The Hope of the Believer . . . Restoration Review, Vol. 31, No. 4, April 1989 DIVORCE
HER! Cecil
Hook Throughout
history it has been difficult for a single woman to live independently. This
has been true especially when she has had to provide for her children. She
has found it to be expedient, if not necessary, to marry so as to have a
husband to provide for her. When
a husband was displeased with his wife and caused a separation without
giving her a divorce, it was a special form of cruelty, for she would not be
free to marry another man. Because of the hardheartedness of her husband,
she would be driven into an impoverished and outcast state. The
Pharisees tested Jesus with questions about marriage and divorce (Mt.
19:3-9). Jesus assured them that God intended that marriage ties would be
permanent; yet Moses had commanded that a certificate of divorce be given by
the man who put his wife away. The reason: "For your hardness of heart
Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not
so." Because
it was unmerciful to send a wife away to be denied the support of a husband,
Moses had said, "Divorce her!" Being divorced, she would be free
to remarry. This merciful course alleviated the hardheartedness and pain of
being rejected and driven out. If
Jesus had not granted that same protection for the rejected wife, he would
have been giving approval of the callous heart of the husband. When
we contend that the divorced wife cannot remarry, we are laying the same
cruel burden on the woman. When
we declare that her only appropriate course of action is to remain single or
return to her husband, we fail to recognize that Moses would not permit her
to return to her first husband after being divorced and remarried (Dt. 24:
1f.). Divorcing her second husband and returning to the first one was not an
acceptable solution. Paul
grants to all the unmarried women (which includes maidens, widows, and
divorced persons) the privilege of marriage. The woman who left her husband
to be more devoted to Christ must either remain under that celibate vow or
return to her husband (1 Cor. 6:1-12). He did not impose a cruel single life
on anyone. |