#DailyDevotion Let Man Not Separate What God Has Put Together
Mark 10:2–12 2Some Pharisees came to Him. “Is it right for a man to divorce his wife?” they asked Him in order to test Him. 3“What did Moses order you to do?” He asked them. 4“Moses let a man make out a divorce paper and divorce his wife,” they said. 5“He wrote this law for you on account of your hard hearts,” Jesus told them. 6“But when God made the world, He in the beginning made them a male and a female. 7That’s why a man will leave his father and mother 8and the two will be one flesh. And so they are no more two but one flesh. 9Now, what God has joined together man must not separate.” 10In the house the disciples also asked Him about this. “If anyone divorces his wife,” He answered them, 11“and marries another, he’s living in adultery with her. 12 And if a wife divorces her husband and marries another man, she’s living in adultery.”
The Pharisees were trying to test Jesus and catch him in something they could discredit him on. In this particular case it was divorce. Somewhere in this question, “Is it right for a man to divorce his wife?” is a trap for Jesus. Now we know Jesus never falls for their traps and when he doesn’t he teaches us something about the true nature of God’s revelation in the Torah, the Law of Moses. Jesus points them back to Moses, “What did Moses order you to do?”
Moses had written, Deut. 24:1, “Suppose a man marries a woman and goes to bed with her but doesn’t like her because he finds something offensive about her, and he writes out a divorce paper for her, hands it to her, and sends her away from his home…” Now the words “something offensive” in the Hebrew generally is translated nakedness or perversion. We can get a clearer understanding of this from Deut. 22, 13“If a man marries a woman and has intercourse with her and then hates her, 14accuses her of things he’s made up, and gives her a bad reputation by saying, “I married this woman, but when I came to her, I found she wasn’t a virgin,’” Mose was allowing for divorce if he found out the woman he married was not a virgin. The problem is the Jews were taking the first to mean pretty much anything. Jesus tells them Moses wrote that on account of the hardness of their hearts. No doubt, most divorce laws are on account of the hardness of people’s hearts, particularly no-fault divorce, which is basicly how the Jews were treating Moses’ permission.
How is it supposed to be according to God? God had made them male and female and the two become one flesh. It’s supposed to be that one man and that one woman for life (yes it is a shame on our culture that I have to emphasize that). God has joined a man and woman for life when they get married. A husband or a wife should not divorce the person God has joined them to in marriage. Yes Virginia, it really is quite that simple. Couples should stay together and work things out instead of divorce. Yes I know there are some hard cases out there (adultery, abuse [which can be anything these days], and just plain unpleasantness) yet it is God’s will you should stay together for life. It is not about your happiness. Marriage is an image of the Trinity (3 distinct persons in one divine essence). Marriage is two distinct persons in one flesh. Marriage is a gift from God which is to be nurished and maintained. If we divorce and marry another we have committed adultery. There are a lot of people living in adultery today. With Christ Jesus, there is forgiveness and newness of life when there is repentance.
Heavenly Father, grant all husbands and wives live together in harmony and grant them the ability to work things out. When we fail, grant us true repentance and forgiveness for the sake of Jesus. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.