The Spirit of God’s Law Governing Divorce

God’s law permitting divorce is found in Deuteronomy 21:10-14 and 24:1-4.  Jesus acknowledged God’s permission for divorce when he said, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives”.  Jesus was correcting Jewish leaders who had taken an extreme, abusive position on divorce by turning God’s permission into permissiveness.  Their custom became divorcing their wives without a valid reason.  Consistent with man’s tendency to swing out to extreme positions, the church over corrected by denying God’s permission for divorce almost entirely.  So then, one extreme treats marriage like a marry-go-round allowing anyone to get on and off at any time, while the other extreme treats marriage like a life sentence.

Perhaps some are thinking, “What is the difference between a life sentence and until death do you part?”  Consider the difference between a “life sentence” and a marriage that honors God.  The life sentence is imposed by someone outside of the marriage and does not account for abuse, neglect, hatred, godlessness, wickedness, deception, adultery, treachery and most of all a false confession of faith.  From the first days of the church until now it is likely that more spouses have been murdered in their marriages under this monstrous view of marriage than have inmates in prisons. 

By way of comparison, a marriage that honors God is happily maintained by both spouses; it supplies companionship, love, happiness, peace, belonging, comfort, friendship, fidelity, adoration, mutual desire to serve, edification, humility, meaningful sex and most importantly two regenerate spouses able to have godly fellowship together.  Godly spouses cherish and care for one another over and above all others and honor God in their marriage and family.  Marriage, as instituted by God, was never intended to be anything remotely like a life sentence.

Jesus spoke words to correct the permissiveness of the Pharisees, and then the church overcorrected by restricting divorce entirely.  The church misapprehended Jesus’ words and used them to abolish God’s law permitting divorce even though Jesus said, “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished”, which includes God’s permit for divorce.  How has the church done this?  Note Jesus’ complete statement acknowledging God’s permission for divorce: “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way” (Matthew 19:8).

Our Lord’s statement makes three distinct points:

First:       WHAT – God’s new law:              A new Mosaic law that permitted marital divorce.     

Second:   WHY – God’s reason:                 The hardness of men’s hearts was the cause of Moses’ law.

Third:      WHEN – God’s timing:                This law came after the Fall.  “From the beginning it has not                                                                             been this way.”

So then, the Church’s claim is that Jesus used the reason for God’s law (why) and the timing of God’s law (when) to nullify God’s law (what)?  Can the reader see how this argument completely misses the mark, so much so that it negates a commandment of God?  It is taught that Moses only allowed divorce because men’s hearts were so hard that they were treacherous, so Moses had to provide some guidelines. In like manner, it is taught that divorce was not part of God’s plan from the beginning, so for the Christian era Jesus was simply restoring God’s original order (Garden of Eden) by effectively abdicating Moses’ provision for divorce.  The absence of a perfect world makes returning to the pre-Fall era impossible.  It is clear in His interactions with the religious leaders that Jesus understood the need for this law.  

It is true that the heart of man is hard; however, God did not provide divorce as a legal permit for divorces they were already obtaining illegally.  God forbid.  God provided, even commanded, divorce as a protection for the innocent wives who were being put out of their home without a divorce decree.  And He did so in order that those women could marry a faithful man who would love them and treat them as a wife deserved.  Additionally, the divorce decree was a record of the man’s marital history.  He could no longer abuse women and discard them without a legal record of his actions.  This is why people and not God hate divorce.  Knowing a person’s relationship history is useful for any person considering future relationships.

In like manner, it is taught that divorce was not part of God’s plan from the beginning, so for Christians, Jesus was simply restoring God’s original order by effectively abdicating Moses’ provision for divorce.  Jesus would not do that.  He said as much by saying, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.  For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished” (Matthew 5:17-18).  God provided divorce post the Fall because people’s hearts are hard.  Nothing has changed during the entire history of mankind after the Fall; humans still have hard hearts today.

Because of The Hardness of Men’s Hearts

The Church has neither the power nor the mandate to restore God’s original design at creation.  Divine provisions, such as divorce, must continue until God punishes the wicked and creates a new heaven and a new earth.  It must be acknowledged that the “hardness of men’s hearts” is the cause of every law.  Man’s fall into sin required God’s Law.  Law is absent wherever sin does not exist.  So then, how did the church err in using Christ’s teaching in Matthew chapters 5 and 19 to restrict marital divorce?  Notice the second distinct point in Jesus’ statement: “because of the hardness of men’s hearts”.  This phrase has been misapprehended to mean that man relentlessly, stubbornly demanded permission to divorce, so Moses gave in to their sinful desires and permitted divorce. 

Many contradictions come up immediately with this interpretation.  First, was the law given by God or Moses?  This interpretation treats this law as though Moses, in a moment of weakness, erred, but God and not Moses is the author of the Law and God does not err.  Second, this interpretation assumes that marital divorce is sinful, but would God make a law permitting sin simply to please godless men clamoring for said sin?  Nowhere in all of God’s word is divorce called a sin.  The Pharisees became licentious in their use of divorce, but even then, Jesus said they were guilty of adultery.  Of course, he did not say they would be guilty of divorce because our Lord knows that it is not a sin to divorce.  Scripture says that God divorced Israel.  Despite the reality that theologians go to great lengths trying to prove that God’s divorce of Israel “isn’t real” neither was it an actual marriage, but Scripture still says God divorced Israel.  And God does not sin.  Third, the church has taken the Lord’s words and used them to do away with one of the Mosaic laws.  They have, in essence, declared that Moses erred, and Jesus corrected or reestablished God’s original intent.  The facts are that Moses did not err and Jesus had no intention of restricting appropriate cases for divorce.  Jesus did not abdicate the Mosaic Law on divorce.

Technically, men could not have been abusing Moses’ divorce law regulations before he wrote them.  Moses wrote the divine law regulating divorce because people (primarily husbands) were abusing their spouses.  Prior to Moses’ divorce regulations the “putting out” of wives was practiced post the fall because in a fallen world spouses could be treacherous toward one another.  The treacherous husband would frequently put his innocent wife out of her own household, often leaving her vulnerable and defenseless.  Divorce was provided to free the innocent spouse from their treacherous, covenant breaking spouse…so that she could remarry a faithful man. 

After God’s provision of divorce regulations, treacherous husbands abused the divorce law to appear innocent in their desire to commit adultery.  This misuse of God’s provision is what Jesus condemns in Matthew’s nineteenth chapter.  Unbelievably, in the 21^st Century thousands of Jewish women are still being refused the writ of divorce because only the man in Jewish law can sign a divorce decree to end the marriage.  Without the husbands’ signature the women cannot remarry and are forced to commit adultery just as Jesus said would happen. 

Consider the popular theological view on the phrase, “Because of the hardness of men’s hearts”?  A careful study of Moses action recognizes that he was not permitting divorce so much as he was placing restrictions and guidelines on the treacherous treatment of wives including putting them out of their own home and replacing them with another woman.  Moses was commanding these abusive men to free their wives with a writ of divorce.  However, God’s Law performed this function in such a way as to condemn those who did so without just cause.  Moses’ restrictions demanded divorce to protect the innocent spouse without allowing permissiveness for the treacherous spouse.

Just as men would later do in Malachi and Jesus’ days, the men in Moses’ day were taking advantage of the permission for divorce and using it to justify sinfulness on their part.  Prior to the Mosaic Law, the ability to obtain a necessary divorce in the Old Testament was assumed.  In fact, many of the sins that made a divorce permissible also carried the punishment of death, so divorce was unnecessary when the offending spouse was stoned to death.  But if, for whatever reason, the penalty of death was not handed out certainly the spouse was free to divorce and find a more suitable marriage partner. 

Therefore, we find Jesus doing exactly what Moses did when he put in place proper guidelines for marital divorce.  Jesus reinforces Moses’ laws when the church often sees Him as abrogating them.  Since all agree that Jesus would not have abrogated the smallest jot or tittle of God’s Law, how could the church have viewed Jesus to have done so with divorce?  Essentially, their claim is that Jesus abrogates nothing but rather restores God’s original order prior man’s fall into sin.  Mankind cannot return to the garden.  God put an end to that possibility.  Neither can we return to the innocence of life in the garden.  Sin put an end to that possibility.  Their claim is a canard.  Jesus merely pointed out that adultery was still adultery and cloaking adultery in a divorce decree did not make it any less adultery.  That is still true to this day.  We have no record, Bible or otherwise, of Jesus teaching on the doctrine of divorce, but He did teach that adultery hidden by divorce is still adultery.  Such a teaching hardly abrogates the law of divorce.  

The final concern is less a contradiction but a mistaken notion, nonetheless.  The church interpreted the phrase ‘the hardness of men’s hearts’ to mean that man stubbornly insisted upon ‘divorce for any reason’ when in fact Jesus meant nothing more than that man, since the time of the fall, is evil continually and have desperately wicked hearts, hence the necessity for an escape from a truly treacherous spouse.  Jesus’ statement on the hardness of men’s hearts is directed at the reality that sinful man is capable of weaponizing even God’s gracious allowances and using them to sin even more.  So, God provided Moses, not a prohibition for divorce, but guidelines to establish biblical grounds for divorce.  Those guidelines were intentionally vague because God understood that a simple rule of three (such as adultery, abandonment, physical abuse) could not possibly cover every legitimate need for a divorce.  God understood that the hardness of man’s heart makes many people treacherous spouses; spouses who would break the conditions of the marriage covenant.  Both Moses and Jesus needed to correct the permissiveness of the Israelites and the Pharisees while at the same time reinforcing God’s provision of divorce for the protection of the innocent spouses of treacherous husbands and wives.  Jesus gave an example of the type of covenant breaking that would permit divorce and the church turned it into a law of one, but a careful study of scripture manifests the impossibility of that being the correct interpretation of our Lord’s meaning.

From The Beginning It Has Not Been This Way

We now come to our Lord’s third distinct point in His phrase.  Jesus said, “But from the beginning it has not been this way”.  The church has taken this to mean that God’s intention is for the duration of marriage to be for the entire lifetime of the marriage partners.  I think that we can all agree that God’s intent was for marriage to last as long as the partners lasted, but that is only part of what Jesus was saying.  Jesus’ use of the phrase, “from the beginning” is a clear reference to God’s institution of marriage prior to man’s fall into sin.  Then man’s fall into sin transpired after “the beginning” bringing the hardness of men’s hearts into every marriage occasionally necessitating divorce.  Then hard-hearted men abused the natural law’s provision of divorce necessitating Moses’ guidelines for divorce, which still gets abused by the hard hearted.

The unmistakable point here is that the fall brought about hard hearts and that mankind must mitigate their own sins so that they can aspire to God’s original intent in their marriages.  However, Moses and Jesus did not prohibit divorce, but rather pointed to the guidelines of God’s Law on divorce so that the innocent partners of treacherous spouses would have a way of escape.  The church effectively prohibited access to divorce entirely and ignored Moses’ provision reinforced by Jesus.  To make matters worse the Church’s catastrophic blunder was all done in the name of Jesus as it was our Lord’s words they misinterpreted to nullify God’s allowance for all necessary divorces.  So then, the church has failed where Moses and Jesus did not.

Finally, we arrive at Jesus’ second distinct point that reads: “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives.”  John Milton explained that God instituted marriage because Adam was lonely (“It is not good for the man to be alone” Genesis 2:18), and God provided the perfect solution (woman) to alleviate man’s loneliness.  God’s intentions were that this special friendship would last forever, but then man fell into sin; a fall so great that we have the following recorded in Genesis 6:5-7:

“Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.  The Lord said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land…for I am sorry that I have made them.”

The very next chapter records God fulfilling His promise by sending a worldwide flood.  Therefore, man’s hardness of heart deserved God wiping out the entire human race except for Noah and his 7 family members.

What God said in Genesis 6 and did in Genesis 7 demonstrates the spirit of God’s law permitting marital divorce.  It frequently happens that those who enjoy studying law tend to spend most of their time working on the letter of the law.  Man can manipulate the letter of the law to come up with whatever outcome he desires.  The Pharisees manipulated the letter of God’s law on divorce and arrived at licentiousness and permissiveness because that is what they desired.  The church has taken the very same law and turned the letter of that law all the way to the other extreme so that a permit for divorce is virtually impossible to obtain because that is what they desired.  But what does God desire?  Does anyone care to discover the spirit of God’s law permitting divorce?

Just as God frees himself from the wickedness of man both in his destruction by flood and in the eternal punishment of hell, he provides innocent marriage partners a permit to divorce spouses whose hardness of heart causes them to become treacherous spouses.  From the beginning divorce did not exist, but neither did sin, death and eternal damnation.  What is the heart and spirit of God’s permit to divorce?  God provides marital divorce to separate light from darkness, to punish the wicked and to protect the innocent.  The fact that the church has taken that protection away will forever be a sad chapter in the history of God’s church.  It is time to close that chapter and get this right.

God has indeed made a greater provision than divorce from a treacherous spouse.  God sent His only begotten Son into the world to receive in Himself the punishment due fallen humanity for our treacherous ways against God.  Those who repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ will not have perfect marriages but will be able to live together in peace.  Divorce is permitted for those whose spouse remains treacherous (thus unbelieving) refusing submission to the Lord Jesus.