In this episode, Dr. J. Vernon McGee delves into one of the most complex and often debated topics within Christian communities: divorce. Using the book of Malachi as a foundation, McGee walks listeners through the biblical understanding of marriage, highlighting the historical and spiritual circumstances that led to the teachings we find in the Old and New Testaments. Through testimonies and a thorough scripture-based discussion, listeners are encouraged to reflect on God’s goodness and the enduring faithfulness within any marital context.
The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith.
SPEAKER 02 :
What does the Bible say about divorce? Well, it’s one of the most frequent and controversial questions any pastor answers. Welcome to Through the Bible, where our teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, tackles this subject with candor and honesty. And most importantly, he shows us what the Bible says. I’m Steve Schwetz, your host on this five-year journey through the entire Word of God. And now is the time to grab your Bible and open it to the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi. And while you do, here’s more of Dr. McGee’s introduction on the character of God, specifically His goodness.
SPEAKER 01 :
Goodness. It’s in the 23rd Psalm. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Goodness. That’s going to characterize the millennium, by the way. And we have one of the great psalms on that. It happens to be the 105th psalm. It opens with, O give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name, make known the deeds among the people. Then it goes on to say, because he’s good. And then you come over to Psalm 107, and that’s the great psalm that we have on God is good. It says, O gave thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, his mercy endureth forever. And then down in that psalm, it’s the chorus, verse 8, O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of man. The goodness of God. And that’s going to be showered upon the earth during the millennium. Now, I say to you, because of the sin of man today and disobedience of man, we don’t see too much of an exhibition of the goodness of God. And that is one thing that is going to characterize the millennium. There are going to be good people there. Now, I must add this. The millennium is a time of testing of man under perfect circumstances. And even during that time, there will be a rebellion against God. At the very end of the millennium, we’re told in the book of Revelation, there’s a rebellion against God. And then those forces are gathered together by Satan, and they’re going to make their final onslaught against the people of God here on this earth. And at that time, the Lord Jesus Christ is going to intervene. And those that will be cast into hell, the lake of fire, and those that are saved are going to continue on because the millennium doesn’t end with a thousand years. It becomes then an eternal kingdom, an everlasting kingdom. And it’ll continue on. And then it’s just going to be loaded with goodness. That’s the thing that characterizes it. The Millennium.
SPEAKER 02 :
What a great reminder of who our God is. Good, merciful, and faithful. And that goodness isn’t just a future promise in the Millennium. It’s something that we see right now in the changed lives of those who hear His Word. Like Bill in Ganson, Alabama, who told us this. It’s 10 p.m. and I just finished listening to your report from Nicaragua and it thrills my soul. I just wanted to shout hallelujah. I love hearing how the program is taking the whole word to the whole world in hard to reach places and where people are persecuted. I’m just about to finish my second trip through the Bible bus, and I’m so thankful I can hear these stories and pray with you. Tomorrow, I’m going to call and increase my monthly donation to help the Bible bus keep going. Thank you. God bless you. And Bill, thank you. Thanks for your generosity because that really does help keep the Bible bus rolling in all those different languages we’re in around the world. We’re so grateful for you and for so many others who pray and faithfully give. Now here’s another note, this time from a listener in Liberia. This teaching has been truly life-changing for me. Even when I fall short in personal Bible study, God reaches me through this program. The messages are clear, powerful and make scripture come alive. They remind me of truths I’ve forgotten, reveal new insights and show me how to walk with God in every season. I am sincerely grateful. It has strengthened my faith and given me a deeper sense of belonging in Christ. Those who produce and support this program are truly gifts from God to believers like me. Well, we’d certainly love to hear from you. Well, to share your story or support the Bible Bus as it travels the highways and byways of God’s Word, write to Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. Or in Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C, 6B1. And remember, you can also email us at BibleBus at ttb.org or call 1-800-65-BIBLE and leave a message. Let’s pray together. Heavenly Father, thank you for your goodness that never fails. Thank you for the lives that you’ve changed all around the world through the teaching of your word, and you continue to change. Teach us, Lord, to walk faithfully with you and to see your faith with fresh eyes. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Now let’s turn to Malachi chapter 2 as we make our way through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
SPEAKER 01 :
Now, I want to come to our study in Malachi in chapter 2, verse 10. Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously, every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers? Judah hath dealt treacherously. He’s not talking to the priests now. but to the people. He’s talking to the people. This is a sin that the people have committed that came back into that land. Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah hath profaned the holiness of the Lord, which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a foreign god. In other words, a heathen woman, a pagan woman that was worshiping in idolatry. Now, that’s the way idolatry got into the northern kingdom, was through Ahab marrying Jezebel. And she was the daughter of the high priest of Baal over in Sidon. She was a Sidonian. And that was the way it came in. Now, that was happening again. You see, these people have returned to the land and around them. We learned that from Nehemiah. Well, there were all kinds of people that were living around them at that time. And an Israelite, and he’d be married and he’d see some good looking, you know, beautiful foreign girl. And he decided that he would like to have her for his wife. So he’d get rid of his wife, and he would marry this foreign girl. Now let me keep reading down here, and I’ll come to the verse that we’re after. Verse 12, I’m reading, “…the Lord will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the Lord of hosts.” And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with goodwill at your hand. Yet ye say, Why? Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth. You see, he’d married a Hebrew girl when he was a young man. Gets a little older and he moves out, that is, in his travels out among these pagan heathen. And what happens? He’s a witness now between thee and the wife of thy youth against whom thou hast dealt treacherously. Yet is she thy companion and the wife of thy covenant. In other words, they had been married, and it was a religious ceremony, not a civil. They were joined together by the priest. Verse 15, and this is the important verse, “…and did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the Spirit, and why one?” Now, that has always been a difficult passage to interpret, and I’d rather think that Dr. Feinberg is quite accurate when he says here that the natural interpretation that the prophet is speaking here of divorce and the reference here is to the original institution of marriage by God himself. And we’re going to see that where God made them one. When he was married to that girl in the time of his youth, God made them one. And did not he make one? Yet had he not rested you of the spirit, and why one? That he might seek a godless seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.” You see, putting her aside, divorcing her, and marrying others. Now, that problem which was prevalent in Israel at that time is prevalent in our contemporary culture. And we’ve certainly changed our viewpoint in recent years on this. And I suppose that divorce is one of the most controversial questions that any Bible preacher has to answer today. There’s confusion as to what the Bible really says on this problem. And there is great difference and wide divergence of interpretation at this. In other words, friends, if I may use the common colloquialism of the street, this is a hot potato. And I want to say, first of all, that you cannot say that there are no grounds for divorce. I’m of opinion that that is a position that’s always been untenable, and that is the position that the church 100 years ago would have taken 100% in spite of what the Word of God had to say. Now, the Lord Jesus made very clear two things. One was that Moses had permitted divorce because the hardness of the people, but that there was one clear-cut basis for divorce, and that was fornication. That is, unfaithfulness on the part of either the man or the woman. Now, I’m turning, of course, to that familiar passage now, Matthew 19, verse 3. Will you listen? The Pharisees also came unto him, testing him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, Have you not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female? And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and he shall cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh. And he goes back to the original creation of man and woman. And that, my friend, is where we need to go to today, and we’ll be going there in just a few moments. Now he says in verse 6 here of Matthew 19, Wherefore there no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, in other words, because of the cold, callous, sinful nature of man, divorce was permitted.” And our Lord qualifies that. He suffered you to put away your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. Moses had made a broad basis for a divorce, by the way. Now, verse 9. And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery. And whoso marrieth her which is put away, doth commit adultery. And it’s quite interesting how the disciples followed up on that. And they said, if the case of the man be so with his wife, it’s not good to marry, if it’s that strait. And he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it’s given. And then he put down the liberty that we have. For there are some eunuchs which are born from their mother’s womb. There are some men, some women, don’t need to marry. It’s not necessary for them to get married. It’s not a sin to be single by any means. And he says, and there are some eunuchs which are made eunuchs of man. Daniel was one, and that was the custom in that day, especially in the harems. And they were made that, but that was done forcibly. And there be eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. And there are men that for some cause to serve Christ, to serve the church, have made themselves eunuchs. And if a man can do that and feels that’s the way he should be led, I’ve known several preachers that have never married. I attempted in my ministry to follow one like that, and I decided I’d be an old bachelor all my life. I soon found out that wasn’t for me. This is an area in which you have great liberty. But the important thing, Christ said that there was one ground, and that was fornication. Now, Moses had made it pretty wide as we’re going to see in just a moment. Now, Paul apparently makes it clear that this matter of fornication is covered in a problem that came up in the Corinthian church. And I’m going to turn to 1 Corinthians, the seventh chapter, and I wish I could deal with all of it. I take the position Paul had been married, his wife probably had died, and he did not get married again. And I think this passage makes it clear. He says that if a man finds he should marry, well, then he should marry. That’s the point. Now he says, verse 10 of 1 Corinthians 7, “…and unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord.” Let not the wife depart from her husband. That is when she’s married to an unsaved man. When they married, they were both pagan and heathen. And she got converted. And it could be the other way around. The man would get converted. And he says, but and if she depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And let not the husband put away his wife. Now, because he gets saved and his wife is not saved, there’s not a reason for putting her away at all. That is, provided he didn’t marry an unsaved person when he was saved. But to the rest speak I, not the Lord. If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away. Now, the pagan woman would say, well, I’m not a Christian as you are. If you want to go and meet with the Christians, that’s fine. I love you, and I want to stay with you. And Paul says that arrangement is all right. And he says, verse 14, for the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband. Else were your children unclean, but now are they holy. But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. I would assume that he means if the unbelieving wanted to leave and say, I don’t like this arrangement and leaves. Whether he goes out and gets married or not, or she goes out and gets married or not in a situation like this, I would assume that the man or woman would be free to marry again. Let me drop down to verse 15 again. But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage. What bondage? The marriage vow in such cases. But God hath called us to peace. And I believe that that simply means this, that God has never asked any man or woman to live in a hell in a home. Never. When they’re fighting like cats and dogs and can’t get along and find that out, I think they’re to separate. I’ve advised on several occasions them to separate, but neither one of them to remarry. Even sometimes a Christian can’t get along with another Christian. They get married and find out they fight like cats and dogs. And the problem is not divorce. The problem is marriage. A lot of people that are getting married ought not to get married. Here in Southern California, the divorce is just about equal to marriages. And I don’t know what’s going to happen when divorce is past the marriages. That’s going to be something if that takes place. But the important thing is that God has called us to peace. Therefore, a home is not a boxing ring. It’s not a place for jujitsu. It’s not a place… for karate. It’s a place for love, if you please. Now let’s go back and see what Moses said way back when he gave the granting of divorce. And this is Deuteronomy, the 24th chapter, verse 1. When a man hath taken a wife, married her, and it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her. He finds out she’s not a virgin. He finds out he’s been deceived, why that would be grounds for divorce. Then let him write her a bill of divorcement and give it in her hand and send her out of his house. And I take it that was the ground. And they had made it so broad that if she burnt the toast, that would be grounds for divorce back in the days. And many of the rabbis were teaching that, just the slightest whim. But Moses didn’t mean that. Moses meant if he found some uncleanness in her. She’s not a virgin. She’s not what she claimed to be. In other words, he’d been taken in. That would, of course, lead to trouble in the home, lead to fighting. Someone has said that puppy love always leads to a dog’s life anyway. Well, let me read on. Verse 2, and when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife. And if the latter husband hate her and write her a bill of divorcement, and she must have BO or something, if two of them are going to reject her and write her a bill of divorcement and give it in her hand and send her out of the house, or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife, her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife. After that, she’s defiled. For that’s an abomination before the Lord. Thou shall not cause the land to sin, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance. In other words, that would be progressive prostitution. And you have that sort of thing today. We have them in Hollywood. I’ve heard of one recently that’s been married, divorced seven times. Well, that’s just progressive prostitution. That’s all that is. That’s absolutely to ridicule the marriage vow altogether. Now, what was God’s ideal for man? And I’d like now to turn to Genesis, the second chapter, verse 20. says, from the beginning it was not so. God never intended to have divorce. But because of man’s sin, it is permitted. And somebody says, well, divorce is sinful. Sure it is. So is murder. But murder can get saved. In fact, one was dying on the cross next to Jesus. And he was saved. He was a thief also. Thief can get saved and a divorced person can get saved. And this idea that when a person has been divorced and then gets saved, that they can’t marry again. My friend, if they’ve committed murder or a thief, they can get saved and can marry again if they got the divorce before they were saved. And I think that’s the thing that the Lord Jesus Christ certainly inferred. But now let’s turn back. Genesis 2, 20. And Adam gave names to all cattle and to the fowl of the air, every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a help meat for him. Well, actually, among all the creation of God that was beneath man, none could take the place of what became later a why. In other words, God created all other creatures by two. Now that which is above man, angels, certainly man could not find a mate among them. So man’s pretty much alone. And I think God let Adam go through a long period of being alone to let him know that he needed somebody there, that only half of him had been really created at the beginning. Now, will you notice, he needs a help that’s meet for him. No animal can take the place and no angel can take the place. But he needs somebody like he is and yet different. One that can help that’s meet for him means a help that’s fit for him. One that fits in. He’s just a half and you need another half to be put there together so they can be one. And that was the thing that God had in mind. And that’s the way God created them like they are. I get a little provoked today of hearing so many people act as if sex is really something that is still bad, that sort of thing. It’s wrong when it’s taken out of marriage. Because after all, who was it that thought of sex? God’s the one that thought of it, friend. He’s the one that made man and woman. And this is a marvelous arrangement, by the way, that he had in mind. Verse 21. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept, and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh and sped thereof. Why did God do that? Why didn’t he take her from the ground as he had Adam? Because she’d be different. She’s to be like him. And so she must come from man, because man is not a whole person, really. And he takes him from a rib. And as someone has said, he didn’t take Eve from his head to be his superior, nor from his foot to be his servant, but from his side to be his equal and to be with him. And the scripture knows nothing about this idea of either women’s lib or the inferiority of women. What a high plane. They are put on. And this passage that we’re looking at back in Malachi, and we’ve got pretty far from it now, but that passage reveals the high plane women were held on, how God protected them in that day. He says, you sinned against me when you sinned against the wife of your youth. Now he goes on, he says, and the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman and brought her unto the man. He made her Ishi. Man was Ish. is shy, just the other half of man. She must have been a beautiful thing, and God brought her and gave her to man. And I want to tell you, there’s a marriage that God made, and God bless. There’s a marriage made in heaven, and it’s going to work. And we’re going to see that next time. I have to leave right off there today, but I’m going to pick right up there tomorrow, because this is such a pertinent problem. And this passage in the Old Testament is one of the longest passages In fact, it is the longest in the Old Testament, and it certainly compares to the New. We must look at it further. And until then, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, Dr. McGee certainly covered a lot of ground in this study. And we’ll continue this important discussion of divorce and remarriage as our study of Malachi continues. Hop aboard and join us. Until then, to check out our library of Bible study resources or to be in contact with us, just visit ttb.org or call 1-800-65-BIBLE. Again, that’s 1-800-65-BIBLE. ttb.org or send us a note through our app and when you’re in touch why don’t you tell us how you hop aboard the bible bus is it by app online or your favorite christian radio station we really do want to know i’m steve sweats and i look forward to studying with you next time as the bible bus rolls along jesus We’re grateful for our committed listening family who faithfully pray and invest in Through the Bible as we together take the whole word to the whole world.
