Matthew 19:1-12 #4

Matthew 19:1-12 #4
In this lesson, please notice the phrase, “from the beginning it was not so” (vs. 8). Jesus made this statement in reference to Moses’ words in Deuteronomy 24 in which the Lord allowed divorce because of the hardness of the hearts of Jewish husbands. As we noted previously, though God allowed divorce, He did so on the basis of hard-hearted, sinful Jewish men. In Malachi 2:13-16, God condemned divorce as an act of violence and said that He hated it. When Jesus states, “from the beginning it was not so,” He also showed that condoning divorce was never God’s intention nor His law.Consider this, Jesus did not say “in” the beginning it was not so. If he had said “in,” He would have implied that the law of marriage was different in the beginning than it was throughout the Old Testament period. But that is not what He said. Using the word “from” indicates that the law never did condone divorce. This further confirms that the Deuteronomy statement was not condoning divorce, but simply an allowance (KJV says “suffered”) God made because of hardness of heart. However, the law of God was never changed to condone divorce. Therefore, when Jesus gave the true interpretation of Deuteronomy 24, He said this: “But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.” A man divorcing his wife was certainly not acting scripturally, but was the cause of his wife’s adultery if she remarried.

Some have tried to teach that God gave a strict marriage law in the beginning, but changed the law shortly after to accept divorce for any cause. If Jesus had said, “in the beginning it was not so,” their position would be correct. But Jesus did not use the word “in.” Jesus said “from.” It had always been and still is the law of God that man is not allowed to divorce for any cause. We will next notice the one reason God allows divorce and remarriage.
Berry Kercheville