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God's view of divorce

Deuteronomy 24:1-4

The Bible contains permissions that, to be understood, must be compared with God's prescriptions. Life in a fallen world results in concessions on a number of important lifestyle matters like marriage. While God prescribed marriage to be a permanent union of one man and one woman (Genesis 2:24), God also permits divorce within guidelines.

Permission to divorce was granted in Israel, and guidelines established (Deuteronomy 24:1-4), for the protection of divorced women. Deuteronomy 24:1-4 sets up three conditions—when (verse 1), when (verse 2), if (verse 3)—followed by a conclusion: then (verse 4). The standards for divorce prevented a man from taking ownership of property acquired by a women he had divorced after she remarried and her second husband died, leaving her with property. The man was prohibited from remarrying her for the sake of gaining control of her second husband's wealth. The regulations on divorce were actually more focused on remarriage.

Those details were overshadowed by Jesus' teaching about divorce. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus referenced Moses' teaching in Deuteronomy 24 and put the focus back on divorce: "But I say to you [in addition to what Moses said] that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery [if she marries again]; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery" (Matthew 5:32). The Pharisees had put the emphasis on the letter of the law—permission to divorce for "some [undefined] uncleanness" (Deuteronomy 24:1)—and Jesus emphasized the spirit of the law: fidelity and faithfulness.

Jesus emphasized this further in Matthew 19:3-9 by appealing to the Genesis standard of permanence, reminding the Pharisees that it was only because of sin—"the hardness of your hearts" (Matthews 19:8) that Moses permitted divorce in the first place

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