Divorce and Remarriage
By the time of the establishment of Israel, divorce was already cultural reality. The first mention of divorce in scripture is in telling the priests of Israel that they may not marry a woman who has been divorced (Lev 21:7). The priests who ministered before the Lord were called to be Holy and if they married a woman who had been defiled by being with another man they would be defiling the priesthood. The scriptural standard is clear that marriage is to be between one man and one woman for life. Deuteronomy 22:13-21 explains that the woman needed to be a virgin. The penalty for a man or woman sleeping with someone else was death (Deut 22:22). In the instance of rape of a betrothed woman, when no one was around to help the woman, the man would be put to death, but the woman innocent (Deut 22:25-27). If a man had sex with a woman who was single he was forced to then fulfil his obligation to the woman by marrying her for life (Deut 22:28-29). In all of these cases, the sexual union of a man and woman was seen as the consummation of marriage. The basis of marriage from the beginning was that the two would come together and become one flesh (Gen 2:24). Once joined together as one, that union could not be broken or undone. The two options for Holiness in Israel were either to stay single or marry and become one flesh with another person.
In Deuteronomy 24, the law mentions a certificate of divorce issued for finding some decency in a man’s wife. There is no explicit law describing what this was, but indecency would imply sexual immorality of some kind. It is unclear from a legal standpoint, since sex outside of marriage was punishable by death, why a man would divorce his wife instead of having her executed, but it may have been a matter of providing the burden of proof. The specific law forbid a man from taking back his wife if she had gone and married someone else (Deut 24:4). Once again, the pattern is that a man could not reunite with a woman who had been defiled. The prophets use this law as the basis for the image of Israel and God. The concept is that if Israel has played the whore (by turning to idols) then God would not have to receive her back (Jer 3:1). And yet God, in his great love and faithfulness, invited Israel to simply acknowledge her guilt and repent. If they did this, he would welcome them back (Jer 3:12-14). This is epitomized by the example of Hosea who God used to enact this message prophetically. In Hosea 1:2 God told him, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” This demonstrated God’s redemptive love in the face of the failure of Israel. And just as Israel’s failure disappointed God, so did divorce (Mal 2:16).
Jesus gives multiple examples whereby divorce equates to adultery. In the first example a husband divorces his wife, resulting in her committing adultery (Mt 5:32). The reason for this is that the woman, already being one flesh with the man, would then remarry and be untied to another. The second example in the same verse is of a man marrying a divorced woman. In this instance she was already one flesh with another and now he commits adultery by joining with her. So in both of these examples remariage equates to adultery. Both examples are consistent with Mark 10:11-12 where Jesus says, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” There is a clause in the middle of Matthew 5:32 which has caused some debate on the issue as a whole. Jesus in the verse says, “everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery.” The clause in the middle may be interpreted to mean that sexual immorality is a just cause for divorce. This would appear to be consistent with Deuteronomy 24. But a closer examination reveals that the word “except” is not referring to grounds for divorce. Without the clause the verse is saying that a man is responsible for making his wife commit adultery if he divorces her. The addition of the clause simply means that if she has already committed adultery he is not the one responsible for making her commit adultery. At that point it could be argued whether or not he should take her back. The holiness code of the Old Testament would say no, but the example of God to Israel, and Jesus to us, would say yes. Paul deals with the issue by saying in 1 Corinthians 7:10-11 that, “To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.” Again the emphasis is that they should not divorce, but if they do, they should either remain single or reunite. But if they marry another, they commit adultery.
When asked about the legality of divorce Jesus referenced the intention of marriage in Adam and Eve and said, “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” (Mt 19:6). When they ask Jesus about the laws of Moses (since Deuteronomy 24 makes mention of divorce) Jesus responded in Matthew 19:8 with, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.” In other words, divorce was never meant to be in God’s design, but provisions were made to deal with it since people were doing it anyway because of the hardness of their heart. The only scriptural basis for divorce is when one person in the marriage is not a Christian and wants out (1 Cor 7:15). This implies that they were both unbelievers when they were married, and then later one of them came to faith in Christ. This is a rare exception, so the general policy in scripture is that divorce is wrong and remarriage after divorce is also wrong. If a spouse dies then a believer is permitted to remarry (Romans 7:2–3).