It's not about Divorce!

Garth Heckman

The David Alliance

TDAgiantSlayer@Gmail.com 

 

Matthew 19:3 The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?”

4 And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who [a]made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”

NOW THE PHARISEES ARE DOING WHAT THE WORLD DOES RIGHT HERE… THEY WANT JESUS TO FOCUS ON TWO THOUGHTS.. ONE-DIVORCE IS ALLOWED FOR ANY REASON AND TWO DIVORCE IS ONLY ALLOWED FOR ADULTERY.

**But Jesus flips the script and does not focus on Divorce but rather on marriage. He focuses on the covenant between God and Man and his wife. The term “whatsoever God has joined together” When you want to divorce your spouse for any reason you run the risk of divorcing God… when you lust you not only break a covenant with your spouse but with God, when a woman fantasizes about security in another man she breaks the covenant with God and her husband… this covenant makes marriage a whole new mindset. 

7 They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?”

8 He said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.”

Moses allowed it due to hardness of heart. Meaning… your sin will justify your decisions. Rather then understand how marriage gives you a great grounds to practice Gods love (i.e. he loved us while we were sinners, he forgave us continually, he chose us as his bride knowing we would blow it) - we could practice this with our spouses… but we don’t - we have hard hearts. 

**hold the phone.. what is this saying: It is saying something profound so don’t miss it. Gods permission is not his perfect will or desire. So don’t confuse the two. 

Just becasue God allows it, does not mean God ordains it or blesses it. Maybe thats why second marriages are higher in divorce than first marriages… just saying. 

10 His disciples said to Him, “If such is the case of the man with his wife, it is better not to marry.” THE DISCIPLES REALIZED HOW HARD MARRIAGE WAS… AND IF THERE IS NO REAL WAY OUT OTHER THAN ADULTERY THEY KNEW THEY WOULD BE STUCK… UNABLE TO USE ANY EXCUSE TO DIVORCE.

**AND LETS BE HONEST MOST DIVORCES ARE EXCUSES BASED ON OUR NEEDS NOT GETTING MET. 

Biblically We don’t marry for our needs to be met - but we do… smh. This is why divorce is so high in our world today. When we feel cheated, slighted, ripped off, - when we feel like our expectations are not being met we blame the other person and choose divorce. 

But if God ordained it… then it must be good right? What does it mean ordained it. Simple. He ordained for marriage to be hard. Like somone once said “you don’t get married for a good time, you get married for a long time”.  Marriage is the singe best way to be placed in a position where you absolutely need God in order to make it in life. 

Not health issues, not money issues, not mindset or intelligence issues… NOPE, its marriage that will drive you mad unless you have Jesus on your side to help YOU - not your spouse, but you. 

Marriage is the hardest and the best thing going for you if you truly want to be more like Jesus. Rely on him, seek him and know that he will use marriage to make you Christ like.