A Fresh Look at Divorce and Remarriage, Part 6

“Houston, we got a problem!” 

Earlier I wrote, “Divorce is not a solution.  If it was, it would have been commanded by God.  But nowhere in the Bible is divorce commanded by God.”

The only teaching on divorce and remarriage in the Bible that the Pharisees in Jesus’ day bring to the Lord is found in Deuteronomy 24:1-4.  There is no command to divorce mentioned there.

When the Pharisees come to Jesus to test Him, they misquote Deuteronomy 24 and say to Jesus, “Why did Moses COMMAND to give her a certificate a certificate and divorce her” (Matt. 19:7).  Jesus corrects them by saying, “Because of the hardness of your heart, Moses PERMITTED you to divorce your wives” (v. 8).

So what we see from the lips of Jesus is that Divorce was not a command but merely a permission or allowance. Therefore, I conclude that “Divorce is not a solution to a marriage problem.”  If it is a solution, then the Bible would command divorce even for one or two instances where a person can use it as a solution.

But now, let’s hop over to Mark 10 and read the same account but from a different writer’s perspective.  Beginning in verse 2, same account, we read these words:

And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” ³ He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” ⁴ They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” ⁵ And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment.

Here Mark (through Peter who gave to Mark the info in this account), said that it was the Pharisees who came to Jesus and used the word “allowed” (or permission), and it was Jesus who used the word “command.”  Read the above passage again to get the picture.

Therefore, in Matthew’s gospel, it appears that the Pharisees misquote Moses and use the word “command,” and then Jesus corrects them with the word “permit.”  However, in Mark’s account, it is the reverse. Jesus does used the word “command” and the Pharisees used the word “allowed.”

So is divorce a command or not?

The answer:  No, it is not.

In Mark, what Jesus is doing is using the word “command” as synonymous with “Scripture.”  All Scripture is God’s Word and can be viewed as the final authority for belief and practice.

When Jesus said to the Pharisees in Mark 10:3, “What did Moses command you,” Jesus was merely asking, “What did Moses write?  What does it say in Deuteronomy 24?”

They replied, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce” (v. 4).  Then in verse 5, Jesus replied, “Because of the hardness of your heart, he wrote to you this commandment” (or Scripture).   

Now you see it?  What Moses wrote under the guidance of the Holy Spirit is merely seen as a command by Jesus.  This is because all Scripture is from God and can be viewed as authoritative. 

Therefore, when Jesus states in verse 5, “this commandment,” he is not referring to divorce being a command, merely the writings of Moses in Deuteronomy 24.  So then, what we must do is to come to understand what Moses wrote in Deuteronomy 24 that serves as a command.

Over in Matthew’s account, Jesus is seen as correcting the “interpretation” of the Pharisees regarding Deuteronomy 24. They viewed Deuteronomy 24 as a command for divorce, but Jesus said it wasn’t a command, only a permission allowed by God through Moses because of the hardness of their hearts.

Therefore, in Matthew’s account, Jesus is seen as correcting the faulty interpretation of the Pharisees, and in Mark’s account, Jesus is seen as establishing the command of Deuteronomy 24 since it is Scripture and therefore authoritative.

Both accounts in Matthew and Mark do not contradict one another, they support the following:

1.   Divorce is not a command (Matthew)

2.  The Writings of Deuteronomy 24 are a command (Mark).

Again, we need to go to Deuteronomy 24 and see for ourselves what did Moses write and the meaning behind it.

But before we do, let me point out one more very interesting observation. There is no doubt that both Matthew and Mark are writing about the same incident – The Pharisees coming to test Jesus concerning the subject of divorce.

What is interesting is that in His reply to the Pharisees in Matthew’s account (Ch. 19), Jesus uses the “exception clause” (“except for fornication” – v. 9), but in Mark’s account of the same incident, Jesus does not mention the “exception clause” at all” (cf. Mark 10:11-12). 

Why is that? Why does Matthew only mentions the “exception” and Mark does not – even though they both are writing about the same incident?

As we dive deeper into this mystery (not a contradiction), we know that out in deeper waters, we must swim to Deuteronomy 24 and land on that reef for a bit, and then swim to Matthew 5 and 19 and land on those reefs for a while to deal with the “exemption clause.”

End of Part 6