God Hates Divorce. Or does He?

I wonder why we become emotional over what God has plainly said.

People all over are battering that verse (and of course God who gave it) as a result of a pastor who killed his singer wife, though much of what we are hearing is hearsay as nobody apart from the ‘killer’ witnessed it.

But let’s go with the story anyway.

Do people care to know why God hates divorce? Do they even care to read the few verses before that famous quote or even the complete verse?

I will tire you with the context of our quote

Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god. The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the LORD of hosts. And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand. Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously. (Malachi 2: 11 – 16)

What does God mean when He says that He hates divorce?

You see, the context of divorce is marriage done His way. Divorce is therefore a corruption of His will in someone’s life.

God hates divorce because He values marriage, the institution He created.

And to Him, marriage is not just the coupling of two people of opposite gender. It is not just two people living in the same house. And it is not two people partnering to produce offspring.

Marriage is a spiritual covenant before God of two people (starting in their youth) deciding to please God by living according to His revelation.

Pairing of spiritually discordant people will therefore be a strain on any marriage. Pairing of economically or socially viable people (as happens to Christian ministers and artistes and business titans) will make the marriage struggle, especially because such goals will always shift with time. Meaning that the purpose of the marriage will shift with the shifting of goalposts.

What I want to say is that God doesn’t just hate divorce. He values a good marriage. That is the context of His hating divorce.

When we hate divorce for a different reason that God’s, we very easily open ourselves to be used of the devil to destroy the marriage institution.

Another reason God hates divorce is because divorce is never a solution and never has been. It many times creates more problems than the ones it seeks to solve.

It is like cutting off a leg instead of treating a wound. Like we have read it floods the Lord’s altar with tears; tears of the divorced, tears of their children, tears of the families involved, etc.

I wish we devoted more effort on revitalizing the marriage institution than we are doing pushing for divorce because of this or the other abuse.

We know that the abuser is many times as wounded as the one they wound.

Divorce will many times transfer the wound and its protest to someone else since rarely will someone remain single after a divorce. In fact, it is much easier for the widowed to remain unmarried all their life than the divorced however short their marriage was like Anna of the Bible.

As with other commandments, we are wont to choose between positive and negative interpretations. Negative when we think God is after denying us something we need, or something of great pleasure. Positive when we believe God is taking from us something that would otherwise be destructive to us.

In the negative we will fight back as Eve did in Eden. In the positive we will seek greater light to help us remain within the bounds.

If we spent more time making marriage work than we do advising them to run away from abusive relationships, I believe we will raise a healthier generation.

I hope you will be a person who believes God’s word as you handle abuse and battery in marriage.

This is because handling it any other way displeases God. In fact, it is a sin in the eyes of God.

This is because God hates divorce. And He loves it when marriages are stable, happy and fulfilled.

The joy of a thriving marriage is the reason God hates divorce.

Will you agree with Him?