REMARRYING A FORMER WIFE?

Re-marrying a former Wife? - Deut.24

Is it applicable under the New Testament?

DEUTERONOMY AND CHAPTER 24                   RE-MARRYING A PREVIOUS WIFE TODAY? A friend has emailed me to ask about the law in Deuteronomy 24 and the specific of the law saying a man cannot marry a previous wife.

This law is contained within the law of Divorce and Re-marriage.

     We need to keep in mind the basic overall law of divorce and

remarriage. Under Moses God "allowed" divorce and re-marriage 

for many reasons. It was relatively easy to give a wife a written

divorce. A divorce could be for just about any reason under the

Old Covenant. Jesus came along and TIGHTENED UP the divorce 

and re-marriage law. We see this in Matthew 19. I have covered the

BASIC subject of Divorce and Re-marriage in my study on this

topic, and it is on my Website.

     But as my friend told me, it is quite true, I never covered

the law within the divorce law, about NOT being allowed to re-

marry a previous wife.

     Jesus made it clear that God "allowed" easy divorce and re-

marriage because of the HARDNESS OF THE HEART!! (Mat.19:8). 

Then He went on to "tighten up" the law of divorce and re-marriage.

     It was a fact in Jewish history that at least one sect of Judaism 

taught you could divorce your wife for things like, she did not cook 

your meals as you liked them cooked.

     We must then put within this easy divorce law under Moses,

the law of not re-marrying your previous wife.

     I think, with a little meditation, you can see that if God

had not put a clause in the easy divorce law (because of the

weakness and hardness of the heart - remember the vast majority

did not have God's Holy Spirit under the Old Covenant - see

Number 11), a clause that said you could not remarry your

previous wife, you can imagine, with such an easy divorce law,

the BACK-AND-FORTH, the MIXED UP physical marriage and 

family that would have prevailed in Israel.

     You could have had this fellow marrying this gal, having

some children, giving her a bill of divorcement, marrying another

gal, have children with her, then divorcing her for some petty

reason, marrying another lady, divorcing her, going back to

marrying the first gal (who also may have been divorced a number

of times by now) and bringing her children along. Then this guy

later divorces her again, and then re-marries the third one he

divorced, who has had more children and who knows how many 

times she was given a bill of divorcement by husbands.

     God, under Moses, was allowing "easy" divorce, for the

carnal fleshly hardness of the heart, but in so doing the Lord

had to keep the "lid on things" so to speak in some way of NOT

having the whole situation going crazy and making physical

madness (oh that may have been literal in some cases) within a

physical nation that wanted (because of the hardness of the

heart) easy divorce.

     Giving a nation the law of easy divorce and easy remarriage,

the lady, once given a bill of divorce, could go out and be

another man's wife (Deut.24:2). But to add to that easy divorce

law, the law that a man could re-marry a previous wife, who knows

how far down the path of easy divorce path it had been, would

have made the physical family life an utter SHAM, an utter

CONFUSION, an utter MADNESS. At least with a nation of easy

divorce, some SENSE and CONTROL would have been possible 

by NOT allowing a man to re-marry a previous wife. 

     The way the Lord saw what the situation would have been

like, if He had allowed a man to remarry a former wife, is put

this way: "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...."

     Being allowed to "go back and forth in marriage to the same

woman" under an easy divorce law, would make the marriage law 

not only a FULL travesty and mock of norm-ability, but as the Lord

said, it would eventually cause greater sin and simply just be an

ABOMINATION. The Lord had to put SOME CONTROL on the 

easy divorce law under Moses.

     With such a control on the divorce and re-marriage law under

Moses' economy, it would be far more likely that the female would

find a man that would desire her for the rest of their lives

together.  Any other way, such as allowing men to go back and

forth any number of times in marriage to any particular female,

would certainly end up as being an ABOMINATION in many physical

ways, and would cause the people of the land to indeed sin in the

marriage law, way above what God was going to allow in granting

an easy divorce law in Israel, under Moses, because of the carnal

hardness of the heart.

     The Lord was saying: "Okay, because of the hardness of your

heart, I will allow divorce and re-marriage, on an easy basis,

BUT I will only GO SO FAR in allowing that law. You will not make

a MOCKERY and/or a GAME of marriage by going back and forth at

will, divorcing, remarrying, divorcing, remarrying, the same

female over and over. There is a LIMIT to what I will "allow" in

divorce and re-marriage. Allowing you to divorce and re-marry the

same female again and again, is just too much for Me to tolerate,

that kind of allowed law would truly be an ABOMINATION!"

NOW FOR TODAY

     Jesus most definitely tightened up the divorce and re-

marriage law for the New Testament times. It was within all that

He came to do. Many laws just in the letter of the law under the

Old Covenant were made "spirit and letter" under the New Covenant

... much more binding. A child reading Matthew chapters 4,5,6,7,

can see Jesus came to MAGNIFY and make the laws of God 

SPIRITUAL, in the heart and mind, and not ONLY in the letter, 

or physical of the law.

     Divorce and Re-marriage needed to be tightened up, IT WAS

TIGHTENED UP under Jesus. Now under the New Testament, divorce

and re-marriage is NOT AT ALL like it was under Moses or the Old

Covenant. Divorce is narrowed done to relative FEW reasons under

the New Testament. I have covered those reasons under my study

called "Divorce and Re-marriage."

     So EASY divorce is OUT today! Hence the law within easy

divorce, that of not being able to re-marry a former wife is also

not in the equation today. Most of us within or without the

Church of God do not literally apply the law within Deuteronomy

24:5. Most of us today cannot take a year off to "cheer up" our

just married wife. It sure would be nice to do so, but in reality

the vast majority of us cannot do such a thing, unless you are

born into a rich family, or have won the lottery (not that you

should play the lottery - gambling is covered in a study on this

Website - I speak as a matter of speaking).

    As a nation under God, being governed by the laws of God, from

Moses down, then such laws as Deut.24:5 could be the law of the land.

Individuals today, not under a nation that follows the laws of God,

would hardly find Deut.24:5 able to be applied, unless as stated, you

are wealthy or have won the lottery.

     Today, there are many things a person has to meditate on,

within the New Testament law of marriage and divorce, BEFORE 

they marry period. Do the two people find they are within the New

Testament law of divorce and re-marriage? What was the situation

of each of them finding themselves "un-married"? Has their former

mate died? Has their former mate committed adultery? Has their

former mate decided they do not want God or Christ or their way

of life, in their life, and wish for a divorce. Is the situation

of being divorced or having to walk away from a wife or husband

because of uncontrolled abuse, mentally, physically, emotionally,

sexually? Is the situation of being single once more, under the

New Testament guidelines for divorce and possible re-marriage? 

     I've covered in detail, all the principles of the law of

divorce and re-marriage under the New Testament Covenant, 

in my in-depth study on "Divorce and Re-marriage."

     The situation of both parties may well come under the New

Testament standards. As there is no longer any "easy" divorce and

re-marriage as under Moses' economy, as there will be, or should

be, any carnal, for the hardness of the heart, going back and

forth in divorce and re-marriage, as it could have been under

Moses, if God had not specifically given a law against such

conduct. Then today I would find that such a law as "not

marrying" a former wife, as contained in the marriage law of

Deuteronomy 24, would not be in force any more than the law 

it was contained within.

     Hence my judgment is that neither law of Deuteronomy 24:1-4

is applicable today.

     I do want to stress that BOTH parties, whether never married

before, or married and divorced, or married and divorced from

each other at some point in the past, DO  MEDITATE  ON  THEIR 

SITUATION TO  MAKE  SURE  THEY  COME  UNDER  THE  

LAW  OF  DIVORCE  AND  RE-MARRIAGE, AS  NOW  

EXPOUNDED  UPON  BY  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES! 

CERTAINLY  THOSE  NEVER  MARRIED  BEFORE  SHOULD  

TRY TO  ASCERTAIN  THE  MARRIAGE  THEY  WOULD  ENTER  

IS  A  MARRIAGE THAT  WOULD HAVE THE BLESSING OF THE 

LORD. SUCH TECHNICAL ANALYTICAL  MEDITATION  MAY  

TEND  TO  TAKE  AWAY  THE  "SWOONING OF  THE  HEART-

STRINGS"  BUT  IT  SHOULD  BE  DONE  BY  THOSE  WHO WANT  

TO  ENTER  MARRIAGE. THERE  ARE  STUDIES  ON  MY WEBSITE 

TO  HELP  YOU  FIND  THE  RIGHT  MATE.   

                         ........................

Keith Hunt, May 2009