Divorce And Remarriage

Divorce, like death, is an unpleasant reality that we have to deal with

because it won't ignore us. In one way or another it forces its way into our

lives. If we are fortunate enough to have no friends, neighbors, or loved ones

caught in its grasp, we must still face the issue because it is a biblical issue,

and one that is of growing relevance in our world. Divorce is affecting the

church as never before in history. The secular acceptance of easy divorce has

made in roads into the church, and more and more Christian people are

conforming to the trend to end a marriage that isn't working. Christians

divorce almost at the same rate as non-Christians.

The statistics are not all pessimistic, however, for most divorced people do

remarry, and so the American people are still sold on marriage. The problem

is that more people are marrying the wrong person first, and this indicates a

marriage that was entered into without adequate preparation. One of the key

areas of controversy among Christians today is the whole issue of remarriage.

Should the church permit it, and on what basis. Who has the right according

to Scripture to enter a second marriage if they have ended a first one in

divorce? This is an issue that is of special importance to pastors, for they are

constantly confronted with this decision. For the layman it is often just an

academic issue, and for them it makes no real difference. The pastor,

however, must deal with real people and their needs, and he must be honest

and faithful with the Word of God.

Some denominations have made radical policy changes to relieve the

pastor of pressure in this area. But more important is the question, what does

the Bible say about divorce and remarriage? The issue is not whether divorce

is good or bad, for everyone agrees it is a bad thing to happen. It is never the

best, and it always indicates failure on the part of two people. But once the

damage is done, what is God's will for the persons living in that state of

failure? Is it His will that they stay in a state of failure, or that they press on

to a state of success in some new relationship such as a second marriage. We

want to study this issue by first looking at the Old Testament message in

Deut. 24:1-4. We will look at it verse by verse.

24:1 The first thing to observe about the Old Testament law on divorce is

that it was only the husband who had the right of divorce. If he found some

indecency in his wife he could put her away. There was no provision for the

wife to put him away if she did not find him to her liking. Women should not

get upset, however, for as we shall see, the divorce law was for her protection.

First of all a man could not rob a woman of her virginity and then turn

around and divorce her. A man forfeited his right of divorce by premarital

sex. God holds a man responsible for the rest of his life to care for a woman

he forces into a sexual relationship. Deut. 22:28-29 says, "If a man happens

to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are

discovered, he shall pay the girls father 50 shekels of silver. He must marry

the girl, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives."

You can just imagine how much this law cut down on pre-marital sex. A man

would only want to become intimate with a woman that he loved enough to

treasure for the rest of his life.

You notice that he can never put her away, not because he made her

pregnant, but because he violated her. The female was protected from

becoming an old maid that no man ever wanted by someone taking advantage

of her. This law was very sensitive to a woman's security, and made sure that

sexual abuse would never destroy her future. The principal we see here is

that in God's eyes intercourse with a woman commits you to be responsible to

that woman the rest of your life. Sex without a life commitment is not

acceptable to God. Men were not free to use women any way they wanted to,

and have no responsibility. Deut. 22:13-19 also makes a man never free to

divorce a woman that he has accused of not being a virgin, if in fact she is.

Getting back to Deut. 24 we want to see that even here where men have

the right to divorce a woman, they have an obligation to give her a bill of