Divorce

[Robert]

The Bible clearly states that God hates divorce. It just as clearly states that God Himself divorced the children of Israel. You may hate to pay your taxes, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. You may hate to get your cavities fixed, but that doesn’t make it a sin to go to the dentist.

Yeshua (Jesus) told us that Moses gave the people the right to divorce because of the hardness of their hearts. Divorce is not sin! God has never granted man the privilege to sin at any time, and neither did Moses. The purpose of divorce is so that people can get re-married. If people didn’t re-marry, they wouldn’t need a divorce. If there was no hardness of the human heart, divorce would never have been granted.

Understand that hardness of the heart doesn’t always come from both sides. If a man commits adultery, it is not from the hardness of her heart that his wife divorces him. It is because of the hardness of the man’s heart that he committed the sin and broke the covenant and trust between them. God’s heart was not hardened when He divorced Israel. Their heart was hardened by idolatry. If a man is abusive to a woman verbally and/or physically, it is not from the hardness of her heart that she divorces him. It is because of the hardness of his heart that he was abusive to her. That covers divorce, but there was also putting away. The book of Deuteronomy teaches us that if a virgin bride is found not to be a virgin, she was to be put to death publicly or privately. Now think about Matthew 1:19, which says, “Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily.” Joseph was actually thinking about having Mary put to death privately because it was obvious to him that she was not a virgin.

Now consider the words of Yeshua (Jesus) in Matthew 5:31-32.

31 It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement:
32 But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.”

In Hebrew culture, putting away was to put a woman to death. Divorce was to give her a bill of divorcement and to send her away. However, in Roman culture, putting away was said of men who sent their wives out of their houses with nothing but the clothes on their backs, no dowry, no support, no help of any kind. This approach to divorce was problematic among the Romans because after a woman was sent from her house, she would sometimes marry another man only to find out that her former husband was the jealous type. There are stories of men breaking into houses and killing their ex-wife’s new husband for committing adultery with his wife. As you may have already guessed, some of the Jews had already begun to use this practice. Jesus was pointing out that the Law clearly stated that a man and woman where not divorced without the bill of divorce. As is the case today, the only way a Jewish couple could get a legal divorce in the time of Jesus was to go to a beit-din which was a Jewish court. There, men would be forced to give their ex-wives support, especially if there where children involved. It was much more lucrative for these men to just send the women away. Jesus goes on to point out that the men who sent their wives out of their homes without a decree of divorce caused their wives to commit adultery because they were not legally divorced. Further, the men these woman marry committed adultery as well. It can be further stated, that if the man who sent his wife away without a bill of divorce re-marries, he, also, commits adultery.

Jewish law actually forbad any person from staying married to an abusive spouse. It was very much within their God-given authority over the people to make such a law, just as Moses did. It was called binding and loosing. Whatever the court decided was right was bound on earth and in heaven, and whatever was overturned by those courts was loosed on earth and in heaven. That should sound familiar to you.

The reason why it was against the law for spouses to stay in an abusive environment was to protect the spouse from being abused and the children. Children who are raised by abusive parents, become abusive parents.

It should be noted that pastors of Churches, large organizations such as the Assemblies of God or small independent groups, do not have the right to setup or institute beit-dins. The beit-dins were governed by rabbis who were trained doctors of the law of God, or Old Testament. These were men trained in the proper translation and application of the Scriptures, not men educated in Bible colleges and seminaries. It is also important to note that these beit-dins where, in fact, part of the Christian existence in the time of the Apostles as evidenced in their writings. In 1 Corinthians 6:1, Paul said, “Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?” Paul was commanding his followers to take their matters to the beit-din’s, not the secular courts. Another example is found in Acts 15:28, which says, “For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;” It is clear that James was the head of the beit-din and was making a ruling on a matter that had been brought before them. Once the decision of the court was announced, it was bound on earth and in Heaven.