OK, here’s my take. Remember, this is the Gospel According to ZB and is based on my reading and my interpretations, and is colored by my background, my history, my biases, and so on and so forth. It is not, by any means to be taken as definitive.
My understanding is that in the beginning, God intended marriage to be forever. It talks about a man cleaving unto his wife. The notes I found on that say that the verb translated as “cleave” is the same verb that means “solder” or “weld”, so the implication there is certainly that they are inseparable.
In Deuteronomy 24 it talks about a man divorcing his wife if he finds “uncleanness” in her”. It says that he can write her a bill of divorcement and send her away. It says that she is free to remarry, but if something happens to her second husband, the first can’t take her back. Jeremiah 3 says more or less the same thing.
But as I’ve quoted here before, Malachi just flat out says that God hates divorce. Chapter 2, verses 14-16 say, "Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant...Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away...therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously." Pretty straightforward stuff.
Now we get to the New Testament. My interpretation here is that Jesus says that marriage was intended to be for life, but because of the hardness of mens’ hearts, divorce would be allowed in cases of adultery (or the fornication/immorality I mentioned finding in other translations). In Matthew 5:31-32, Jesus refers to Deuteronomy 24 saying that it was written that a man can divorce his wife by giving her a bill of divorcement. Then he goes on to say that any man who divorces his wife, except for fornication, causes her to commit adultery and causes anyone who subsequently marries her to commit adultery.
In Matthew 19, this whole thing gets repeated. The Pharisees are trying to trip Jesus up and ask him if it’s lawful to divorce his wife for any reason. Jesus answers by asking them if they haven’t read the scriptures. He mentions the cleaving thing and says that the two are now one flesh: they’re no longer two, but one. Then we see the well-known, “What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder”. Then they ask him why Moses allowed divorce. He answered that Moses allowed divorce because of the hardness of their hearts – “but from the beginning it was not so”. Then he reiterates that any man who divorces his wife and remarries (except for fornication) commits adultery, and anyone who marries the divorced wife commits adultery as well.
Mark has a little bit different take on the same incident. He also proves my contention that I’m no expert when he does mention a woman divorcing her husband. In Mark 10, we have this same incident with the Pharisees questioning Jesus. In the Mark version, Jesus says that if a man divorces his wife and marries another, he’s committing adultery. No exception for fornication is given here. But he does state the converse as well : if a woman divorces her husband and remarries, she’s committing adultery. Again, no exceptions given.
Luke 16:18 says pretty much the same thing as the others: any man who divorces his wife and remarries is committing adultery, and any man who marries the divorced woman is committing adultery.
Then in 1 Corinthians 7, Paul talks some more about this. He tells us that the Lord says that a woman shouldn’t leave her husband, but if she does, she is to remain unmarried or reconcile with her husband. Men are not to divorce their wives. Once again, no exceptions are given.
Then he goes on to give his opinions. He specifically says that this is from him and not from God. He says that if a believer is married to an unbeliever and if the unbeliever wishes to depart, the believer should let them go. Then there’s a statement that I haven’t really figured out yet. It says, “A brother or sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace”. I don’t have a clue what that means. Does it mean that the marriage bond isn’t binding? I don’t know. That one will take some more study.
When all is said and done, it looks to me like God intends marriage to be forever, but because of our own weaknesses, He has made a single exception in the case of infidelity. I’m getting into my own interpretation here, but since he says that anyone who marries the divorced woman is committing adultery, my personal opinion is that it goes both ways – a man divorced by his wife who enters into another marriage is committing adultery.
The position of the Catholic Church is that marriage is forever and divorce is not allowed. I’m not Catholic, but based upon what I’ve read, I think that’s a highly defensible position. They say that the only way a marriage can be ended is if it never existed in the first place.
In any case, I have to agree with Blackie here. We are under grace, not the law. I believe that God doesn’t like divorce and doesn’t want us to get divorced. I also believe that God will forgive our sins. That doesn’t give us license to do whatever we please, but it does alter things somewhat. ZB still says that divorce is wrong. That played a BIG part in getting back together with MrsBube. But I don’t profess to be the final authority on anything. This is all just my opinion. Take it or leave it.
