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#1.3 GOD'S MARRIAGE IS PERMANENT

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Introduction 1.3

This is a bible study showing God's intended permanence for marriage in the beginning. This will not only give us a basis for understanding God's ideal for marriage today, and will lay a foundation against the sin of divorce and remarriage.

#1.3 GOD'S MARRIAGE IS PERMANENT

#1.31 Jesus commanded "Do not let man separate"

GENESIS 2:21-24
21 And Yahweh God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place:
22 And the rib, which Yahweh God had taken from man, he made a woman, and brought her to the man.
23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man.
24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cling to his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

MATTHEW 19:3-9
3 The Pharisees also came to him, tempting him, and saying to him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?
4 And he answered and said to them, Have you not read, that he who made them at the beginning made them male and female,
5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cling to his wife: and they two shall be one flesh?
6 Therefore they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, do not let man separate1.
7 They say to him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement?
8 He says unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.
9 And I say to you, Whoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, commits adultery: and whoever marries her who is put away commits adultery.

MARK 10:2-12
2 And the Pharisees came to him, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? tempting him.
3 And he answered and said to them, What did Moses command you?
4 And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away.
5 And Jesus answered and said to them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this commandment.
6 But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.
7 For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and cling to his wife;
8 And they two shall be one flesh: so then they are no more two, but one flesh.
9 What therefore God has joined together, do not let man separate1.
10 And in the house his disciples asked him again of the same matter.
11 And he said to them, Whoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, commits adultery against her.
12 And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she commits adultery.

Note: When God created Adam in the garden of Eden, he made him one wife only. He did not create spare wives for Adam in case he decided to divorce Eve, which shows his original intention for marriage; one man, one wife, for ever. It is not surprising then, when the Pharisees tempted Jesus on the question of divorce, that he referred them back to the beginning of creation, to show them how God desired it to be. He then gave the commands, "What therefore God has joined together, do not let man separate1." (Matthew 19:6; Mark 10:9). The words translated do not let ... separate1 (Gr. μὴ χωριζέτω, Gtr. me choridzeto) are literally a command to stop doing what they were already doing. The word "me" is a negative, and the word " choridzeto " is the third person, singular, present, active, imperative, of the verb "choridzo", "I separate", or "I put apart". Any Greek grammar book should tell you that this construction is used for a command to stop doing what they were already doing, or to continually not do it (DFH p93; HPVN p84; WP p51). Jesus was literally telling them, "What God has joined together, let man stop putting apart", or "let him never put apart". (There are two exceptions: temporary separation for the sake of the gospel (Mark 10:29-30), and temporary sexual abstention with consent, for the purpose of fasting and prayer (1 Corinthians 7:5).) This is a direct command by Jesus, not only for men not to divorce their wives, but not to even separate from them, and was confirmed by Paul, who quoted this passage using the same verb "choridzeto":

(1 Corinthians 7:10-11) "And to the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Do not let the wife depart from1 her husband:
But and if she departs1, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and do not let the husband put away his wife."

It is obvious from this, that Paul did not interpret Jesus' teaching to include remarriage for someone separated from a lawful marriage partner (See #3.2 Stay unmarried or be reconciled). Thus any lawful marriage in the sight of God is joined together by him (Matthew 19:6; Mark 10:9), until death ends the marriage (See #3.7 Free to remarry).

#1.32 What God joins together is permanent

ECCLESIASTES 3:14 (Solomon)
14 I know that, whatever God does, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it: and God does it, that men should fear before him.

ROMANS 11:29(Paul)
29 For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance.

Note: God is consistent, and he does not change:

(Malachi 3:6) "For I am Yahweh, I do not change."
(James 1:17) "the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."

Therefore, when he joins two people together in a one-flesh relationship, it is permanent until he separates it at the death of one the partners (See #3.7 Free to remarry). It is done "for ever" (Ecclesiastes 3:14), and God does not regret his decision (Romans 11:29). This being so, divorce does not dissolve the one flesh relationship that God has joined together. This must be obvious, otherwise divorce and remarriage could never be adultery as Jesus said (Matthew 5:31; 19:9; Mark 10:11-12; Luke 16:18), or as Paul confirmed (Romans 7:2-3). Therefore, unless a marriage relationship is unlawful, that is, fornication in the eyes of God (See #5 Fornication), then according to his word man cannot end it, there is no divorce for adultery (See #6 Adultery), or for any other reason. When God opens the door to a lawful marriage relationship, no man can shut it (Revelation 3:7-8).

#1.33 Marriage is a permanent covenant

MALACHI 2:14
14 Yet you say, Why? Because Yahweh has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously: yet is she your companion, and the wife of your covenant.

Note: This scripture indicates that God regards marriage as a covenant, which he confirms, and becomes a partaker in, by making the two partners into one flesh (Matthew 19:5-6; Mark 10:8-9). All of God's covenants in scripture are permanent:

(Genesis 9:16)"everlasting covenant"
(Genesis 17:7) "everlasting covenant"
(Genesis 17:19) "everlasting covenant"
(Exodus 31:16) "perpetual covenant"
(Leviticus 24:8) "everlasting covenant"
(Numbers 25:13) "covenant of an everlasting"
(2 Samuel 23:5) "everlasting covenant"
(Psalm 105:10) "everlasting covenant"
(Psalm 111:9) "covenant for ever"
(Isaiah 24:5) "everlasting covenant"
(Isaiah 55:3) "everlasting covenant"
(Isaiah 61:8) "everlasting covenant"
(Jeremiah 32:40) "everlasting covenant"
(Ezekiel 16:60) "everlasting covenant"
(Ezekiel 37:26) "everlasting covenant"
(Hebrews 13:20) "everlasting covenant"

These references all show that, when God makes a covenant with anyone, because he does not change (Malachi 3:6; James 1:17), then he makes them "everlasting", and he has said he will not alter any:

(Judges 2:1) "I will never break my covenant with you."
(Psalm 89:34) "My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips."
(Psalm 111:5) "he will be ever mindful of his covenant."
(Ecclesiastes 3:14) "whatever God does, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it.".

This being so, God sees our marriage covenants as permanent, and has commanded us not to break them (Matthew 19:6; Mark 10:9). Even if God was not involved with our covenant, it should still not be broken:

(Galatians 3:15) "Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannuls, or adds to it."

An example of this is when Joshua was deceived into making a covenant with the inhabitants of Gibeon (Joshua 9:3-27), which he had been forbidden to do (Exodus 23:32; Deuteronomy 7:1-2), because they were Hivites (Joshua 9:7; 11:19). He kept that covenant, but hundreds of years later it was broken by king Saul, and when punishment for this came as a famine, in the time of David (2 Samuel 21:1), it had to be atoned for by the lives of seven of Saul's descendants (2 Samuel 21:2-9).
All this goes to prove that when God joins two people together, as "one flesh", in a legitimate marriage relationship, it is permanent until the death of one of the partners (See #3.7 Free to remarry) as far as he is concerned.

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