Who Am I Married To?

Israel, Marriage, Divorce & God- Who Am I Married To?

When considering marriage and divorce, it is necessary for one to understand the spiritual concept of all things it encompasses and the root of the matter. In this study, I will teach on how marriage and divorce is seen through the eyes of God, with Scriptural backing and support of the Word from God, as was spoken thousands of years and recorded in the bible. I will be as brief and simple as possible, giving you the background and depth on the issue for you to get an understanding.  Please do hear from the Lord on this matter. In today’s time, we have been deceived into believing that anything goes and is accepted even in the church. God is not pleased!

We all know that Adam and Eve were married, as God formed the woman from the man as it is written,

Genesis 2

^[21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;

²² And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto 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 his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.]

Here is where we find the first biblical account of a God-made union. God chose Eve for Adam, as she was created only for him and not any other man. It was binding and approved by God. This union was blessed by God and designed to bring glory to him.

Later on in the scripture, beginning in Leviticus, we see numerous accounts of divorce and laws pertaining to an individual obtaining one. Where did this come from??? Let’s go forward to the book of Matthew.

In Matthew 19, in this account Jesus is tempted of the Pharisees, who ask him about the lawfulness of putting away on one’s wife, or divorce. Read the account:

[³ The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?

⁴ And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which 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 cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?

⁶ Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

⁷ They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?

⁸ He saith 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 unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.

¹⁰ His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry.

¹¹ But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given.

¹² For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.]

So here, Jesus is restating the fact that God made and intended for man and woman to come together and be as one but because the people were hard of heart, unforgiving, a law was introduced to allow one to do so. He goes on to answer the disciples who question if a divorced man can remarry or if it is not good to marry by saying, “All men cannot receive this saying, save them to whom it is given”, simply put, this is not to be held for every man (to not marry) except those who were chosen to be eunuchs and others who chose to be eunuchs. 

Divorce is a difficult situation which stems from a hardened heart and one who does not forgive. As the scripture says in Matthew 6:15, "But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father [God] forgive your trespasses.".

If you want to be forgiven, you must first forgive others your own self. Note: Some people have formed improper unions which are not of God, even abusive marriages that need to be dismantled. That is another subject other than unforgiveness.

Now let’s bring in Isreal to this discussion. Isreal is God’s chosen people, from the seed of Abraham, as Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, was called in Genesis 32:28, “And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.”  God came to Jacob once again and spoke to him (Genesis 35),

[⁹ And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him.

¹⁰ And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel.

¹¹ And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;

¹² And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.]

Israel, as it is written, was chosen and blessed by God. In Israel, God made a promise. In Israel, there was Purpose. From the seed of Abraham, Israel was formed and Jesus Christ was later birthed in the very same blood-line. Now you see why covenant and chosen unions are so important to God!

Even though Israel was precious and dear to God, the people erred from his ways and committed abominations against his name. In Jeremiah 3, we are given an account of Israel who has turned against God, being disloyal and doing whatever they as a people pleased to do.

[ ¹They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the Lord.

² Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lien with. In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness.

³ Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore's forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.

⁴ Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth?

⁵ Will he reserve his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest.

⁶ The Lord said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.

⁷ And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

⁸ And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.

⁹ And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.]

Look back at verse 8, as most people take this as the Lord divorcing his chosen people. It says that “I had put her away and given her a bill of divorcement”. Does it say that God actually divorced his chosen people, broke the covenant he made with them. NO!!! What is does say is that for her treacherous ways he would, should, and could give her away (as the mosaic law allows for divorcement) but he yet gives her another chance to cry out to him and turn from her ways. He wants her to return back to Him. Going on through the following verses, the truth is God stayed married to Israel as his people. It was Israel who left God and went after other gods and people.

[¹⁴Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:]

He goes on and pleads with them to cry out to him and acknowledge their wrongdoings. He please for his wife to come back to him, to turn around, then he will return them back to him from where they have been scattered because of their iniquities.

Isreal, now, is compared to a wife who has left her husband treacherously (Jeremiah 3:20). Like a rebellious wife, Isreal has left God and his ways, whoring after other Gods and things, when God had been so kind and gracious towards them.

In Ezra chapter’s 9 and 10, we see this again. The people have gone after things that were not of God as is given in the following passages:

Ezra 9

[⁷ Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day.

⁸ And now for a little space grace hath been shewed from the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage.

⁹ For we were bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.

¹⁰ And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? for we have forsaken thy commandments,

¹¹ Which thou hast commanded by thy servants the prophets, saying, The land, unto which ye go to possess it, is an unclean land with the filthiness of the people of the lands, with their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with their uncleanness.

¹² Now therefore give not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor seek their peace or their wealth for ever: that ye may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children for ever.

¹³ And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hast given us such deliverance as this;

¹⁴ Should we again break thy commandments, and join in affinity with the people of these abominations? wouldest not thou be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor escaping?

¹⁵ O Lord God of Israel, thou art righteous: for we remain yet escaped, as it is this day: behold, we are before thee in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before thee because of this.]

Ezra 10

[ ¹Now when Ezra had prayed, and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children: for the people wept very sore.

² And Shechaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said unto Ezra, We have trespassed against our God, and have taken strange wives of the people of the land: yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing.

³ Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them, according to the counsel of my lord, and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law.

⁴ Arise; for this matter belongeth unto thee: we also will be with thee: be of good courage, and do it.]

The Israelites were told to put away the strange wives that they had chosen for themselves (not ones who God chose for them), those whom God had not given permission to be unified to. As a matter of fact, he commanded that they not form bonds or connect with these people, as in doing so, they polluted themselves. He knew that by the chosen people mingling and giving into marrying them, their Purpose would also be destroyed and so those who would not separate themselves would have the wrath of God come upon them and be destroyed.

Returning to Jeremiah, as we go through the scriptures, God speaks of all the abominations that the people have committed and yet have not turned back to him. The men and women who call themselves of God, even the prophets, bring him shame and pollute his name. He goes on to pour out his wrath and scatter his people but alas, he promises to keep a remnant and not utterly destroy them all as he did with Sodom and Gomorrah but will gather those who have a heart for him, a remnant, and bless them (Jeremiah 24).

God is a God of consistency. He will not change! As much as his people had done and sinned against him, he did not utterly destroy them all. He did not cease to be married to them. They were still his people (Isaiah 54). It is written in Jeremiah 31:32-33, the Israelites broke the covenant with God, not God himself. This is also, spoken of by God in Isaiah 50:1-

“Thus saith the Lord, Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.”

Yet the Lord in his compassion and mercy, vowed to make a new covenant with the people of Israel.

Israel rebelled and strayed away from God, as thus were subjected to the consequences, being exiled, and scattered. Nevertheless, they were still God's own people. Israel left God and caused God to make a new covenant. Israel committed a great adultery against their God (who is her husband). They forced a separation (which is parallel to a spiritual divorce), through repeated whoredoms.

This account of God bestowing his Love and compassion to an unruly people who were his own, is given in another account in the book of Hosea.

Here, Hosea is instructed by God to take a wife of whoredoms, a prostitute, and marry her. This he did. After many tries to secure her love, his wife, went back to her whorish ways and latter, found herself with nothing, desolate and destitute. But, there was still one who wanted her and would care for her, her husband Hosea. Hosea 3 says:

[¹Then said the Lord unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.

² So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley:

³ And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee.

⁴ For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim:

⁵ Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days.]

The rest of the book of Hosea, calls for Isreal to turn back from the evil doings and abominiations. God has not given up on them and as Hosea did to his whorish wife who walked away from him and broke the marriage covenant, he remained and still does remain, a loving husband to Israel, waiting for their return to him.

Hosea 14

[O israel, return unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.

² Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.

³ Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.

⁴ I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.

⁵ I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.

⁶ His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.

⁷ They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.

⁸ Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found.

⁹ Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of theLord are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.]

From these accounts, we are shown time and time again that God will not break his covenant that he made with his chosen people, Israel, who he calls his wife. As Moses said in Deuteronomy 4,

“²⁷And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the Lord shall lead you.

²⁸ And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.

²⁹ But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

³⁰ When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice;

³¹ (For the Lord thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.”

In marriage, we are to be like God is to Israel, Hosea to Gomer, compassionate, long suffering, forgiving, and full of Love everlasting. How is it that we give up so easily and get a divorce? Why is divorce looked upon as a normal function, even in our churches? How do we form marriages with those who God has not given us to, those who he sees as polluted and foreign to our own people (not talking race or nationality, but spiritually)?

Know ye not that God is still the same as he was on yesterday? Do we not think it necessary when we make these unions of marriage in the first place? Perhaps, it is better to cement a marriage and dismember another at the advice and discretion of man and his terms. No! God forbid. 

I would not be ignorant nor go against God and say that marriage and divorce is as easy as a checklist of who can and cannot marry and divorce. When God has chosen two individuals to become one, just as he did with Adam and Eve, he does for a reason, for Purpose (in and of him) to be birthed. The reason why marriages are not fruitful and present no true power or Purpose in the Lord is because we go on man’s terms and our own will instead of God’s. If it were so, Gomer and Hosea would have never been recorded. What man would encourage another to marry a wife who is a whore? That was a God directed union, for His purpose. Please do not think it wise to marry a whore or loose women/man. 

Only God can make the proper connections that benefit his Kingdom in the way that he intended, in his will. He has a perfect will for us all, with marriage included, but we will never get it right if we always choose our own ways. You must choose a spouse with God in mind, with God leading you.

What needs to be done is every man individually, seek the Lord and assess the union that they desire to be in, whether it is of God or not. This is not a matter to take lightly. Just as was the case with Israel, those who we are with can either bring blessings to us, or separation and destruction from God. If you are in a marriage and have issues, seek God. He will lead you in the way to go. Walk in God's will, not your will.

Furthermore, if God hath given you a spouse to join in a covenant marriage, YOU are not the one to decide to break it for whatever reason. It was God’s covenant to make and he will be the only one to break it apart.

Matthew 19:6
Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not manput asunder.

Mark 10:9
What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

It should also be noted that the nation of Israel, the Jews, as they are called today are NOT all God’s chosen people! Because the Israelite’s had transgressed against the Lord and went against his commandments, he scattered them into countries afar. If time permits, I will go into this in further detail. Take what was said to heart and know that the Lord will always give a way of escape before he moves his hand to destroy. May God bless your soul.

For further reading on Israel and divorce follow the links: 
http://outreachjudaism.org/god-divorce-israel/

http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Believer's%20Corner/Doctrines/god-divorce_israel.htm

Prophetess Talia A. Mann