What Did Moses Command?

One day Jesus was put to another test.

Mark 10:2 Some Pharisees came up to Jesus, testing Him, and began to question Him whether it was lawful for a man to divorce a wife.

Matthew writes it like this:
Matt 19:3
Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?"

Jesus answers:
Mark 10:3-9
3 And He answered and said to them, "What did Moses command you?"
4 They said, "Moses permitted a man TO WRITE A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE AND SEND her AWAY." 5 But Jesus said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment.

They were quoting the well known passage on divorce found in
Deut 24:1-4
24 "When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house,

Q. What does “he has found some indecency in her” mean?
Since adultery would mean possible death…This may be something less than adultery.


and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house,
2 and she leaves his house and goes and becomes another man's wife,
3 and if the latter husband turns against her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her to be his wife,
4 then her former (1st) husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her again to be his wife, (WHY?) since she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the Lord, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance.

The 1st husband cannot take her back because she is defiled.

Q. How did she become defiled? She had sexual relations with another man.
This passage does not advocate divorce. But attempts to limit its worst consequences for the wives.

God considered the first husband and wife as one flesh.

And even though a certificate was given, she became defiled by her second marriage. She committed adultery.

1 Cor 7:10-11
10 the wife should not leave her husband (divorce)
11(but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not divorce his wife.

It’s interesting, when Jesus said "What did Moses command you?"
The Pharisees went to the Deut. 24 passage.

But Moses also wrote the Genesis 2:24 passage on marriage, which Jesus now quotes as He continues in Mark 10.


"Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment
6 "But from the beginning of creation, God MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE. 7 "FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER, 8 AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH; so they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 "What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate."

There is God’s commandment.

Jesus is re-stating and recovering God’s will for marriage.


His opponents ask what is permissible.
Jesus asks what is commanded.

Once again, this blows the disciples away. They have questions.
Mark 10:10-12
10 In the house the disciples began questioning Him about this again.
11 And He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her;
12 and if she herself divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery."

Why? Because the man and woman are now one flesh. Not two. Joined together by God, and He doesn’t unjoin them.


Luke 16:18 "Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery.


These must be the words of husband and wife.
"TILL DEATH DO US PART"


Rom 7:2-4
2 For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.
3 So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.

Till death do you part. It's a picture of death to the law and our marriage relationship to Jesus Christ.

4 Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.

Is divorce and adultery the unforgivable sin? NO! Is there forgiveness? Absolutely!
What about abandoment by an unbelieving spouse (1 Cor. 7)?
And what about the Matthew passages which give grounds for divorce? Coming Soon.