Context No. 3152 of 4322 · Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 24:1-5: in context

1When a man takes a wife and marries her, then it shall be, if she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some unseemly thing in her, that he shall write her a certificate of divorce, put it in her hand, and send her out of his house. 2When she has departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife. 3If the latter husband hates her, and writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house; or if the latter husband dies, who took her to be his wife; 4her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife after she is defiled; for that would be an abomination to the LORD. You shall not cause the land to sin, which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance. 5When a man takes a new wife, he shall not go out in the army, neither shall he be assigned any business. He shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer his wife whom he has taken.

This law regulates divorce: a man who divorces his wife must give her a formal certificate; if she remarries and that marriage ends, her first husband may not take her back. And a separate provision: a newly married man is exempt from military service and public duties for a full year, to bring joy to the wife he has taken.

Two things stand in this law. First, it regulates rather than commands divorce. Jesus later says Moses permitted it because of hardness of heart, but from the beginning it was not so; the law put limits on a practice that harmed the vulnerable, requiring a formal certificate that gave a woman some protection and standing, a restraint on a man's freedom simply to cast her out. And second, the tender command that a newly married man be free from war and work for a year to bring joy to his wife shows God's care for the goodness of marriage, that it be given time to take root in gladness. Even while regulating human failure, God's heart for marriage to flourish shows through.

Do I honor marriage as something God means to be protected and given time to flourish in joy, rather than treated lightly?

Sources

Deuteronomy 24:5: "He shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer his wife whom he has taken."
Matthew 19:8: "Moses... allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it has not been so."
Malachi 2:16: "I hate divorce, says the LORD, the God of Israel... So watch yourselves."