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Marriage Divorce Good? (cont'd)by Sandy Fiedler WHAT ABOUT DIVORCE? The Old Testament speaks of a bill of divorce. Mosaic law gave Deuteronomy 24:1 "a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house." Referring to Jeremiah 3:8, which tells of God's divorcing His chosen people due to their following after foreign gods, Rushdoony says, "divorce is here certainly not seen as a barely tolerated evil, as some would have it. The bill of divorce, or writing of excision or repudiation was not the evil but dealt with the evil." He goes on to remind us that our society is part of a sinful order since the fall of man, and divorce is a way of dealing with that sinful order so that people may get on with their lives. This is why Jesus says in Matthew 19:8, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning." He is saying that in the original created order before the fall of man, divorce was not a part of the plan. It was not needed because life on earth was perfect, heavenly. After the fall, divorce was needed, therefore, because sin entered the picture. The Pharisees, trying to stir up contention and controversy with Jesus about the reasons for divorce, asked him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason (Matthew 19:3 NIV)?" Referring to Mosaic law about divorce, Jesus answered the Pharisees that writing a certificate of divorce should not be taken as a legislative privilege, as some men at that time were taking it, simply because the wife no longer found favor in the husband's eyes, for example, if his wife served the food too hot or the husband had found someone else. Jesus brought to their attention that the law states that a man writes a certificate of divorce after "a woman becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her." The Mosaic guidelines were clear. A certificate of divorce had to have just cause; something indecent had to be found about her. Note that Jesus uses the word "fornication" (porneia), not "adultery" (moicheia), as we have often been told in error in our churches, when He answers them about the acceptable cause for divorce. Had Jesus meant to use the more limited word adultery, he would have. Both the root words for indecent behavior (Deuteronomy 24:1) and fornication (Matthew 19:9) "denote generic, ethically abhorrent misbehavior with the focus on sexual immorality." Jesus was taking a stand to uphold the law as it was originally intended, a law which was more protective of women than the current practices of His day. The word fornication refers to a broader group of sins or uncleanness than does the word adultery. Fornication is frequently used metaphorically in the Bible referring to forsaking God or following after idols. Indeed, Sutton contends that fornication includes not only all manner of sexual sins but also all the capital offenses of the Bible and are parallel to the offenses listed in the Thou-shalt-nots of the Ten Commandments.Furthermore, sins against a spouse are basically the same as sins against God "because of the relationship of the offenses between God and man, and husband and wife, the capital offenses of the Biblical covenant are the divorceable offenses of the marital covenant." What are the divorceable offenses? Sutton lists two broad categories. The first group includes sins against God including idolatry, blasphemy, witchcraft, divination, and spiritism. The second group consists of sins against the spouse. This group is then divided into two subgroups: the first subgroup includes all sexual sins, and second is a subgroup he calls "murder." Murder includes physical abuse and desertion (physical and sexual), infant sacrifice, and failure to provide economically. As you can see, the list of divorceable offenses includes far more than adultery. Concerning physical abuse, too often, churches will counsel an abused wife to return to a dangerous, even life-threatening, situation, using Ephesians 5:22 as their proof-text whip, "Wives, submit to your husbands?." They fail to quote the rest of the passage about how husbands are commanded to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. After all, the elders point out, if the scoundrel hasn't committed adultery, the wife has no grounds to leave him. What? Even the world exhibits more kindness than that. Isn't a church more Pharisaic than the Pharisees when it condemns a woman to return to an abusive situation because the elders cannot find a chapter and verse in the New Testament that says a wife should flee physical violence in her home? If the Mosaic law was intended to protect the innocent, certainly the New Testament precepts do the same. However, understanding of the spirit of the law grows out of a knowledge of the whole Bible and a relationship with the Father through His Son Jesus, led by the Holy Spirit day by day. Some Christians today, like the Pharisees, have only a head knowledge of the law but lack the understanding of the spirit of the law. Speaking on Romans 13:1, Steve Wilkins, pastor of Auburn Ave. Presbyterian Church in Monroe, Louisiana, says that because all authority comes from God, authority within the family government must be exercised under God's true authority. He goes on to say If any [authority] seeks to cast off the authority of God, at that point, it is claiming to be God itself and it falls under the condemnation of God at that point and forfeits the right it had to subjection and submission and honor to those who were under its authority. So, if there is a man who seeks to tyrannize his family, who beats his wife, who abuses his children, who seeks to injure them day by day, that man has forfeited his right to submission from his wife and children because he is not exercising his authoritative position under the authority of God. He is a tyrant in his family and he is not to be obeyed at those points. What about other areas of marital discord not specified in any Biblical chapter and verse? What about a spouse who is an unrepentant substance abuser? An alcoholic? Involved in criminal activity? What if love has died? What about the young wife who told me, "It's pretty hard to respect him when he's just a bum."? Her husband has ruined his personal credit because he neglected to pay bills month after month. He works, that is, when he feels like it while she is a full-time nursing student and holds down a full-time job. She describes how when she comes home from work, she finds him on the couch, watching TV while the lunch meat, bread, and mayonnaise he used to prepare himself a sandwich at noon are still left open on the counter. She is on the verge of kicking him out since they live rent-free on her parents' property. She feels emotionally deserted, taking care of a man-child who lives Peter Pan's song, "I won't grow up." In addressing some of these unspecified areas, I recall that the Puritans, striving to build a society based on the Bible, took the general equity of the case laws of the Bible and applied them to real life concerns and issues of their day and culture for the general good of the population. That is, they studied the Bible and asked, How can we identify the intent of Biblical law and apply it today to help people live godly, peaceable lives? Individuals who are considering divorce must take a look at the intent of Biblical teaching and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit as well as the counsel of wise Christian leaders. To avoid divorce, however, Sutton makes it clear that every effort should be made to bring the covenant-breaker into repentance for the marriage's sake and for his own sake before God; however, if the person will not be restored, the death of the marriage occurs and God deals with the guilty person as He sees fit. Meanwhile, what about the innocent party? Must he pay a price for the rest of his life and be forbidden to re-form covenant with another?
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