By Dr. Anne Davis

I was once teaching on the divorce passage in Matthew when I noticed a young woman who was sitting very still and straight in her chair, but tears were streaming down her face. I stopped what I was doing and put my arms gently around her. Her tears became sobs but taking a big gulp of air she stopped and looked up. I asked her what was wrong, and she explained that her church had refused to let her continue teaching Sunday School and had removed her from a leadership role in the congregation. “Why”, I asked? She had recently been divorced and they considered this a grievous sin.

So, let me ask you. Do you think this judgment by the church leaders was the same as God’s judgment? Were they acting on behalf of God? My answer to this question is “no”, they were not judging the way God judges divorce. So, I will take you to a lively debate between Jesus and the Pharisees, which we find in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 19, where we will learn how God views divorce.

Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?” Mat 19:3

The Pharisees were asking, in essence, do you agree with our position on divorce or on that of the Sadducees? We will learn that Jesus supports neither position but declares something quite different. To understand Yeshua’s argument, we must first comprehend the biblical passages that were the cornerstones of interpretation on divorce by both the Pharisees and the Sadducees because Jesus is going to use these verses in his counter argument.

THE SADDUCEES: The position of the Sadducees was based on Genesis 2:24, which claims that the couple, Adam and Eve, were united as one in marriage. Therefore, the Sadducees argued that divorce is not permitted by God. However, listen to this passage, which is the basis of the Sadducee’s argument. It should stimulate some questions in your mind.

A man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.  And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. Genesis 2:24-25

The Sadducees argued that divorce was a sin and an abomination in God’s eyes, but we need to take a closer look at this passage because Jesus is going to draw our attention to it. So, we ask, “Why would God’s Word describe Adam and Eve as naked without shame?  The word translated “naked” is a biblical symbol for exposing one’s sinful condition. However, Adam and Eve were not ashamed because sin had not yet entered the world, so they had no reason to feel guilty. This was the situation in the beginning of God’s creation.

THE PHARISEES: Now we can turn to the position of the Pharisees, who pointed to Deuteronomy 24:1.

When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house. Deuteronomy 24:1

The accusation against the wife in this verse that justifies divorce is “some indecency”.

Are you curious about the Hebrew words that have been translated “some indecency”? The Hebrew is עֶרְוַת דָּבָד (ervat davar) which literally means “a naked thing”. Ervah, meaning “naked”, is our key word, and reminds us of the pure and holy condition of Adam and Eve when they were naked and they were not ashamed because they had not yet sinned by eating the forbidden fruit.

Now, we will return to the creation account, after Adam and Eve sinned, because then “they knew they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.” However, as you know, we cannot cover our own sins like Adam and Eve tried to do; only God can do that when we seek His forgiveness and repent of our sin. So, we learn that “the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them” (Gen 3:21). That is, God “covered” their sin.

YESHUA: Now, are you ready to return to the debate between Yeshua and the Pharisees about divorce? As Yeshua begins to speak, it sounds like he is supporting the Sadducees. But if you listen carefully you will hear that Yeshua refers not only to Adam and Eve who were naked and not ashamed, but also to another verse in the beginning of the creation account. Listen carefully and see if you can detect that other verse as you read Yeshua’s words in Matthew 19:4-6. Quotations from the Hebrew Scriptures are displayed in capital letters.

Jesus answered the Pharisees and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, and said, FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH?  So, they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” Matthew 19:4-6

Don’t jump to the conclusion that Jesus agreed with the Sadducees, that divorce is an abomination in God’s eyes because, did you hear Jesus quoting part of Genesis 1:27? God MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE.

At the time of Yeshua, people did not have Bibles like we do. Their Holy Writings were carefully hand-written on vellum scrolls that would have been too expensive for all but the very wealthy. And yet, the Hebrew Scriptures were an intimate part in the lives of all the Jewish people. So, they learned by listening and memorizing, and when Jesus quoted “made them male and female”, the whole verse would have flashed in their minds.

God created man [meaning all of mankind] in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Genesis 1:17

So, what has Yeshua done? He has used two verses to point to the beginning of God’s creation before sin entered the world. God initially created mankind in His own image, which is perfect and holy and righteous. God also established a marriage relationship where the two partners were unified as “one”, and all this was before sin occurred.

THE MESSAGE: Yeshua is teaching us an important lesson. The marriage relationship was designed by God to reflect and encourage a similar bond between God and His people. That is, if we can come into God’s presence in a sinless condition, like Adam and Eve before they ate the forbidden fruit, then we will be joined together with God with no separation between us. We will become one with God without shame or guilt caused by sin. Of course, that is not possible in our sinful world today, but that is our goal, and God wants us to reach for it.

HOW GOD PERCEIVES DIVORCE: Now we can return to the argument of the Pharisees, who found in Deuteronomy that divorce was permitted for “some indecency”, which they interpreted as any sinful condition. Yet, who is without sin? This interpretation by the Pharisees reinforced the power of men who could divorce their wives for essentially any reason, and it left the woman in a tragic position of being without financial support or protection that a husband provided in the ancient world.

Do you think Jesus was going to support that interpretation by the Pharisees? Certainly not. However, it gave him an opportunity to teach us how God perceives divorce, which is not condemnation but encouragement for us to draw closer to God in a righteous relationship.

Jesus said to the Pharisees, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. Matthew 19:8

You will remember that in the beginning the married couple was united as one without sin, which reflects God’s desired relationship with mankind when they could come into His righteous presence. And guess what? God is in the process today of leading us back (or perhaps we should say leading us forward) to that sinless condition. So, as we mature in righteousness by learning to humbly obey our Lord Yeshua, the son of God, we are growing closer and closer to our righteous God.

ONE LAST QUESTION: I trust you are left with an agonizing question. What happens if you, or someone you know, has experienced a divorce? Jesus is going to give us the answer by alluding to words spoken by the prophet Jeremiah. Speaking for God Jeremiah declares, “For all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I have sent her away and given her a writ of divorce” (Jer 3:8), which refers to the ten tribes in Israel’s northern kingdom who were taken into captivity by Assyria. However, the two southern tribes would not escape this same punishment of separation from God that is described as a writ of divorce. Jeremiah continues. “Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she went and was a harlot also” (Jer 3:8). As you know, the two tribes in the southern kingdom of Judah were later taken into captivity by Babylon.

Now comes the most important part of Yeshua’s message for those of us today who have separated ourselves from God by any sinful action (not just divorce). And remember, none of us is without sin. So, how do we repair the damage of separation caused by sin, which is Yeshua’s message using divorce as an example.

“Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the Lord your God and you have not obeyed My voice,” declares the Lord.” Jeremiah 3:13

God offers forgiveness to all who come before Him in a humble desire to repent and change and that allows you to grow closer to God. If you are currently in a marriage relationship, God wants you to do your best to reflect the rapport He desires with His people who can grow closer to Him when they mature by walking in God’s righteous ways.

So, I have concluded that God does not condemn those who are divorced. Instead, He encourages them, as He encourages all of us, to repent of any sin. “Repent” means not only to acknowledge our sin, but most important, to commit in our heart to change from worldly ways to the ways of God.

With that I wish you Shalom.

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