Trinity Baptist Church

 

 

Obviously the theme of our Lord's words are divorce, remarriage, and adultery. And you know as well as I do that these are major factors in the society in which we live today.

 

Now last week we talked about God’s idea for marriage: one man and one woman for life in a monogamous, committed indivisible union. 

 

To underline that a bit further, let me call your attention to Ephesians 5:22. Here we find the Apostle Paul giving us God's view of marriage and he says, "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church; and he is the savior of the body."

 

Now immediately we face the fact that marriage is a picture of Christ and His Church. That's obvious from verse 22-25. And when you come down finally to verse 32 you have the sum of it, "This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church." In other words, marriage becomes a symbol defining for us in visible terms the relationship between Christ and His Church.

 

Question: is the relationship between Christ and His Church permanent? Yes. Then if marriage is God’s choice illustration to reveal the truth about Christ and His church, then it also must be a permanent relationship. 

And as verse 31 says, "This is the reason that a man should leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife, and they two should be one flesh."

 

The reason it should be that way and the reason it should sustain its relationship in that way is because it is an emblem of Christ and His Church. Husbands are to be as faithful as Christ is to His Church, wives are to be as faithful as church is to Christ.

 

That is the imagery of Ephesians, and what this does is lift marriage out of a merely human dimension into the divine perspective. Marriage is a symbol of the relation between Christ and His Church. Marriage is not an end in itself. 

 

Now stay with me on this: marriage was not designed primarily for your happiness, it was not designed primarily for my happiness, marriage was designed primarily to be an illustration on a human level of a divine relationship.

 

And when you lose that sense of priority in marriage and you make marriage a mundane thing that belongs only in the carnal world of the expression of personal preference you have removed from marriage its divine priority. We can't expect the world to understand this but the church should understand it.

 

The imagery of the New Testament, not just here, but in several places, points up the fact that marriage is a symbol. In fact, in that regard, it is very akin to the Lord’s Supper and baptism. It is a symbol.

 

And its greatest honor is that it proclaims to the world that symbol of the union between Christ and His own blessed Church. And as permanent and as full of love and as absolutely binding and as wonderfully unique as is Christ's relationship to His Church so is to be your marriage and mine.

 

That's why when you go back to the very beginning, and God designed marriage in Genesis 2:23 and 24 He designed that marriage be two people becoming one for life. Even then it was to be the emblem of God's relationship to man.

 

 

That's why in Matthew chapter 19 when they said to Him, "Well, why did Moses give us a bill of divorcement?" He replied by saying, 'From the beginning it was not so." "For what, God hath joined together, let not man divorce."

 

And so we saw last time that this is God's perspective. And that's why when you come to Malachi 2:16 as we did in our last study you hear God say, I hate divorce, I hate divorce. I don't care for what reason divorce always violates that imagery God has designed for marriage, as well as violating the marriage itself.

 

Now, the Old Testament then lays down a standard and it never changes. Let me add this, divorce, now get this, divorce is never God's way to resolve a conflict, never. That's why God never commands divorce and God never really condones divorce in the Bible. God knows it'll happen, and God tries to regulate its consequences, but He never commands it because it's never the solution.

 

Now to illustrate that, think about the Book of Hosea. God tells Hosea to marry Gomer. She becomes a prostitute and leaves him and three kids behind. He follows her around paying the bills, and finally purchases her off the auction block as an illustration of God’s love for the nation of Israel, and prophetically of Christ’s love for the church. 

 

Question: Did he have a right to divorce her? I should say so, but instead he chose to love her. He purchased her back, not because he was a prophet and his ministry was on the line, not because of his reputation, not because God has him all involved in this big drama of illustrating His love for Israel, but because he loved her. It is an alive and in-person illustration of how God loves us illustrated through the permanence of marriage.

 

Hosea presents to us I think scripturally the most clear view of how God sees marriage, the most clear view at least in the Old Testament. And it provides a wonderful basis for what we are to understand as we go further in comprehending the New Testament.

 

Now, remember this: marriage was never designed by God to establish or promote human happiness.

 

Now listen to me, human happiness is never found in relationship with other humans. Did you know that? Happiness, contentment, joy, peace are all found in a right relationship with God.

 

And when that is right, you will be rightly related to your spouse and marriage will work. Marriage is not the key to human happiness; God is the key to human happiness. That’s what some of you have discovered only recently with the death of a spouse. You can go on, and you are going on. It hurts, and it’s painful, and it may seem unbearable, but you can go on because the key to happiness is founding our relationship with God. 

 

If you're right with God then you can make a relationship work. Both partners obviously have to cooperate. But marriage was designed to illustrate God's relationship with His Church and God's relationship in the Old Testament with His people Israel. It is a living illustration of how a person is joined together in an unbreakable union with the living God. 

 

Now, the Jews of Jesus' day didn't see it that way. They missed the point of Hosea; they missed the point of Genesis. They, they had the perspective all messed up, and so in Matthew 5:31 Jesus confronts them.

 

They believed that they were righteous enough to enter the kingdom, because they kept certain laws, but the Lord is showing them that the laws they kept were inadequate.

 

For example, they didn't kill, chapter 5 verse 21 Jesus says, yeah, but you hate in your hearts. And they didn't commit adultery, but Jesus says, yeah you don't commit adultery but you lust after people in your hearts. And then in chapter 5:31 He says, ah you make sure when you divorce your wife that you get the legal paperwork done, but I'm telling you, you shouldn't even divorce your wife.

 

They tolerated divorce for any reason. The culture around them, the Greeks and the Romans, allowed divorce. And so the Jews just got in the swing of things and they were putting away their wives and husbands and so forth. Jesus confronts that.

 

Now, we have to focus on three things to understand this passage,

 

1. We have to understand the teaching of the scribes and Pharisees.

 

2. We have to understand the teaching of the Old Testament, and

 

3. We have the teaching of the New Testament.

 

Now remember the teaching of the scribes and Pharisees? Look at verse 31; we went into this last time. "It has been said," what does that mean, is that an Old Testament quote?

 

No, it is their rabbinic tradition, that is what they have been taught. You have heard it said this way by them of old, this is what you believe, this is your system. "Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement."

 

The word put away simply means divorce, whoever divorces his wife; give her a writing of divorcement, for whatever reason. If you want to divorce her, divorce her. You could divorce your wife for anything. It didn't matter what it was, burn the bagels, too much salt on the dinner, didn't like her mother‑in‑law or she went around without a veil or you found a prettier girl or anything you want, just divorce her, and their view was when you do it be sure you do the paperwork, that's all.

 

That was their view; make sure you write her a bill of divorcement. And you see they were just trying to touch base with the legal requirement that they thought they understood in Deuteronomy chapter 24.

 

You could get a divorce for any reason you wanted.

 

Now we've got that going on today. People say, well the Lord has given me peace about divorcing my wife. The Lord didn't give you peace about divorcing your wife. That's absolutely ludicrous. That's the same thing they were saying.

 

That's what the scribes and Pharisees believed, get a divorce, just make sure you do the paperwork. That was consistent with their legalistic approach. And so Jesus wants to show them this isn't what the Bible teaches at all.

 

And so tonight I want to look at the true teaching of Moses. How did they get so messed up?

 

Now remember, I said, three things are involved in understanding Matthew 5:31-32. We saw the teaching of the scribes and Pharisees. 

 

Secondly the teaching of Moses, what did Moses teach?

 

Go back to Deuteronomy 24, 1 want you to see four verses, the only place in the Old Testament that they went to as a source for the subject of divorce.

 

Let's look at it, Deuteronomy 24:1-4

 

Now that's the text, and the problem is what does it mean? It has been misinterpreted by Jews, it has been misinterpreted by Christians, and everybody's been confused as a result of it.

 

Now remember this, from the beginning God hates what? Divorce, so you're not going to find a section in the Bible where God says, now if you find something wrong with your wife write her a bill of divorce.

 

That would be totally inconsistent with what God says elsewhere.

 

That would not match up with Malachi 2, it would not match up with the Book of Hosea, it would not match up with Genesis 2:23 and 24, would not match up with Matthew 19, it would not match up with Mark chapter 10. So we've got to look at it from another angle.

 

Now, God hates divorce is the bottom line. What then is Moses doing with this bill of divorcement here? And why did our Lord mention that Moses gave a bill of divorcement in Matthew 19?

 

Well first of all, we need to understand, the bill of divorcement or the writing of divorcement, was not designed by God.

 

We don't find that anywhere in the Bible. God did not invent it, God did not prescribe it, God did not command it. Jesus only recognized that it existed, that's different.

 

 

And to just point that out, in Matthew 19:7, the scribes and Pharisees say. "Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and divorce her?"

 

Here was Jesus' reply, "He said unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce, but from the beginning it was not so."

 

In other words, it's not a command it was simply a permission based on your sinfulness. Big difference. Nowhere does God command somebody to get a divorce. And then He went on to say, "What, God has joined together, let no man divorce."

 

God's design was no divorce, God prohibited divorce, God hated divorce. However, God knew in a cursed world where sin existed and relationships were strained because of the curse itself that divorce would be a reality and so God simply permitted that when divorce happened there had to be certain things followed to insure what would come about as a result.

 

And so this writing of divorcement came into being.

 

What was its purpose?

 

Well, first of all, it was a testimonial to the woman of her freedom from the marital obligation to the husband who divorced her. In the bill of divorcement was a statement that the woman was set free by the man so that she wouldn't be accused of being a harlot, she wouldn't be accused of having forsaken her home, or run off from her husband.

 

Secondly, the writing of divorcement was evidence for a new husband of her legal freedom to remarry. And by the way, remarriage in every passage that talks about divorce is always assumed. It's assumed in Deuteronomy, it's assumed in Matthew 5, it's assumed in Matthew 19, it's always assumed that when somebody's divorced they're going to remarry. And so the bill of divorcement gave a legal freedom to remarry.

 

Thirdly, it is a protection for a woman's reputation from slander. Now that was its primary function. It was the proof positive that she hadn't forsaken her husband, to show that she was free to remarry as far as her husband was concerned, and to show that she was not to be slandered as some harlot.

Now, as far as God was concerned such a writing of divorcement was only legitimate in one case, and that was a case of adultery. 

 

But that is not to say that it was necessary. When Hosea had an adulterous wife, did he divorce her? No. When God had an adulterous nation, did He divorce them? No. When Christ has an adulterous believer in His Church, does He divorce them? No. Nor is it required that that be done in this case, but where there is adultery Jesus recognizes and God recognizes divorce will happen. It's never God's solution, never, because if both people would get right with God the marriage would be right too. But it will happen.

 

And all you have in the Bible in the case of Matthew 5 verse 32 is this word from Jesus; listen to it because it explains what we're going to see in Deuteronomy.

 

"I say to you whoever shall put away his wife, (or divorce his wife) except for the cause of fornication, will then cause her, when she remarries to commit adultery; and whoever marries her that is divorced commits adultery."

 

Now it seems to me that what Jesus is trying to do is avoid adding adultery to the already sinful thing of divorce. 

 

Now we'll see this in more detail next time. But the point is adultery was the only just grounds for a writing of divorcement. But they were giving bill of divorcement for everything under the sun.

 

 

Now you'll remember that originally, adultery was to be punished by death, but as time moved on it was not always followed. Sometimes lives were spared, sometimes apparently divorce would take place instead of a stoning. Sometimes they were gracious.

 

Matthew chapter 1 is a perfect illustration where you find that Joseph has an option. He finds his wife Mary is pregnant. He's a just man, he's not willing to make her a public example, so he's minded to divorce her, privately.

 

He could have stoned her by the law. He could have made her a public spectacle. But he didn't choose to do that, so he did what he could have done in his own mind he would divorce her for adultery. That just gives you a little insight into how the law was at that time.

 

So technically speaking a person could divorce, but beyond that you've got to see the grace and the mercy and the forgiveness of God.

 

Technically, if you've got an unfaithful wife or an unfaithful husband you can chuck them, move on. But in so doing you bring about a divorce and God always hates divorce because divorce is never the best solution to anything, never‑ To love and forgive and draw back is what God has done.

 

Now having understood that let's go back to Deuteronomy 24, and maybe I wandered a little bit on that but I wanted to get it in. Let me just wrap it up real quick. Deuteronomy 24, this is tremendous.

 

Now Moses gives us the Old Testament standard. Now I want you to notice this, he gives an illustration here, to help us understand, not a command to divorce but instead, the evil of divorce. He's not trying to provide for it he's trying to prevent it.

 

Now here's the illustration. A man takes a wife and it comes to pass that he doesn't like her anymore because he's found uncleanness in her.

 

Now the word uncleanness doesn't mean adultery. Something else is meant there. The rabbis fought and scratched over what it meant, something short of it, it basically is used in the Bible of indecent exposure.

 

The root of the term in the Hebrew is to be naked, to be improper or to be indecent, so something comes along and his wife is indecent or exposed. 

The Torah translates it obnoxious. So he says that my wife is obnoxious, I'm going to get rid of her.

 

Notice, "then" it says in the King James, "let him write her a bill of divorcement." That is an unfortunate rendering of that verse. The teaching is not, He shouldwrite her a divorce paer, but simply that he does. If in the course of these events, a divorce occurs. The teaching is not about divorce, it is about adultery. 

 

Moses is not commanding divorce. Why would He? God hates it; it violates God’s design. IT is not commanded by Moses.  

 

The whole thing reads kind of like this, If a man takes a wife and if he marries her and if it come to pass she find no favor in his eyes, and if he has found some uncleanness, and if he writes her a bill of divorce, and if he gives it to her hand, and if he sends her out of his house, and if she departs out of his house, and if she goes and marries another person. You see it's all the same conditional clauses you never get a conclusion till the end, and the conclusion is when it's all said and done, she can't come back and marry her first husband because she's so defiled.

 

How did she get defiled? She was divorced for something less than what? Adultery. That's the whole point. And that is exactly what Moses is teaching, there is only one legitimate cause for divorce, but even that is only a technicality when compared with Hosea.

 

 

Now what Moses is trying to say is don't marry somebody defiled by adultery. He's not advocating divorce. And what he says is that there's only one basic grounds for divorce and that is adultery, and if a man turns a woman loose for anything less than that, any other kind of uncleanness in his own eyes, he will make an adulterous situation, he will defile the woman and he can never take her back because she is a defiled person. That's what he's saying.

 

The Hebrew literally means she is disqualified. Now that is precisely what Moses is teaching, and by the way that is exactly what Jesus said.

 

Now when you go back to Matthew chapter 5, and we'll close with this. We find precisely what our Lord says to be a re‑echoing of what Moses said. "I say unto you whosoever shall put away his wife, except for the cause of fornication," and we'll get into a discussion of that specifically, "will cause her to commit adultery;" which in effect as Deuteronomy 24 says, will defile her, and whoever marries her will to... will also commit adultery.

 

In other words if you get a divorce on the wrong reasons you will add adultery to the sin of divorce. God never advocates divorce; God allows it in the case of adultery, in any other case it leads to adultery beyond the sinful divorce.

 

So the Lord and Moses, God Himself are endeavoring to prevent the further sin of adultery being added when the inevitable remarriage occurs. Well there you have the teaching of the scribes and Pharisees.

 

You have a reiteration of the teaching of Moses, and next time we're going to go specifically into the teaching of Jesus, and we're going to bring it right down to the New Testament age so that you can see exactly what applies to you.

 

What have we learned so far? God made man, God made woman to marry and be permanently one. God wanted an absolute commitment of body and soul for life. God hates divorce, it is never His will, but He recognizes that it will be a part of human society because of sin. In certain cases God will allow divorce as a technicality in the case of adultery only. 

 

But it is not necessary because a greater way to approach it would be to love as Christ loves the church and as God loved Israel and as Hosea loved Gomer. The scribes and the Pharisees had perverted this absolute divine standard, and Jesus clarified it, and in so doing pointed to them as sinners, for they had defiled and lowered God's standard.