Marriage and divorce

"(31) Furthermore, it has been said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce. (32) But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality, causes her to commit adultery and whoever marries a woman who is divorced, commits adultery."                     Matthew 5:31-32.  NKJV 

In Jesus’ day, many people interpreted the Mosaic permission for divorce as granting virtually any reason as grounds for divorce. (Deuteronomy 24:1) Some rabbis who taught this even extended to allowing a man to divorce his wife if she burnt his breakfast. All they needed to do, according to the Mosaic Law was to give the wife a certificate of divorce and they had to leave the home.
It must be said that back in the times of Jesus, it was really a man's world. A woman had little security and could be divorced for the most bizarre of reasons. There were two schools of thought to this matter:

The School of Shammai, which was a very strict and severe school. No divorce was allowed except for adultery.
Then there was the School of Hillel. This was a liberal and broadminded school, where a man could divorce his wife if she burnt his breakfast or put too much salt in his meal. Furthermore, if she went into public without a head covering, spoke to a man in the street or if her husband found a much more attractive woman, she could also be divorced. It became so bad that many young women were refusing to get married because of this insecurity and the way they were being treated.


In verse 32, the text mentions 'Causes her to commit adultery and whoever marries a woman who is divorced, commits adultery.' An illegitimate divorce, such as mentioned in the School of Hillel, gave place to adultery because God didn't recognise divorce, and saw a new relationship as bigamous. Even though He was against divorce, God recognised that adultery would damage the union totally.

God still holds marriage very dearly today and totally frowns on adultery. A man and woman are joined together in the sight of God and His word in Ephesians has much to say about this matter. (Please read Ephesians 5:22 - 33)

In 1 Peter 3:1 - 2 and verse 7 we read:

'Wives, likewise be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives, (2) when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear. 
(7) Husbands likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honour to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.'

The words here, 'the weaker vessel,' have no derogatory meaning.  or are in any way politically incorrect. They just mean that God would want a husband to love and take care of his wife as a precious, breakable vessel. If we are at loggerheads, our prayers are just going nowhere. So we need to beware of this point.

Marriage is a wonderful institution, given to man and woman by God, where families are created and love shared by all members. Both man and woman need to honour each other because by doing so, they are honouring God; and then, God can bring blessing. 

Copyright 2019 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com