What God Hath Joined Together

    We want to look carefully at the one verse that has been abused most consistently in man’s efforts to find a Biblical basis for divorce. Matthew 19:9, which immediately relates to Deuteronomy 24:1-4, has the appearance of allowing divorce for fornication. Matthew 19:9:

And I say unto you. Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whose marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.

    Many theologians read this verse and quickly conclude that it teaches there can be no divorce except in the case of fornication. We have already seen in our study that there is no Biblical cause for divorce. Therefore, we can be sure that this one verse, Matthew 19:9, cannot allow divorce for fornication or for any other reason. If we concluded otherwise, we would have before us a major contradiction.

    The Bible is one harmonious whole. While it may have statements that appear contradictory, we know that they are not actual contradictions. They only appear to be contradictions because our understanding of the questionable passages remains incomplete.

    Let us assume for a moment that we must base our whole understanding of divorce and remarriage on this one verse, Matthew 19:9. What would we learn?

    Matthew 19:9 apparently teaches that a man may divorce his wife for fornication. But notice: there is no suggestion that the wife may divorce the husband for fornication. There is not even the slightest implication or indication that the wife can divorce the husband. In fact, nowhere in the Bible is there any statement that teaches that the wife can divorce the husband. Also the verse does not justify the husband for divorcing his wife for any reason except fornication.

    Additionally, Matthew 19:8 tells us that Moses allowed the husband to divorce his wife for the cause of fornication only because of the hardness of the husband’s heart:

He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.

    The term "hardness of heart" refers to someone who is unsaved, someone who is in rebellion against God.

    Thus, if anyone insisted on understanding Matthew 19:9 without regard to any other teachings of the Bible, the most that he could see in this verse would be that a husband could divorce his wife only in the case of fornication, and such a divorce would be an indication of the husband’s unsaved, rebellious

spiritual condition. Therefore, even on the basis of Matthew 19:9, no true child of God would ever countenance the thought of divorce. Rather, he would realize that he is called upon to repeatedly forgive his wife for the sin of fornication just as he is to forgive any other sin.

    When we consider what modern day theologians have done with this verse, we should be skeptical of their conclusions, for when they decide there can be divorce for the cause of fornication, they immediately conclude that not only can the husband divorce the fornicating wife, but the wife also can divorce the fornicating husband. Yet neither this verse nor any other verse in the Bible allows a wife to divorce her husband. Thus, when we hear such teachings, we should suspect gross violation of the true understanding of this verse.

    "Does the Bible teach that fornication is grounds for divorce?" The answer is emphatically "No!"

    In Matthew 19:8, Jesus emphasizes two important truths. First, this command was inserted into the law book primarily to give God a way to divorce national Israel because of their spiritual rebellion, their hardness of heart. Second, He is indicating that this was not God’s eternal plan for human marriage for "from the beginning it was not so."

    Jesus emphasizes in Matthew 19:8 that a man was no longer to put away his wife for fornication, so it does not make sense at all that our Lord would reintroduce in the next verse the command He has just rescinded.

NO DIVORCE FOR ANY REASON

    A correct understanding of Matthew 19:9 is forthcoming if we go to the opening sentence of the paragraph in which Matthew 19:9 is found. In Matthew 19:3 we read: "The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?" Jesus answered them in verse 6: "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder."

    In verse 7 the Pharisees asked about Deuteronomy 24:1, which permitted divorce for fornication. Jesus answers their question in verse 8 and indicates that Deuteronomy 24:1 was rescinded.

    In verse 9 Jesus returns to the Pharisees’ original question: Can a man put away his wife for every cause? In verse 8 He indicates that fornication was no longer to be a cause for divorce. In verse 9 He covers every possible reason other than fornication and indicates that any other reason was also an invalid cause for divorce. Effectively, He is saying in verse 9, "whosoever puts away his wife for any reason [in addition to or other than or except] for fornication [which we have just seen in verse 8 to be an invalid cause for divorce] and marries another commits adultery."

    The word "except" (the Greek "ei me") takes on the sense or meaning of "in addition to" or "other than" in this context. This meaning of "ei me" is fairly common in the Bible. For example, in Matthew 19:17 Jesus sys: "there is none good but [ei me] one, that is, God." This verse could be read: "there is none good [in addition to or other than] one, that is, God." Likewise, in Mark 8:14

we read: "Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf." The phrase "more than" is also "ei me." Here, too, we could translate: "neither had they in the ship with them [in addition to or other than] one loaf."

    Many other examples could be given, but these two should suffice to show that in Matthew 19:9, Jesus is simply covering all other possible causes for divorce "except," "other than," "in addition to" fornication. He has already eliminated the cause of fornication in verse 8.

    Jesus has twice answered the question posed by the Pharisees in verse 3 concerning divorce for every cause. He has first answered it in verses 4-6 by saying there is not to be divorce for any reason. Then in verses 7 and 8, He specifically teaches that fornication cannot be a cause for divorce. In verse 9 He applies this teaching to all other causes of divorce, except the cause of fornication, which He had just covered in verse 8.

    The removal of fornication as a cause for divorce so shocked the disciples that they said to Jesus in verse 10: "His disciple say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry." They apparently could not envision a marriage wherein a husband had lost all right to divorce his wife. The disciples were astounded and dismayed that there could no longer be divorce. Their reaction to the statements Jesus made in Matthew 19:4-9 underscores the fact that Jesus had rescinded the command of Deuteronomy 24:1-4.

    The earthly application of the other ceremonial laws came to an end when Jesus came, and the application of the ceremonial law of a man divorcing his fornicating wife also ended with His coming. In fact, not only did the physical application of this law end, but the spiritual application ended as well.

    The last half of Matthew 19:9, "and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery," is almost an exact duplication of Luke 16:18. We saw in Luke 16:18, Matthew 5:32, and Mark 10:11-12, that God indicated that a man was not to marry another wife after divorce, and anyone who married the divorced wife committed adultery. Clearly the law stand today that as long as the divorced spouse lives, there is not to be remarriage after divorce.

    The Bible records that when Joseph, the stepfather of Jesus, thought Mary had committed fornication because she was with child, he, being a just man, sought how to put her away (Matthew 1:19). The fact that the Bible says he was a "just" man underscores the fact that God was absolutely holy and righteous when He divorced national Israel as a corporate body. God divorced them as a corporate body, not as individuals. God could not divorce them as individuals within the nation because He was not married to them on that level. The law of God as the husband was married to them as individuals and in that relationship there could be no divorce. No matter how adulterous any man became, he remained under the law God, even as the wife remains under the dominion of her husband.

    God used national Israel to display various types and figures which were shadows of the spiritual reality that was to be fulfilled in Christ. Their corporate marriage to God was a picture of the marriage of Christ to the eternal church.

God married Israel when it was a nothing, and the believer becomes the bride of Christ when he is spiritually dead in his sins. God lavished his love on his wife, national Israel, by showering them with physical and spiritual blessings, and He showers spiritual blessings on His eternal bride, the true believers in Christ.