Old Testament
Deuteronomy 24:1-4 KJV: When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife. And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife; Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the LORD: and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.
- Divorce was final, not to be taken lightly. Once you divorced someone, you could never go back. This forced them to be cautious and think twice before divorce.
Deuteronomy 22:13-22 KJV: (13) If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her, (14) And give occasions of speech against her, and bring up an evil name upon her, and say, I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid: (15) Then shall the father of the damsel, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel’s virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate: (16) And the damsel’s father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife, and he hateth her; (17) And, lo, he hath given occasions of speech against her, saying, I found not thy daughter a maid; and yet these are the tokens of my daughter’s virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. (18) And the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him; (19) And they shall amerce him in an hundred shekels of silver, and give them unto the father of the damsel, because he hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days. (20) But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel: (21) Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father’s house: so shalt thou put evil away from among you. (22) If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou put away evil from Israel.
- Vs 13-19: This law was to protect the innocent wife from being falsely accused.
- Vs 13-19: If a man lies and tries to get out of a bad marriage (divorce) by falsely accusing her of not being a virgin, then he is to be punished and chastised, plus, he could never divorce her.
- He could have just divorced her without falsely accusing her, but then he would have had to give her dowry back (Deuteronomy 24:1).
- But, if she married and was found out to not be a virgin, she was to be stoned to death.
- If she had not pretended to be a virgin, it wouldn’t have been a capital crime and she need not die. But since she did not inform her fiancé that she was not a virgin, and then brought deception and dishonor to him, she was stoned to death.
- Vs 22: If any man lie with a married woman, they both were to be killed.
New Testament
Matt 19:3-9 (KJV): (3) The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? (4) And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, (5) And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? (6) Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. (7) They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? (8) He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. (9) And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.
- In the Old Testament, it was too easy to get divorced (Mat 5:31-32; Mark 10:2-12; Luke 16:18). Some people had taken the term “find no favour in his eyes” (see above) and stretched it to the limit.
- Vs 4,5,6. Jesus focused on marriage instead of divorce. God intended marriage to be permanent
- Vs 5. Jesus points out just how sacred and important marriage was. “A man shall leave his father and his mother for his wife, and the two shall become one.” Can a man divorce himself, his own flesh? This bond is stronger than the parent/child relationship.
- Vs 6. God put the marriage together. He blesses marriage. Who is man to undue it indiscrimately? God gave the rules right here. I’ll let you do it if it’s for fornication, and only fornication.
- Vs 8,9. Jesus points out that from the beginning, divorce wasn’t an option. God, through Moses, had to institute divorce because of man’s sin and hardness of their hearts
- Vs 8. Jesus corrected them? the Pharisees said ” Moses then command”?. Jesus corrects them by saying “ suffered you to put away your wives“, he allowed you to divorce, not commanded you to divorce.
- Vs 9. The only acceptable reason for divorce is fornication (adultery). This would stop the rampant misuse of the divorce and also allow the innocent party to remarry.
Further Discussion
- Fornication is a sin in both the old & new testaments.
- God places a high value on virginity.
- Fornication causes a person to sin against their own body … 1 Corinthians 6:15-18 NIV: Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
However, There Is Hope
- God does forgive us our sins, if we are confess them and are truly repentant, turning away from our sins. 1 John 1:19 NIV: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness …, John 8:10-11 NIV: When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
- Note that Jesus didn’t approve of the sin, but he didn’t condemn her for it either. He knew that she was truly sorry, had made a mistake, and had repented. God knows our hearts.