In the Fulness of Time/Part 16

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Marriage and the Millennial Kingdom

Would it surprise you to know that there will be marriages on earth when Christ returns to set up His Millennial Kingdom? Why would Christ be discussing the matter of divorce as He presents various aspects of that kingdom? Will everyone exist in glorified bodies? If so, how can there be marriages and divorces?

A summary of events on the prophetic calendar will serve to clear up misconceptions. Prophetically, the next event to occur will be the descent of the Lord in the clouds to receive the members of the True Church, both living and dead, to be with Him in heaven (John 14:1-3; I Thessalonians 4:13-18). We will remain with Him in heaven while a seven-year period of Great Tribulation occurs on earth. During those years, many Jews and Gentiles will be saved (Revela­tion 7:1-17). Many of these will be martyred, but many will remain on earth and “endure to the end” (Matthew 24:13). Those who endure will live through the Great Tribulation and go right into the Millennial Kingdom in their ordinary earthly bodies. They will bear children, build houses, plant crops and eat of them. (Isaiah 65:20-25). The length of life will be “like the days of a tree” (65:22), so that a person of 100 years of age will be considered a child (65:20), and sinners will be there (65:20) needing to be saved.

Thus, there will be marriages among the unglorified people, and divorce as well. If it is thought fanciful to believe that resurrected, glorified saints could live among ordinary sinful people, remember that Christ Himself lived and ate with His disciples after His resurrection (Luke 24:41-43; John 21:12-13). While it will be possible for glorified and unglorified people to live together, it does not follow that marriage will be necessary nor even possible for glorified saints. However startling such things may seem to us today, there will be no strangeness then. When you come to think about strange things, remember that in Genesis 18:1-8 and 19:1-4 even angels appeared in human form, capable of eating food, getting dirty and tired and then disappearing when their task was finished. Why then should it be impossible for glorified and unglorified humans to exist in Christ’s earthly kingdom without intermarriage?

To reiterate, marriage of ordinary people will continue through the Church Age, the Great Tribulation, and on through the Millennial Kingdom. Therefore, what Christ presented in Mat­thew 5:31-32 concerning marriage and divorce has equal significance in all of these ages. Now, just what did He teach?

The Matter of Divorce. Matthew 5:31-32

The Statement of the Law

Matthew 5:31 “It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement.”

Christ is referring to Deuteronomy 24:1-4 where Moses’ Law included this statement. This same passage is mentioned by the Pharisees in Matthew 19:7 when they tried to trick Jesus into taking sides with either the school of Rabbi Hillel or Rabbi Shammai concerning the matter of divorce. In Matthew 19:3 they questioned Jesus on the basis of the more liberal school of Hillel: “Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?” Deuteronomy 24:1 specifies “some uncleanness” the husband found in her. The two Hebrew words used are erwath dabar, “nakedness of a thing, i.e. probably indecency, improper behaviour Deut. 23:15; 24:1” (Gesenius Hebrew Grammar, p. 789). The Greek translation of the Septuagint used aschemon pragma, a reference to some outward bearing, conduct or even clothing which is not pleasing.

In the New Testament, the only place where the word is used is First Corinthians 7:36 in infini­tive form, “he behaves unseemly” (aschemonein).

Taking this back to Deuteronomy 24:1-4, the “uncleanness” which the husband found in his wife may have been any one of a number of things; thus the question, “Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?” The one thing it could not mean was adultery, since the punishment for adultery was death by stoning, not divorce! (Deuteronomy 22:22-30). Then a “bill of divorcement” (sepher perithurh) literally, “a letter of cutting off” was given to the woman, not necessarily to justify the man’s action, but to assure the public that the woman was not an adulteress. Thus she was free to marry a second husband. The only restriction was that she could not go back to her first husband since this would be considered a defilement.

The Teaching of Christ

Matthew 5:32 “But I say unto you that whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery; and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.”

Two things are changed by Christ. First, He does not support the allowances of the Mosaic Law. This is not a contradiction to what He said about coming to fulfill the law not to destroy it, but just as in His other statements, so here, He presents the correct interpretation of the Law. It is made clearer in Matthew 19:3-9 where Christ quotes from Genesis 1:27; 2:23-24. From the beginning God intended marriage to be between a man and his wife once, for life. The reason for Moses’ concessions was “because of the hardness of your hearts” (Matthew 19:8). This means that God knew they would do worse things if He had not given this permission. There­fore, it was not a command, but a concession, which was not a cancellation of Genesis 1-2.

Second, Christ allows only one cause for divorce, “Except it be for fornication.” Fornication is a broader term than adultery; adultery is only one form of fornication, as is prostitution, homo­sexuality, bestiality, and unchastity among single couples. As Arndt and Gingrich state it in their Greek Lexicon, “unlawful sexual intercourse generally” (p. 699). This may well be why Christ did not use the more specific term mocheia (adultery), which includes only married people. To Christ and to Paul, the one thing which could dissolve the marriage bond was to be united by way of fornication to someone else, according to First Corinthians 6:16. Even in that context Paul goes back to the standard of creation to show the permanence of marriage, unless broken by illicit sexual relations.

The latter part of the verse, “causeth her to commit adultery, and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery” contains aorist passive verbs. Lenski shows that this translation violates these passive verbs. He suggests that the husband “brings about that she is stigmatized as adulterous; and that he that shall marry her is stigmatized as adulterous” (Mat­thew, p. 225-228). In the case of fornication there is no problem; the fornicator has broken the marriage vow and is guilty. But when there is no fornication, and the man (in this case) divorces his innocent wife “for any cause” according to the Pharisaical custom of the day, he is the guilty one. Jesus denounces such a wicked man. This would go along with Matthew 5:20 as another example of a self-righteous tradition, this one ruining the divine intent of marriage. Certainly, to enter the kingdom of heaven which Christ is presenting, a disciple must have a better righ­teousness than that of the scribes and Pharisees regarding this most important marriage rela­tionship. In the fulness of time, when the Kingdom is set up, Christ will use His “rod of iron” rule to see that it is so!

Read Part 17