Matthew 19:1–2 (ESV)1 Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. 2 And large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.

Matthew 19:3 (ESV) 3 And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?”

Deuteronomy 24:1–4 (ESV) 24 “When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, 2 and if she goes and becomes another man’s wife, 3 and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife, 4 then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the LORD. And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance.

Shammai

He said, "A man may not divorce his wife unless he has found unchastity in her."2

Hillel

taught "uncleanness" in a wife referred to anything he considered "unseemly" in her.

Matthew 19:4–5 (ESV) 4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?

Matthew 19:6 (ESV) 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh.

What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Matthew 19:7 (ESV) 7 They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?”

Matthew 19:8 (ESV) 8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.

Matthew 19:9 (ESV) 9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”

Matthew 5:31–32 (ESV) 31 “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Matthew 19:10 (ESV) 10 The disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.”

Matthew 19:11–12 (ESV) 11 But he said to them, “Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. 12 For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.”

1 Corinthians 7:7 (ESV) 7 I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.

1 Corinthians 7:9 (ESV) 9 But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

1. THE ORIGINAL DESIGN FOR MARRIAGE DID NOT INCLUDE DIVORCE.

2 DIVORCE WAS PERMITTED BECAUSE OF THE HARDNESS OF THE HEART.

3. AFTER A WRONGFUL DIVORCE REMARRIAGE RESULTS IN A STATE OF ADULTERY BEFORE GOD.

4. MARRIAGE SHOULD ONLY BE ENTERED INTO CAREFULLY AND REVERENTLY.