Mark‬ ‭10‬:‭2‬-‭9‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” “What did Moses command you?” he replied. They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.” “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.””

‭

Divorce! A very current and thorny topic! Divorce is so easy these days that couples can spouses like changing their clothes!

It was almost like this in Jesus’ day, not because God made divorce easy but because “Moses” did, according to the interpretation of the religious leaders. 

There were two mains schools of thought, led by two respected rabbis, Hillel and Shammai. 

Google says…

“Rabbi Hillel permitted divorce for “any cause,” even for trivial reasons such as a husband finding his wife’s cooking unsatisfactory, whereas Rabbi Shammai only allowed divorce for adultery. Hillel’s view was that the term “any cause” in Deuteronomy 24:1 allowed for divorce over any issue the husband disliked, a perspective that became the dominant view in Jewish law (Halakha), though more pious individuals still favored Shammai’s stricter approach.”

The Pharisees tried to draw Jesus into the debate, testing His opinion against those of these two most respected rabbis “with authority”.

Jesus refused to be caught in their trap. As He always did, He referred them back to the source of the instruction…God’s command “at the beginning of creation”. Marriage was a creation ordinance not to be tampered with by foolish humans. 

Jesus not only took them back to the source and initiator of marriage, but He also diagnosed the cause of their deviations!

“It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,”

Hardness of heart! How true it was then and equally true now! What was and is missing in many marriage relationships that undermines the meaning and purpose of marriage?

““Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭23‬:‭23‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Did you get that? Justice! Mercy! Faithfulness! Jesus came down hard on the Pharisees for two main reasons. One…they were hypocrites, play acting in the game of life. They wore the mask of “righteousness”, always doing the right thing in public, but rotten to the core with greed and wickedness inside. Two, they had no mercy for offenders who did not do what they demanded. 

So, if the wife “offended” them, they gave her a “bill of divorce” and sent her away without hope, while they calmly married the woman they had set their sights on… a convenient way of handling 

their unfaithfulness. 

Jesus also highlighted the purpose for marriage that most people don’t understand, ignore, or forget. 

“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

Marriage is not primarily because two people are “in love”, or for companionship, or legalised sex. Marriage is about two people becoming one to reflect on earth the unity “echad” between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the Godhead. Sexual union is the physical symbol of this unity between one man and one woman for life. 

How far, then, has corruption in the human heart degraded marriage in all its perverse practices to what humans have made it today. The only cure for human depravity is to go back to the beginning, as Jesus did, and apply God’s Word, with hearts renewed by God’s grace to faith and obedience. 

It takes God’s grace, His strength for our weakness, to overcome the inborn selfishness of our hearts, to “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ”, growing in unity as an expression of our love and obedience to Jesus as Lord.