When Jesus was ministering upon earth, there came a day when
the Pharisees came to him asking a question about marriage.
Matthew 19:3-8(KJV):
The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it
lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?
Notice that it says they came to him, tempting him. As Pharisees, they already knew the law yet they wanted
to know if it was lawful to do
something they already knew the answer to. Why would they need to ask this
question? If their behavioral pattern as recorded elsewhere tells us anything,
they wanted something to accuse him with. Let’s see how Jesus responds.
Verses 4-6:
And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them
at the beginning made them male and female,
And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave
to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?
Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined
together, let not man put asunder.
Jesus here refers to the beginning which is recorded
in the book of Genesis where God made the man and the woman, and how God joined
the man and the woman together. It is important to remember that Jesus went to
the beginning for his reference point. Jesus referred to something that they
could have read, and which we can read too. He proclaims that what God has “joined
together, let no man put asunder.” This establishes that divorce, or “putting
away”, is not what God intended when He joined the two together.
Verse 7:
They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement,
and to put her away?
Do you see how they played their hand? They already had a
follow up question prepared. They are pointing out the error that they assume
Jesus has made. Have you ever had conversation with someone who
anticipates your answer and then follows it up with another question to trap
you in your own words? This is what they are trying to do. It might be helpful
to understand that the Pharisees were the religious lawyers of the day.
Verse 8:
He 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.
Jesus said the reason Moses gave a command about divorce was
because of the hardness of their hearts, not because it was a good idea. In
this day and time nothing has really changed. In the beginning it was not so.
That doesn’t mean every marriage is made in heaven or that marriages don't fail at times. It means God views marriage as He instituted
it in the garden as something holy.
Genesis 1:31(KJV)
And God saw every thing that he had made, [after He had made the man and the
women] and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the
morning were the sixth day.
It wasn’t just good, it was very good.
The written record in
Genesis contains the foundation for marriage as God sees it. There is an
ancient rule in Hebrew theology that the first occurrence of a word, expression
or utterance is the basic key to its subsequent meaning. When it comes to the topic of marriage we see
Jesus applying this principle in his dialog with the Pharisees. Jesus was
referring to this passage in Genesis.
Genesis 2:21-24(KJV):
And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he
took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and
brought her unto the man.
And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh:
she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto
his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
The ultimate point, arrived
at the end, is that as the woman was taken out of the man’s flesh, the two
would be joined together and become one flesh. This is achieved through marriage. I believe
the idea of “one flesh” is a figure of speech denoting the importance that God
places on the concept. In this case “flesh” is put for the entirety of physical
life on this earth by way of the figure “metonymy”. When a man and a woman marry, their physical
lives become joined in such a way that the union is called one “flesh”. They can
be said to have one “life”. This concept of oneness is carried on throughout
the Bible, and applied to other relationships and contexts besides the human
marriage.
In the New
Testament, the Apostle Paul speaks of the marriage relationship in this way:
Ephesians 5:25-32(KJV):
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave
himself for it;
That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the
word,
That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or
wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without
blemish.
So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife
loveth himself.
For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even
as the Lord the church:
For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined
unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
In these verses we
see that Paul took the biblical understanding of marriage and applied it to the
church’s relationship to Christ. He also said that while the two becoming one
flesh is a great mystery, he spoke concerning Christ and the church. This passage shows that the physical marriage
serves as a pattern for the spiritual relationship we are to have as redeemed
ones with Christ who gave himself for us.
O’ the riches of
God’s word! May it be our daily food and may we meditate in it day and night. May
His word be the joy and rejoicing of our hearts!
