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Church of God Message
GOD'S PURPOSE OF MARRIAGE
Chapter 8
History of Divorce
More insights on marriage can be obtained when we analyze God’s perspective on divorce and remarriage. Before we analyze God’s instructions on divorce and marriage, an understanding of the history of marriage and divorce in Israel can help us appreciate the words of Moses and the prophets in the Old Testament and the words of Jesus and the apostle Paul in the New Testament.
We have discussed God’s instructions on marriage when the first marriage between Adam and Eve was solemnized. God intended a man to marry one woman (because God made only one woman for Adam), and marriage was to be till ‘death do us part.’ That pattern for marriage continued for about 825 years of human history. Lamech mentioned in Genesis 4:18-24 in the Bible then became the first bigamist around year 825 after Adam’s creation. Cain the wicked son of Adam did not originate this practice.
The wicked deeds of Lamech and his descendants in the area of marriage before Noah’s Flood are described in Genesis 6:2 as “…they took them wives of all which they chose.” They were marrying multiple wives, many inter-racially, keeping mistresses or having uninhibited sex. Certainly, divorces would have been initiated by these descendants of Lamech as well, and those who followed their lead subsequently.
According to Jewish tradition, Naamah the daughter of Lamech survived the Flood as the wife of Ham the son of Noah. Though Naamah remained married to Ham throughout her life, her descendants soon revived the same marriage practices after the Flood. She herself was a black Negro woman and in fact may have encouraged her black Negro son Cush, who was already married to his black sister and had children, to seduce a white girl to lend support to the initiation of interracial marriages and polygamy.
For about the first 2000 years of human history, God dealt with all of mankind in general. Before the Flood, under the influence of Cain, Lamech and his descendants and all of mankind had become so evil, and the world become saturated with violence, that God had no alternative but to drown that entire world in the Flood.
After the Flood, the descendants of Naamah the daughter of Lamech, mainly Cush and Nimrod, revived the same evils of their ancestors concerning marriage. Many of all races had joined with them, rejecting their ancestor Noah’s advice. For the betterment of humanity God had decided that humans should spread out over the earth by their families. That meant that humanity would colonize different areas of the earth by race. But Cush, Nimrod and others wanted to keep humanity together to rule over them. They had dreams of ruling over all of humanity as their ancestor Lamech had done before the Flood. And that would have included ruling over their ancestor Noah and his son Shem’s family, part of which remained loyal to Noah. They would have executed Noah and Shem if needed.
But God intervened by confusing the language of mankind from one language to multiple languages. This forced humanity to separate out by families and by race, and start moving away from the empire Cush and Nimrod were building. However, Cush’s white mistress, Semiramis, and their son Nimrod continued to try to pervert the marriage institution. They waged a massive struggle against God’s way of life and the marriage institution preached by Noah and his son Shem. Then Noah died because of old age, and Shem himself was getting old and could not influence events much. Also, the population of the world was growing and moving away from each other.
About 400 years after the Flood, the way of Baal another name for Nimrod and the goddess Ashtoreth, another name for his mother and wife Semiramis, won out. The ancient Assyrians, the ancestors of the modern Germans, were able to force that way on much of humanity so that no one remained loyal to God’s way of life except for a handful of people, with a young man among them named Abraham.
Shem had died of old age. The only people who remained loyal to God’s way of life were Haran, the elder brother of Abraham, Haran’s son Lot, Abraham and his wife Sarah. Then Haran lost his life in a battle with the Assyrians and Abraham had to flee for his life. It’s possible that Haran and Abraham’s father Terah who had given in to the paganism of Nimrod and Semiramis later changed and began following the true God. But Terah too died of old age. That left only 3 people in the entire world: Abraham, his wife Sarah and his nephew Lot who remained loyal to God’s way of life.
Thus, began God’s next phase in dealing with humanity. For about the first two thousand years God dealt with all of mankind in general. Once before the Flood and then in about 400 years after the Flood all of mankind went astray from the true God and followed Satan’s ways as originated and propagated through Nimrod and Semiramis. But God had already put His next phase of dealing with humanity into motion. He would take Abraham and make his descendants into His model nation of Israel.
History of Marriage in the World
God did not abandon the other nations as far as marriage was concerned. When world population grew, and families became tribes and moved away from the area of Babylon, most realized the foolishness of the way of Semiramis and Nimrod of “anything goes” and stuck to the traditional marriage institution as God had originally ordained. Thus, there was not much perversion of the institution around the world.
However, sexual perversions continued for some time among the descendants of Ham and Naamah, particularly the Canaanites. God had to destroy their cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to give them a warning. Still the perversions continued. Finally, God had most of them destroyed through the Israelites when God brought them out of Egypt. So, the perversions ended with their death. Some of them escaped into other countries, but had to come under the influence of those nations. That finally drove their sexual and marriage perversions away from them. Some of them stayed among Israelites as a subject or slave people, forced to follow Israel’s laws to be able to live among them peacefully. That drove out the perversions from among those Canaanites. So, God’s method for driving perversions out of humanity is to let them be enslaved. In slavery, if they continued their perversions, they would lose their lives at the hands of their masters.
Besides the Canaanites, perversion of marriage might have continued among other descendants of Ham. But today they exist as just tiny tribes in remote places in the world. God simply destroyed most of them.
History of Marriage and Divorce in Israel
Now let’s consider God’s dealings with His model nation, ancient Israel. Through Moses God documented the perversions being practiced by the Canaanites whose land they were going to possess and commanded Israel not to practice them and prescribed the death penalty for those who did.
God laid down the laws concerning marriage, and the practice of fornication and adultery. In most situations the penalty was death.
When the marriage institution was created at the time of the creation of Adam and Eve, the marriage was to be between one man and one woman for life. But by the time of Moses divorces were taking place among Israelites without regard to what God’s will was. So, God inspired Moses to address the situation and lay down the Law under which divorce could be allowed. Jesus the giver of that law through Moses explained when He came as a human being that divorce was allowed because of the hardness of humanity’s hearts in general, which other prophets describe as a “heart of stone.”
Let’s read the law concerning divorce in the book of Deuteronomy. Issues concerning marriage and putting away are mentioned in two places.
First Deuteronomy 22:13-21, “13 If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her, 14 And give occasions of speech against her, and bring up an evil name upon her, and say, I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid [or virgin]: 15 Then shall the father of the damsel, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel's virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate: 16 And the damsel's father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife, and he hates her; 17 And, lo, he has given occasions of speech against her, saying, I found not your daughter a maid [or virgin]; and yet these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. [The bible is not clear how all this was done.] 18 And the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him; 19 And they shall amerce him in an hundred shekels of silver, and give them unto the father of the damsel, because he has brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days. 20 But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel: 21 Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die: because she has wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father's house: so shall you put evil away from among you.”
This situation is describing fraud committed before marriage. It is not describing a divorce but an annulment of the marriage because of fraud. The husband expected his wife to be a virgin, but did not find her to be a virgin. In this situation the marriage was not bound in God’s eyes because of fraud.
The second passage in Deuteronomy specifically mentions the conditions under which divorce could be granted.
This law is stated in Deuteronomy 24:1-4, “When a man has taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes, because he has found some uncleanness in her [“some unseemly thing” or “some matter of nakedness”—in other words, perhaps she has been naked in front of another man]: then let him write her a bill of divorcement [a better translation is that he write her a bill of divorcement, meaning that the divorce has already happened], and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife. And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and sends her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife; her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the Lord: and you shall not cause the land to sin, which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance.”
This passage does not command divorce, but merely allows it if the parties want it.
Was divorce a major problem in ancient Israel before Israel and Judah went into captivity? If it had been a major problem, God would have spoken through the prophets of those times to condemn it. But none of the prophets before the captivity mention it. The only divorce addressed by the prophets is God divorcing ancient Israel because of their unfaithfulness to Him and adultery with other gods of wood and stone. So, divorces were taking place in ancient Israel, but were not a major problem.
However, divorce had become a major problem among the Jews that returned to Jerusalem and the land of Israel from the captivity. It had become such a major problem that God sent Malachi the prophet to condemn it in the strongest terms, stating that “He hates divorce.”
Malachi 2:13-16, “13 And this is the second thing you do: You cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and crying; so He does not regard the offering anymore, nor receive it with goodwill from your hands.14 Yet you say, "For what reason?" Because the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously; yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant. 5 But did He not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring. Therefore, take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth. 6 "For the Lord God of Israel says that He hates divorce, for it covers one's garment with violence," Says the Lord of hosts. "Therefore, take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously."
There can be no stronger condemnation of divorce than that given through Malachi the prophet. God says He hates it. Here men were dealing treacherously with their wives and divorcing them for any reason. Can you imagine the plight of a 30-50 year old wife just divorced when her husband has given her divorce papers and walked away from her and the kids, or even worse and more likely, thrust her and the kids out of his home? What weeping and crying there would be in front of God for that family and her extended family? God says such divorces were acts of violence, and may have actually led to violence between the families. No wonder God rejected the prayers and offerings of such people.
They had no welfare system in place. The wives were totally dependent on their husbands to provide for them. The burden of caring for the divorced wife and her children fell on her family, or they were left to fend for themselves.
The effects of divorce have been somewhat mitigated in the USA and UK due to the welfare system. But that is simply encouraging more divorce and cohabitation and children born out of wedlock who then become wards of the state in many cases. I dealt with mostly such people in my job in the welfare department of the State of Florida in the USA.
Did God’s condemnation of divorce through Malachi the prophet solve the problem among the Jews? Not at all!
In the time of the Pharisees two schools of thought had arisen concerning the passages in Deuteronomy 24 about divorce. One was the school of Hillel which allowed divorce for any and every reason. The second school, that of Shammai, was more conservative and allowed divorce only for unchastity, meaning adultery, prostitution or some other sexual promiscuity.”
A source (Gittin, Chapter Nine, Mishnah Ten), describing these two schools of thought, states this: “Rabbi Shammai says, ‘A man should not divorce his wife unless he has found her guilty of some unseemly conduct, as to say, because he has found some unseemly thing [sexually-related] in her according to Deuteronomy 24.’ Rabbi Hillel, however, says, ‘Even if she has merely spoiled his food she has prepared, he has found something unseemly in her. Even if he finds another woman more beautiful than she is, she no longer has favor in his sight. Rabbi Akiva says, [he may divorce her] even if he finds another woman more beautiful than she is, as it says, ‘it cometh to pass’, if she find no favor in his eyes.’” Many Jews obtained divorces based on Hillel’s ridiculous, liberal teaching
These were the situations concerning divorce and remarriage among the Jews that Jesus and later Paul the apostle addressed in the New Testament.
The Jews ended up being driven from their land, and divorce has not been such a problem among them since then.
Divorce has not been a severe problem in the nations of Israel except in modern times. Today people are getting divorced for any reason. Examples include incompatibility, irreconcilable differences, loss of interest, infertility, one party has gained weight, mental cruelty, alienation of affection, incompatibility, loss of interest, adultery, death of a child, financial problems and virtually any reason human nature can invent. Husbands and wives simply walk out on each other, thus, without any inhibition, “putting away what God has joined together.”
Why should Israelite nations expect a different result this time? God has cured such problems of infidelity in marriage and sexual perversions through defeat in war and national slavery in the past. Uninhibited divorce and remarriage will likely be one of the major causes of coming Israelite nations’ slavery.
Satan has had a direct hand through his agents, the German masqueraders in America, in multiplying divorce. Germans and German masqueraders living in Britain and other countries such as Charles Darwin originated and popularized the theory of evolution which led to most in our nations rejecting God as their Creator. They then inventing the fiction that marriage was a human invention rather than a divinely ordained institution. So, they could dispense with marriage when suited them.
Then German masqueraders in America and Britain married Israelite men and women and divorced them to further popularize divorce within our nations. It has been part of their strategy to destroy our nations from within and control our population growth.
German masqueraders have also infiltrated God’s Church from the very beginning as tares. Genuine Church ministers have had a horrible time when dealing with marriages, divorce and remarriage between these tares and genuine members of God’s Church. After their experiences some ministers commented that some people in God’s Church were never really converted. But now we know the real truth. These were tares planted by Satan in God’s Church who obeyed Satan’s commands and tried and tested members and the ministry in every abominable way with diabolical cunning craftiness that only Satan can invent, stretching the limits of God’s law so that they could blame it all on the genuine member spouses despite making their lives as miserable as possible. They would have tested the patience of genuine members to their utmost limits, finally ending the marriages in divorce. No matter what the genuine member may have done to try to reconcile and solve their marriage problems, the tares would have invented some new thing as directed by Satan to continue the tension in the marriage, and as much as possible to lay the blame for the entire tension on the genuine member. I deal with such tactics multiple times in my life literally every day and have lived with them for more than 57 years now. I can only imagine the nightmare the genuine members must have gone through in living with such infiltrator spouses.
Because of all these horrible experiences, peoples’ hearts in Israelite nations and around the world have hardened as Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:1-5, “1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.”
How much of harder heart can people have than these described here.
The cause of such problems seems to be prosperity which leads to decadence as in ancient Sodom and Gomorrah, and Rome. That’s why Jeremiah prophesied about our modern Israelite nations, America, British Commonwealth nations and the Jewish state of Israel, in Jeremiah 5:7-11, “7 How shall I pardon you for this? Your children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses. 8 They were as fed horses in the morning: everyone neighed after his neighbor’s wife. 9 Shall I not visit for these things? says the Lord: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? 10 Go up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her battlements; for they are not the Lord’s. 11 For the house of Israel [America and British Commonwealth nations] and the house of Judah [the Jews] have dealt very treacherously against me, says the Lord.”
It seems to be a general human condition that prosperity leads most people in a nation to divorce and remarry, and into decadence.
God drove away perversion of marriage out of people in the past by letting them be destroyed or defeated in war and sold into slavery. Besides ancient Israel, another major example is ancient Rome. One of the major reasons for the downfall of that empire was the rampant divorce and remarriage. But Italians now have strong families with the father as the head of the family. America and Britain are following in the footsteps of ancient Rome as far as sexual perversions and divorce and remarriage are concerned. Why should our Israelite nations expect a different result for themselves than ancient Rome and the Canaanites?
That briefly is the history of divorce in the world and in Israel. After God’s dealing with His model nation of Israel for about 2000 years, which refused to become His model nation, He had to divorce her because of her infidelities [meaning following pagan gods]. Then God began the next phase of His plan to deal with humanity. He decided to raise another model nation, His Church which would bring forth the fruits He seeks. The Church would deliver the fruits God seeks because it would have His holy spirit to enable it to keep God’s laws in the letter and spiritual intent of the Law.
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