Reasoning Through the Bible
Taking a cue from Paul, Reasoning Through the Bible is an expository style walk through the Scriptures that tells you what the Bible says. Reviewing both Old and New Testament books, as well as topical subjects, we methodically teach verse by verse, even phrase by phrase.
We have completed many books of the Bible and offer free lesson plans for teachers. If you want to browse our entire library by book or topic, see our website www.ReasoningThroughTheBible.com.
We primarily do expository teaching but also include a good bit of theology and apologetics. Just like Paul on Mars Hill, Christianity must address both the ancient truths and the questions of the people today. Join Glenn and Steve every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as they reason with you through the Bible.
Reasoning Through the Bible
S32 || Part 1: Understanding God's Original Design for Marriage || Mark 10:1-12 || Session 32 || Verse by Verse Bible Study
Jesus confronts the Pharisees with a challenge that goes far deeper than their superficial question about divorce law. Rather than falling into their political trap (designed to get Him arrested like John the Baptist), Jesus takes the conversation back to the very beginning—to creation itself.
What unfolds is a profound teaching that reveals marriage as something hardwired into creation, not merely regulated by changing cultural laws. "From the beginning of creation, God made them male and female," Jesus declares, establishing that marriage isn't just a social contract but a divine joining where "the two shall become one flesh."
This episode delves into the painful reality of divorce while exploring the theological foundations that make marriage so sacred in God's eyes. We examine how the certificate of divorce in Mosaic Law was actually meant to protect women from being treated as property, while acknowledging that God's original design never included divorce at all.
Perhaps most striking is Jesus' revolutionary statement that applies equally to men and women in marriage—a radical departure from the patriarchal norms of His day. The disciples' shocked private questions reveal just how countercultural Jesus' teaching was then—and remains today.
Whether you're married, divorced, or single, this teaching provides essential wisdom about the seriousness of marriage and why understanding God's design matters before entering this covenant relationship. The discussion balances theological depth with pastoral sensitivity, acknowledging the real pain of broken marriages while upholding the sacred ideal God established at creation. Be sure to also join us for Part 2 for a continuation of this discussion.
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May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve
Welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible. Today we are in Mark, chapter 10. And Mark chapter 10 talks about divorce and remarriage. We're in a section of the Word of God that can be very sensitive. It has been very emotional and very painful for different people over the years. We're going to be dealing with this as straightforwardly as we can and with enough human factor that hopefully we can do justice to the Word of God Before we really get going. What I wanted to do was spend just a couple of minutes talking about the subject of divorce and remarriage and the context in which Steve and I, as Bible teachers, approach this. I know, steve.
Speaker 1:I taught a 30-year-old and older singles class at my church for about four and a half years and during that time I learned from people that had been divorced. They had a whole class full of people that many of them had gone through the pain of divorce. I learned there a few things. One there is some physical pain that happens in divorce, some of them. There was some degree of abuse in some of these marriage breakups, some very serious physical abuse that had gone on. But the other thing I learned was that the emotional pain is oftentimes as bad or even worse. Physical injuries can heal, emotional scars often don't heal, or at least they take a very long time for that. So I learned just from talking with people and spending years around these people became my friends that there's some severe pain here in a marriage breakup. Nobody sets out to go through that amount of pain.
Speaker 1:At the same time, as a Bible teacher and somebody who tries my best to have as high a view of the Word of God as I can, I'm forced to teach what the Scripture says, regardless of what people feel about it. And today's passage in Mark, chapter 10, is representative of many of the passages in the Bible that talk about divorce and remarriage. It takes a very low view of divorce and we're going to see that as we go through this. God takes a very strict rather I'll even use the word severe view of marriage and divorce and remarriage. So as Bible teachers, steve, you and I are sort of put into an awkward spot here because we're forced to not compromise what the Word of God says. But at the same time we realize and we know people that have gone through very, very painful divorces. That's just a real thing, this part of life that we have to deal with, don't you agree what?
Speaker 2:we're going to be going through today. We will probably take up the whole session. I think that this topic sometimes has been misapplied by teachers and pastors through the years because they look at it as being a cut-and-dried, black-and-white situation. The Bible says this. Well, the Bible does say this. However, let's look at what the context is like. We do when we reason through Scripture and look at the backstory of what's going on related to these Scriptures and slow down a little bit and reason through them before we move on to the latter part of chapter 10.
Speaker 1:Over the years, steve, I've seen and you probably as well have seen church leaders, Bible teachers that err on two extremes, and one extreme is to take passages and again the Bible takes a rather severe view of divorce and remarriage. There are Bible teachers and pastors that have taken that and they take a sort of no-holds-barred. We're going to plow ahead regardless of what people feel, and oftentimes to the point of being quite rude and insensitive I mean people just calling people names I wouldn't want to use here simply because the Bible takes a severe view of this. I've seen other people on the other extreme that are leaders of churches that take a well, human feelings are so important that God must account for this in all things and they end up compromising or ignoring the Word of God and what it teaches, based on human feelings. And so again, a little bit of an awkward spot here, because I know what's coming up in this chapter and I know that example.
Speaker 1:We have places such as Malachi 2.16, where God says I hate divorce. And then there's other places like John, chapter 8, where the woman that was caught in adultery, what did Jesus do? He said where are those that condemn you? Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. We have places where Jesus was very loving towards people that had broken up their marriages, and yet we also have places where the Lord, god, is quite harsh and severe towards breaking up a marriage. All we could do, what I tell people is all I can do as a Bible teacher is tell you what the text says, and that is going to happen today, and we'll do that regardless of people's feelings. But at the same time, I think, as you alluded to Steve, there's been errors on all extremes of this. We're going to do our best to have a strictly what the Bible teaches, but all of what the Bible teaches and not just part of what the Bible teaches. So we'll see. Let's go ahead and dive in, steve, if you could read Mark, chapter 10, verses 1 through 12.
Speaker 2:Getting up, he went from there to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan. Getting up, he went from there to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan. Crowds gathered around him again and, according to his custom, he once more began to teach them. Pharisees came up to Jesus, testing him, and began to question him whether it was lawful for a man to divorce a wife. And he answered and said to them what did Moses command you? They said, moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away. But Jesus said to them Because of your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment.
Speaker 2:But from the beginning of creation, god made them male and female. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. What, therefore, god has joined together. Let no man separate In the house. The disciples began questioning him about this again and he said to them Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her, and if she herself divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery.
Speaker 1:Let's go back and walk through this as is our custom. Verse 1, jesus is moving. Again it says getting up. He went from there to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan. Again, the Gospel of Mark is a lot of going and doing, a lot of action. Jesus had a mission and he didn't stay in one place. He wasn't lazy in any sense of shape or form. He is going and he has a plan and he's working his plan. The word again appears twice in a row, right there at the beginning of the passage Again the crowds gathered and again he taught them. Mark is showing a pattern by repeating these words Everywhere Jesus went, a crowd gathered and everywhere a crowd gathered, he taught them According to his custom. It says he taught them. Jesus taught everywhere he went. His message was not done in a corner, was very public and a widespread ministry. Everything he did was known very publicly to large crowds. Then, in verse 2, steve, who asked Jesus a question.
Speaker 2:The Pharisees are asking him a question. They are still following him around. They're trying to find something against him in order to condemn him. It says he's beyond the Jordan, so he's on the east side of the Jordan In verse 2, there as the Pharisees come up, the reason that they're going to ask him this question is because they're trying to test him. Remember, back in the earlier chapters, when they didn't get the answers that they wanted from Jesus because he was speaking out against their Pharisaical Judaism. It says they went out and started to plot to kill him. During this time of the ministry they're still off working with other factions to try and find a way that they can get him arrested with the purpose of killing him and getting him out of the way.
Speaker 1:So in verse 2, the Pharisees come up and they ask him a question. And the question is is it lawful for a man to divorce a wife? Now notice they're asking is it lawful? Of course they knew the law. What they're not asking is is it a good idea or should a man? They're asking about the Mosaic law. Well, of course these people were experts in the Mosaic law, so why are they asking it that way? Is it lawful? Why would they ask that?
Speaker 2:That's the first thing we need to point out in the context is their purpose is not to find the truth, their purpose is to try and trap Jesus. So if I could give us a little bit of background here, glenn, this goes back to Deuteronomy, chapter 24, verses 1 through 4. Let me read those real quick, if I can, and then we'll explain a little bit more. Deuteronomy 24.1 says this 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, she leaves his house and goes and becomes another man's wife. And if the latter husband turns around 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, then her former husband, who sent her away, is not allowed to take her again to be his wife since she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the Lord, and you shall not bring sin in the land which the Lord, your God, gives you as an inheritance. The real question that they're coming up to him with is back in verse 1, when it says and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her. That's the question that they're getting up. What's the definition of indecency?
Speaker 2:The Pharisees had two schools of thought that they went by. One was the Shammai and the other was the Hillel. The Shema view was a narrow one where they said the only basis for divorce was fornication or sexual immorality. The Hillel viewpoint has a broader one that said a husband could divorce his wife for any reason, including overcooking or over-salting his food. This question that the Pharisees are coming is they're wanting to entrap him in this question. Which way is he going to go?
Speaker 2:The last little bit of background, glenn, is that he's on the east side of the Jordan, he's beyond the Jordan and he's now back in the area of Judea, which is controlled by guess who? Herod Antipas. The same Herod Antipas that arrested John the Baptist because John was criticizing him of his marriage to his brother's wife. And what happened with John? He was arrested and eventually lost his head. These Pharisees this is the background of this question, as you pointed out they're not asking if it's a good idea. They're not really seeking the truth about it. They're trying to entrap Jesus to where out in the public he condemns it to a point that maybe Herod is going to have him arrested, just like John the Baptist, and his outcome would be the same as John the Baptist. This is the background that we're dealing with as we go through these verses.
Speaker 1:Their question was is it lawful for a man to divorce a wife? And of course they knew that law that you just read. They knew it was according to the Mosaic law it was lawful. It says here in verse 2, they were testing him. So, yeah, exactly, they weren't really looking for curious what his opinion was on divorce and remarriage. They're talking about a way to test him, to trap him at a minimum, either trying to get his head removed from his shoulders, like John the Baptist did, or at least we could say those divisions that you were talking about get him to take sides. And if he took sides then he'd lose half of his following. So there's a very devious motivation here. Now, steve, that passage you read out of Deuteronomy was the law. That's what the Mosaic Law says about divorce. What's interesting in that passage is what it really is is a prevention of remarrying the same husband. That's what it said. A man were to give a wife a certificate and she could not go and then remarry him because she had this certificate. And what that is doing is it's protecting the woman. It's protecting the woman from two things. It's protecting the woman from one getting passed around like property between men. I'll keep her for a while and then I'll send her to you. You get tired of her, send her back. That stopped all that, because now the woman had a piece of paper, that's a document, that says I got a divorce from you and that's not going to happen. We're not going to pass me around. The other one is it gave the woman a public proclamation, a public documentation, that she was not committing adultery because she had been officially divorced from someone. The Mosaic law, as many or most of God's things, was to prevent abuse of the least powerful in society, which, in this case, it protected the woman from being accused of adultery. And adultery was a capital offense. They would be executed. So it was a protection. The Mosaic law around divorce was a protection of the woman and a prevention of men from passing women around like property. That's what is the background for this question. Is it lawful? Well, of course they knew the law. So then, in verse 3, jesus answers their question with a question what did Moses command? You just read what he commanded, deuteronomy 24. And in that passage you read Steve. It says if you divorce, then a certificate. It was protection of the woman.
Speaker 1:The Pharisees' answer verse 4, was true, but it was half the story. Right their story. Look at verse 4, moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away. Well, that's true. It answers the question was it lawful? But they didn't answer. The real question was should they? What's the motivation behind it? That's the real question, really getting behind all this in verse 6, what does Jesus appeal to when he says he gives the justification for his answer in verse 6? What does he appeal to? How far back does he go? He?
Speaker 2:goes all the way back to creation of Adam and Eve, of creating a male and a female. He's basically saying that's not the way it was originally designed to do. Moses permitted you to do this, but that wasn't God's original design In going back that far.
Speaker 1:What's his point? That's what he's saying in verses six through nine, from the beginning of creation. Saying in verses 6 through 9, from the beginning of creation, god made them male and female and the two shall become one flesh. They are no longer two, but one flesh. And then verse 9, therefore, god has joined together. Let no man separate. What's his point? What's the point about creation?
Speaker 2:and then applying that to marriage. The point is is that marriage is something that should be taken seriously. Many times, people want to look at this passage and talk about the situation after a divorce has already happened. What really we should be looking at, and what Jesus is trying to get back to, is, before a marriage even takes place, you need to know that God takes it seriously, seriously, to the point, that the man and the woman leave their respective families and they become one flesh, meaning they form their own family. That's the perspective that people should have before they get married.
Speaker 2:It's a serious thing for them to leave their families, and this bond, by the way that the male and the female have, the bond that they create, is actually a greater bond than they have for their own respective parents. This is what Jesus is trying to get back to. God's original intent for marriage was to be serious. It should be well thought out before people get married, because it's a commitment, and it's a commitment for life. And he says there before that, though, because of the hardness of your heart, because of your stubbornness, moses permitted for you to do this, but this isn't the way it was from the very beginning with God.
Speaker 1:The Pharisees' question was is it lawful? Is it lawful for a man to divorce a wife? And of course, they were talking about the Mosaic law and possibly the secular law of the day. Jesus goes all the way back, way prior to that, all the way back to the Garden of Eden, way, way prior to the giving of the Mosaic Law. In the Garden, in creation, adam and Eve.
Speaker 1:God made them male and female, and what Jesus is appealing to is there's something that's even more fundamental than the Mosaic Law. There's something even prior to that, more basic than that law, and that is hardwired into creation the fact that there is a man and a woman. That is what marriage is based on, the fact that there's two, a man and a woman, and that's what he brings up here. God made them male and female, verse 6. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and the two shall become one flesh. That's what he's appealing to, is something way back, way before Mosaic law, much more fundamental, hardwired into creation. There's male and female, and that's what it's built around. He's saying there's something about marriage that is prior to any moral commands by God. In the Mosaic Law, marriage is because of creation and divorce goes against the way man and women were created from the very beginning, not just a moral command in the Mosaic Law.
Speaker 1:Steve, before we get into all the implications of that, look at verse 6. Who should get married according to verse 6? A male and a female. So what does that tell us for today? Right, we have people today in many countries that have redefined marriage into many things. If Jesus were standing here and people asked the question okay, how about multiple people, or two men, two women, three of four of these and six of those? What would Jesus' answer be? And I submit he would give the same answer that he gave right here, all the way back to creation, before any modern marriage codes of any country, even before the Mosaic law, god made them male and female and the two shall become one flesh. He's very clearly here. What did Jesus teach?
Speaker 2:about marriage. He taught that it was something that was sacred. It was something that was different. He says there in verse 9, whatever God has joined together, let no man separate. So it is a bond between a man and a woman to start their own family. I also want to say this there are some that might be listening to this that aren't married and they're saying, oh, this lesson doesn't have anything to do with me because I'm not married. No, this lesson really is for you, for the ones who aren't married yet. Jesus is depicting how serious marriage is. This lesson here of Jesus answering the Pharisees is really directed towards you who are not married. Marriage is something that is serious and you need to take it seriously before you ever enter into a marriage with somebody else.
Speaker 1:I would agree. I would agree 100%. Along those lines, steve, I think. Going back to what we said at the beginning of the session. Along those lines, steve, I think. Going back to what we said at the beginning of the session, I think some of the pastors and Bible teachers that I have based their teaching on their own feelings in their own marriage, and in cases where they have a really good marriage, then I think they tend to be a little more judgmental, and in cases where their own marriage may have struggled, they may be a little looser in their teachings. What we as Bible teachers need to do is to try to stick strictly with what it's saying and then help people accomplish that with an application in the real world.
Speaker 1:Another point I think we ought to make here, steve, is that one of the reasons I think God puts such a high view on marriage and such a severe view about divorce is that it ties into salvation. The picture that's given in the New Testament about salvation is that the church is the bride of Christ. We are given a wedding feast as a ceremony. We are given as a bride to Christ. So the whole marriage ceremony is a picture of God's promises to us in salvation Because God made a promise to us in salvation that he will keep, even though we are very unlovable, even though I am very unlovable at times. He doesn't send me away.
Speaker 1:And that was their question. Should a man divorce a woman? And the law was written the one you read, steve the man would voluntarily send the woman away. So the point there is that I became very unlovable and God still kept his promise of salvation to me. He didn't send me away because I became very unlovable. The places like the book of Hosea is going to talk about that. The marriage bonds are still there. Even though one of the spouses becomes unlovable or even cheats. God's promises are held. Therefore, the analogy the type of marriage should hold as well. We'll come back to that Mosaic law and God's reason for giving that, but he teaches us something about marriage laws by going all the way back to creation. Are marriage laws in God's eyes based on what a culture or a country does, or is it more fundamental than that?
Speaker 2:It's the basic of a man leaving his parents, a woman leaving her parents, them two joining and becoming one flesh that is outside the bounds of any cultural or legalities of a government or country has. This is something that's very basic and transcends any of that, because laws change amongst governments all the time. Societal and cultural allowances change throughout time. What was once thought of as being not good a hundred years later is thought of being perfectly good. This transcends all of that, no matter what the country or the cultural allowances are. God says marriage is between a man and a woman. They're to leave their respective households and become one flesh, to form their own bond and form their own family.
Speaker 1:And to reinforce that again, verse 6, male and female only. Verses 7 and 8, a man, a woman, two people in marriage. That is God's design and God hasn't changed his view of marriage with the blowing winds of culture, of polygamy or different types of marriages. God recognizes this from the beginning. It goes all the way back to creation. Then you alluded to this earlier, steve. Verse 7, quote a man shall leave his father and mother close. Quote.
Speaker 1:When people get married, it's very important that their relationship with their parents changes. The marriage becomes the primary responsibility and the parent relationship becomes secondary responsibility. Both parents of married children and the children need to let go of that relationship. Parents need to realize that child is grown and gets married. Their primary responsibility is to their spouse and parents need to let that go. Adults that have just gotten married need to realize hey, my primary responsibility is now to my spouse and my parents have to take a back seat. That's just how God wired it into creation. Parents need to back off from children and the children need to make some distance from their parents.
Speaker 1:Many problems occur when the children do not make their spouse more important than their parents, when parents treat the children as if they're still in their own home. Then in verse 8, it says they are no longer two but one flesh. So the question there is how does God view the marriage union? Well, he views it as one flesh, permanent. And so then, if a marriage is one flesh, what happens when someone breaks the marriage union? What is that? What is it a breaking of?
Speaker 2:They go back to being two flesh. They're no longer one flesh, so it's breaking of that bond.
Speaker 1:I spoke to a man once that had just recently gone through a divorce and I don't even think he was a Christian or knew any of these concepts, but I asked him. I was asking him about his breakup. His words were it felt like my body was torn in half. So the pain in many marriage breakups is so severe that it really is physically painful. Again, I taught a class with a lot of divorced people and there's a lot of physical pain. Some of the emotional pain turns into physical pain and some of it was physical abuse. So we need to realize this God's design is because of the way people are created. This isn't God creating a rule for some sort of moral principle. It's hardwired into creation so that even non-believers realize that when you get married and then break up, you're tearing things apart that were grown together. That pain is something that God says he really hates. That was the I hate divorce from Malachi, verse 9,. Who joins the man and the woman.
Speaker 2:It says that God is the one that joins them together and that no man should separate them. It goes back to his illustration of Moses permitted you to do this because of your hard heart, because of your stubbornness that the men of Israel were going to go ahead and divorce their wives for any type of a reason. Anyway, god says Moses permitted you to do this. But God here says I'm the one that joined it together and therefore no man should be separating them.
Speaker 1:Let not man separate. It's not talking about just males, he's talking about let not anyone separate. That's what he means. Let not mankind separate. So it's basically a directive. It's a categorical let not man separate. Who is forbidden to separate a marriage? In God's eyes? All people, all people are forbidden, and again, my job as a Bible teacher is just to explain what the text says All people, in God's eyes, are forbidden to separate a marriage. So then in verse 10, because of that, the disciples ask a question what was the question?
Speaker 2:In verse 10,. Now we see what Jesus has been doing, in that he is now inside the house. His disciples this inner 12 is once again with him in the house. He's going to explain to them a little bit further because they're asking him. It says there in verse 10, that they begin questioning him about this again. They're wanting to get a little bit more information about this situation, because I assume that they want to understand it a little bit better so that they can also teach others about it.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 1:They asked the question right after they had heard Jesus make these very strict, severe rules to and male and female and let not man separate, because God put it together. So because of that, as soon as they got a chance, they asked about it again and said Lord, tell us about this. They asked about it again for the same reason that you and I would ask about it again and say, lord, I mean, we were living in a real world here. What do we do? Tell us, help us out. So there is where he starts to explain. We'll probably have to get to this in our next section. What we're going to find here is that Jesus both withholds his strictness but at the same time, gives us a reason for human compassion and a way that we can all live with it in a real-world, human condition. I think he's going to explain that when we get to it next time.
Speaker 1:The reason why the disciples asked the question in verse 10 is because they had the same question that we have, which is Lord, this is severe. You just said male and female, god put it together, let no man separate. You're restricting any kind of divorce here and we live in a real-world situation. So they're asking about it again. The next section that we'll have to get to in part two is that, because of what he said, he's going to repeat this. He's going to say some even more severe things, but he's also going to give us a reason for why God has compassion.
Speaker 1:And I think our friends on both ends of the spectrum will want to tune in for part two and I think you'll be surprised that once we take the whole counsel of God, then we're going to see some very compassionate things come out of God's commands and some allowances here that I think will be surprising to a lot of people. I just encourage our listeners to tune in next time and we'll have part two of Mark, chapter 10, when he's talking about divorce and remarriage Glenn earlier in next time. And we'll have part two of Mark, chapter 10, when he's talking about divorce and remarriage Glenn earlier in this session you talked about there was protection for women.
Speaker 2:In part two we're going to find out in Jesus's answer he includes protection for women again because under the current law that only the men could divorce the women, women didn't have any rights to divorce the man. But we're going to see how Jesus twists that and turned that on its head in part two of our session on this part of Mark in chapter 10.
Speaker 1:We'll leave you hanging a little bit, but tune in next time and we'll finish reasoning through this section.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for watching and listening. May God bless you.
