What God Joined Together - Family Radio

she will have become defiled if she remarries. Effectively, God is teaching
that if the divorced wife becomes another man’s wife, she will be defiled so
that she cannot return to her first husband.
This principle is reiterated and expanded in the last phrase of Matthew
5:32 where Jesus declares that “whosoever shall marry her that is divorced
committeth adultery.” Because the divorced wife who has remarried has
become defiled as a result of the remarriage, it logically follows that the man
who married her has entered into an adulterous marriage. Jesus emphasizes
the fact that such a man has indeed committed adultery.
DEUTERONOMY 24:1 ALLOWED ONLY ONE-HALF
OF ISRAEL TO DIVORCE
The law that permitted a man to divorce his wife for fornication applied to
only half of Israel. Deuteronomy 24:1 only permitted the husband to divorce
his wife. This was because, in its ceremonial nature, the law was pointing to the
coming divorce of national Israel. No provision of any kind was made for the
wife to divorce the husband because no aspect of God’s salvation plan or of
God’s dealing with national Israel included the possibility of national Israel
divorcing God. Therefore, a wife could never divorce a fornicating husband.
In her relationship to her husband, she was under the universal law given from
the beginning of creation that there was not to be divorce for any reason
whatsoever.
Thus, in the case of the law of God (the husband) being spiritually married
to the individual (the wife), there never was a time when divorce for
fornication or for any other reason was allowed. Also, in the nation of Israel,
the wife could never divorce the husband for his fornication. Only the husband
could divorce the wife for fornication because that was part of the ceremonial
law which pointed to God’s coming divorce of corporate, national Israel.
In summary, we see that Deuteronomy 24:1-4 taught the following
principles:
1. A husband could divorce his wife only if she were found guilty of
fornication.
2.The wife, who was guilty of fornication and, as a result, was divorced,
would become defiled if she married someone else. Thus she was to
remain single.
3.No permission was given to the wife to divorce her husband for any
reason whatsoever.
In Matthew 5:32 Jesus reiterated the basic principles of Deuteronomy
24:1- 4 and expanded them to teach:
1.A husband who divorced his wife for any reason other than
16 What God hath joined together...