QT 12/20/2023 Mark 10:2-12, Divorce was never supposed to be a thing

Mark 10:2–12 (ESV) —

2 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. 6 But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7 ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9 What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

10 And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. 11 And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, 12 and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

 

NOTE: At this time in history, there was a debate still going between followers of Rabbi Shammai (who believed extramarital sin was the only grounds for divorce) and Rabbi Hillel (who believed that a husband could divorce his wife for any reason). Jesus starts with the commands in Deuteronomy, which historically required a reason for divorce, and which further Pentateuch passages clarified in three categories. Moses, the author of the first five books, wrote what God through the Holy Spirit breathed through him. Divorce was not Moses idea. God allowed it because of sin, but it was never his intention. Jesus goes back to Genesis to make that argument. Jesus further expands the understanding of divorce. In fact Jesus' words elevate the woman position, since most Rabbis taught that a man did not commit adultery against the woman by divorcing her and marrying another. Jesus said that the husband's action was adultery against the woman. In any case, divorce is ultimately one sin, just as gossip, lying, or stealing are sins. Jesus died for all of our sins.

 

PONDER:

1. We all try to justify our actions, when confession and repentance is the best course. If you divorced your spouse, have you repented?
2. Are you are thinking about divorce? Seek God in repentance and seek to do everything possible to save your marriage. But sometimes, because of our sin and the sin in the world, divorce is the only answer.

 

PRAYER: Father, we are all sinners seeking to justify our actions or behavior. We ruin many things. Have mercy on us and pull us out from the hole we have dug. Let us have new beginnings. Change what we ruined into something beautiful again.