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January 16, 2004
Divorce
Filed under: Hot Topic
The dictionary defines divorce as:
1) The legal dissolution of a marriage.
2) A complete or radical severance of closely connected things.
Old Testament View
It seems clear that the context of divorce in the Old Testament was very much the dissolution of a covenant - a separation agreement if you will. And the reasons for divorce were many, often subjective. In Deuteronomy 21:14, it looks like a man could take a woman leftover from the losing nation in a battle and keep her as his wife. If he wasn't satisfied (after sleeping with her), he could end the union.
According to Deuteronomy 24, the "Law of Divorce" went like this (Jesus would later reference this in Matthew 19):
"When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house, and she leaves his house and goes and becomes another man's wife, and if the latter husband turns against her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her to be his wife, then her former husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her again to be his wife, since she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the LORD, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance."
There also seems to be a common thread running through the Old Testament of divorce between nations or nations and God. Malachi 2 talks about Judah being unfaithful. And in Isaiah 50:1 we see Israel's sin and the Lord asking where a certificate of divorce is. What is interesting is that in this
context of this "nation divorce", it is usually a prophet / God speaking on the issue. But the way they discuss it, they are using terms that the people understand. In other words, the concept of divorce must have been a part of their culture for the people to understand what God was talking about. If
God was talking about Judah getting a divorce from another nation, then on an individual level the people would have understood what divorce was.
New Testament View
The first use of the word divorce in the New Testament comes in the very first chapter in the very first book; Matthew 1:19. It is used in the thought process for Mary and Joseph when trying to figure out how to justify or reconcile their pregnancy predicament. There is however a distinction because divorce in this context was a divorce during the betrothal period and not an actual marriage. Although this betrothal was more than just an engagement - even though it was considered husband and wife - there just hadn't been any sexual union. Nevertheless, Joseph thought divorce and God thought differently because the next verse is an angel of the Lord straightening things out. (As a side note, I find it interesting that Joseph thought doing a quiet divorce was the way to go because they would avoid the public judgment and punishment by stoning according to the law. It appears that the laws of the land had lessened their grip and or intensity from the OT times of nothing slipping through the cracks because Joseph obviously thought he could escape it.)
In Matthew 5:31-32 Jesus says, "It has been said, 'Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.' But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.
I love how Jesus starts off all of his thoughts on topics in this chapter as "It has been said..." It is as though Jesus is saying the laws before were right on and I'm going to take it a step further. He was bridging the presumably archaic laws of the past and pumping some new life into them within the framework of a humble leader seeking to get to the heart, not the head. Right on!
Matthew 19:1-15 seems to be the most direct communication from Jesus on the subject in which He clearly opposes it with the exception of marital unfaithfulness. My notes indicate there were two Jewish schools with opposing views on what this Deuteronomy law was saying. The school of Hillel
focused on the part of the verse in Deuteronomy about being "displeasing to him" and the school of Shammai took the side of "something indecent (marital unfaithfulness)." Jesus obviously took the side of the Shammai.
Mark 10:1-10 is another version of the Matthew 19 scenario. Also according to my notes, it says "The purpose of Deuteronomy 24 was not to make divorce acceptable, but to reduce the hardship of its consequences."
Conclusions
God did not intend for divorce to be an option. The "two becoming one flesh" is a permanent paradigm. And it seems that Jesus is very adamant about not divorcing - and if you do or if you think you want that as an option, then don't get married. Better to remain single.
Of course the grace of God is always the wild trump card in everything. I see too many stories in the Bible of people messing up the perfect plan and God always working things out - albeit not always as easy as the original intent.
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