Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. 2 And large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.
3 And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?” 4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” 7 They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” 8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”
10 The disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.” 11 But he said to them, “Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. 12 For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.” Matthew 19: 1-12 ESV
Matthew 19: 1-12 Divorce
Now when Jesus had finished these sayings - He had just finished talking to them about forgiveness, and now the Pharisees bring up a question about the institute that relies the most upon this, marriage. Throughout the entirety of my marriage I have provided countless opportunities for my wife to forgive me, and so far she has, so we have been together some 20 years now. If you can't forgive then it is very difficult to stay together in a culture that promotes hassle free divorce. People don't really change as a whole over time, they don't evolve as they would like to believe; it's more of a downward spiral, and this will be Christ's perspective on this. Divorce is popular now and was popular then, so this sets the stage. Keep in mind, John the Baptist was just killed for speaking against a king who had divorced his wife and married his brother's wife.
First of all, let me tell you how they intended to discredit him. Divorce was a volatile issue among the Jews. It was a very, very major situation. Everybody knew about it, and divorce was very, very common. Women were treated as if they had no rights at all. And the Pharisees were leaders in this, not only by what they taught, but by the example of their lives. They were constantly and continuously divorcing their wives. They were also teaching that you could divorce your wife for any reason. That was basically their doctrine. That’s what they believed, the majority of them. There may have been a few who were holding out for the hard line, but the majority of them, the consensus of them, and, by the way, the most popular doctrine of all the people was that you could divorce your wife for any reason. It’s especially a popular doctrine among people who want to get a divorce. It plays to the lowest level. It accommodates sinners at the level of their sin.
Now, you remember that there had been a reigning rabbinical feud, because there was a rabbi by the name of Rabbi Shammai, and Shammai said there was to be no divorce. But he didn’t find a great following because that is not a popular view. There was another rabbi by the name of Hillel, and Hillel, by the way, had just died 20 years before Christ’s ministry so his influence was still around, and his view was the dominant popular view, and he said you can divorce your wife for any reason you want.
In fact, he said you can divorce your wife for burning your bagels. You could divorce your wife for burning your dinner. You could divorce your wife for putting too much salt on your food. You could divorce your wife if she spun around in the street and somebody saw her knees. You could divorce your wife for taking her hair down, for speaking to men. You could divorce your wife if she said something unkind about her mother-in-law. You could divorce if you found somebody prettier because then she became unclean in your sight, because she wasn’t as nice looking as the one you saw.
You could divorce her for anything. You could divorce her if she was infertile. You could divorce her if she didn’t give you a child that was a boy. Now see, this became the popular view. Unload that turkey. That was the popular view. If you want to dump your wife, dump her. That was the view the Pharisees taught. - J Mac Sermon from Matthew 19
And Pharisees came up to Him and tested Him - These aren't noble Bereans, and they see the people are interested in following Jesus, hearing what He has to say, but as in any day most are there for the fish and bread and miracles. Jesus has schooled the Pharisees on Scripture's actual meaning time and again, has rebuked the additions and subtractions that they have made to God's word, so now they will use pop culture against Him. If Jesus sides with a teaching on divorce that doesn't match the present culture, that they see as archaic, then the Pharisees may gain traction against Him.
16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. 17Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. 18For I tell you truly, until heaven and earth pass away, not a single jot, not a stroke of a pen, will disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.… Matthew 5: 16-18
Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause - The popular teaching that people wanted to believe in that day was, yes.
Have you not read that He Who created them from the beginning - Oh no, Jesus is pulling God the Creator card, design and original intent. How unfair that God would have an opinion about what He made. This goes against human autonomy, how I see myself or would like things to be, and this is a great plea on behalf of the Pharisees to the mob, getting Jesus to tell the truth that they don't want to hear. Jesus had already rebuked them about adultery and murder, but had the audacity to imply that God had a right to judge them based on the content of their hearts. When you get the backing of the culture, you have the majority, but God does not run a democracy. He designed and said that it was good, but you and I are fallen outside of that design in Adam, which is sin, punishable by death, no longer good. Our thoughts are fallen, our attitudes broken, our ideas of right and wrong, all depraved.
…8Drip down, O heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open up that salvation may sprout and righteousness spring up with it; I, the LORD, have created it. 9Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker— one clay pot among many. Does the clay ask the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘He has no hands’? 10Woe to him who says to his father, ‘What have you begotten?’ or to his mother, ‘What have you brought forth?’ ”… Isaiah 45: 8-10
Made them male and female - There's your two sexes, simple enough, and by design. God actually did the first stem cell cloning, pulling a rib from Adam and forming Eve. It wasn't lightning hitting a puddle somewhere and bringing forth a female, and then lightning hitting another puddle somewhere else and eventually evolving into a male human. Science actually finds that all human beings trace back to a common ancestry, so there is really no room for racism either, we all come from Adam and Eve, and all human life has value because we are made in God's image. He also made two, not 3 or more, so in God's original intent we don't find polygamy either. People today hate the idea of God so much that they have slipped into utter insanity, they can't even define what a man or woman is, and here it is plain, the man is the adult, male human, and the woman would be the adult, female human, by design.
Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife - It is the end of one household arrangement, the separating from one family to form another. His wife is favorable even above his parents. He leaves them for her, and this elevation of the relationship was quite different then the way Pharisees actually saw their wives.
In theory, the Jews of that day had a high ideal of marriage. Yet they had a low view of women. “The Jews had very low views of women…A wife was bought, regarded as property, used as a household drudge, and dismissed at pleasure.” (Bruce) Today, men also have a low view of women; tragically, women also have a low view of women, and often reject the idea that women should be different than men in any way. - Enduring Word
So they are no longer two but one flesh - This is a very high view of what is supposed to happen in marriage. Now, if this were understood, no man would want to harm his own self and likewise no woman her self either. This is God's definition of marriage as well, a man, a woman, leaving father and mother, becoming one person with each other. It is from this bond that life comes forth. DNA from the man and DNA from the woman combine to conceive human life. This is the building block of all society, and the rise or fall of it's moral structure, the family.
…27and to present her to Himself as a glorious church, without stain or wrinkle or any such blemish, but holy and blameless. 28In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29Indeed, no one ever hated his own body, but he nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church.… Ephesians 5: 27-29
…24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her 26to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,… Ephesians 5: 24-26
What therefore God has joined together let no man separate - Marriage is an institute established by God.
Because of your hardness of heart - The last post was on forgiveness, and a hard heart will not do that, but also a heart can be hardened in other sin. People excuse things as "a matter of the heart, the heart wants what the heart wants", and God has made clear that the "heart is wicked and deceitful above all things", so when He disagrees with the wantonness of your wicked heart, you best listen. I heard and have written about it before, a man, a false prophet, say that God showed him a woman that he was supposed to be married to, which was not the woman he was currently married to. And what were the clues? well, for one, he was sexually attracted to this other woman, oh well, then it must be the right thing. So, God, Who tells us that it is a sin to look at a woman and lust after her in our hearts, told this man to base leaving his wife on that same forbidden motive? These sort of hypocrites, false teachers are easy to spot, but guess what, people like what they are saying, so many are more than happy to go along with it, and why, because our hearts are hardened against the things of God. What Moses did was not to reward these men, but probably more so to protect the unloved and unforgiven.
From the beginning it was not so - Again, this was not God's design or intent, it goes back to His right as Creator. We should not enter into marriage so lightly, nor see it as a thing to try. God intended that it be so much more.
Commits adultery - The man that leaves his wife for another is committing adultery regardless of the formality of the divorce. God knows the heart, and it doesn't matter what the culture deems acceptable, or what reason you convince men of, God called the two one. So, to break this union, it should be for the case of adultery, that you have a spouse who is cheating on you, breaking the marriage covenant, taking what is to be one with you and joining that to another. Again though, checking the hardness of the heart, if they are willing to repent then we should forgive and continue, but if they do not wish to stay then we are to let them go.
…14For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his believing wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy. 15But if the unbeliever leaves, let him go. The believing brother or sister is not bound in such cases. God has called you to live in peace. 16How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?… 1 Corinthians 7: 14-16
It is better not to marry - This was the disciples take after hearing this.
…6I say this as a concession, not as a command. 7 I wish that all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that. 8Now to the unmarried and widows I say this: It is good for them to remain unmarried, as I am.…
…9But if they cannot control themselves, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion. 10 To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. 11But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.… 1 Corinthians 7: 6-11
Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given - Celibacy was a gift, an ability that not everyone had, nor was expected to have. The Bible also tells us that he who finds a wife finds a good thing. But, in the case of Paul, he had this gift, which made him more free to go about as he wished, to serve the Lord more easily. Contrary to the Catholic church's teaching, Peter did not have this gift. It was also not expected of the pastors to be without a wife, and the whole Roman Catholic priesthood is sham for this and many other reasons. An overseer, pastor, shepherd, models the Designer's original intent.
…4Have we no right to food and to drink? 5Have we no right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas? 6Or are Barnabas and I the only apostles who must work for a living?… 1 Corinthians 9: 4-6
1This is a trustworthy saying: If anyone aspires to be an overseer, he desires a noble task. 2An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3not dependent on wine, not violent but gentle, peaceable, and free of the love of money.… 1 Timothy 3: 1-3
…2influenced by the hypocrisy of liars, whose consciences are seared with a hot iron. 3They will prohibit marriage and require abstinence from certain foods that God has created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 4For every creation of God is good, and nothing that is received with thanksgiving should be rejected,… 1 Timothy 4: 2-4
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