Mark 10:1-9 Jesus then left that place and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds of people came to him, and as was his custom, he taught them. Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” “What did Moses command you?” he replied. They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.” “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”
In the above excerpt, Jesus addresses the general sinfulness of mankind in the area of marital fidelity. In the beginning, God planned for men to leave their mothers and fathers and unite with their wives in a union of one flesh: two will become one flesh. However, because of the advent of sin in the world, creating a hardness of heart in mankind, Jesus gives a legitimate reason for divorce in Matthew 19: I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery. This condition of adultery was not even conceived of in the Garden of Eden. The Garden's environment was pure, pristine, without any understanding of the idea of sin, of the subsequent hardness of the heart. But after the fall, because humans possessed the knowledge of good and evil in their daily walk, people could make impure decisions. Self-interest, self-indulgence, and disobedience became a central part in man's daily experiences. As we see in the day of Noah, God was so disturbed by man's penchant to do evil that He entertained the thought of destroying all people and in addition all living things on the face of the earth. The world had become contaminated by the cancer of sin, affecting not only mankind but all living creatures on Earth. The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth — men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air — for I am grieved that I have made them. (Genesis 6:5-7) This condition of sin not only made man violent and disruptive with others, evil also creeped into the most intimate relationship man can have outside of his relationship to his God: marriage. Mankind's hardness of heart corrupted the marital vows: permanency was lost in this relationship.
God did not create man as a selfish, disobedient, and eventually violent creature. Such violence pained the heart of God. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. (Genesis 6:11) He did not make man to be unfaithful in marriage. A lack of fidelity expressed in adultery reflects man's capriciousness in loving others, even God. Throughout the Old Testament, we see God's judgment of the Israelites because of their infidelity to God. Constantly, God beseeches them to return to him, so they might have peace and harmony in their lives, but they would not. Jesus expresses this desire of God when He looks at the city of Jerusalem: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! (Luke 13:34) But the self-will of the Israelites kept them from experiencing the full love of God in their daily lives. They sought other gods to comfort them, to sustain them through their lives. This kind of existence led them to destruction. As with violence, God has allowed men to go their own way in marriage and make their own decisions by giving them a certificate of divorce through a law of Moses. As sure as men can use violence to get their way, they can also disallow their vows to God and to others. Of course in both situations, sin has corrupted relationships. As we know, violence can keep a dictator away from our borders and protect our families. But this is not the way it was from the beginning when there was no fighting and no war. Also in marriage, a divorce can save someone from a horrible life of degradation and abuse. Divorce can allow children to escape a dishonoring and abusive parent. Divorce in some situations is necessary, but this is not the way it was in the beginning when purity and peace ruled in the heart of God's creation. Through the love of Christ, homes are meant to be safe harbors where parents love each other and protect their children.
Fellow breakfast companions, as with violence, divorce is sometimes the only avenue we have to make things right, but we must always remember that violence or divorce was not God's intention for mankind from the beginning. He created us to live in peace and in harmony with each other. When life breaks down to the point that our lives no longer reap the peaceable fruits of righteousness, we must run to him with our breaking hearts and ask him to restore in us the strength, peace, and harmony of the Lord that we need to live happily in his presence. He alone can restore and heal us. He alone can help us take the next steps in our lives. In this dark world, we must find our life IN HIM, hide IN HIM. As we read in the Word: Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. (1 Peter 5:8-9) This dark world contaminated by sin will someday pass away. Until then, the Bible tells us our lives are hidden with Christ in God and his mercies are new every morning. Divorced or not, we live IN CHRIST, and we can live this life victoriously through the same resurrection power that raised Christ from the dead. From the beginning, God planned we would all be perfect now through his beloved Son, Jesus. Sin did come into the world and contaminated us all; therefore, we all needed a Savior; we all needed the cross. Jesus shed his blood at the cross as the perfect sacrifice for sin. His perfection covers us all, so we might enter into God's holy presence, eternally known as his children, joint heirs with Christ Jesus. Divorce was not the plan from the beginning; neither were any of our sins planned from the beginning; but God made a way for us through Jesus Christ who said, I am the way, and the truth, and the life! (John 14:6)
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