What God Joined Together - Family Radio

Christ introduces an additional principle in the next phrase in verse 32,
where He says: “causeth her to commit adultery.” How are we to understand
this
Let us begin by reading verse 32 without the phrase “saving for the cause
of fornication.” It now reads “whosoever shall put away his wife . . . causeth her
to commit adultery.” In this statement Jesus introduces a very serious matter:
While it is altogether wrong for a divorce to occur, should it occur, such a
divorce causes the wife to commit adultery. Does this merely mean that the
divorced wife becomes prone to adultery because, if she should marry
someone else, that marriage would be adulterous as Romans 7:2-3 teaches
No. There is no evidence that Jesus is teaching this. He is simply saying
that if a man divorces his wife, regardless of how holy or pure she might be in
herself, she has been forced by the divorce itself to commit adultery. The very
act of the divorce caused her marriage to become adulterated and in that sense
she has been caused to commit adultery. Jesus underscores the terribleness
of the sin of divorce. Not only does the husband who desires the divorce sin,
but he also causes his wife to sin, even if she does not want the divorce.
This becomes understandable when we remember that those who have
married have become fused by God into one flesh, a divine union which no man
can break apart. Therefore, if a man breaks apart that which God has joined
together, the union has been adulterated.
However, if the wife had committed fornication before the divorce, then
she herself committed adultery. Based on Deuteronomy 24:1, the man had a
right to divorce his wife in such a case. Since she was adulterous before she
was divorced, the husband’s act of divorcing her was not the cause of her sinful
state of adultery.
Jesus does not call attention to Deuteronomy 24:1 to indicate that this
command is to continue in force throughout time. He is simply showing that
while Deuteronomy 24:1 was in force, a man had to discover actual
fornication in his wife to divorce her and to put her away for any lesser cause
was a violation of that command.
Since that command was repealed (as we shall see when we study Mark 10
and Matthew 19), Jesus definitely is not teaching that fornication is a cause for
divorce. Therefore, this verse is not dealing with the question of whether or
not there is any cause for divorce. Rather, Jesus is emphasizing the
seriousness of the sin of divorce.
THE WOMAN WHO IS DIVORCED BECOMES
DEFILED IF SHE MARRIES AGAIN
The third point that Jesus makes involves a restatement and clarification
of Deuteronomy 24:2-4. In the King James Bible, the use of the word “may”
in the phrase “she may go,” appears to say that the fornicating wife who was
divorced was free to remarry. However, in the original Hebrew the word “may”
is not included; thus, the Bible is not teaching she may go and be another man’s
wife. This can be seen by the language found in verse 4, where God indicates
Chapter 3 / God’s Marriage to Israel
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