CONTENTS.
Our Lord is here discoursing on the subject of divorcement. Little Children are brought to CHRIST. The LORD again speaks of his approaching Sufferings. Jesus passeth through Jericho.
AND he arose from thence, and cometh into the coasts of Judea by the farther side of Jordan: and the people resort unto him again; and, as he was wont, he taught them again. (2) And the Pharisees came to him, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife tempting him. (3) And he answered and said unto them, What did Moses command you? (4) And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away. (5) And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. (6) But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female. (7) For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; (8) And they twain shall be one flesh; so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. (9) What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. (10) And in the house his disciples asked him again of the same matter. (11) And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committed adultery against her. (12) And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.
Our LORD's circuit in his ministry would lead, in the contemplation of it, to a most profitable subject. Unwearied in all his services, with zeal to his Father's glory, and his people's happiness, the sun watched his path by day, and the stars witnessed to his communion by night. It was no small distance Jesus had advanced in a little space. In the 8th Chapter we find him on the borders of Tyre and Sidon westward, and now he is arrived eastward on the coasts of Judea by Jordan. Precious LORD! what a lesson, and what an example, to thy ministers and people! John 9:4.
We have the Pharisees, the sworn foes to CHRIST, in this paragraph at their own trade again; not to receive instruction, but to entangle Jesus in his talk. They brought forward for his decision, that popular question already decided in their mind, but wishing to entrap CHRIST: the subject concerning Divorces. But how unworthy soever their designs were, the Church of CHRIST find cause to bless GOD that the question was put to CHRIST, since it gave occasion for his very sweet and gracious answer; by which the doctrine respecting divorces is put upon its just and unalterable foundation. If the reader will once more read over this paragraph, from the 2nd to the 12th verse inclusive, I will then request his attention to the subject, according to our LORD's own statement.
And first; Our LORD most decidedly proves, that even in the cases where Moses permitted a divorcement, he allowed it not, without compelling the husband to write the bill with his own hand, before be put her away. As if to shew, that it should not be the hasty impulse of the moment, but the solemn and serious result of proper deliberation; thereby allowing an harsh and angry husband the time to relent. And even here, it was to be done with such coolness, turning over all the consequences, that the husband by the same law, however afterwards he might repent, was not by any means allowed to take her again. See Deuteronomy 24:1-5. And the LORD JESUS added that this law, which seemed rather to wink at such conduct than justify it, would never have been given by Moses but for the hardness of their hearts. So decidedly against all divorces was the tender and compassionate Jesus.
But, secondly: The LORD JESUS doth not stop here. His decision against all divorce's arose from an higher authority still; for saith Jesus, from the beginning of the creation, GOD made them male and female; and declared that when joined in marriage, they were no longer twain, but one flesh: that GOD himself joined them together; and man dared not put them asunder. Here is an uncommonly strong, argument in this statement by CHRIST: not only because marriage was of divine institution, and the separating man and wife solemnly prohibited by their Maker; but because in the first instance of wedlock, which ever took place in the creation of GOD, there was no possibility of the man's putting away his wife and taking another; for no other woman existed. One man, and one woman, the LORD had made, and no more: and from those two, made one by marriage, the race was to follow. So that here in the first marriage of our first parents, the LORD 's holy will and pleasure concerning marriage was fully given, as a pattern to all their children. I think this is so unalterably strong and conclusive, that no appeal can be made against it. The popular wish, and too general conduct of the Jews, in putting away their wives, received our LORD's decided condemnation.
But we must not stop here. Divorcement received another decided reproof from the very design of marriage: which was altogether with a mystical allusion to CHRIST, and his Church. We have an authority which cannot be questioned, that the marriage of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in the garden of Eden, was altogether a type, or more properly speaking, the shadow and representation of CHRIST's marriage with his Church. A type, it might be said, because it set forth what would be accomplished when the fulness of time was come, and GOD sent forth his SON, made of a Woman, in marrying our nature. And yet a shadow also, because it became the shade of a prior substance, when before all worlds the SON of GOD did as the Prophet described him, betroth his Church to himself forever, Hosea 2:18-19. It was not good that the GOD-Man CHRIST JESUS should be alone; no more than Adam, in the Adam nature, in which he was created: for then how would CHRIST have been the Bridegroom of his Church without a Bride? JEHOVAH therefore said, I will make him an helpmate for him. Hence therefore of the Church to CHRIST, as well as of Eve to her husband; it is said, therefore shall a man leave is father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall be one flesh, Genesis 2:18 to the end. See. Ephesians 5:23 to the end.
If the reader be not tired with the length of these observations on this passage, I would wish to detain him, one moment longer, on the subject of divorcement. You have seen the LORD JESUS decidedly giving his disapprobation to all divorcement. Perhaps it will be asked, yea it should be asked, as the most interesting question of all others: Did ever JESUS put away his wife? To which venture most humbly to say; I trow not. Let the reader look over the word of GOD for himself, (and never never can he be engaged in a question of higher consequence,) and I persuade myself he will conclude with me, that no bill of divorcement was ever given by JESUS to his Church. He who by his servant Paul hath said; husbands love your wives, and be not bitter against them, would I not be himself bitter against his, Colossians 3:19. Nay, the Apostle elsewhere saith, when speaking of men's loving their wives as their own bodies, and he that loveth his wife loveth himself, makes this blessed addition, No man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as CHRIST the Church. Ephesians 5:2; Ephesians 5:2. Here's a beautiful scripture in point. As no man ever hated his own flesh; even though covered with sores and wounds, so JESUS loved his Church, though leprous and unclean: Oh! precious, precious LORD JESUS! Surely it becometh thee in all things to have the pre-eminence!
And now, if the Reader feels interested (as well he may; LORD let it engage my unceasing attention!) to look into the word of GOD in the enquiry; whether JESUS ever put away his Wife; let him diligently search the whole Bible. The most striking passages, which seem to lean this way, are Jeremiah 3:8; Isaiah 50:1; Hosea 2:2. But the smallest attention, and especially when connected with the whole body of scripture on the subject, very plainly (according to my view,) declare the contrary, Let the Reader take with the 8th verse of Jeremiah, the 3rd, the 1st and 14th verses of the same chapter. Let him attend also to the manner of expression in the 50th chapter of Isaiah, and 1st verse, and he will perhaps be inclined to think with me, that the LORD challengeth any one to show the bill of divorcement; knowing there was none. And as for the passage in Hosea, chapter 2: and 2nd verse; the whole chapter and the following are most decided in proof, that JESUS never did, as the Apostle Paul speaks elsewhere, cast away his people which he foreknew. Romans 11:1-45. Our LORD's manner of speaking on this subject; where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, and the like; is not un-similar to what he used to his disciples on another occasion. At that day ye shall ask in my name; and I say not unto you that I will pray for you. John 16:26. Now one might be led to think, in the first view of these words, as if Jesus meant to decline praying for them whereas it is evident JESUS meant thereby to say more fully that he would.
The Reader will I hope forgive the length to which I have extended the subject, from the importance of it; and I shall now leave him to his own conclusions, under the pleasing assurance, that the Almighty SPIRIT of truth will guide both Writer and Reader into all truth, on this most sweet and interesting subject. Indeed, indeed it is blessed to hear the LORD, the GOD of Israel, say that he hateth putting away. Malachi 2:14-16. And oh! what blessedness will in the end appear, when after all the treacherous departures of JESUS's Church, in all her spiritual adulteries, JESUS must, he will, yea, he cannot rest until he hath brought her home to his FATHER's house, and presented her to himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she shall be holy and without blemish. Ephesians 5:27; Revelation 19:5-66.