Deuteronomy 24

1 When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. 2 And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife.

QUESTION: What is the acceptable "CAUSE" for divorcement here?

ANSWER: Uncleanness.

QUESTION: What is uncleanness?

ANSWER: Fornication

QUESTION: Can this be verified in both the OLD TESTAMENT and NEW TESTAMENT?

ANSWER: Yes.

But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery." (Matthew 5:32)

And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery. (Matthew 19:9)

When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. (Deuteronomy 24:1)

There is no disputing the fact that both the OLD TESTAMENT and the NEW TESTAMENT both do make a provision for BIBLICAL DIVORCEMENT. I would caution the reader to understand that biblical divorcement is not equivalent to processes that might involve attaining it. Processes involving any separation without writ of divorcement as stated in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 24, i.e./ "loosing" without writ of divorcement, "putting away", abandonment, separation, etc. DO NOT CONSTITUTE BIBLICAL DIVORCEMENT in and of themselves. The "Bill of Divorcement" is definitely NOT optional with respect to divorce and the only CAUSE for BIBLICAL DIVORCE is fornication. Let God judge.

Continuing with the lesson:

1 Corinthians 7

39 The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.

Literal exception: *"but if" is proven not to conflict with Deuteronomy 24:1-4. I find it interesting that Paul stresses this precept with the words "only in the Lord", as if he were addressing the Church exclusively. Wait a minute; he IS ADDRESSING the Church exclusively! Well then, as long as the said husband is in the church, and truly in the Church, he certainly LIVETH. Those who would try to exclude this legal analogy to say that Paul's example of the spiritually dead does not apply here are likely bigger hypocrites than they realize. Paul uses the same analogy himself, in the same context, describing the same thing with respect to the LAW OF THE HUSBAND (which really is GOD'S LAW) and marriage. If anyone says that I cannot resort to this same analogy the same way that Paul did, then they need to do some serious praying. Look out below:

Romans 7

1 "Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?" 2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. 3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

Literal exception: *"but if" is proven not to conflict with Deuteronomy 24:1-5. This matter has been addressed. Please read ALL of Romans 7 to better understand what Paul was speaking of here. He was using the example of marriage as an analogy to illustrate the spiritual dynamic between LAW and GRACE and the profound distinction between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant Law. The analogy was made in the interests of the gospel and not specifically targeted at marriage. Even so, we can still apply this analogy to marriage and of course, it will not break down. The problem with applying this analogy to carnal marriage (as implied in post 21) is that people often take great offense to it, but sure... we can run with it.

Some husbands are married to "dead" wives and some wives are married to "dead" husbands. They are in very compromising circumstances. If anything were needed more in their marriage than ever, it would be the love of God. Please pray for them that their sanctification will not be in vain because of fornication. It is especially hard for a wife who is married to an unbelieving husband because the only sanctification her lord and master has in the LORD may only be due to her personal choice to remain with her spiritually dead husband. She is trying to honor the authority of a corpse (according to ROMANS 7) and that can get rather scary at times. I do not say this to advocate divorce in the LORD. Truth be told, there IS NO DIVORCE in the LORD.

Sadly, there is a great lot of divorcement going on outside of God and we do know that even our great LORD and KING resorted to the application of divorcement Himself and hence, fulfilled His law. Divorcement is an extremely serious matter that involves a grievous parting. With respect to sanctification it is not an option to know what side of the fence you are on in the LORD. There is surely no divorcement in Jesus. Someone... who divorces... has fornicated. Sometimes the saved are victims. Jesus does not hold them to the corpse. No, He died that we might live. What a sacrifice!!! Amen? Soon all of this "letting" will stop and Jesus will return in the glory of the Father. One day we will see the New Jerusalem descending and we will no longer ask, "What is Marriage?�?If you are truly His, He will not hold you to the corpse. Jesus loves you.

Mark 10

11 And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. 12 And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.

NO EXCEPTION HERE. Husbands: If you put away your wife without CAUSE just to go run out and marry another wife, you surely do commit adultery against your currently existing spouse. Now this is treachery. She is the wife of your youth. If she has not committed fornication, then allow her the seniority that she deserves. She earned it. After all, you are only a man. Since the very early days of my youth I knew this, even while in the flesh. May God have mercy because this is my "Achilles heal". Yes, I take it personally. When I survey the damage done in this world due to UNLAWFUL divorcement, it raises my ire. Caesar can... and Caesar will... burn for it. All this putting away, abandoning, loosing, and separating without CAUSE is not from God. There is only one cause and by now I should hope that we all know what that cause is. The cause alone does more than enough damage to innocent hearts and loving people without further need of generating the condition of fornication to have a "valid" reason for divorcement. In every case it is evidenced by a hardened heart.

The same applies for the woman and Mark 10:12 also agrees with: "And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband: But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife." (1 Cor. 7:10-11)

Now if you would prefer to believe that Paul is only addressing fornicators and unbelievers here, as opposed to the Church and the saved, that is your prerogative but I know for a fact that he is not. Jesus said, "Let the dead bury the dead" because he knew that there is no point in flogging a dead horse. This is a dead issue. God is commanding godly women in 1 Corinthians 7:10. Jesus says, in Mark 10:12, that the woman who PUTS AWAY her husband is not to remarry. This makes allot of sense considering the fact that she doesn't even have the spiritual authority to divorce him, but puts him away! This would certainly explain why so many women today are the ones who are demanding a divorcement. (Likely yet another reason why so many are also resorting to "new�?and "improved" New Age Bibles too.) Where did Caesar go wrong? Caesar refused to honor God's law as it is written:

Deuteronomy 24

1 When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. 2 And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife.

Mark 10

11 And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. 12  And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.

Caesar permitted divorcement for every, and any cause -- just as he does today. God only suffers divorcement for the hardness of hearts in those ungodly “marriages�?resulting in  fornication. Yes, fornication can, and does rob people completely of their sanctification.

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