Divorce and Remarriage

And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.  Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery.  (Luke 16:17, 18)

Are there some parts of God's moral code that you would like to eliminate? These two verse seem at first unrelated, and both of them seem to be forced into the context where they appear.  However, God orchestrated his Bible exactly as he wished, and these words, context and all, are his.  A Jewish religious writer of the First Century is quoted in John Gill's commentary on the subject of stoning for adultery.  After observing that the practice had ceased, he observed that if it were practiced, Jerusalem would have been emptied of stones before it were emptied of adulterers.  The tempter's question posed to Christ in Matthew 19:3, "Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?" is quite instructive.  Many Jewish writings record procedures that allow a man to divorce his wife for burning bread or for other such trivial matters.  A number of scriptures appear in the Bible account of Christ's time on earth that leaves little doubt that marriage was not honored in the way God intended.  An irresponsible view of marriage is not original to the Twentieth Century, popular as it is in our time.

The primary design of this series is to focus our thoughts on preventive morality, how to prevent the wounds and scars of divorce, not simply how to patch up the agony after the damage is done.  If God said that he hated divorce, Malachi 2:14 16, so should we.  God-fearing people who have been through divorce will agree with God; they hate it, too.  Spending inordinate time and mental gymnastics on the morality of divorce and remarriage begs the question of how to prevent the agony of divorce in the first place.  No, we cannot perfectly do that as long as there are men and women who purpose to forsake their God-given responsibility, but perhaps we can return the emphasis to the value of that responsibility and prevent the actions that so often cause divorce.  If these articles prevented just one divorce, they would be worth their weight in gold.

At no time in history is there a greater need to re-discover God's pattern for marriage than today.  The moral issue of divorce and remarriage is often muddled with hair-splitting technical interpretations in an altogether honorable desire to relieve the innocent victims of divorce from the cloud that settles over the typical scene of a dissolving marriage.  The verses quoted above are considered too simplistic to deal with the complete issue. There must be exceptions and justified waivers of this rule.  May I kindly offer that the Bible is quite fair in handling the innocent victim in a cruel divorce, if we will allow it to speak in the simplicity that is so characteristic of God and his Bible.

Simply stated without detractive, hair-splitting interpretations, this lesson teaches that divorce and remarriage constitutes adultery.  Period!  It also infers that many of God's own people would just as soon see the jot and tittle of the law that teaches on divorce and remarriage fail.  Let God speak and let man listen!  The original law of marriage, established in Eden, remains God's foundational truth on this issue.  "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh," Genesis 2:24.  According to Christ, violation of that simple, basic concept is adultery, and adultery violates God's moral code.  If we follow biblical teaching, we will look for reasons to preserve shaky marriages, not seek excuses to dissolve them.

No marriage can be preserved against the desire and will of both of the partners.  One partner, acting alone, cannot single-handedly preserve the marriage when the other partner is determined to end it.  To see people we love involved is such problems is deeply painful; to experience it must be infinitely more painful.  The moral code of the Bible on the sanctity and life-long commitment of marriage is God's prescribed deterrent to this pain in the life of his people.

The utopian appearance of marriage in the movies may mislead the partners in some very workable, but less than perfect, marriages into thinking that they are missing out on a "Real marriage" without problems or rocky moments.  For others the siren song of the tempter or temptress to escape the boredom of a steady, always there, predictable partner allures the simple-minded into the trap that Solomon experienced.  There is this itching, nagging idea in the minds of so many that it is altogether right and good to experience, first hand, all the varieties and flavors of life, that such depth of experience will instill wisdom and contentment.  Can we so soon forget that God gave Solomon wisdom and contentment without request when Solomon asked for wisdom to rule the nation wisely?  Can we forget the frightening lesson of Ecclesiastes, that when Solomon became blind to that gift of God and attempted to personally experience all that was "Under the sun," he cried out, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity and vexation of spirit!"  It didn't work for Solomon, and, dear, dear friend it will not work for us either!  God's moral law is not a cold cage to rob us of fulfilling experiences.  It is a loving bridle to lead us to a warm, contented life-style.  It makes us the kind of person others, especially that marriage partner who is so close to us, can depend on without fear and doubt.  Nothing is more deepening and fulfilling than doing what God teaches us to do!  Nothing!