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Transcript 196E — Divorce and Polygamy
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: My question is about divorces. I know that in the Old Testament people had lots of wives, and I read in Deuteronomy where it said that if there is something about your wife that you don't like, then you can put her away. You can divorce her. And the New Testament says that if there's adultery, then you can divorce your wife. And I thought I heard you say that that was a bad thing, that you shouldn't do that. And I'm just really confused about that. Does it say anywhere that you should only have one spouse? I know it says that you should cleave to your wife or to your husband. But does it say anything about having two wives, or three wives, or anything like that?
HC: A question is raised concerning divorce. In the Old Testament it is true that divorce was very easy to be obtained. And the disciples talked to Jesus about this, and Jesus said, in Matthew l9,that Moses allowed divorce "because of the hardness of your hearts." In other words, because of the continuing wickedness of Israel, God permitted divorce.
It is just like today. People do sinful things. All right, they divorce when they should not divorce. God doesn't strike them down. God doesn't instantaneously put them to death. He allows these things to happen, because of the hardness of man's heart. The recompense will come on the Last Day, on Judgment Day. If that person does not become born again, then he will have to answer to God for his sins, even as Israel ultimately would have to answer God for their sins of these easy divorces. It was because of the hardness of their hearts.
Incidentally, the comment was made that lots of people had lots of wives in the Old Testament. That's not really so. It was very uncommon to have many wives Noah only had one wife. Adam had one wife. Abraham had one wife. Oh, it's true that he bore Ishmael by a concubine, but that was a very special consideration. Hagar was not a practicing concubine. This was just in accordance with one of the customs of that day that possibly through Hagar, the concubine, Sarah his wife might bear a child. And in that sense Hagar became a wife. But this is a very uncommon kind of thing.
Isaac had one wife. Now Jacob started out to have one wife, but was deceived by his uncle. And so he ended up with two wives. And then he added two concubines. So Jacob went beyond the idea of one wife. Joseph had one wife. Moses had one wife. Some of the kings began to have harems. They followed in the footsteps of the heathen kings. David did this. He had a number of wives. Solomon carried it, as far as we can say, to an ultimate conclusion, in that he had 700 wives and 300 concubines. But these also proved to be a tremendous snare in his life, because as a result of all of his wives, he began in his old age to worship other gods. And as a consequence the kingdom was almost completely destroyed at the time that he died. And so Solomon didn't get away with it, either.
But ordinarily in the Old Testament there was one wife. There are these exceptions, but they are really rare, as compared with the usual. Now the Bible indicates that God created mankind man and woman. And God uses the singular. Let me read from Matthew 19. And every word in the Bible is important. In Matthew 19:4 it says, "Have you not read that He who made them from the beginning made them male and female? For this reason a man (a man, not men) shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh" (not the three shall become one, or the four shall become one, or the five shall become one, because there is more than one wife or more than one husband). "The two shall become one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder." That is the Biblical rule. One husband and one wife, and they become one flesh.
The Biblical rule is that divorce should not be contemplated, ever. And today, when we consider that so many people begin to go together, and then they begin to think about marriage, and right in the forefront of their thinking is the idea, "If it doesn't work out, we can get a divorce," that's how terrible it has become today. Divorce must never be thought about.