QUESTIONING JESUS ON MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE

INTRODUCTION-- In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus introduced a subject that would prove to be controversial, since it changed the rules of marriage and divorce.

1. Jesus said, "Furthermore it has been said, `Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' 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." (Matthew 5:31-32).
   
   1. The Old Testament allowed for divorce. Deuteronomy 24:1-4 "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 uncleanness in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, when she has departed from his house, and goes and becomes another man's wife, if the latter husband detests her and writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her as his wife, then her former husband who divorced her must not take her back to be his wife after she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the LORD...."
      
   2. This law did not allow divorce for the cause of sexual immorality, because adulterers were put to death. Deuteronomy 22:22 "If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then both of them shall die--the man that lay with the woman, and the woman; so you shall put away the evil from Israel."
      
   3. Divorce was allowed in cases where the "uncleanness" that caused the husband to detest her was not a sin requiring death.
      
2. The subject of marriage and divorce is not mentioned again in the teaching of Jesus, until it is raised by the questions of Christ's enemies much later.

LESSON---

1. Two accounts are given in the Gospels of these questions.
   
   1. Matthew 19:1-9--- Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these sayings, that He departed from Galilee and came to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them there. The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?" And He answered and said to them, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning `made them male and female,' "and said, `For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? "So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate." They said to Him, "Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?" He said to them, "Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. "And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, andmarries another, commits adultery; andwhoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery." (Mark's account is similar, but he adds, "And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery." Mark 10:12.)
      
      1. The first question of the Pharisees (posed as a test) had to do with the varying opinions of the Rabbis concerning the meaning of "uncleanness" in Deuteronomy 24:1.
         
         1. One clique held that a man could divorce his wife only for some sexual indiscretion (short of fornication).
            
         2. The other party held that divorce was grated for trivial reasons.
            
         3. The arguments of the two parties had caused an impasse between them, so the question was designed to see if Jesus would commit himself to one view or the other. (In either case, they could argue against His view.)
            
         4. When Jesus answered their question by taking them back to the principles laid down by God "in the beginning," the Pharisees dodged the original principles laid down in the Garden of Eden, and wanted to go immediately to the Law of Moses.
            
      2. Their second question revealed that they treated Moses' words as imperative rather than permissive.
         
         1. This error was pointed out by Jesus' answer, but He attempts again to call them back to the "beginning."
            
         2. Jesus then asserts His own authority (as He did in the Sermon on the Mount), by saying, "I say to you..."
            
         3. The permission given by Moses, then, is sandwiched between two more firm principles, which are identical, one from God and one from His Son.
            
2. Today, as in the time of Christ, people desire the most permissive of rules in matters of marriage and divorce, but the rules laid down by Christ prevail.
   
   1. The pleasure derived from sexual activity provides the temptation to commit such sexual sins as fornication and adultery. James 1:13-15---- Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
      
   2. One great fact remains, however, and that is that such sins bring people under the judgment of God. Hebrews 13:4---- Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.

APPLICATION--- To hold a permissive view of marriage and divorce, in the face of the teaching of Jesus, is to deny that He claims divine authority in the phrase, "I say unto you..."