The pharisees asked Jesus, “Is it possible for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?” Why did the pharisees ask this question, even though they regularly claimed that it was possible? They were planning to trap the Lord with His answer. The Lord asked back, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses told us to write a certificate of divorce and send her away” and they talked like Moses supported divorce.
The Lord said, “This was written because your hearts were hard.” When Moses received the Law, the faith and morals of the Israelites were no different from the gentiles. They believed that if a husband wanted, he was allowed to leave his wife. In this circumstance, if the Law did not acknowledge divorce - and women still went through it - their survival was under threat and they could not receive legal protection. Therefore, God provided a safeguard for women who went through divorce to remarry.
God does not want divorce, yet mankind’s hard-heartedness even led Him to provide its institution. Where did mankind’s hard-heartedness come from? It is the result of curses, caused by the corruption in Eden. “Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” Since then, wives have tried to force their desires over their husbands, and husbands have suppressed it by coercive means. Women have been sometimes treated as lower beings due to this.
If this is so, what was God’s plan when He first made man and woman? This is a more important issue than how to interpret the Law of Moses. Jesus said, “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.’” God did not make woman to be man’s possession in the beginning, but as an equal partner to her husband and created her to make a covenant with him.
This indirectly shows us how God treats mankind. God astonishingly treated mankind as an equal partner to make a covenant with Him. But they abandoned Him and served other gods, as if committing adultery. Nevertheless, God sent His only begotten Son to give them a new chance. God does not want sinful mankind to be destroyed, but to return to Him and gain the way to live.
It is not the attitude of Christians to uncomfortably stare at people who go through problems of divorce or their families. Our lives are difficult journeys, but there are people who suffer even greater hardships. We should encourage them so that they can walk the path of hope to the end. All of us were once divorced from God, and we still commit both large and small sins in His sight. Let’s remember that God is patient with people like us. Let’s build up a warm-hearted church where people can come to the Lord and gain a new chance to live.
(Lord’s Day Service on September 19, 2021)
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