Introduction

Divorce has been a topic of discussion among both Christians and pagans for millennia and with good reason. Deuteronomy 24 contains a case law that some have used over the years to justify divorce, even claiming that God commands it. The Pharisees even used this passage in a confrontation with Jesus in the book of Matthew. However, with a study of both of these passages, one will see that divorce is an unfortunate result of the sinfulness of man which the Christian should prevent at all costs. 

Divorce in Deuteronomy 24:1-4

This case law on divorce appears towards the end of the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy was written by Moses and is found at the tail end of the Pentateuch which contains the Law of the people of God. This book is particularly rich with teachings on the moral law, also known as the Decalogue or the Ten Commandments. Deuteronomy starts with the Decalogue being listed again in chapter five after it was listed first in Exodus 20. After chapter five, the subsequent chapters relay applications of the Decalogue for the people of Israel in the form of case laws. Just before this case law on divorce, miscellaneous laws are given relating to property and stealing. These themes are continued on the other side of verse four with additional miscellaneous laws. 

It is vital to understand that the case law presented in verses one through four does not represent a law commanding divorce, or even permitting it, but presents a case where divorce has already been done. As Woods says, “This is not a general law permitting divorce or setting forth grounds for it, but simply takes the practice of divorce for granted.”¹ Verse one contains the man writing a certificate of divorce but does not provide a command from Yahweh including it in His Law. 

Regardless, the divorce takes place because the man finds some sort of “indecency” in his wife. Whatever this indecency is that the wife committed is difficult to pin down exactly. It is clear that it is not adultery as that is seen as punishable by death in Deuteronomy 22:22.² If the wife committed adultery, there would be no need for divorce because she would have already been executed. However, this word does relate to “the nakedness of a thing” leaving no doubt that it at least implies “the improper uncovering of the private parts.”³ 

In this way, this verse does not allow for the freedom of divorce but instead restricts it. As Brown states, “The husband could not divorce his wife unless he found something indecent about her.”⁴ Instead of making it easier for the man to get a divorce, this made it more difficult. Brown continues to explain that because the husband was also required to obtain a certificate, which had to be at least somewhat legally authenticated, it would cause him to “hesitate before taking precipitate action.”⁵ Unlike surrounding cultures, the Jewish husband had to have a justifiable reason for his divorce and could not just send his wife out of his house.⁶ This is a key distinction to make because later Jewish leaders would not understand this, as will be seen in the New Testament.

Verses two and three provide further characteristics of this specific case with the woman marrying another man after her first husband divorces her. This second husband begins to hate her and divorces her again. However, the reason for the divorce and the justifiability of it is not commented on, other than the fact that it was because he hated her. It also seems like the actual act of divorce is unimportant as it provides the alternative of the second husband dying instead of divorcing her. The point of the text is that this woman was divorced by her first husband, remarried, and now her second husband is gone. 

Now the question becomes, can her first husband remarry her? The answer is no because the woman has become defiled. It is worth noting that this word describing the woman’s actions as “the nakedness of a thing” appears just a few verses before in chapter twenty-three describing the impurity of Israel’s camp.⁷ In this way, it is seen in verse four that the woman who has been divorced is left defiled just as Israel’s camp was. As Woods says, “After declaring her defiled and forcing her into a second marriage,” the husband taking her back “would be detestable before the Lord, and would defile the land given to Israel as an inheritance.”⁸ While the issue of divorce is extremely personal to the human parties involved, it would also lead to defilement in the land of Israel. Divorce is no small matter to Yahweh.

Jesus on Divorce

Interestingly enough, Jesus speaks about this passage explicitly in Matthew 19:3-9 during a discourse with the Pharisees in Judea. While Jesus is healing people, the Pharisees approach Him and ask “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” (Matt. 19:3 ESV). As mentioned earlier, at the time some of the Jewish leaders had a very lax view of divorce. As Keener says, some of the Jewish leadership understood Deuteronomy 24:1-4 to be grounds to “divorce his wife for any cause, even burning his toast.”⁹ It seems that when the Pharisee said for “any cause,” he really meant it.

Jesus’ answer is a beautiful one, at first not answering the question directly but pointing to the bigger picture: marriage is a sacred union between a man and a woman before God. Not only have the two made a covenant with one another, but marriage is “seen to be based on the way God created men and women; it is a union which has the naturalness of a divinely appointed order of things.”¹⁰ Jesus goes back to Genesis 2 to show that marriage is created by God and is set definitively in God’s order. God is the one who joins man and wife together; it is a product of divine work. This is done in such a way that the two become one. Therefore, as Jesus says, “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate,” (Matt. 19:6). 

The Pharisees come back with the passage from Deuteronomy 24, claiming that it shows that Moses commanded divorce. Jesus however says that passages like this that speak of divorce only exist because of Israel’s hard heart. Jesus also alters the Pharisees’ language from“Moses command” to “Moses permitted.”¹¹ What the Pharisees saw as a command for divorce, Jesus saw as an unfortunate way to deal with a bad situation. Divorce was never meant to exist in a perfect creation, it is a result of human sinfulness. 

This case law relates directly to the seventh of the commands in the Decalogue which says not to commit adultery. As Jesus says, “Whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery,” (Matt. 19:9). Again, divorce is a response to the sinful world. If a wife commits adultery and is divorced, the man may remarry without committing adultery. However, it must be noted that Jesus still does not condone divorce. He only says that if one gets divorced because of sexual immorality in their partner and then remarries, they are not committing adultery. If they get divorced for any other reason than sexual immorality, then the divorcees commit adultery if they remarry. The one flesh union remains.

The point of Jesus’ interaction here is clear: those in Christ should avoid divorce at all costs. Jesus shows from Genesis that it goes against the will of God in His order of creation. Yet it goes even further as well. As Keener says, “The Genesis principle from which Jesus draws this application goes beyond opposing divorce; it opposes marital disharmony altogether.”¹² The one flesh principle shows that the husband and wife should at the very least not be separated. However, what they should be is much more than just not separated, they should live as one flesh. They should strive to live out and externalize the union God put them in, keeping the covenant they made with one another. Staying in a godly marriage is not just staying together but staying together in deep, Christian love.

Conclusion

Of course, Christian marriages are not perfect; both the husband and wife are still sinful. But the difference between the Christian marriage and the worldly marriage is that both the man and wife have the Holy Spirit living inside of them. They are not only united to each other through marriage but as John 17 tells us, they are united to each other in Christ. This makes Christian marriage doubly important and doubly glorifying to God. Therefore, let the Christian strive to keep his marriage in a glorifying union, not separating that which God has joined together.

Footnotes

1.  Edward J. Woods, ed., Deuteronomy: An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale Old Testament commentaries 5 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2011), 248. ↩︎
2.  Woods, Deuteronomy, 249. ↩︎
3. Eugene H. Merrill, Deuteronomy, The New American Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman, 1994), 317. ↩︎
4.  Raymond Brown, The Message of Deuteronomy: Not By Bread Alone, Revised Edition. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2021), 229. ↩︎
5.  Brown, The Message of Deuteronomy, 230. ↩︎
6.  Brown, The Message of Deuteronomy, 230. ↩︎
7.  Brown, The Message of Deuteronomy, 229. ↩︎
8.  Woods, Deuteronomy, 250. ↩︎
9.  Craig S. Keener, Matthew, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2011), 295. ↩︎
10.  John Nolland, The Gospel of Matthew: A Commentary on the Greek Text, The New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: W. B. Eerdmans, 2005), 773. ↩︎
11.  Nolland, The Gospel of Matthew, 773. ↩︎
12.  Keener, Matthew, 295. ↩︎