Matthew 5:31-32
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Loading ...Matthew 5:31-32
There is only one place in the Old Testament in which God gave instructions concerning divorce: Deuteronomy 24:1-4. Jesus is not referencing the text itself, but the Pharisaical interpretation of the text. Their belief was that God had authorized divorcing one’s wife simply by giving her a “certificate of divorce.” However, a careful reading of Deuteronomy 24 reveals that nothing in the text stated that God condoned divorce or remarriage. Jesus later stated that “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so” (Mt. 19:8). Further, Malachi 2:16 states that God “hates divorce.” It could not be that God condoned divorce under the Law when the Malachi reveals that He hated it.Deuteronomy 24:1-4 is typical “if,” “then” Mosaic legislation. For example, in Exodus 21:26, “If a man strikes the eye of his servant and destroys it, he shall let him go free for the sake of his eye.” Does this mean God condoned beating servants as long as one didn’t knock out his eye? No, God is giving the legislative consequences to the action. God is not giving the eternal consequence of the action. So it is in Deuteronomy 24. If a man chooses to divorce his wife and she goes and becomes another man’s wife, and that man divorces her or dies, she may not go back and be the wife of her first husband. It is prohibitive of her being passed back and forth between men, but says nothing of God condoning the practice.
Consider that Jesus corrects their understanding of Deuteronomy 24. If a man divorces his wife (except for fornication) and she marries another, he has caused her to commit adultery. Far from being free from sin, these Jews were a participant in their wife’s adultery. Indeed, even Deuteronomy 24:4 states that she has been “defiled” by the second marriage. Our country is filled with people who have divorced and remarried for reasons other than a mate committing fornication. The result is serious: “whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
Berry Kercheville
