#7.
Deuteronomy 24:1-4 is
often mistakenly used to sanction an adulterous remarriage. Those believing as
such maintain that a first marriage covenant is broken by divorce, and replaced
by a new marriage. At the same time they will readily admit that according to
Scripture, God blesses marriage and condemns divorce and remarriage. This
impossible contradiction of terms is often mere expediency at the cost of
fundamental Biblical principle, but sometimes it is as a result of confused
theological understanding. Let us
examine the issue most closely:
Look at the verses in Question. Deut: 24:1-4
"Suppose a man marries a woman but later discovers something about her
that is shameful. So he writes her a letter of divorce, gives it to her, and
sends her away. If she then leaves and marries another man and the second
husband also divorces her or dies, the former husband may not marry her again,
for she has been defiled. That would be detestable to the Lord. You must not
bring guilt upon the land the Lord your God is giving you as a special
possession." (NLT)
In the Third chapter of Jeremiah, God personally showed us how to properly
regard Deuteronomy 24: 1-4
In verse 1 God says: "If a man divorces his
wife and she leaves him and marries another man, should he return to her again?
Would not the land be completely defiled? But you have lived as a prostitute
with many lovers - Would you now return to me?”
In verse 8 God divorces
God then demonstrated His perfect example of
marriage law, despite Moses’ regulations, pleading with
Jesus himself addressed the purpose of the Deut
24 passage in both Matthew 19 and here in Mark 10, 2-12: Some Pharisees came
and tried to trap him with this question: “Should a man be allowed to divorce
his wife?” “What did Moses say about divorce?” Jesus asked them. “Well, he
permitted it,” they replied. “He said a man merely has to write his wife an
official letter of divorce and send her away.” But Jesus responded, “He wrote
those instructions only as a concession to your hard-hearted wickedness. But
God’s plan was seen from the beginning of creation, for ‘He made them male and
female.’ ‘This explains why a
man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are
united into one.’ Since they
are no longer two but one, let no one separate them,
for God has joined them together.” Later, when he was alone with his disciples
in the house, they brought up the subject again. He told them, “Whoever
divorces his wife and marries someone else commits adultery against her. And if
a woman divorces her husband and remarries, she commits adultery.” (NLT)
In the above teaching Jesus explained that the
Deuteronomy code had been put there by Moses to regulate sinful
Regarding Deut 24:1-4 in particular, John Wesley had this to say:
"Some uncleanness - Some hateful thing, some distemper of body or quality
of mind not observed before marriage: or some light carriage, as this phrase
commonly signifies, but not amounting to adultery. Let him write - This is not
a command as some of the Jews understood it, nor an allowance and approbation,
but merely a permission of that practice for prevention of greater mischief’s,
and this only until the time of reformation, till the coming of the Messiah
when things were to return to their first institution and purest
condition."
This entire section of Deuteronomy consists of ancient
These are not God’s regulations for us, and were
never written to be so. Except where they happen to coincide with modern
institutions of law and justice, these regulations are not found in either
church or state government. God’s moral and spiritual laws were, and remain far
above the standards of the law of the land. To attempt to argue that any
particular one of these laws has authority over Christians today while the
others do not is completely theologically and rationally unsupportable. We can
not just pick the ones we like and disregard the ones we do not like. If anyone
adopts one of the marriage regulations contained within it, then they must also
adopt all the others with equal conviction, including the following examples:
"If two brothers are living together on the same property and one of them
dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Instead, her
husband's brother must marry her and fulfill the duties of a brother-in-law.
The first son she bears to him will be counted as the son of the dead brother,
so that his name will not be forgotten in
"If a man's testicles are crushed or his
penis is cut off, he may not be included in the assembly of the Lord. Those of
illegitimate birth and their descendants for ten generations may not be
included in the assembly of the Lord." Deut. 23:1-2 (NLT)
“And suppose you see among the captives a
beautiful woman, and you are attracted to her and want to marry her. If this happens, you may take her to your
home, where she must shave her head, cut her fingernails, and change all her
clothes. Then she must remain in your home for a full month, mourning for her
father and mother. After that you may marry her. But if you marry her and
then decide you do not like her, you must let her go free. You may not sell her
or treat her as a slave, for you have humiliated her.” Deut. 21: 11-14 (NLT)
“If a man is caught in the act of raping a young
woman who is not engaged, he must pay fifty pieces of silver to her father.
Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he will never
be allowed to divorce her.” Deut. 22: 28-29 (NLT)
This same section allows multiple wives, buying and selling slaves, having your
son killed if he drinks too much or is too fat. It commands the stoning of folk
for various assorted reasons while women can not even wear pants without being
killed! Who of us would force a widowed sister-in-law to marry her husband’s
brother in order to produce children, or condemn a man because of an injury to
his private parts? Treating innocent
illegitimate children as commanded here violates everything we know about the
mercies and justice of Jesus Christ.
Taking a kidnapped woman and forcing her to
marry the captor who can then divorce her without penalty if he does not favor
her anymore is beyond comprehension. Forcing a raped young woman to marry her
violator is opposed to every legal and moral principle we agree on. Just as
reprehensible is for a woman not to be permitted reconciliation with the
husband of her youth after leaving an adulterous remarriage.
Brothers and sisters,
don’t go poking around in these old statutes, shopping for something to justify
what Jesus Christ clearly and repeatedly condemned. God has not reinstated a
small subsection of Jewish civil law so that a man who has stolen another man's
wife; or a woman who has seduced a husband away from his wife and children; who
talked some disobedient pastor into performing a God condemned wedding
ceremony, can keep legal hold of their
sin. If you have any doubt as to what God thinks of that idea just read Malachi
2:7-8 and 2:1-18:
"The priests’ lips should guard knowledge, and people should go to them
for instruction, for the priests are the messengers of the Lord Almighty. But
not you! You have left God’s paths. Your ‘guidance’ has caused many to stumble
into sin."... Here is another thing you do. You cover the Lord’s altar
with tears, weeping and groaning because he pays no attention to your
offerings, and he doesn’t accept them with pleasure. You cry out, "Why has
the Lord abandoned us?" I’ll tell you why! Because the Lord witnessed the
marriage covenant you and your wife made with each other on your wedding day
when you were young.
But you have been disloyal to her, though she
remained your faithful companion, the wife of your marriage covenant. Didn’t
the Lord make you one with your wife? In body and spirit you are his. And what
does he want? Godly children from your union. So guard
yourself; remain loyal to the wife of your youth. "For I hate
divorce!" says the Lord, the God of Israel. "It is as cruel as
putting on a victim’s bloodstained coat," says the Lord Almighty. "So
guard yourself; always remain loyal to your wife." You have wearied the
Lord with your words. "Wearied him?" you ask. "How have we
wearied him?" You have wearied him by suggesting that the Lord favors
evildoers since he does not punish them. You have wearied him by asking, “Where
is the God of justice?" (NLT)
Those following the Jewish civil law must not pick and choose which ones to
follow, while conveniently forgetting the rest. For those who choose to remain
under these laws, it is still an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, while
murder is still only by the knife and not in the heart. As John the Baptist
said: “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say
to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ …every tree that does not
produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” Matt. 3, 8-10
John Wesley was right - these were interim steps, civil law for a lawless
ancient
God Himself and His suffering, heart sick prophet Hosea demonstrated by example
the path we are required to take in protecting the covenant of marriage and
dissolving adulterous unions, no matter what the different parties have done,
legally or otherwise. Hosea was commanded by God to go and bring his wife back
to him even though she was loved by another man, contrary to Moses’
regulations, and love her in the same way God loves Israel, even though they
chased after other gods (Hosea 3:1)
All these old laws are just a shadow, a dim
reflection of the love and truth of the Living God as shown to us through the
Glorious life of Jesus Christ and His gospel. His marriage standards are the
only ones to seek to understand and to teach our people. Their eternal lives
depend upon it, as does ours. God will
not break the “unbreakable” in order to make the ”unmakeable.”