Many of those called to stand for their marriage, face the concern of their spouse marrying another person. This is not only a challenge to our faith and the belief in what God can do, but some churches will teach that it is wrong for a person to return to their previous marriage because of Deuteronomy 24:4.

If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man, and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies, then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the Lord. Do not bring sin upon the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

– Deuteronomy 24:1-4

The Old and New Covenant

It is understandable why this is a concern, given it seems to address the situation exactly. However, our initial thought should be that this is part of the old covenant, and Mosaic law given specifically to Israel being a nation set apart for their task of being the nation which God would use to bring about promise of the Messiah (Jesus). As such, there are many specific laws that as Christians we no longer follow:

• We no longer stone for adultery.
• We no longer follow circumcision.
• We no longer follow ceremonial uncleanness laws, issues of blood etc.
• We no longer follow food laws, we eat shell fish, pork, etc.

If we are going to follow Deuteronomy 24:4 strictly, are we going to follow all of these other laws strictly as well? The answer for most Christians is no. Not only that, but under the Jewish law, the certificate of divorce was a religious act completed by a Rabbi. Most divorces now, even if the marriage was religious, the divorce is just a civil act, and so Deuteronomy 24:4 may not apply at all. Still many of the laws do address issues of God’s justice, love and goodness, so we should also take them seriously too. (The Bible Project have a good overview of how do we know which laws apply on their website.)

When addressing Deuteronomy 24:4, the first thing to say is that this is the exact verses that Jesus addresses when he has said “you have heard it said…but I tell you…” when talking about divorce:

When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went into the region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan. Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”

“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

“Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?”

Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”

The disciples said to him, “If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.”

Jesus replied, “Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”

Matthew 19:1-12

Comparison With Polygamy

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

– Ezekiel 36:26

So as Christians, we are no longer hard hearted, we have his spirit, so we do not need that law from our hardness of heart. This is similar with polygamy, which was permitted under the old testament, but Christians have replace with monogamy. Deuteronomy 25:5 states that if a man’s brother dies without a son, he should take his brother’s wife as his own. This may be clearest analogy we have to the verses on divorce. If divorce is now forbidden, you are not only free too, but should leave that second union, it was never valid in the first place. If divorce is forbidden by Jesus (accept in very limited circumstances), Deuteronomy 24:4 just simply doesn’t apply.

Old Testament	New Testament
Polygamy Permitted Deuteronomy 25:5 – Applies	Polygamy Forbidden Deuteronomy 25:5 – Does Not Apply
Divorce Permitted Deuteronomy 24:4 – Applies	Divorce Forbidden Deuteronomy 24:4 – Does Not Apply

Jesus often called his followers to a “righteousness that exceeds that of the pharisees:”, and that seems to be part of what he’s doing here. Not only don’t murder, don’t hate. Not only don’t commit adultery, don’t lust. Don’t just give a certificate so your wife can prove she is free to marry again, don’t even divorce in the first place! Not only that but Jesus seems to be very specifically reinterpreting Deuteronomy 24:4 in light of him fulfilling the old testament law and bringing about his work of the new covenant and the new creation.

Ceremonial Uncleaness

Jesus is bringing about his new creation, restoring the work begun in Adam and Eve, that was set back through the fall. Jesus goes back to the very beginning to say husband and wife are now one flesh and about divorce that “it was not this way in the beginning”. Through Jesus and the Church God is now restoring how things were, when marriage was for life. We see this also in Paul, a pharisee who knew all the old testament law, and still came to the same conclusion as Jesus, that marriage was intended to be for life:

For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.

– Romans 7:2-3

In both what Jesus and Paul say, we may see the reasons for the Deuteronomy 24:4. They both equate divorce and remarriage with adultery. Deuteronomy 24:4 states that the man shouldn’t remarry after she has been “defiled”. Much of the old testament law was concerned with ritual or ceremonial cleanness. This was in part because of:

• The need for ceremonial cleanness when Yahweh’s presence was with them directly through the ark of the covenant.
• The preservation of Israel as chosen people to bring about the promise of the messiah.
• The pointing towards Jesus and his sacrifice and blood, which now makes us able to approach God.
  

Ceremonial cleanness is part of why in the story of the good Samaritan, the priest and the Levite walked on the other side of the road. They were off to the temple in Jerusalem, and would have been ceremonially unclean if they had come in contact with a corpse of with blood. But Jesus said that the one that fulfilled the law to love God and love your neighbor was the one who stopped and helped out of love.

In the old testament, things that were unholy would “defile” things that were holy. This may again be a clue to the reason for Deuteronomy 24:4. But from Jesus ministry, things that were holy, healed and renewed things that were unclean, sinful or broken. Think of the woman with the issue of blood, reaching and and touching the man with leprosy.

The Weight Of Scripture

We also have the weight of other scripture, which all points towards faithfulness in marriage and it being a picture of God and his people, of Christ and the church.

To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.
– 1 Corinthians 7:10-11

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.

– Ephesians 5:25,31-32

Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off than now.’

– Hosea 2:7

And we have Ezra and Malachi, when Israel had taken foreign wives and forsook the wives of their youth:

Now honor the Lord, the God of your ancestors, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples around you and from your foreign wives.”

– Ezra 10:11

You ask, “Why?” It is because the Lord is the witness between you and the wife of your youth. You have been unfaithful to her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.

– Malachi 2:14

Rabbis were often faced with this dilemma of which law took precedence or authority over another law, even which just dealing with the old testament. With Jesus taking marriage back to Genesis, we have both him take us back to an early proceeding law, as well has his ultimate authority, showing us that Deuteronomy 24:4 does not apply to Christians under the new conveant.

Final Thoughts

There do seem to be some allowances for divorce in the new testament, and so there is a question of what remarriage means in theses circumstances. We have another article addressing these here. These seem to be limited to either invalid unions (marriages that were never valid in the first place, and the meaning of the Greek word porneia), or the case of an unbelieving spouse.

Still the overwhelming weight of scripture, including from Jesus himself, point in the unfailing faithful love of God symbolized in the world through monogamous lifelong covenant marriage. This was the position of the early church, church fathers, Catholic and Orthodox church. It is only in the post reformation (and post Henry the 8th and 70s sexual revolution) that divorce has become some widely practiced in the protestant church. The early church and Catholic church wouldn’t even remarry you if you were divorced, they wouldn’t recognize it.

In the old covenant Moses allowed divorce because of their hard hearts, the new marriage was valid and should be honored. Jesus and Paul forbid divorce, the new “marriage” is invalid, the first marriage should be honored. In both cases marriage is being honored.

Finally, there are many testimonies from standers who were called by God to stand for their marriage even through divorce and a second marriage. In these they were given words from the Lord to do so, and were doing so in surrender to him, not out of trying to find a biblical interpretation of scripture that gave them justification to do what they felt like they wanted to do out of their own will. They were filled with love and compassion for their spouse, and once the spouse that left came back to God, they too had the same revelation, that they were to return to the spouse of their youth. One of the most powerful is from Adrienne and Shon Bowdan

Rejoice Marriage Ministries have also addressed Deuteronomy 24:4 in an article here as well as a podcast.