The red flag was frantically flapping in a gale storm in Israel during the days of Christ on the earth. Today is no different. Back then if a Jewish wife burned a meal, they could divorce. Today in Orthodox Judaism, if a woman leaves her husband, she is “excommunicated” - she’s not allowed to have any contact with her community, including her
children! Her
husband must grant the divorce, but refusing to do so is a crime in Israel - still, there are men who would rather go to jail than give their wives the satisfaction.
In the Roman empire under classical Roman law
marriage without manus was based on consent. With the permission of any relevant guardians a man & woman could declare themselves married as long as both were past the age of puberty, so it seemed not unreasonable that if one of the parties withdrew consent then the marriage was over. Following this principle any man or woman who wished to do so could become divorced simply by sending the partner a letter or even by declaring in front of witnesses that the marriage was over. There was no such thing as joint marital property & any children of the marriage belonged to the father, so there was little to argue about.
With Muslims, Sunni & Shi’a Islam recognize two permissible sexual relations between men & women. Both sects recognize nikah, a lease contract of the woman of indeterminate length in which the man purchases exclusive sexual access to her vagina and its products, like children. It can also act as a legal document for marriage but with the woman in a position of power as well as the husband.
Sunni Islam, as well, recognizes sex slavery, in which the male master can have sex as he pleases with the female (usually infidel) slave.
Twelver Shi’a Islam, additionally, has the zawaj al-mutah, or temporary marriage, in which the marriage typically lasts a few hours or days. The mu’tah marriage is often likened to prostitution.
In a regular marriage, divorce can take a variety of forms, some initiated by the husband & some initiated by the wife. The main traditional legal categories are
talaq (repudiation by husband),
khulʿ (mutual divorce--wife still needs husband's permission to divorce) & judicial divorce & oaths (initiated by the wife & often difficult to get). When marital harmony cannot be attained, the Quran allows & even advises the spouses to bring the marriage to an end. (2:231)
Triple talaq, also known as
talaq-e-biddat (instant divorce) &
talaq-e-mughallazah (irrevocable divorce), is a form of Islamic divorce which has been used by Muslims in India, especially adherents of Hanafi Sunni Islamic schools of jurisprudence. It allows any Muslim man to legally divorce his wife by stating the word 'talaq' (Arabic for "divorce") three times in oral, written, or more recently, electronic form (phone, PC). They need a three month waiting period before it becomes official.
So we see, no matter in history or today, getting a divorce is simply based on claimed 'irreconcilable differences' as decided by one or both parties.
God hates divorce. In Jewish law it was permitted BECAUSE OF THE HARDNESS OF HEART of either of the spouses.
Jer 17:9 The heart is more deceitful than all else & is desperately wicked; who can understand it?
But FROM THE BEGINNING it was not so, as Jesus taught.
Matt 19:3-10 The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him & saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife FOR EVERY (ANY) CAUSE?
4And he answered & said unto them, Have ye not read, that He which made
them at the beginning made them male & female,
5And said, For this cause shall a man leave father & mother & shall cleave to his wife & the two shall be one flesh?
6Therefore they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder (separate).
7They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement & to put her away?
8He saith unto them, Moses because of the HARDNESS of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but FROM THE BEGINNING IT WAS NOT SO.
9And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except
it be for FORNICATION & shall marry another, committeth adultery & whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.
10His disciples say unto Him, If the case of the man be so with
his wife, it is not good to marry.
I Cor 7:10,11 To the married I give this command (NOT I BUT THE LORD): A wife must NOT separate from her husband. But if she does, she must REMAIN UNMARRIED or else be RECONCILED to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.
Malachi 2:13-16 And this is another thing you do: You cover the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping & groaning, because He no longer regards your offerings or receives them gladly from your hands. Yet you ask, “Why?” It is because the LORD has been a witness between you & the wife of your youth, against whom you have broken faith, though she is your companion (helpmeet) & your wife BY COVENANT. Has not the LORD made them one, having a portion of the Spirit? And why one? Because He seeks godly offspring. Therefore GUARD yourselves in your SPIRIT & do not BREAK FAITH with the wife of your youth. 16“For I hate divorce,” says the LORD, the God of Israel, & I hate when a man covers himself & his garment with violence,” says the LORD of Hosts. Therefore guard yourselves in your spirit & do not break faith.
Isaiah 50:1 Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves & for your transgressions is your mother put away.
Proverbs 2:16-20 It will rescue you from the forbidden woman, from the stranger with seductive words, who abandons the partner of her youth & FORGETS THE COVENANT OF HER GOD. For her house sinks down to death & her ways to the land of the departed spirits; none that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life. So you will follow in the ways of good men & keep to the paths of the righteous.
Mark 10:2-12 Some Pharisees came to test Him. “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” they inquired. 3“What did Moses command you?” He replied. 4They answered, “Moses PERMITTED a man to write his wife a certificate of divorce & send her away.” 5But Jesus told them, “Moses wrote this commandment for you because your hearts were hard. 6However, from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’a 7‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,b 8and the two will become one flesh.’c So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.” 10When they were back inside the house, the disciples asked Jesus ABOUT THIS MATTER. 11So He told them, “Whoever divorces his wife & marries another woman commits adultery against her. 12And if a woman divorces her husband & marries another man, she commits adultery.”
Matt 5:32 YLT But I -- I say to you, that whoever may put away his wife, save for the matter of whoredom (fornication), doth make her to commit adultery & whoever may marry her who hath been put away doth commit adultery.
Mark 6:16-20 For Herod himself had ordered that John be arrested & bound & imprisoned, on account of HIS BROTHER PHILIP'S WIFE Herodias, whom Herod had MARRIED. For John had been telling Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your BROTHER'S WIFE!” So Herodias held a grudge against John & wanted to kill him. But she had been unable, because Herod feared John & protected him, knowing he was a righteous & holy man.
Romans 7:1-3 Do you not know, brothers (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? 2For instance, a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the LAW OF MARRIAGE. 3So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband IS STILL ALIVE, she is called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is FREE from that law & is not an adulteress, even if she MARRIES ANOTHER MAN.
I Cor 7:39 A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, as long as he BELONGS TO THE LORD.
God entered into a covenant with a man & a woman who get married, whether a believer or not, as the case of Herod & Philip's wife shows.
Jesus gave only one exception that kept a divorced person from committing adultery, if they married again: fornication or as Young's Literal Translation puts it: whoredom. There were certain examples in the OT where this exception could occur & one of those is found in the NT. If adultery was committed in the OT, the people were stoned to death.
So the exception isn't adultery. The exception isn't irreconcilable differences or burning the food.
The example of what I mean is found in I Cor 5:1-7.
It is reported commonly that there is FORNICATION among you & such FORNICATION as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have HIS FATHER'S WIFE. 2And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
3For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, 4In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together & my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 5to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh (physical body), that the spirit may be SAVED in the day of the Lord Jesus.
6Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? 7Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened.
Deut 22:30 A man is not to marry his father’s wife, so that he will not dishonor his father’s marriage bed.
In the newer translations, they MASK what the real Greek word is & you might miss it (use the term sexual immorality). In Leviticus 20, Deut 22 & other OT passages, there were such cases (incest, etc.) & this is the cases of fornication (another OT term was uncleaness) that Jesus was referring to as the one exception, since the Word of God spelled these out. Here you will notice that this exception of fornication relates to a son having his father's wife. The woman is married to the father yet the son has her. This is called fornication not adultery.
It was such a shocking form of fornication that even the pagan Gentiles did not do this! In the OT, if a daughter was caught up in incest, when she got older & wanted to marry, she could marry without committing adultery.
We also see in this day an increasing number of woman not being able to have children. Lev 20 also deals with this as forms of fornication could lead to being childless.
Genesis 38 is another example where Judah committed fornication with his daughter-in-law & this was called whoredom & prostitution. In Lev 20 they were to be burned to death. But here the truth comes out that Judah had failed to keep the Law concerning his youngest son in becoming her husband.
Again in the New Testament, we see in I Cor 6:13-20:
Now the body is not for FORNICATION, but for the Lord & the Lord for the body. 14And God hath both raised up the Lord & will also raise up us by His own power. 15Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ & make them the members of an harlot (prostitute)? God forbid. 16What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. 17But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. 18Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. 19What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God & ye are not your own? 20For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body & in your spirit, which are God's.
Some of those in Corinth who became Christians needed this information so they wouldn't continue in committing fornication with prostitutes. When they did, they were guilty of sin but it didn't make them married to the prostitute. Later when they did get married, they would not be guilty of adultery.
Deut 22:25-27 But if the man encounters a betrothed woman in the open country & he overpowers her & rapes her, only the man who has done this must die. 26Do nothing to the young woman, because she has committed no sin worthy of death. This case is just like one in which a man attacks his neighbor & murders him. 27When he found her in the field, the betrothed woman cried out, but there was no one to rescue her.
Here again is another form of fornication, rape, where only the man was convicted under the law; the woman was innocent. She can then marry someone & not commit adultery.
Hosea's wife, Gomer, is another example. She was a former prostitute. After marrying Hosea, she eventually left him & went back into prostitution & ended up in the slave market for selling prostitutes. God told Gomer to go and buy her back out of the slave market of sin & keep her home. She was committing whoredom, prostitution but she never remarried. So Hosea could take her back, bringing reconciliation. This was a beautiful analogy of Israel & Judah committing spiritual whoredom against the living God. In returning & repentance, they were once again accepted. This is also a beautiful picture of Christ & His shed blood reconciling us back to our Heavenly Father & buying us out of the slave market of sin with His shed blood.
Most divorces today in the world or with Christians or with Muslims are not in the category of the exception clause. God have mercy on those who break God's covenant, commit divorce & remarry, apart from death or the exception clause!
