A Study in the word is designed to address one subject area each month as a Bible study article. I encourage you to study the article carefully and I hope you find it helpful. 

Jesus was teaching in the land of Judea and the people gathered to Him to hear His teaching, as was their custom (Mark 10:1-12), The Pharisees approached Jesus in order to test Him, they asked the question. “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” This is the question He is answering: Is divorce (putting away) lawful?
Jesus immediately directs the Pharisees to the scriptures. Jesus immediately responds that the people must look for God’s authority to answer this question.
The Pharisees respond to Jesus that Moses permitted one to write a certificate of divorce and to put her away (divorce) her. Nowhere did Moses teach that one could divorce for any reason so long as a certificate of divorce was given.

Background
The only place in the law of Moses that we read about the giving of a certificate of divorcement is in Deuteronomy 24:1-4. This is what the Pharisees are giving as their answer concerning what Moses’ law taught. The Jews had understood Deuteronomy 24 to be teaching that divorce was lawful for nearly every reason. Jesus corrected their understanding of Deuteronomy 24 to make it in harmony with God’s law.

First, let us consider Deuteronomy 24:1-4. The first three verses are statements of the conditions that might come about and the fourth verse is the remedy when such conditions are met. Notice the “if” statements: “if a man marries;” “and writes her a certificate of divorce;” “if after she leaves;” “and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce.” Verse 4 tells the people what to do, “then her first husband is not allowed to marry her again.” As Jesus says in Mark 10:5, “Because of the hardness of your heart he wrote you this commandment.” The people were putting away their wives, and after they had married another, they would put them away so that the first husband could have her back. God was putting a stop to this by giving this commandment in Deuteronomy 24. Recognize that the people were being hardhearted toward their wives, not hardhearted toward God. We will consider this more later.

Many in the religious world have declared that since the woman was allowed to repeatedly remarry in Deuteronomy 24, that anyone who is divorced today is also allowed to remarry for any reason. But this is not the case. Moses was not teaching that it was okay for the woman to repeatedly get married. He was simply describing a possible situation.

Join me Aug. 8th and 9th for our special study: Marriage and Divorce”