Matthew 19:7–9 (ESV) — 7 They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to
give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” 8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you
to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual
immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”
NOTE: This is
complicated. First of all, it was not Moses who wrote and allowed divorce. The
scripture makes it clear that all scripture is inspired by God (1 Tim 3:16) and
Peter said, 'men wrote the holy scriptures as they were carried along by the
spirit (very loose paraphrase).' So, the
command was from God in the OT. Jesus explains the command (allowing divorce)
that it was because of the hardness of their hearts, or in other words, sin.
Because we are sinners, men and women do things to each other that allows
divorce. Certainly God never intended for a woman to suffer abuse, specifically
physical abuse but one could also see other types of mental and verbal abuse as
legitimate causes. Since those things are so far from the concept of marriage,
as described in Eph 5:18ff, it is clear that sin requires a change to the
original commandment. But less we misunderstand, the best result is the way it
was intended, a man and woman becoming one from the beginning to the end of
their marriage.
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