Divorce

What about Divorce? When we study marriage (see study), we see that it is God's design for making man and woman whole and for depicting His relationship with His church. It brings benefits to everyone involved: the man is made complete and helped; the woman is protected, provided for, and made fruitful; both of them achieve interpersonal intimacy; children are brought forth and trained by example and instruction; society is made more orderly and productive. Unfortunately, a successful marriage depends on selfless love, which opposes the immediate gratification that sinful humans naturally desire. Hence, a study of marriage would not be complete without considering the subject of divorce.

Divorce is a publicly documented breaking of the fellowship of marriage. Here are the passages that pertain to it: key passages are Dt 24:1-4, Jer 3:1-14, Mal 2:11-14, Mt 19:3-12, Mk 10:2-12, and 1Cor 7:10-16, 27, with minor references in Lev 21:7, Dt 22:13-29, and Mt 1:18-20. These passages are few, but are sufficient to understand the subject. Particularly, we see that it is always a symptom or result of sin: either the wife has some "uncleanness" in her (the word in Dt 24:1 conveys shameful nakedness), or the husband is acting "treacherously" toward her (Mal 2:14). God hates divorce and all the underlying causes of it, including sexual uncleanness, marital violence and false accusations (Dt 22:13-29, Mal 2:14-16, Gal 5:19-21, Eph 5:3-5).

Since He hates it, it is fair to ask if it has any place in His will. Certainly, it is acknowledged without rebuke in Dt 24:1-4, but some assert that this passage came from Moses, not God. The basis for this assertion is Jesus' wording in Mt 19:3-9: "Moses because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so." This interpretation of Jesus' words could be restated as follows: because Moses couldn't stop hard-hearted men from divorcing their wives, he created a law to restrain or regulate it, though it opposed God's design for marriage. This interpretation makes Dt 24:1-4 an uninspired insertion by Moses into an otherwise God-inspired Law.

We can reject this interpretation and its implications on two grounds:

• Moses' law was God's law. When God chose Moses to represent Him to the people, He told Moses that He would be with His mouth to teach him what to say (Ex 4:10-16). Moses merely communicated the Law as given by God; he was not the source of the Law (Mt 8:4, Mk 7:9-13, Jn 7:22-23). When Moses misrepresented God, he was rebuked (Dt 32:48-52); not only was he unrebuked for the law of divorce, but it is part of a narrative that cites God as the source of "these statutes and jugments" (Dt 26:16-19). In the larger context, Moses referred to all the laws that he gave the Israelites as GOD's laws (Dt 28:1, 30:10), and warned the Israelites against adding or subtracting from any part of the Law he had given them (Dt 12:28-32). Moreover, we have Jesus' testimony that EVERY jot and tittle of the Law is eternal and is fulfilled by Him (Mt 5:17-19, Lk 24:25-27, 24:44). A final comment: God does not merely regulate sin (i.e. tolerate it in small doses), He abhors and forbids it.
• God Himself invoked divorce against Israel. If the passage in Dt 24 represents a human loop-hole in God's plan for marriage, how are we to view God's divorce of Israel (Jer 3:8)? Is God casting Himself in the role of a treacherous husband, violating His marriage covenant with Israel? Did He get so vexed that he resorted to Moses' strategy out of desperation? No, he does not heed human advice (Is 40:13-14), nor does He do what sinful and unfaithful men do (Is 55:8-9, Num 23:19, Ja 1:13); rather, He does exactly and only what is consistent with His eternal nature (Mal 3:6, Ja 1:17, Eph 1:11). If God divorced Israel, then divorce somehow reflects some aspect of God's nature.

So if we seek an interpretation of divorce that accepts it as being from God and being consistent with His character, where do we start?

The first step is to see that "Moses" is not just the name of a man, but is also the title of the body of writings given by God through that man-- namely, the Pentateuch. Today we entitle the five books of the Pentateuch by Latin-derived names based on their general themes, but Jesus referred to them collectively as "the Book of Moses" (Mk 12:26), or simply "Moses" (e.g. compare Lk 20:37 with Ex 3:4-6). Hence, the Pharisees' question "why did Moses command..." and Jesus' answer "Moses suffered..." can be taken as references to the body of God's Laws given through Moses, not to Moses himself.

Next, Jesus says that "from the beginning it was not so." Again he is not distinguishing between God's law and Moses' law, but rather between man's sinless state and his fallen state. This is to answer the Pharisees' question of whether divorce was simply an option to be exercised "for every cause" (Mt 19:3). Jesus' answer is "no": the sinless design and ideal in the beginning was that Adam and Eve (hence every married couple) would "cleave" permanently as "one flesh" (Gen 2:22-25); divorce entered only after sin-- manifested as sexual "uncleanness"-- necessitated it.

Now let us consider the phrase, "because of the hardness of your hearts." Whose hearts is Jesus referring to: the Pharisees? The Israelites? All mankind? This is easier to answer if we first examine the spiritual truth depicted by marriage and divorce, then come back to Jesus' words and its application to human marriage.

Marriage represents God's covenant and relationship with His people. That covenant had beautiful blessings for those who kept it (Dt 28:1-14), as well as merciful provisions for dealing with the daily stream of sins that the people committed as "covenant-bound-but-fallible" people (e.g. see Lev 4:32-35); but it also included the aspect of curses and broken fellowship for "covenant-rejecters-and-profaners" (Dt 11:26-29, 28:15-29:1). And just as marriage is a human picture of the fellowship and blessings of that covenant with God, divorce is a human picture of the curses and broken fellowship that come from violating that covenant. And God knew the hardness of Israel's hearts, that they would break His covenant with them and give themselves to other gods (Dt 31:16-18, 31:26-30, Mal 2:11-12). It is exactly these curses-- the Assyrian captivity of the Northern kingdom-- that God references as His divorce of Israel (cf 1Chr 5:25-26, Dt 28:32-41, Jer 3:6-8). Hence, God's divorce of Israel does not represent God's unfaithfulness to Israel or a violation of His covenant (Ez 16:59-60)-- rather, it was part and parcel of that covenant to deal with hard-hearted Israel's uncleanness toward that covenant (see Ps 89:30-33).

Notice, too, that the law in Dt 24 addresses only the issue of the woman's uncleanness; it does not address such things as a violent or sexually unclean husband. In fact, the Law of Moses does not give the woman any legal recourse to initiate a divorce. Is this unfair to her? No. It reflects the fact that the man represents God and the woman represents His people, whether Israel or the Church; hence it presupposes that the man is the initiator and grants him an aspect of judgment. But the woman is not unprotected: if the man is sexually unclean, denigrating marriage through adultery, rape, bestiality, homosexuality or incest, he is liable to capital judgments-- unlike the unclean wife, there is no provision of grace for him (Lev 20:10-21, Dt 22:13-30). And if he sins against his wife and his marriage through violence, false charges of impurity, or even unfounded jealousy, God prescribes and/or administers justice on the wife's behalf, ranging from unanswered prayers to fines and disgrace (Mal 2:11-14, Num 5:11-31, Dt 22:13-21).

Having considered these things, we can properly interpret Jesus' response to the Pharisee's question about divorce: God's perfect design for marriage is a permanent cleaving of a man and a woman-- a beautiful picture of the uniting of God with his people. It is not to be broken for any and every cause. However, inasmuch as fallen, hard-hearted mankind is prone to violate God's design and turn His grace into a license for immorality, the picture of marriage includes the aspect of divorce in the case of sexual uncleanness so as to accurately depict the righteous yet merciful response of God to the sins of His people.

This picture is not confined to Israelites under the Law of Moses; it is rooted in the design and character of God. The Matthew 19 passage affirms that sexual uncleanness is appropriate grounds for broken marital fellowship, even in the context of the Gospel. The parallel passage in Mark 10 shows that Jesus is not confining himself to the context of the Law of Moses, as he also mentions wife-initiated divorce (an aspect of Roman law that is not in the Law of Moses). Paul's treatment of the subject in 1Cor 7:10-16, 27 reiterates the Mark 10 passage, even referencing Jesus as the source. Like the Mark 10 passage, it does not treat the issue of sexual uncleanness; Paul's focus is answering the Corinthian's question about abstaining from earthly marital relations (including the dissolution of existing marriages) as a Christian discipline. Paul emphasizes that marriage is permanent and valuable-- it is not to be dissolved even for "noble" causes like Christian devotion or escaping an "unequal yoke". We must rely on the Matthew passage to address the issue of divorce in the context of sexual uncleanness.

Nevertheless, we can draw two additional conclusions from comparing the Matthew, Mark and 1Cor passages. Firstly, God does not COMMAND divorce even in the case of sexual uncleanness, but provides it as a gracious alternative to capital punishment or a sexually perverted relationship. Secondly, even if divorce is exercised, it represents a tragic (and hopefully temporary) break in fellowship, not an annulment or dissolution of the marriage. This bears repeating, since it is alien to our culture: Biblical divorce does not mean that the marriage ceases to exist or never "officially" existed, but rather represents a state of broken fellowship that can be mended if the unclean partner repents. Only if the unclean partner marries another is the original marriage broken. Barring such a remarriage, the offended party is to remain unmarried and open to the repentance and reconciliation of the unclean partner (Jer 3:12-14, 1Cor 7:11 . A correllary to this principle is that the Christian should not marry a divorcee whose partner is still living, as that presents a barrier to the reconciliation of the divorcee to their rightful spouse-- effectively participating in adultery with the divorcee (Mk 10:11).

Now, then, let us turn to this question: what is there about the law of divorce that brings praise to our good God, and how can Jesus "fulfill" such a law?

1. The Law of Divorce teaches us that God is holy: He hates sin. He must be separate from sin. He won't be a complicitous partner in sin (Dt 18:12, 2Cor 6:14-16, Heb 1:9, 7:26).
2. The Law of Divorce teaches us that God is jealous: He desires the sole affection and allegiance of His bride (Ex 20:4-5, 34:12-17, Dt 4:23-26).
3. The Law of Divorce shows us that God holds a very high view of marriage: divorce is one of His tools for defending it (see Marriage). He created marriage as a beautiful, pure and permanent human relationship that accurately depicts our relationship with God, hence it represents the Gospel message. It is the only context for the most intimate human interaction possible: the sexual union of a man and woman who have sacrificially and exclusively and permanently given themselves to each other. Defiling and trivializing that sexual union mocks the Gospel it represents. Note, then, that egregious crimes against marriage (adultery, premarital sex, rape, incest, bestiality, homosexuality) received the death penalty under the Law of Moses. However, capital punishment could only be invoked on the testimony of two or three witnesses (Dt 19:15, Heb 10:28)-- not always likely in the case of sexual sin. Divorce was a merciful way of acknowledging and addressing the seriousness of these crimes. But notice that God provided a test for assessing the woman's uncleanness (Num 5:12-31), that He warned men that He himself would act as witness against unjust divorce (Mal 2:14 ), and that He structured the command in Dt 24 so that it would not permit Vegas-style revolving marriages (i.e. a woman can't cycle between two temporary husbands). The point we are making is that divorce is presented as a serious treatment of serious crimes against marriage-- a way of protecting the high and holy picture of marriage (depicting our covenant with Jesus) from being trivialized and trampled underfoot (Heb 10:28-29, 13:4).
4. The Law of Divorce teaches us that God is merciful. His justice and holiness allow Him to judge sin by death (Rom 6:23); most notable in the context of this study is the sin of embracing false gods , which is the particular sin typified by the unclean wife in the Law of Divorce (Dt 6:14-15, Eze 16:1-63, 23:36-49). But divorce represents a merciful provision for formally breaking fellowship while allowing the possibility of repentance and reconciliation-- a position exemplified by Joseph's response to Mary's pregnancy (Mt 1:18-19). Notice the provisions for repentance in the various passages on divorce: In Deuteronomy 24, the divorced wife was not forbidden from returning to her husband until she remarried another (Dt 24:1-4); in Jeremiah, God says of his divorced wife "return... for I am merciful" (Jer 3:12); in 1Corinthians, Paul counsels the woman who leaves her husband to remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband (1Cor 7:10-11).
5. The Law of Divorce is fulfilled by Jesus in that he established a new and eternal covenant in his blood in which divorce has no place. Firstly, human marriage is a God-designed picture for this world only (Mt 22:30); it is fulfilled by the covenant of life in Jesus' blood. Without human marriage, there can be no human divorce. But even more important is that divorce will never mar our eternal (spiritual) marriage with Jesus: He cleanses his Church by his word such that his bride is spotless, not unclean (Eph 5:25-32), hence she (we!) will be with Him forever, never to be "put away" (Jn 14:2-3, 1Ths 4:17, Rev 3:12, 22:3-5). On the other side of the coin, Jesus fulfills the picture of divorce in that He himself is the Judge and the standard of judgment that will eternally "send away" those who scorn Him and the covenant in His blood (Mt 25:41, Lk 13:27).

Hence, the Law of Divorce causes us to praise our gracious Father and loving Bridegroom, Jesus, and to treasure Marriage as the holy and beautiful picture of the Gospel that God designed it to be.