Daily Devotional For Thursday, January 1, 2026
Happy New Year! Wow – God has given us another set of 365 days to start over, refresh and do things differently in this coming new year. We come to another longer teaching of Jesus on a subject that is controversial today – divorce. We are going to look at this subject over several days to do it justice. It is found in Matthew 19:1-12:
“When Jesus had finished these words, He departed from Galilee and came into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan; (2) and large crowds followed Him, and He healed them there. (3) Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?’ (4) And He answered and said, ‘Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, (5) and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? (6) So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.’ (7) They said to Him, ‘Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?’ (8) He said to them, ‘Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way.(9) And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.’ (10) The disciples said to Him, ‘If the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it is better not to marry.’ (11) But He said to them, ‘Not all men can accept this statement, but only those to whom it has been given. (12) For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to accept this, let him accept it’” (NASB).
Jesus returned to a part of Galilee where John the Baptizer had been. Jesus is brought sick to heal, which He did. Then the ever loving religious leaders decided to trap Him with a question, that on the surface seems innocent, but beneath it is a trap. They asked Jesus, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?” This question is a trap but was also a discussion between two major schools of rabbis. The first was the School of Hillel and the second was called the School of Shammai. Hillel and Shammai were two rabbis who started these schools and much of the time, they held opposite beliefs on certain subjects – divorce was one of them. Here is what the Mosaic Law said about divorce in Deuteronomy 24:1-4:
“Suppose a man marries a woman but she does not please him. Having discovered something wrong with her, he writes a document of divorce, hands it to her, and sends her away from his house. (2) When she leaves his house, she is free to marry another man. (3) But if the second husband also turns against her, writes a document of divorce, hands it to her, and sends her away, or if he dies, (4) the first husband may not marry her again, for she has been defiled. That would be detestable to the Lord. You must not bring guilt upon the land the Lord your God is giving you as a special possession” (NLT).
The disagreement between these two schools of rabbis was over the words “something wrong with her.” What does that mean? The liberal School of Hillel said a man could divorce his wife for any reason – she burned his meal, she did not come when he called her, and etc. The conservative School of Shammai said a man could only divorce his wife for infidelity. They said “something wrong with her” referred to adultery. But there was also another issue involved here – money and wealth. In ancient Jewish marriages, when a woman got married, her father gave her a dowry that reflected his wealth. The dowry, which could include money, slaves, and property, remained the woman’s throughout the marriage. If the husband divorced his wife, the husband had to return the dowry to her wife, unless she was guilty of infidelity.
In Jesus’ day a man could divorce his wife with no judicial or judge involved. All he had to do was give her a certificate of divorce and she was free to go marry another. As a result, some greedy husbands claimed their wives had been sexually unfaithful to them and thus they got to keep her dowry. In Jesus’ day the testimony of a woman was forbidden and thus she had no say or way to refute this lie against her by her husband. Jesus knew all of this.
In all likelihood, both schools of rabbis were there and they set a trap to see which school Jesus would side with and if He would contradict the Old Testament Law on this or maybe He would propose a completely different opinion. To them, it was the “perfect” trap. No matter what answer Jesus gave, He would please some and offend others. If Jesus supported divorce He would appear to be siding with the School of Hillel. If He opposed divorce, He would appear to be opposing the Mosaic Law, which allowed divorce in certain conditions.
Neither school wanted to know the truth from God. They wanted to trap and ensnare Jesus in order to get Him. This issue of marriage, divorce and remarriage has divided churches, families and individuals. There are pastors in every denomination who side with either the School of Hillel or the School of Shammai. There are pastors who see that the Word of God is inerrant, inspired and infallible and must be obeyed out of love due to grace. There are other pastors who see that circumstances and context determines where and when grace is given to a couple to divorce for such things as irreconcilable circumstance, which is one standard set by the state for grounds to divorce. This issue years ago polarized the church.
What we see here is that two schools of Rabbis who were enemies of each other, joined alliances to come after what they perceived was a threat to both – Jesus. A modern example of this WWII. At the beginning of the war, Russia sides with the Axis powers . . . until in June 1941 when Nazi Germany decided to invade Russia. There are many pastors today who prefer to give their own opinion rather than teach and preach what God says about this in Scripture. They feel it is better for a couple to be divorced friends than a married couple. And there are pastors who raise the bar higher than the Bible has it. Both approaches are wrong.
One more thing – this was not just a religious, financial and social issue here. This was also a political one. Jesus is in the area of Perea, which John the Baptizer had been. Perea was under the rule of Herod Antipas, who John the Baptizer had condemned for divorce his wife to marry Herodias (see Matt. 14:3-4). Herod had John the Baptizer beheaded for condemning his divorce and remarriage. From Jesus’ previous teaching on the subject of divorce (see Matt. 5:31-32), they felt Jesus would take John the Baptizer’s opinion and this would put Jesus in hot water with Herod Antipas. Therefore, just like Herod had John the Baptizer killed, maybe he would have Jesus killed. Any answer Jesus gave they thought, He was trapped. Little did they know, they were talking to God, He already knew what they were doing and He already had a response that would trap them. It has been my experience that people would not divorce for the unbiblical reasons they do if they did not marry for the unbiblical reasons they do. A marriage that is not based on Scripture will face insurmountable obstacles without God. I have said many times: if you go in the boxing ring with God, only one will be left standing – God. Tomorrow we will look at how Jesus responded to them.
Assignment: Reflect – has anyone ever set a trap for you? If so, how did you respond? What was the outcome? Why do you think our American culture has made divorce so easy? No divorce is clean and easy. There are always hurts, wounds, loss, and horrific pain to everyone involved, especially children. There are no winners and no such thing as a “clean divorce.” Why do you think this is true?
Scripture To Meditate On: Ephesians 4:32, “Be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, help me honor my commitments no matter how challenging and difficult they may be. Lord let me heed Your words in Ecclesiastes 5:5. Help me to be a person of my word because I know that people are watching me. I do not want to cause anyone to stumble because of me. I love You, Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly