Because of the hardness of man’s heart, God permitted man to seek a divorce. The Pharisees, who generally sought to broaden the law’s reach and its application, sought to expand the justification for a divorce. The Lord never condoned this type of perversion of truth but quickly told the Pharisees that God never intended for marriage to have an escape clause when a man grew weary or discontented. God introduced the bill of divorcement because of the hardness of men’s hearts. Even then, the Lord indicated very limited grounds for a biblical divorce. Divorce was never intended to be an option for the masses, and even in those cases where a bill of divorcement was justified or allowed, the Lord still preferred reconciliation between the husband and wife.
Like other callings upon a person’s life, God prepares men and women for marriage. Obviously, God prepares the heart, but He also prepares other areas in order to provide for a strong home. When God created Adam, He could have immediately created Eve, but He chose to allow Adam to experience the sense of being alone. Perhaps there are other reasons, but God may have thought it wise to prepare Adam for marriage. He needed to experience life without Eve. Adam needed to come to the place where he desired companionship. He needed to be alone before he could truly appreciate a wife. In addition to the preparation of Adam’s heart, the Lord gave him a job, a means by which he could provide for Eve (Genesis 2:8-9, 15). All of these preparations were necessary for a strong marriage relationship.
God wants everyone to be firmly established in sound doctrine. The more time an individual spends in his Bible, the better grounded in truth he becomes. With the importance placed upon establishing believers, God warned about being “carried about with divers and strange doctrines” (Hebrews 13:9) and about being “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Ephesians 4:14). The Devil hates Christians who become rooted and grounded in the truth. This is why he weakens and destroys believers by propagating doctrines contrary to scripture. Men may be the facilitators of false doctrines but the ultimate plan of deception is crafted by the Devil himself.
