, is that this is something that’s been sacred, established from the beginning.
This is so basic and obvious I can’t believe you guys are asking such a ridiculous question that you’re asking is it lawful to divorce for any cause at all? This is biology guys. C’mon. This is basic, basic morality, of course you can’t divorce your wife for any cause at all.
This is an institution created by God and a man leaves his father and mother, his highest relationship up until that moment, his closest relationship up until that moment of marriage. He breaks that relationship, in a sense, he leaves them, and this new relationship is so important that it requires that he leaves them and he joins himself to his wife.
Guess what? He becomes one flesh with her. You’re telling, you’re asking me the question, is it okay to divorce for any cause at all? Please, please, beam me up father. Why do I have to be with these ignorant people who say that there might be, … so they’re no longer two but one flesh. So you’re talking about breaking up something that God made into one.
God made into one and you’re saying you can break it up for any reason at all? What moral planet are you from? But patiently Jesus says, what therefore God has joined together let no man separate.
So simple. So obvious. So basic. God never intended any marriage to end up in divorce. Of course God never intended for any husband or any wife to be unfaithful and when that happens, well, that’s an offense, a terrible offense. It’s not just anything, it’s not just any cause, it’s a big cause.
You’re acting like you’re not married to me cause you’re doing the one thing that exclusively belongs to me with somebody else. You’re acting like your married to somebody else, to whom you’ve not made an exclusive vow. You know, that’s offensive, that’s more than a little slap on the cheek, sure.
So, of course, you could legitimately divorce your wife for that reason, but Jesus goes on to say, well they first ask. They said to him, why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away? So they’re appealing the fact that obviously divorce was permitted under the old covenant, as long as a certificate was given.
Jesus explains, because of the hardness of your heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it’s not been this way. God never intended anyone to get a divorce, but because of the hardness of your hearts, Moses permitted. I don’t think he’s blaming it on Moses, I don’t think he’s saying Moses was a human, source, he was the, it was his idea. No. Mosaic Law was inspired by God, and the law made some stipulation for divorce, obviously we’ll read it in our next lesson.
It was made because of the hardness of peoples hearts. Well that could be interpreted a couple of different ways but I guarantee Jesus was not saying the Law of Moses allowed you to divorce your wife for any cause at all because of the hardness of your hearts, he didn’t say that because the Law of Moses doesn’t say that.
The Law of Moses allowed you to divorce your wife for certain legitimate reasons, because of the hardness of your hearts, okay, and we’re out of time. So we’ll talk about this on our next Little Lesson, I hope you’ll be with me, God bless you.
