5:31-32 | Divorce

The Old Way of Divorce

Deuteronomy 24:1-4

1. We know less than we would want to

   1. The only real treatment we find is in Deut. 24:1-4

   2. Doesn't tell us when divorce is legal, it's just assumed

2. He could divorce for some indecency

   1. We have no idea what that would be

   2. Possibly inability to have children, or some ritual impurity

   3. Not adultery since that would be punishable by divorce

   4. The second husband simply hates her

3. Must be given a certificate of divorce

   1. Protected her form the charge of adultery

   2. Proved she was eligible for remarriage

4. Could never return to the first husband

   1. Even if the second husband divorces her

   2. This prevented casual divorces and the exchanging of wives

How This Was Interpreted Up Till Jesus

1. Shammai

   1. The smaller, more conservative view

   2. Emphasized found some indecency

   3. Defined as adultery, and for no other reason

2. Hillel

   1. The larger, more permitting view

   2. Emphasized any indecency

   3. Could divorce for spoiling meals

3. Common practices

   1. One Rabbi Akiba taught you could divorce if you found a better looking woman

   2. Josephus was three times married | Divorced because he was not pleased with her behavior

The New Way

1. Three scenarios contained in a single verse

   1. A divorce without sexual immorality

   2. A marriage to a woman who had been divorced for sexual immorality

   3. A divorce caused by sexual immorality

2. Divorced for ungodly reasons

   1. He makes her commit adultery

   2. It is assumed that she remarries in this instance. She is not sinning if the husband wrongly divorces her. She only sins by wrongfully entering into a relationship with another man.

   3. We can't abandon our spouses just because they've abandoned us

3. Marrying the divorced

   1. If they were not divorced properly, then no divorce ever occurred

   2. By doing so we are entering into a marriage that never ended and are committing adultery

4. Divorced for sexual immorality

   1. This is the only exception in divorce

   2. Sexual immorality being strictly defined as sex outside the marriage relationship

   3. That "one flesh" has been torn apart and joined to another | 1 Corinthians 6:18

What's the Big Deal?

God Hates Divorce

1. Malachi 2:16

   1. He hates divorce

   2. Faithfulness is a defining characteristic of God, and should be of us

   3. He only allowed it for a time because of the hardness of hearts

2. It goes against his original purpose

   1. That the two become one flesh - Divorcing is like cutting off your own arm

   2. They are joined together - Yet we throw our spouses away

3. Divorce is not the solution, it is the last option

   1. We shouldn't read this trying to find out how we can finally divorce each other

   2. God 'divorced' Israel in Hosea but only after doing everything to bring them back

God Wants Us to Understand Our Relationship to Him as a Marriage | Ephesians 5:22-33

1. Paul intertwines the concept of marriage relationships with our relationship to Jesus

   1. Husband is head, as Christ is head

   2. Wives submit, as the church does to Christ

   3. Husbands are to love, as Christ loved

2. Concludes with a Genesis quotation

   1. Paul isn't just reminding us of good marriage advice

   2. This is something that needs deeper thinking, and applies to Christ and the church

3. We should understand God's relationship with us as a marriage

   1. We are now a part of his body - one flesh

   2. Just as woman was man's helper, God is described as our helper

   3. He wants us to hold onto him as much as he holds to us

4. When we go divorcing one another, what does that say about our relationship to God?

   1. If a man is not faithful to his wife, can he be faithful to anything?

   2. We are to see our relationship with God in our marriages

   3. Nothing should ever come between and separate us from our faithfulness