In this study the following are to be considered:
Marriage;
Divorce;
Replacement Theology;
Remarriage.
Divorce
Marriage
“Therefore, a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh.” (Gen. 2:24). Marriage is the unique relationship between one man and one woman as Yahuah intended in Gan Eden. This is a covenantal agreement between husband and wife.
Marriage has two purposes: (i) to produce children; (ii) companionship.
(i) “And Yahuah `Elohiym blessed them, and Yahuah `Elohiym said to them, ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth…’” (Gen. 1:28a). This is the first commandment Yahuah gave to Mankind. Children are considered by Jewish tradition to be the highest treasure. This is the true meaning of man and woman becoming ‘one flesh’.
(ii) “Yahuah `Elohiym said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.’” (Gen. 2:18). Yahuah made Woman to be the primary companion to Man. (For further details refer to Maxi Bible Study Women – First Generation Assembly).
Divorce
“‘For I hate divorce,’ says Yahuah, the `Elohiym of Yisra`el…” (Mal. 2:16a). There is no getting away from the fact that Yahuah does not like divorce. His perfect will is for a man to marry a woman and for it to be permanent ‘until death do you part’. However, Yahuah allows Mankind things that are not necessarily the best for man (cf 1 Sam. 8:1-22 where Yahuah permits Yisra`el to have a king).
“For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you; and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your `Elohiym rejoice over you.” (Isa. 62:5). Yahuah calls all Yisra`el His bride.
“For a prostitute is a deep pit; And a wayward wife is a narrow well.” (Prov. 23:27). An unfaithful wife (or husband) is considered to be a prostitute and upon these grounds, divorce is acceptable (see Matt. 19:9 below).
“I saw, when, for this very cause that backsliding Yisra`el had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce, yet treacherous Yehudah, her sister, did not fear; but she also went and played the prostitute. It happened through the lightness of her prostitution, that the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with logs.” (Jer. 3:8, 9). The cause for which all combined Yisra`el was considered to have played the harlot is that she has left her Husband (Yahuah) and worshipped false gods and idols.
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“They say, ‘If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, will he return to her again? Will not that land be greatly polluted?’ But you have played the prostitute with many lovers; yet return again to me, says Yahuah.” (Jer. 3:1). Would a man accept back his wayward wife? Thankfully, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says Yahuah.” (Isa. 55:8).
“Therefore, behold, I will woo her, And bring her into the wilderness, And speak tenderly to her…And she will respond there, As in the days of her youth, And as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. ‘It will be in that day,’ says Yahuah, ‘That you will call me ‘my husband,’…I will betroth you to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness, in justice, in lovingkindness, and in compassion. I will even betroth you to me in faithfulness; And you shall know Yahuah.” (Hos. 2:16(14)-22(20)). #H3045 יָדַע ya-dare to know, is the same term used when Adam knew Chavah and she conceived (Gen. 4:1).
This is in direct refutation of Replacement Theology that states due to worshipping other gods and killing the Messiah, Yahuah has cast out Yisra`el and taken for Himself another wife, the ‘Christian Church’. As shown by the beautiful picture of Yisra`el’s restoration in Hoshea, Yahuah has only ever had, and only ever will have, one wife Yisra`el.
Often in Scripture, men have taken more than one wife (Abram/Sarai/Hagar, Ya`akov/ Le`ah/Zilpah/Rachel/Bilhah, Dawid/Mikhal/Bat-Sheva, Shlomo/wives/concubines). In all of these situations, the outcomes were to lead to serious strife and future consequences for all parties. It would not have been Yahuah’s perfect will for the polygamous relationships.
“and said, I beg you, Yahuah, the `Elohiym of heaven, the great and awesome `El, who keeps covenant and lovingkindness with those who love Him and keep His commandments: but if you return to me, and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts were in the uttermost part of the heavens, yet will I gather them from there, and will bring them to the place that I have chosen, to cause my name to dwell there.” (Neh. 1:5, 9). Yahuah is a covenant making, not a covenant breaking `El, who in His mercy will call back His repentant Bride to be with Him in Tziyon.
In all cases it is the man who divorces the woman. However, if the cause is the man’s behaviour, then the wife asks the husband who cannot refuse. It is actually Yahuah’s grace that allows for divorce in several cases to protect the woman whereas the usual situation in the Nations is that a man could do anything to his wife as she is looked upon as part of his chattels. In Yahuah’s economy, a woman is always looked upon as a person, never a ‘thing’. “He said to them, ‘Moshe, because of the hardness of your hearts, allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it has not been so.’” (Matt. 19:8). It was not Moshe, but Yahuah who permitted divorce.
“When a man takes a wife, and marries her, then it shall be, if she find no favour in his eyes, because he has found some unseemly thing in her, that he shall write her a bill of divorce, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.” (Duet. 24:1). This passage (vv1-5) is the proof text for this subject and was the passage that the Master was tested upon.
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“Pharisees came to Him, testing Him, and saying, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?’” (Matt. 19:3). The first century CE has two main views on the subject resting upon the interpretation of uncleanness.
(i) School of Shammai: uncleanness refers to indecency and probably means lack of virginity on the wedding night. The implication is that the husband finds out that his new wife has been immoral before or during the engagement period. “One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sins: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established.” (Deut. 19:15). It may be that the husband discovered the wife’s adultery but had not the required witnesses to bring it to court where the death penalty would be the only outcome.
(ii) School of Hillel: this was a more lenient view on behalf of the man. The full extent
was that a man could divorce his wife for trivial reasons such as not being a good cook! Hence the reasoning behind the question to the Master.
“I tell you that whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries her when she is divorced commits adultery.” (Matt. 19:9). Anyone who divorces their spouse in order to marry another, commits adultery. This infers that the Master, teaching from Scripture, allows for divorce on the grounds of adultery.
“and a man lies with her carnally, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and is kept close, and she is defiled, and there is no witness against her, and she is not taken in the act; then the man shall bring his wife to the Priest and…a meal offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to memory.” (Num.5:13, 15). This passage for testing of an acclaimed adulterous wife, (Num. 5:11-31), is Yahuah’s proven test and should not have been over-ridden by Man’s rulings.
“(but if she departs, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband not leave his wife.” (1 Cor. 7:11). Sh`aul’s teaching on divorce here does not allow for divorce, but he stresses that it is his opinion and not a commandment (from Yahuah). However, this is in light of the previous verses on sexual relations. Both adultery and unreasonable withholding of conjugal rights would be considered grounds for divorce.
“But to the rest I — not Yahuah — say, if any brother has an unbelieving wife, and she is content to live with him, let him not leave her.” (1 Cor. 7:12). In this passage (vv12-16) Sh`aul again gives his opinion on the following scenario: In a marriage between two un-Believers, one comes to Faith. Then if the un-Believer is happy to remain married to the Believer, the Believer should remain in the marriage and not divorce for the sake of the salvation of the un-Believer.
Three reasons for possible divorce based upon Biblical concepts are:
(i) If the man and woman married but were unknowingly entering a prohibited marriage
(e.g. close relatives);
(ii) One spouse dies;
(iii) One spouse is declared a leper and considered dead.
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A further traditional reason was if the man entered a loathsome occupation (e.g. tanner) after the marriage.
Remarriage
“But to the married I command — not I, but Yahuah — that the wife not leave her husband (but if she departs, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband not leave his wife.” (1 Cor. 7:10, 11). This passage, 1 Cor. 7:1-16, must be read carefully as Sha`ul gives two personal guidelines (v6 & v12) and one commandment from Yahuah (v7). Sha`ul recommends temporary sexual abstinence by mutual consent and for a Believing person to remain with a non-Believing spouse. However, Yahuah commands that, should the conditions for divorce be met, both spouses may not remarry. This gives an opportunity for forgiveness and reconciliation as in the case of Hoshea above (Hos. 2:16(14)-22(20)).
“Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves as servants to obedience, his servants you are whom you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness? But thanks be to `Eloakh, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto you were delivered. Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness.” (Rom. 6:16-18). Sha`ul shows that every person is under the authority of sin but cannot do anything about this condition. It was as if the sinner was married to sin and thus unable to leave and remarry to righteousness, “For when you were servants of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.” (Rom. 6:20).
“knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. But if we died with the Messiah, we believe that we will also live with Him; knowing that the Messiah, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no more has dominion over Him!” (Rom. 6:6-9). Sin, and its consequence death, have no authority over the risen Messiah. As such, all who accept Yahuah’s salvation through the death and resurrection of His Messiah, will be considered to have died and no longer under the covenant of death.
“Or do you not know, brothers (for I speak to men who know the Torah), that the Torah has dominion over a man for as long as he lives? For the woman that has a husband is bound by law to the husband while he lives, but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the law of the husband. So then if, while the husband lives, she is joined to another man, she would be called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she is joined to another man.” (Rom. 7:1-3). In his Letter to the Messianic Assembly at Rome, Sha`ul teaches from the Torah that remarriage is only possible if the other spouse has died.
In the passage Rom. 1:1-8:39, Sha`ul takes great pains to show that it is only by accepting the freely-given gift of Yahuah’s salvation through the crucified and resurrected Messiah, can a person escape from the consequences of sin. Sha`ul uses the analogy of marriage to describe Man’s state under the authority of sin and that only by sharing in the death and resurrection of the Messiah can Man be removed from this curse.
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If Yahuah, through Sha`ul, did not have any restriction upon remarrying after divorce, then this whole theology, so carefully laid out by Sha`ul, would make no sense at all. As in all analogies, there are areas where the analogy fails. In life, if a married person dies, they obviously cannot physically live again so as to be able to remarry. “I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh,” (Rom. 6:19a), and it is due to the limitation of a finite mind that Sha`ul uses this imperfect analogy to try to explain one of the major spiritual truths of all Scripture.
Yahuah bless you and keep you,
Yahuah make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you,
Yahuah lift up His face toward you and give you peace.
All glory be to Yahuah,
Ameyn.
References and Credits
In using these references, it is in no way agreeing to or condoning the theological viewpoint of the authors.
Strong J. (1994) Strong’s New Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, World Bible
Publishers Inc., Madison.
Strong J. (1996) The New Strong’s Complete Dictionary of Bible Words, Thomas Nelson,
Nashville.
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First Generation Assembly 