Newspaper columns, radio, tele vision programs and motion pic tures all carry these themes of mar riage. Yet, the most important source, the Bible, is scarcely con sidered. Do you realize that God has specific ideas about your mar riage? In Mark 10:2-9, the Pharisees came to Jesus asking whether it was lawful for a husband to divorce his wife. Their purpose was really to test Him, not to receive godly wisdom. They wanted to trick Him into opposing the instructions giv en by Moses. In this way they could accuse Him of heresy. In response, Christ asks, “What commandment did Moses give you?" Quickly came the response, "He allowed a man to write a bill of divorcement and then put her away." You see, divorce then, as now, had become embarrassingly easy. In Deuteronomy 24:1, Moses declared, "When a man has taken a wife, and married her, and it came to pass that she find no favor in his eyes, because he has found some uncleanness in her, then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house." Some men used that phrase "found some un cleanness" to mean almost any thing they wanted. If a wife spoiled the supper, chatted with another man, spoke disrespectfully of her husband, or of her in-laws, she could be divorced. Marriage was just not taken seriously. Our Lord reminded them that it is not the will of God for the two to be divorced. It was simply al lowed because of the hardness of their hearts. In the Saviour's sight the two are actually one flesh. Di vorce was only permitted among those whose hearts had turned to
A leading sociologist was recent ly quoted in a national magazine as to his evaluation of our coun try's homelife. He began his ar ticle with this pathetic statement, “We have eaten up the vines and the seeds as well." He meant that the American home has been de stroyed. What is worse is that there is little hope for the future. While there may be other sociologists who would disagree with this gloomy evaluation yet statistics pouring out of our divorce courts demonstrate that our homes are in serious trouble. At the turn of the century about one marriage in twelve ended in divorce. By 1922 the percentage went to one in eight. Now, some 70 years later we find about one marriage in three ending in divorce. There are some cities in our land where there have been more divorces than marriages in recent years. While these figures are alarming, yet that is only part of the total picture. Thousands of married couples exist in an armed camp. The agony of heart and turmoil of soul is well nigh unbearable. The only reasons for avoiding divorce is because of financial limitations or religious convictions. As Oscar Feucht has observed in his Helping Families Through The Church, for these couples “ holy wedlock" has become "holy deadlock." One of the reasons for the ero sion of our homes is due to errors in concept about the basic prin ciples of marriage. It is a fact that when marriage is lightly regarded it is just as lightly discarded. Think of all the material available on the subject. Almost every magazine coming into our homes offers ad vice. Book stores have shelves of volumes with explicit instructions.
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