What God Hath Joined Together

    A third ceremonial law that relates to marriage and divorce was introduced into the Bible because of the spiritual marriage (which was entirely different from the marriage of the law of God to the human race), wherein God took ancient national Israel as His wife. Israel, as a corporate, external body, was the representation of the kingdom of God on earth during the historical period from Abraham to Jesus. The marriage relationship was established by God because national Israel typified and foreshadowed the spiritual Israel of God which was to become the eternal bride of Christ. We know this spiritual marriage between God and national Israel existed because of God’s complaint against the spiritual fornication of His wife, recorded in Jeremiah 3:14: "Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you." He was not married to them as individuals; individually they were spiritually married to the law of God. He was married to them as a corporate entity.

    At no time in national Israel’s history were they faithful. Repeatedly they lusted after gods. What was God to do with His fornicating wife?

    According to God’s eternal law, death is required for the adulterous wife, but God could not utterly destroy the nation, for Christ was to come out of national Israel. Moreover, national Israel was the seedbed from which the New Testament church would spring forth.

    God’s plan was to use national Israel as an example of His patience and mercy. In the parable of Luke 13, the fig tree that repeatedly had not borne fruit was to be cut down but was given one more opportunity. If there still was no fruit, it was to be cut down. Today national Israel is a viable nation amongst the nations of the world. Only if it ceases to bear spiritual fruit will it be destroyed.

    For these reasons and possibly others, God chose not to have his spiritual wife, national Israel, killed, and yet God planned to break His spiritual marriage with national Israel. Once Christ went to the cross, God had purposed to end forever the spiritual relationship He had with national Israel.

    To accomplish this goal, God introduced another law into the body of ceremonial laws. In order to divorce Israel, God had to introduce a law that would permit divorce. God is the giver and maker of the law, and He may introduce any law He desires. Whatever law He sets forth, God in His perfect righteous obligates Himself to obey. In His Word in Deuteronomy 24:1-4, God placed a law that permitted divorce for fornication:

When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife. And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house; or

if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife; Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the Lord; and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.

    This law permitted a husband to divorce his wife in whom he had found some matter of uncleanness. (Later we will show that this related to fornication.) The inclusion of this law permitted God to divorce national Israel. We are told this in Isaiah 50:1:

Thus saith the Lord, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.

    Likewise, in Jeremiah 3:8 we read:

And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.

    God continues to reveal the sinful nature of the wife He had married in Jeremiah 3:20: "Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the Lord."

    In the ceremonial law God introduced two dominant laws concerning adultery within a marriage. In the case of Deuteronomy 22:22, both a man and woman who engaged in the act of adultery were to be put to death. In the case of Deuteronomy 24:1-4, only the wife could be divorced for fornication. No language is employed here or anywhere else in the Bible that even suggests that a wife could divorce an adulterous husband.

    Because these laws were part of the ceremonial laws, the citizens of the nation of Israel were to obey them. If a husband found his wife in an act of adultery, he was to have her stoned to death along with the man with whom she was caught. If there were some act of obvious fornication, but the wife was not actually caught in the act of adultery, the husband still had the right to divorce her.

    In the New Testament, Jesus made several references to this law to show that is was rescinded with His coming and to that Israel had grossly misapplied this law. It is still grossly misapplied by the church as a Biblical basis for divorce.

ISRAEL’S MISUSE OF DEUTERONOMY 24

    The language of Deuteronomy 24:1-4 was sufficiently unclear that the men of national Israel used it as a basis to divorce their wives for any reason whatsoever. When we understand why, we will better understand Matthew 5:32, a verse some people use to justify divorce for fornication.

    The key words of Deuteronomy 24:1 are "some uncleanness." For "some uncleanness" found in a wife the husband had Biblical cause for divorce. What was this sin?

    The Hebrew word "debar," which is translated as "some" in the phrase "some uncleanness," normally means "word" or "matter." Out of about 2400 usages in the Bible, "debar" is translated in at least 1000 verses as "speak" or "talk" or something similar. In other verses it is translated "word" (at least 770 times). Thus, "word" or "talk" are the dominant meanings of the word "debar."

    Less often, but with considerable frequency, "debar" is translated as "act" (52 times), "matter" (63 times), and "thing" (215 times). Thus, we can safely say that in Deuteronomy 24:1,"debar" should be translated as "act," "matter," "thing," or "word."

    The Hebrew word translated as "uncleanness" in this same phrase is "ervah," which is found 54 times in the King James Bible. In more than 50 of these places it is translated "nakedness." When we examine the places where it is translated "nakedness," we find that it usually relates to gross sexual impurity. For example, in Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20, where God sets forth commands prohibiting incest, God employs the word "nakedness" ("ervah") at least 30 times.

    Thus, the word "ervah" takes on the meaning "fornication." In Leviticus 18:8 God warns, "The nakedness [ervah] of thy father’s wife shalt thou not uncover." A commentary on this warning is found in I Corinthians 5:1:

It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.

    In this verse, God uses the word "fornication" in connection with sexual impurity between a man and his father’s wife. In Leviticus 18:8 God speaks of this kind of sexual impurity as uncovering the nakedness. Therefore, we can see that "nakedness" or "uncleanness" is synonymous with "fornication."

    Bringing these facts together, we know that in Deuteronomy 24:1 God is teaching that if a man found a "word" or a "matter" of fornication in his wife, he could write a bill of divorcement and divorce her. Certain acts of fornication were punishable by death, but if the particular act or word of fornication did not require the death of the fornicating wife, the husband had the right to divorce her.

    Another understanding of the meaning of "ervah" was what opened the door for the Israelite husband to divorce his wife under almost any circumstance.

DIVORCE FOR ANY CAUSE

    In Deuteronomy 23:12-14 God uses the identical phrase, "ervah dabar," which is the key phrase of Deuteronomy 24:1. "Ervah debar" does not refer to fornication; rather, it refers to ceremonial uncleanness, Deuteronomy 23:12-14:

Thou shalt have a place also without the camp, whither though shalt go forth abroad: And thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon, and it shall be, when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from thee: For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy: that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee.

    The phrase "unclean thing" near the end of this quotation is "ervah debar." What was the "unclean thing"? In this context it was nothing more than the discharge from a person’s body when he or she felt the call of nature. When a person felt the urge, he was to go outside the camp, dig a hole and receive his body’s discharge, and then cover it so that the surface of the ground would be clean.

    Actually, any discharge from the body made a person unclean. According to the ceremonial laws of Leviticus 15, any running issue, any kind of discharge from the body, made a person unclean. A woman menstruating was unclean. Someone experiencing diarrhea that spotted his garments was unclean.

    Therefore, the "ervah debar" in Deuteronomy 23:14 gave the men of Israel tremendous leverage in their marriages. All he had to do was spot menstrual blood on his wife’s garments, or any other discharge that touched her or her garments, and that would serve the hardhearted husband’s purpose. In the intimacy of marriage the opportunities to see "some uncleanness" in one’s wife were numerous.

    Thus, the men could divorce their wives quite easily. The wife had no security whatsoever. Even if she had not been guilty of fornication, the husband could find plenty of "Biblical" reason to divorce her if this was his desire.

JESUS SETS THE MATTER STRAIGHT

    Jesus took issue with this understand of Deuteronomy 24:1-4. Jesus clarified the law by showing that these verses of Deuteronomy 24 only permitted fornication as a ground for divorce. Matthew 5:31-32:

It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement: But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.

    Verse 31 relates back to Deuteronomy 24:1-4, the only passage of the Old Testament that relates in a clear way to Jesus’ statement in Matthew 5:31.

    Jesus points out that ancient Israel had widened the application of the cause for divorce far beyond the scope intended by Deuteronomy 24:1, where the cause had to be a specific word or matter of fornication. Matthew 5:31 states that all that was required for divorce at that time was the writing of divorcement. Jesus, therefore, restates Deuteronomy 24:1-4 in verse 32.

    Jesus accomplishes three things by this restatement. First, He underscores the Jews’ total disregard for the sanctity of marriage and will show that the cause for divorce was to have been something quite adulterous.

    Second, He reveals the awful sinfulness of divorce in that it causes the divorced wife to commit adultery even though she, by her own action, might be innocent of adultery.

    Third, He restates Deuteronomy 24:2-4 to show that the wife who was divorced should not remarry.

DEUTERONOMY 24 ALLOWS DIVORCE ONLY FOR FORNICATION

    The first phrase we must understand in Matthew 5:32 is, "saving for the cause of fornication," which relates closely to Deuteronomy 24:1.

    The word "saving" is the Greek word "parektos," which is used in only two other places in the Bible. It is translated "except" in Acts 26:29:"And Paul said, I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds." In this verse "parektos" is translated "without" in II Corinthians 11:28:"Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches." Here the Biblical meaning of "parektos" is "without."

    Returning to Matthew 5:32, we discover that the English phrase "for the cause" is the Greek word "logos," which is translated as "word" more than 200 times in the Bible. It is also translated in a few instances as "matter" or "thing." Thus, "logos" can mean either "word" or "matter" or "thing," and is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word "debar" used in Deuteronomy 24:1.

    The word "fornication" used in Matthew 5:32 is the Greek word "porneias" which is always translated "fornication." Therefore, the phrase "saving for the cause of fornication" can be accurately translated "without a word or matter of fornication." This is surprisingly close to the literal rendering of the Hebrew "ervah debar" of Deuteronomy 24:1. Remember, the usual translation of "debar" was "word" or "talk" or "matter," and the usual translation of "ervah" was "nakedness" in the context of fornication.

    Thus, we see evidence that Jesus was focusing in on Deuteronomy 24:1 by the specific language He used in Matthew 5:32. He was teaching that the "uncleanness" of Deuteronomy 24:1 was not meant to be understood as some ceremonial uncleanness such as menstrual blood or a diarrhea discharge. Rather, the "uncleanness" was meant to present fornication as the only cause for which a man could divorce his wife.

DIVORCE CAUSES AN INNOCENT SPOUSE TO BE ADULTEROUS

    Christ introduces an additional principle in the next phrase in verse 32, where He says: "causeth her to commit adultery." How are we to understand this?

    Let us begin by reading verse 32 without the phrase "saving for the cause of fornication." It now reads "whosoever shall put away his wife…causeth her to commit adultery." In this statement Jesus introduces a very serious matter: While it is altogether wrong for a divorce to occur, should it occur, such a divorce causes the wife to commit adultery. Does this merely mean that the divorced wife becomes prone to adultery because, if she should marry someone else, that marriage would be adulterous as Romans 7:2-3 teaches?

    No. There is no evidence that Jesus is teaching this. He is simply saying that if a man divorces his wife, regardless of how holy or pure she might be in herself, she has been forced by the divorce itself to commit adultery. The very act of the divorce caused her marriage to become adulterated and in that sense she has been caused to commit adultery. Jesus underscores the terribleness of the sin of divorce. Not only does the husband who desires the divorce sin, but he also causes his wife to sin, even if she does not want the divorce.

    This becomes understandable when we remember that those who have married have become fused by God into one flesh, a divine union which no man can break apart. Therefore, if a man breaks apart that which God has joined together, the union has been adulterated.

    However, if the wife had committed fornication before the divorce, then she herself committed adultery. Based on Deuteronomy 24:1, the man had a right to divorce his wife in such a case. Since she was adulterous before she was divorced, the husband’s act of divorcing her was not the cause of her sinful state of adultery.

    Jesus does not call attention to Deuteronomy 24:1 to indicate that this command is to continue in force throughout time. He is simply showing that while Deuteronomy 24:1 was in force, a man had to discover actual fornication in his wife to divorce her and to put her away for any lesser cause was a violation of that command.

    Since that command was repealed (as we shall see when we study Mark 10 and Matthew 19), Jesus definitely is not teaching that fornication is a cause for divorce. Therefore, This verse is not dealing with the question of whether or not there is any cause for divorce. Rather, Jesus is emphasizing the seriousness of the sin of divorce.

THE WOMAN WHO IS DIVORCED BECOMES DEFILED IF SHE MARRIES AGAIN

    The third point that Jesus makes involves a restatement and clarification of Deuteronomy 24:2-4. In the King James Bible, the use of the word "may" in the phrase "she may go," appears to say that the fornicating wife who was divorced was free to marry. However, in the original Hebrew the word "may" is not included; thus, the Bible is not teaching she may go and be another man’s wife. This can be seen by the language found in verse 4, where God indicates she will have become defiled if she remarries. Effectively, God is teaching that if the divorced wife becomes another man’s wife, she will be defiled so that she cannot return to her first husband.

    This principle is reiterated and expanded in the last phrase of Matthew 5:32 where Jesus declares that "whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery." Because the divorced wife who has remarried has become defiled as a result of the remarriage, it logically follows that the man who married her has entered into an adulterous marriage. Jesus emphasizes the fact that such a man has indeed committed adultery.

DEUTERONOMY 24:1 ALLOWED ONLY ONE-HALF OF ISRAEL TO DIVORCE

    The law that permitted a man to divorce his wife for fornication applied to only half of Israel. Deuteronomy 24:1 only permitted the husband to divorce his wife. This was because, in its ceremonial nature, the law was pointing to the coming divorce of national Israel. No provision of any kind was made for the wife to divorce the husband because no aspect of God’s salvation plan or of God’s dealing with national Israel included the possibility or national Israel divorcing God. Therefore, a wife could never divorce a fornicating husband. In her relationship to her husband, she was under the universal law given from the beginning of creation that there was not to be divorce for any reason whatsoever.

    Thus, in the case of the law of God (the husband) being spiritually married to the individual (the wife), there never was a time when divorce for fornication or for any other reason was allowed. Also, in the nation of Israel, the wife could never divorce the husband for his fornication. Only the husband could divorce the wife for fornication because that was part of the ceremonial law which pointed to God’s coming divorce of corporate, national Israel.

    In summary, we see that Deuteronomy 24:1-4 taught the following principles:

1	A husband could divorce his wife only is she were found guilty of fornication.
2	The wife, who was guilty of fornication and, as a result, was divorced, would become defiled if she married someone else. Thus she was to remain single.
3	No permission was given to the wife to divorce her husband for any reason whatsoever.

    In Matthew 5:32 Jesus reiterated the basic principles of Deuteronomy 24:1-4 and expanded them to teach:

1	A husband who divorced his wife for any reason other than fornication caused her to commit adultery.
2	Any man who married a divorced woman committed adultery.

    What does the Bible teach concerning the continuation of the law of Deuteronomy 24:1-4? The spiritual, heavenly meaning of these verses ended

when Jesus hung on the cross. The veil of the temple was rent asunder, which signaled the finality of God’s divorce from national Israel. Because it was written into Old Testament law in order that God might divorce national Israel for its spiritual fornication, we have reason to suspect that it (like other ceremonial laws), ceased to have any physical application after the crucifixion.

    The Bible shows that this law was rescinded by the Lord Jesus Christ. The Pharisees came to Jesus with a question concerning divorce, and we read in Mark 10:2: "And the Pharisees came to him, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? tempting him."

    Their question must relate to Deuteronomy 24:1-4 for it is the only Old Testament passage that speaks of the possibility of a man divorcing his wife. This can be seen in Jesus’ answer in Mark 10:3-4: "And he answered and said unto them, What did Moses command you? And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away." Deuteronomy 24:1-4 is clearly the passage that Jesus is addressing as He continues to teach.

    In verse 5 Jesus explains why this command has been inserted into Old Testament law: "And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept." It was because of the hardness of the hearts of ancient Israel that the law was given to allow divorce for fornication. Did God want to provide relief to the husbands by setting forth a law that permitted them to divorce if their wives were involved in fornication? Or did He give the law because the husbands would be so unforgiving of their fornicating wives that, because of the hardness of their hearts, these unforgiving husbands were allowed to divorce their wives? These possibilities do not make sense. God lays down laws that help us to live more holy before Him rather than to allow us to live sinfully.

    Only when we realize the truth as to why God inserted this law into the ceremonial laws of the Bible can this verse be understood. The phrase "hardness of heart" relates to that which is rebellious, and rebellion against God is spiritual fornication. God gave this law so that He, as the husband of national Israel, could divorce His fornication wife. Because of the hardness of heart, or spiritual fornication of national Israel, the law was given. Thus, once God had divorced national Israel, this law had no further purpose.

    Therefore, in Mark 10:6-9, Jesus directly and plainly rescinds the Old Testament command:

But from the beginning of the creation of God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flash: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

    Jesus indicates that is was never God’s intention for divorce to be permitted. It is true that temporarily God did open a very narrow window permitting a man to divorce his fornicating wife, but this was only so that God could divorce fornicating national Israel.

    Jesus says in Mark 10:11-12:

And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.

    Deuteronomy 24:1-4 allowed a husband to divorce a fornicating wife. A wife was given no right whatsoever to divorce a fornicating husband. Jesus has rescinded the husband’s right to divorce a fornicating wife, and He emphasizes the impossibility of Biblical divorce from both directions, the husband divorcing the wife and the wife divorcing the husband.

    In Mark 10:11-12 God underscores another vital principal: A divorced man or woman cannot become remarried. According to verse 11, if a man remarries, he commits adultery against his first wife. Why is this?

    We learned in Romans 7:1-4 that the wife is bound to her husband as long as they both live. Therefore, even though a divorce may have seemingly broken the marriage relationship, from God’s vantage point the man and wife are still bound to each other. Therefore, if the man takes another wife while his first wife is still living, he is committing adultery. He is adulterating the lifelong union God has made between this man and his first wife.

    Likewise, verse 12 emphasizes that the wife may not marry someone else after divorce. Even though she is legally divorced, in God’s sight she is still bound to her first husband. Therefore, she commits adultery if she marries another while her first husband is still living. The principle of the binding relationship of the wife to the husband is repeated in I Corinthians 7:39:

The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.

    In I Corinthians 7:10 we are instructed, "Let not the wife depart from [that is, divorce] her husband." In I Corinthians 7:11 God says, "and let not the husband put away his wife." All of the Bible’s teachings are consistent and in agreement.

    In Luke 16:17 Jesus makes reference to the eternal nature of the law of God: "And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail." Having indicated the perpetual nature of the law of God, Jesus immediately addresses the question of a man divorcing his wife. He exhorts in Luke 16:18:

Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery.

    In this statement we find the same truth we have learned from Mark 10:2-12, Romans 7:1-4, and I Corinthians 7. There is not to be divorce! No exceptions!