The Knot

Matthew 19: 3 Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?” 4 And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, 5 and said, ‘FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH’? 6 “So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” 7 They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to GIVE HER A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE AND SEND her AWAY?” 8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. 9 “And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”

OBSERVATION

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Jesus quotes from Genesis 2.  The Pharisees quote from Deuteronomy 24.  God “made them male and female” so that joined, they “become one flesh.” This union, made by God, is not to be separated by man. Moses permitted the “certificate of divorce” because of the man’s “hardness of heart.” The woman turned away, however is free to remarry.  Except for adultery on the wife’s part, the man who divorces his wife and then marries another sin’s.

INTERPRETATION

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The “certificate of divorce” that Moses permitted was not intended for the benefit of the man so that he could remarry, but for the benefit of the wife he sent away, so that she could remarry.  Marriage, being created by God is Holy and the man or woman who defiles it by adultery sins.  So, the one who runs off their husband or wife, finding after marriage a dislike for him or her, frees him or her to remarry, but it does not free the one who runs the other off.  Likewise the one who commits adultery frees the other to remarry.  Marriage is a bond from which one may not be released except for adultery or the will of an unbelieving partner and even then, I suggest, not a good idea for “how do you know…whether you will save” your wife or husband? Further, regarding the sanctity of marriage, consider that the New Testament refers to believers as the body and bride of Christ and His covenant to we believers is forever.

CROSS-REFERENCE

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 Malachi 2: 15 …Take heed then to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of your youth. 16“For I hate divorce,” says the LORD, the God of Israel, “and him who covers his garment with wrong,” says the LORD of hosts. “So take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously.”

1 Corinthians 7: 10 But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband 11 (but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not divorce his wife. … 15 Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace. 16 For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?

APPLICATION

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I should counsel those who are about to marry, over whom I may have influence, that they are entering into a covenant that they cannot themselves break or violate without sin, for it is holy.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

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The society in which we now live treats divorce and the vows of marriage lightly. Does God?

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