The Greatest Love Story Never Preached

When it comes to the subject of divorce, religions and denominations seem to be all over the place. Even within denominations, you can find yourself receiving mixed messages from one congregation to the next. I have heard so many justifications given for why "God wouldn't want this," or "That was for another time," etc. But what does the whole of scripture have to say about marriage and divorce, and does God ever change or alter the way He expects us to live up to His commandments and standards?

When God gave the covenant and Torah to Moses He issued the following statutes around divorce:

“Suppose a man takes a wife and marries her. Now if she doesn’t find favor in his eyes because he has found something indecent in her, he is to write her a certificate of divorce, hand it to her and send her out from his house. When she leaves his house, she may go and become another man’s wife. Now suppose the second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, and he hands it to her and she leaves his house—or suppose the second husband who took her to be his wife dies. Then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled—for that would be detestable before Adonai. You are not to bring guilt on the land that Adonai your God is giving you as an inheritance. Deuteronomy 24:1-4

Pretty Straightforward. There is no ordinance permitting a wife to issue a decree of divorce, only the husband, and only if something "indecent" is found in her. Now this has been interpreted many ways by Sages and Rabbis and even Christian commentators, but we have the ultimate commentary by the lawgiver Himself, Yeshua:

 “It was said, ‘Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Matthew 5:31-32

So Yeshua is clearing up the "finding something indecent in her" and defining that as sexual immorality. Sexual immorality is only defined in the Torah. So Yeshua is once again, never altering Torah, in fact, He uses it repeatedly as His authority and witness as He expounds on what His meaning always was when He gave it to Moses at Sinai.

He further opens the eyes and hearts of those who would hear Him :

Now when Yeshua had finished these words, He moved on from the Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. Large crowds followed Him, and He healed them there. Pharisees came up to Yeshua, testing Him and saying, “Is it permitted for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?” “Haven’t you read?” He answered. “He who created them from the beginning ‘made them male and female’ 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.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no man separate.”They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to ‘give her a certificate of divorce and put her away?’ ”Yeshua said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart, Moses permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. Now I tell you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.” Matthew 19:1-8

So we come to the uncomfortable and typically combative understanding that God Divorced Israel and is now moved on to the New Covenant with the gentiles. This is the unfortunate conclusion to be found in many churches, denominations, and individual minds, polluting their hearts with arrogance against "The Apple of God's Eye."

Yes, God did divorce Israel:

Then Adonai said to me in the days of King Josiah: “Have you seen what backsliding Israel did? She went up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there she committed adultery. Yet I thought that after she had done all this she would return to Me. But she did not return. Even her unfaithful sister Judah saw it. I noted that when backsliding Israel committed adultery I sent her away and gave her a certificate of divorce. Yet, unfaithful Judah, her sister, did not fear. Instead, she also went and committed adultery. It happened that through her frivolous prostitution, she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and with wood. Yet after all this her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to Me with her whole heart, but only insincerely,” It is a declaration of Adonai. Jeremiah 3:6-10

Contend with your mother, contend! For she is not My wife nor I her husband. Let her put away her fornications from her face and her adulteries from between her breasts. Hosea 2:4

So if God issued a certificate of divorce from the house of Israel, and God's word is binding and unchanging, and Yeshua, our Messiah, confirms its continued authority, then how could God possibly take back this wayward and adulterous bride? Does this in and of itself prove that the statutes and ordinances no longer have authority or relevance today? It is not lost on me the irony that the very same people who often cite this law as their reasons for believing God is done with Israel are the same who also deny its continued authority in the New Covenant. Nevertheless, let's follow this logic, as flawed as it is.

"A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies, she is free to be married to anyone she wishes—only in the Lord." I Corinthians 7:39

Here is our first incredible clue. A wife is bound to her husband and considered an adulteress, with the exception of the death of the husband. If the woman takes another husband or had been divorced for sexual immorality, and is not to be taken back.

“If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him to be with another man, will he return to her again?   Would not such a land be totally polluted? You are a prostitute with many lovers.  Now, are you returning to Me?” It is a declaration of Adonai. Jeremiah 3:1

And yet we see that God declares that He would take back this wayward bride and restore and redeem her and betroth her forever. How is this possible without God going back on His word?

“Return, O backsliding children,” declares Adonai.  “For I am your Husband. I will choose you — one from a city and two from a clan — and will bring you to Zion. Jeremiah 3:14

Paul gives us the answer, as He not only understood Torah to the letter, He also was given the fulfillment as walked out by Yeshua the fullest expression and Spiritual Breadth of that Torah in order to equip us with the ability to see, to hear and to walk in that depth:

Or do you not know, brothers and sisters (for I speak to those who know law), that the law is master over a person as long as he lives? For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if the husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is living, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law—so she is not an adulteress, though she is joined to another man. Romans 7:1-3

Let's first note that Paul is speaking to "Those who know the law", meaning He is speaking to greater Israel (both Judah & the scattered). This is important, as it isn't relevant to gentiles not yet grafted into the promises or covenants. Paul explains that once her husband, who she was first pledged to, dies, she is free from the condemnation of the law that makes her an adulteress. No longer an adulteress, would then remove the stain that prohibited her from being rejoined to her first husband!

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also were made dead to the Torah through the body of Messiah, so that you might be joined to another—the One who was raised from the dead—in order that we might bear fruit for God.  For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions that came through the Torah were working in our body parts to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the law, having died to what confined us, so that we serve in the new way of the Ruach and not in the old way of the letter. Romans 7:4-6

Paul isn't saying that "being dead to Torah" dissolves Torah as a covenantal responsibility that we are still to uphold within our relationship with God. Paul is expressing that some had turned obedience to the Torah alone into their husband rather than out of love, devotion, and faith in God and His promises. They had made a 'husband' out of being obedient to the letter of the law without it being attached to the devotion and reverence for God. This had become the "husband" of many in the Kingdom of Judah and the majority of the religious leaders in Jerusalem in the first century.

What shall we say then? Is the Torah sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the Torah. For I would not have known about coveting if the Torah had not said, “You shall not covet.”  But sin, taking an opportunity, worked in me through the commandment all kinds of coveting. For apart from the Torah, sin is dead. Romans 7:7-8

Paul is not ever attempting to express that by being "dead to the law" or "no longer under the law" that somehow the Law has been done away with. Paul is using phrases understood by his audience. His readers were Jewish believers in Messiah who were being pastored in Paul's writings to handle things in their communities. Paul is explaining a deep truth here that is far above the minds of most people. That sin in and of itself contains no power to thwart God. The only reason Sin has any power at all is because God gives it power with His Word. God stating that something leads to death is what makes it lead to death, not the thing in and of itself.

Once I was alive apart from the Torah; but when the commandment came, sin came to life and I died. The commandment meant for life was found to cause death. Sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. Romans 7:9-11

Paul doesn't need to rail on and on about obedience to Torah to this audience, it is established and foundational to the faith, it is the very essence of their entire Bible! Paul is revealing deeper things to his community leaders. He is helping them understand the true and intended Spirit of Torah, which is described as The Way, the Truth, and The Life in Psalm 119, and is why Messiah embodies that as Himself - Because He, our true husband, is the Torah Made Flesh. We obey Him because He is our Husband, and we follow Him by walking as He did.

So then, the Torah is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Romans 7:12

When Paul speaks about freedom from "the law" his readers understood that to mean freed, by repentance and faith in Messiah and His atonement, from the condemnation of the Law. Repentance, and "Circumcision of the Heart" by definition is to "return to the commandments of God" to Walk in Spirit and Truth. Paul states that "The Law is Spiritual" and David writes "Your Torah is Truth!"

A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies, she is free to be married to anyone she wishes—only in the Lord. 1 Corinthians 7:39

For the scattered tribes of Israel, it was a very different form of adultery. They were condemned By the Torah for their disobedience, taking on lovers, and committing adultery with other gods and practices. We know that there was deep division between Judah and Samaritans, and yet we see that based on the testimony of the woman at the well, she still considered herself to be one who worshipped The God of Israel.

Yet, they are worshipping "in their own understanding" and therefore condemned by the Torah of Sexual Immorality. Paul's explanation here is also freeing Israel from her title as adulterer because her first Husband's death has also released her from that condemnation!

Listen to how God speaks with love and unwavering commitment about His bride:

“So then, I Myself will entice her, I will bring her into the wilderness and speak to her heart. I will give her back her vineyards from there and make the valley of Achor a door of hope. She will respond there — as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of the land of Egypt. In that day—it is a declaration of Adonai—you will proclaim, ‘My husband,’ and never again call Me, ‘My Baal.’ Then I will remove the names of the Baalim out of her mouth, no longer to be mentioned by their name. In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the flying creatures in the sky, and the creeping things on the ground.I will break into pieces the bow and sword and warfare from the land, and I will cause them to lie down securely. Then I will betroth you to Me forever—yes, I will betroth you to Me with righteousness, justice, covenant loyalty and compassion. I will betroth you to Me with faithfulness, and you will know YHWH. Hosea 2:16-22

Yeshua, the lawgiver, the covenant keeper, and God Himself in the form of Man, humbled Himself and offered Himself to be mocked, scorned, hated, and crushed.

He gave up His life willingly and died not only to conquer the sting of death but also to atone for the sins of the world and merit favor that could be offered as a gracious gift to all who will covenant and remain in Him.

Now if you are reading this and say to yourself, "But I am divorced now, where does this leave me standing with God?" you must never forget that His atonement and sacrifice covers all sins, as long as we repent and confess them to Him. There is no condemnation left when we take our unknowing sins, as we are being refined and restored and we place them on the perfect Lamb of God. If you were divorced before you originally repented and gave your life to Messiah, you were given a clean slate on that day! If you are reading through His Scriptures and feeling convicted of a sin you were previously unaware of, then you are to turn, and bring yourself right to the alter of His sacrifice and lay it on Him and "Sin No More" as Yeshua commanded every person He forgave and restored while on earth. For His Grace is sufficient , however, if we continue in willful unrepentant sin there is no longer a sacrifice in Messiah for us.

He did all of that in a manner that would free His Bride, Israel, the Apple of His Eye, from the condemnation she was under all while still keeping Himself restricted to the obedience of His own Law. He had to die to release her from her status as an adulterer so that He could receive her back and remain in the ordinance of His Word.

How dare we ever attempt to live above a standard that God placed Himself under!

This is exactly how we know we can trust this God, The Most High, Worthy, and Faithful, because He remains perfectly aligned with His Word, without exception.

Forever and Ever, Amen!