Why God Hates Divorce

My sermon title today, “Why God Hates Divorce,” calls for some careful preliminary analysis. In fact, there are four things I want to point out by way of introduction. First, the title presupposes that God does indeed hate divorce. I feel confident in making that assertion because God Himself said so. Mal. 2:16 reads, “‘I hate divorce,’ says the Lord God of Israel . . . . So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith.”

But second, I hasten to point out what the title does not say, namely, “Why God Hates Divorced People.” There is no such assertion in the Bible, and there are, in fact, many places where the Bible flatly contradicts such a notion. Now there are a few people who might be called “perpetrators of divorce.” By that I mean they consciously and intentionally use the divorce laws to free themselves of unwanted responsibility or to enable them to get into a new relationship that seems more exciting. Such individuals God may indeed hate. But I am convinced that most divorced people are victims, not perpetrators.

In many cases both spouses in the same divorce are victims–victims of Satan’s lies, particularly the myth of the greener grass, victims of ignorance concerning God’s principles, victims of a lack of resources to deal with the problems in their marriages, victims of a spouse who refuses to work on the marriage. They don’t want a divorce; they hate the thought of being divorced, but they just don’t know any way out of the trap in which they find themselves.

Now when I call these people “victims” I am not trying to relieve them of responsibility for their situation. Nearly all of them made some bad decisions somewhere along the way which led them into court. But I am trying to enter into their pain and grant to them the fact that in most cases this was not a willful act of rebellion toward God. In fact, so convinced am I of the pain and trauma that divorce produces that I have taken out of my vocabulary the term “divorcee”. I speak instead of “the one who has suffered divorce.”

Third, while God hates divorce, it is not by any means the only thing God hates.

Prov. 6:16 reads, “These are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies, and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.”

And there are more. I did a word study throughout the OT and discovered that God hates idols and images (Deut. 16:21,22), He hates all who do wrong (Ps. 5:5), He hates the wicked and those who love violence (Ps. 11:5), He hates robbery and iniquity (Isa. 61:8), He hates the burning of incense in the worship of other gods (Jer. 44:4), He hates religious feasts and burnt offerings when the hearts of His people are not right (Amos 5:21), and He hates the plotting of evil against a neighbor (Zech. 8:17).

Now the reason I mention these other things God hates is not to minimize the hatred God has of divorce, but to help those of us who have not suffered divorce realize that divorce is not a unique sin that makes a person unredeemable in the sight of God or unusable in the church.

Fourth, it is important to note that while God hates divorce, He does not forbid all divorce. In fact, under certain very restricted conditions God expressly permits it. I must assume that in those situations God hates what brings about the divorce (namely unrepentant sexual sin) more than He hates divorce. This morning I do not have time to talk about the exceptions to God’s principle of “no divorce,” but I have written a rather lengthy paper on the subject, which I would be happy to share with anyone who would like to study the issue. In fact, I have a few copies available here this morning.

There may be a tendency for some to think this subject is irrelevant to them. I think not. Those who have never married need to think about God’s hatred of divorce before they decide to make a covenant before God and man “to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish till death do us part.” God takes our vows very seriously.

Those who are now married need to know this before they even think about seeing a lawyer to solve their problems.

And those who are divorced need to realize that a second marriage is twice as likely to end in divorce as a first one, and God hates second, third, and fourth divorces too!

Even the secular world is beginning to wake up to the seriousness of the problem of divorce in our society. Every year over 1 million Americans get divorced, and the statistics get worse each year because the children of divorced parents are more likely to get divorced themselves. Larry Bumpass, a professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin, projects that 60 percent of recent marriages will eventually end in divorce. (The Emmaus Journal, 1993, p. 23).

A Michigan state legislator is attempting to reform that state’s no-fault divorce law. The law is so lenient, he said, “it is easier to divorce my wife of 26 years than to fire someone I hired one week ago.” No-fault divorce laws allow a marriage to be dissolved for almost any reason, even if only one party wants a divorce. The result has been skyrocketing divorce rates. State Rep. Jessie Dalman has proposed reforms. If one partner wants to reconcile, then the one who wants a divorce will have to prove fault. Also, the law would give more power over the division of assets to the partner who wants to reconcile. If there are children, the parents would have to prove that the divorce is in their best interests.

But making it harder to get a divorce, while probably a step in the right direction, is not the only way to tackle the problem. On February 9 Clarence Page’s syndicated editorial in the Post Dispatch was entitled, “Easy Marriage, Easy Divorce.” After discussing the pros and cons of no-fault divorce, he wrote,

Fault or no-fault, divorce is no fun. But the solution is not to be found at the back end of the problem, which is bad marriages. Let’s look at the other end. Instead of making it harder to get divorced, I think we ought to make it harder to get married. Worse than the no-fault divorce is the no-sweat wedding. If easy divorce cheapens the institution of marriage, so does easy marriage. We have waiting periods for gun purchases, mandatory training for drivers’ licenses, but nothing at all for two people who want to do the most important thing human beings can do, which is to create other human beings and raise a family.

I appreciate what this Michigan State Legislator is trying to do, and I agree here with Clarence Page, but of far more importance to me is what almighty God, our Creator, has to say on the subject of divorce. What I want to ask and to answer this morning is this: Why does God hate divorce?

Because divorce violates His perfect plan for His highest creation.

Paul Stolwyk spoke very clearly and profoundly last Sunday about God’s blueprint for marriage: One man and one woman united permanently in a relationship of commitment, companionship, fellowship, service, and love. Divorce was never in the original blueprint for the home. Not only is that implied in the Genesis account, it is clearly stated by Jesus. He said in Matthew 19:8: “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning.” It is also made clear in our primary text for today–Malachi 2:10-16:

Have we not all one Father ? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our fathers by breaking faith with one another? {11} Judah has broken faith. A detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the LORD loves, by marrying the daughter of a foreign god. {12} As for the man who does this, whoever he may be, may the LORD cut him off from the tents of Jacob even though he brings offerings to the LORD Almighty. {13} Another thing you do: You flood the Lord’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. {14} You ask, “Why?” It is because the LORD is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant. {15} Has not the LORD made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth. {16} “I hate divorce,” says the LORD God of Israel, “and I hate a man’s covering himself with violence as well as with his garment,” says the LORD Almighty. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith.

In this text the prophet takes the people to task for their spiritual unfaithfulness and for their unfaithfulness to their marriage vows. Spiritual and physical adultery are often linked in the Bible; indeed they almost always go together. A man in the process of divorcing his wife without biblical grounds recently told me, “I’ve never been closer to Christ.” Frankly, I don’t believe it, and there’s nothing in his actions or attitudes that would suggest fellowship with God. Yes, there are tears, but the tears remind me of the tears here in verse 13: “You flood the Lord’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands.”

In Malachi 2:15 the prophet goes back to the beginning of creation and the institution of marriage. “Has not the Lord made them one,” i.e. one flesh? He had enough breath of life or creative energy to have made many wives for Adam. Why then did He make only one? Monogamy was His intended design, in order to raise up a godly offspring. The author’s point is that divorce clearly counteracts the original purposes of God to establish an extended spiritual family here on earth. “So,” says Malachi, “guard yourself in your spirit and do not break faith.”

God’s plan is, by definition, the best plan. How could it be otherwise? If He is the God of Scripture, the infinite, eternal, omniscient God of wisdom and power and love, would He devise a plan that would not be good for His children? Would He demand permanence in marriage if that permanence interfered with our welfare and our happiness? Jesus answered that question emphatically in the Sermon on the Mount. “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” And marriage is one of the greatest gifts God has given to His creation.

But, you say, there’s nothing godly about my marriage. It’s miserable, it’s unhappy, it’s degrading. Do you mean to tell me that God wants me to stay in this for the rest of my life? Of course not! God doesn’t want you to be in a miserable, unhappy, degrading marriage for even five more minutes! But there is an alternative to ending a lousy marriage–that’s to find healing for it. I know there are a number of couples here this morning who have seen their marriages healed. I’m talking about marriages that were once in very serious trouble but today are solid, happy, and fulfilling. In fact, in a moment I’m going to ask some of you to stand as a testimony to God’s grace, if (1) your marriage was once so troubled that you thought about divorce, but (2) God has healed your marriage to the point that divorce is out of the question and you would call your marriage solid. If that describes you, would you be willing to stand right now?

Friends, does God heal today? We have some miracles standing before our eyes here this morning–miracles of God’s healing power. Thank you, please be seated. By the way, I’m sure many of these families would be happy to share with you how God healed their marriage. There is hope.

The spirit of our age is a spirit of shallow, temporary commitments and instant gratification. The spirit of our age demands that a marriage relationship meet our needs and achieve our goals quickly and painlessly. If it doesn’t, then we have the right to abandon it and find one that will. As followers of Jesus, however, we need to listen to the Spirit of God, not the spirit of our age, and the Spirit of God states that divorce violates His perfect plan for His highest creation.

Because divorce involves the breaking of a covenant.

The concept of a solemn covenant is at the heart of Malachi 2. There was a spiritual covenant between God and His people, and that covenant served as the symbol for the marriage covenant. All marriages whether civil or religious include the recitation of some kind of vows–statements and promises of mutual commitment before God and man. When a man and a woman marry, they do not say, “Till divorce do us part,” they say, “Till death do us part.” They almost always promise to stay together “for better or for worse.” Although the couple may be non-Christians, God hears the vows made and will judge them for promises not kept.

Do you know how serious covenant-breaking is to God? Listen to a few of the literally dozens of passages that speak about God’s attitude toward those who break covenants and vows. First, Lev. 26:14ff:

But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands, and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant, then I will do this to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and drain away your life. You will plant seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it. I will set my face against you so that you will be defeated by your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even when no one is pursuing you. If after all this you will not listen to me, I will punish you for your sins seven times over. I will break down your stubborn pride and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze. Your strength will be spent in vain, because your soil will not yield its crops, nor will the trees of the land yield their fruit.

Three more times that chapter goes on to say, “If you remain hostile toward me and refuse to listen to me . . . further evil will come upon you.”

Then consider Eccles. 5:4-6: “When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it. Do not let your mouth lead you into sin. And do not protest to the temple messenger, ‘My vow was a mistake.’ (Boy, I’ve heard that a bunch of time in marriage counseling!) Why should God be angry at what you say and destroy the work of your hands?”

In order to illustrate all the more graphically the heinousness of divorce, Malachi uses three phrases in chapter 2, verse 14 to describe the victim of divorce: “Wife of your youth,” “your partner,” and “the wife of your marriage covenant.” One commentator writes,

She whom you thus wronged was the companion of those earlier and brighter days, when in the bloom of her young beauty she left her father’s house and shared your early struggles, and rejoiced in your later success; who walked arm in arm with you along the pilgrimage of life, cheering you in its trials by her gentle ministry; and now, when the bloom of her youth has faded and the friends of her youth have gone, when father and mother whom she left for you are in the grave, then you cruelly cast her off as a worn-out, worthless thing, and insult her holiest affections by putting an idolater and a heathen in her place.

Of course, this cuts both ways, for there are as many women violating their marriage covenants today as men. God hates divorce because divorce involves the breaking of a covenant.

Because He loves people and doesn’t want them to suffer the pain that divorce inevitably produces.

Divorce, friends, is ugly. Even under the best of circumstances it causes great pain. When a husband and wife get married they become one flesh. That’s the essence of marriage. When a husband and wife get divorced that one flesh is torn apart. There’s no painless way to tear one’s flesh apart. God knows that, and that’s why He hates divorce.

Researchers at the University of Chicago and the National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Md., categorized life’s most stressful events and found that divorce ranked third behind the death of a child and the death of a spouse. (Industry Week, June 23, 1980, p. 81). Some people I know who have experienced all three would rank divorce even higher.

What I do not understand is why so many will endure all the emotional pain, psychological pain, financial pain, family pain, loneliness, bitterness, and dozens of other kinds of suffering that divorce produces, but they won’t seek marriage counseling, or if they do, they won’t engage in the hard but rewarding work that can bring healing to a troubled marriage.

I think God has a special love for those who have been divorced against their will, as well as for their children. Listen to Psalm 68:4,5:

Sing to God, sing praise to his name,

extol him who rides on the clouds–

his name is the Lord–

and rejoice before him.

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,

is God in his holy dwelling.

God sets the lonely in families. (and one of those special families is the church).

Now tell me, do you think God is offering here to be a father to those made widows and orphans by death and not those made widows and orphans by divorce? God hates divorce because He loves people and doesn’t want them to suffer the pain that divorce inevitably produces.

Because He loves children, and children are devastated by divorce.

Children are the silent victims of divorce. Always. One mother I know who divorced her husband to marry another man tried to convince me that her children were doing well; in fact, she had convinced herself that her children were better off with their time and love divided between two homes than they would have been had she stayed in a loveless marriage. Leaving aside the fact I have already mentioned–namely loveless marriages can be healed–this woman is simply deluding herself. I know her children, and her children are hurting, and they are hurting more because of the divorce than they ever would have hurt had she stayed in the marriage. You could never convince me otherwise.

Children of divorce hurt when they are small. I had a little preschooler in this church come to me three weeks ago and tell me she thought she was going to die. I believe the trauma she was experiencing is related directly to the fact that her daddy has moved away and she doesn’t know if he is coming back. Every S.S. teacher and every public school teacher will tell you about the pain inflicted in the lives of small children when mommy and daddy go separate ways. In many classrooms today the number of children who live with both their natural parents in the same house is a distinct minority. And we are surprised at the behavior problems?

Children of divorce hurt as adolescents. Newsweek magazine, February 19, 1996, reported that teenagers from broken homes are more likely to drop out of school, have children out of wedlock and have poor mental health. This week Pastor Bruce has been working with a social worker in our church who specializes in counseling the adolescent victims of divorce in the public schools. They are working on establishing a thoroughly Christian version of that curriculum here in the Church so the children of broken homes can talk out their special issues and find support from one another.

Children of divorce hurt even as adults. My wife’s parents divorced when she was 8. As divorces go it was one of the better ones. Her parents remained civil and there was no attempt on the part of one of them to paint the other as the bad guy. They both lived in the same city so the children had plenty of access to both parents. Her mother and her stepmother became friends and to this day they remain friends, even though her dad died in 1994. We can all have Thanksgiving Dinner together and there is no tension or difficulty. Furthermore, Jan came to faith in Christ through her stepmother, so the best thing that ever happened to her was a result of her parents’ divorce. That’s why I say that as divorces go, this was one of the better ones.

But does that mean the divorce of her parents left no scars? Don’t believe it for a moment. Some of the toughest things we have had to deal with in our 32 years of marriage are the result of that decision of Jan’s parents long before I met her. She has done an amazing job coming to grips with those issues (to say nothing of the problems I brought into the marriage) and her healing is nearly complete, but the question I would ask is this: “Does a child deserve to pay that price so the parents can find a quick escape route from the pressures of life?” And remember, this was by no means a typical divorce. The scars left when mom and dad are bitter and angry or when one of them just abandons the family or even when one moves out of town are infinitely more severe.

God hates divorce because He loves children, and children are devastated by divorce. Now I wish to conclude with one more point:

Because God hates divorce, we should hate divorce and reject it as a solution to the trials we face in marriage.

I’m not talking here about the person whose spouse is guilty of persistent, unrepentant adultery. Jesus addressed that situation in Matthew 5:31,32 with some special instruction. Nor am I talking about the person who because of his or her commitment to Christ has been abandoned by an unbelieving spouse. Paul addresses that situation in I Cor. 7 with some special instruction. But I am talking to nearly everyone else. If God hates divorce, we should hate it. If God says “no,” we should say “no.” If God says, “With me all things are possible, I can heal your marriage if you are willing to live by my principles, invest the necessary effort, and trust me,” then we should say, “Yes, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.”

I want to close today with a letter I received on Tuesday. I asked permission from this couple and they said I could read it to you. I showed it to Paul and after reading it he said, “You don’t even need to prepare a sermon. Just read the letter.” Well, I thought that was a bit drastic, especially since I had already prepared my sermon, but I do want to read the letter.

Mike,

I wanted to drop you a note and let you know that I have really enjoyed the messages on the family the last couple of weeks. I also want to say that I appreciate your comments and your beliefs on the subject of divorce and how much God hates it! Having a degree in theology from a Christian college and having worked in the “arena” of (a certain evangelical denomination that shall remain unnamed), I have witnessed many ministers dancing around the subject. It is refreshing to see ministers stand in the pulpit and preach what God’s Word says, not worrying that someone will be “offended”–I think a better word is “convicted.”

Having been through a divorce I see the destruction that it does–not only to the two married individuals, but the children, the in-laws, brothers, sisters, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, friends, associates–it seems to be a never ending “ripple” effect that touches so many people. It is a devastating move that cripples the family emotionally, spiritually, financially, educationally, etc. I have seen the effects on my 3 « year old son; it is so sad to see him grieve for our past mistakes.

My wife and I are still moving in the direction of reconciliation. We both feel very comfortable with each other and have worked through a lot of garbage and hope to put our family back together the way God intended it to be. Our counseling has gone very well and we really enjoy each other. There have been some arguments, etc., but we have actually been able to work through the situations very well. It has been work but it has been fun–we are making it fun!! I look forward to getting our family whole and healed!

Please continue to preach God’s Word as you have. I wish sometimes that I could stand on a mountain and shout a warning for people not to go down the road that we did. Thank God for giving us the opportunity to “make it right”–most don’t get that chance. Mike, please continue to warn the families at E. Free that God hates divorce and it is not the “way out” that most people think it is. I know there are cases that people are in danger and they need to be removed from a situation, but our society has made divorce look like a cure-all for marriage problems–it’s not! It just causes much more pain and destroyed lives.

God bless, and he signs his name.

This couple is here this morning, as they have been for most of the last two months. They were here together on December 31, the morning Ben and Debbie Mudd shared how God had brought Ben to his knees through their divorce, how he had accepted Christ, how he had prayed for reconciliation, and how their relationship was healed. The Mudds were remarried in November. God used that testimony to convince this couple that God could do it again. He is working in their lives and I look forward to officiating at a very special wedding in God’s time.

Marriage is like a garden. Neglect it long enough and it will become a jungle, replete with lions, tigers, and snakes. Friends, if your “garden” is looking a little shabby, now is the time to pull some weeds. If it seems beyond you, get a gardener. There is much at stake. If you see friends of yours that are in trouble, encourage them to get help and get it now.

Reconciliation between two people, whether they are in a troubled marriage, or already divorced, or whether they are just co-workers who can’t get along, or church members who have a personality conflict, or individuals who have racist feelings toward one another,

reconciliation between two people is possible only because God has first reconciled us to Himself. In II Cor. 5:17-18 we read, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”

God sent His one and only Son to the Cross to pay the penalty for our sin. When we put our faith and trust in Jesus’ sacrifice, God extends to us the free gift of reconciliation–He becomes our friend. But He does more–He gives to us the ministry of reconciliation, the privilege of bringing others to the Cross, but also the privilege of breaking down the walls that separate us and finding healing for all our relationships.