Click here for the Matthew 19:1-9 PODCAST
1 Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these sayings, that He departed from Galilee and came to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. 2 And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them there. 3 The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?" 4 And He answered and said to them, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,' 5 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?' 6 So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate." 7 They said to Him, "Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?" 8 He said to them, "Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery." ~ Matthew 19:1-9
Today, we transition into Matthew 19 where the Lord Jesus along with His disciples were on the move from north to south. From Galilee, they went down to Judea, leaving the place which had been the headquarters for their ministry for three and a half years. The Lord Jesus had completed His Galilean ministry, and, He and His disciples were on His way to Jerusalem. The eventual goal of the Lord Jesus was to die on the cross of Calvary.
In v.1-2 of today's passage we read, "1 Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these sayings, that He departed from Galilee and came to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. 2 And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them there."
According to the other gospel accounts, after having spoken at that Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, the Lord Jesus then traveled with His disciples to the area on the eastern side of the Jordan River, the region called Perea. It was there that the Lord Jesus taught the large crowds and He healed the sick. His ministry of teaching and healing and delivering people from the clutches of the devil was consistent throughout the three and a half years that He ministered. As a result, many followed Him.
In v.3 of today's passage we read, "The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, 'Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?'"
Once again, the religious leaders challenged the Lord Jesus with yet another trick question. The Greek word used here for "testing" reveals these supposed leaders were trying to trip up the Lord Jesus with deception. They desperately wanted to nullify Him and His teaching, even though He was teaching the truth and the needy benefitted. Had they been totally successful, salvation would have never come to you and me. But, the Lord Jesus persisted and even though the religious leaders convinced Pilate to later crucify Him, the Lord Jesus prevailed and became our Savior.
The largest group of miracles performed by the Lord Jesus mentioned in the Gospels involved healing people who were ill, infirmed or disabled. In fact, He performed so many miracles that, according to John 21:25, "If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written."
These miracles prove the compassion of God toward people who hurt. Sadly, there has and will always be those people who no matter how much truth they are given, they will not believe in the Lord Jesus as their Savior. And the reason they will not believe is due to the stubbornness of their heart. Fallen man wants to run his own life, knowing that if he yields his life to Christ, he cannot keep on living the way he once did. Quite frankly, these religious leaders of Israel loved their sin much more than they loved the truth.
In v.4-6 of today's passage we read, "4 And He answered and said to them, 'Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female,' 5 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?' 6 So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate."
In His response to the question of the religious leaders, the Lord Jesus took them back to the beginning of time because in doing so, He revealed God's view of marriage from the beginning. God defined marriage between a man and a woman. As pointed out by the Apostle Paul in Romans 1, any other combination of a couple is not natural. As Paul notes, it is not natural for a man to be with a man and a woman to be with a woman. For us to believe marriage should be two people of the same gender is to undermine God's definition of marriage and is dangerous.
We will never understand God's view of divorce until we understand God's view of marriage. God intended marriage to be intimate and permanent, enjoyed in the context of commitment. God used the phrase "one flesh" which underscores the vulnerability involved in the relationship. God's definition of marriage is the commitment between a husband and a wife. Underscored here is discovered a very important principle which is: We must be defined by God. What we believe to be true is revealed through our thoughts and our words which are spelled out best by our choices. When God's word defines what we believe, it is then that we are being defined by Him. The real issue with all humans is to be found in our hearts. If we truly want to walk in the truth, we will be defined accordingly. If we have a softened heart toward the truth and we therefore desire to be defined by God, we will obey the Word of God. For those who really do not want to be defined by God, their hearts will be hardened to the truth.
The word "joined" used in v.5-6 in the Hebrew means to be glued permanently together. When we try to separate what God has joined together, we make a bigger mess out of it. God's intention in marriage in the first place was to create a bond that would serve the fabric of the family which provides the infrastructure for a good society. Children are most healthy when they grow up in a home where their mother and their father are being defined by God.
In v.8-9 of today's passage we read, "8 He said to them, 'Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.'"
Before the Fall of Man when there was no hardness in the human heart, sin had not entered into the world at that time. As a result, no man had the right to separate the union between a man and a woman. In answering the religious leaders' question the way He did, the Lord Jesus did not speak against the Law of Moses. As a result, the Pharisees couldn’t trap Him. It is also important to note that the Lord Jesus spoke in favor of marriage, not against divorce. His emphasis was not on what God permitted due to the hard heart of fallen man. His emphasis was not on what was lawful, His emphasis was on what is wise and of God.
We read in Deuteronomy 24:1 that Moses allowed divorce if there was some "uncleanness" found in a man's wife. The key to understand this is understanding what the word "uncleanness" means. God led Moses to use the word uncleanness which means sexual immorality. The religious leaders of Israel had come to falsely believe uncleanness meant anything dissatisfying in the wife. So, the religious leaders tried to trick the Lord Jesus with this question hoping that His answer would minimize Him in the eyes of the people. Interestingly, marriage provides a means toward discipleship. As we have noted, the Lord Jesus taught His disciples about denying themselves, taking up their cross and following Him. Marriage requires enormous quantities of selflessness and self-denial. In fact, if we make it a habit to die to ourselves, we will be best positioned to experience the best of marriages. The answer to all of life's ills are found in our obedience to God's definitions of all things as found in the Bible.
