Today we begin chapter 24 of the Book of Deuteronomy. Verse 1 begins, When a man takes a wife and marries her…Those words afford us a unique insight into the Hebrew culture of the day. Let's read them again: When a man takes a wife and marries her. To our contemporary English ears the syntax is stiff and redundant. Even more, the words are nonsensical! By our reasoning the method employed in taking a wife is marriage. Am I not right? How, then, can a man take a wife and then marry her? That is nonsensical!

Yes, indeed it is. Well, it is in the context of our contemporary marital customs. But not so fast! We are not reading a text having to do with contemporary marital customs. We are reading a text having to do with ancient Hebrew marital customs, and that context is another whole ball of wax. So let's familiarize ourselves with the applicable custom, so that we may make sense of those words.

We have already learned about this in prior studies. Do you remember? I hope you do. In any case let us prick the old noggin' and prime the pump of cognition, so that those memories come gurgling up the pipe and resurface in our consciousness.

The Hebrew marriage back in the day consisted of two parts. There was the engagement and there was the wedding ceremony. The Hebrew engagement wasn't like our engagement today: it began the actual marriage.

We today have an engagement custom whereby either party may opt out of the marriage at any time prior to the wedding ceremony. They can do this just by walking away and not looking back. No legal formalities need take place. No divorce proceedings need transpire. No ludicrously exorbitant attorney and court fees need apply.

Not so with the Hebrews however! Once a couple became engaged, they were married. To annul the engagement required a divorce. The only thing missing from the engagement was the consummation of the marriage. In Biblical parlance the man did not yet “know” his wife during the engagement. Only after the wedding ceremony was this permissible.

So the couple did not live together during the engagement. During that time hubby built a home for them and they spent time together getting to know one another. By that process they prepared themselves to live together after the wedding ceremony. The Hebrew engagement functioned as premarital counseling par excellence.

With that context in mind, let's read the opening words once more: When a man takes a wife and marries her. Do you see it now? The phrase “when a man takes a wife” signified the engagement. The phrase “and marries her” denoted the wedding ceremony. The entire phrase together referred to the marriage from the initial proposal to the consummation of the marriage after the wedding ceremony. So the topic we are about to study had to do with a fully married couple.

The opening word “when” says as much. The word depicted something which regularly took place. The word “if” would have been used, had the Lord wanted to signify a mere possibility. The word “when” in v.1 denoted a matter-of-fact event. It denoted something that did in fact occur, and with frequency. It means, “WHEN a couple gets married.” It expressed a given occurrence in the daily lives of the Israelites.

The topic under perusal covers verses 1-4. It was a common event back in the day, and unfortunately it still is today. I make reference to the subject of divorce.

The Lord never did promote divorce. Nowhere in vv.1-4 or in any other part of the Bible do we read that the Lord wanted divorce to occur. Quite the contrary! On several occasions the Lord denounced divorce. On the rare occasions that He did not denounce it, He treated it as the lesser of two evils which resulted from sinful man's inability to do right.

Divorce originated with sinful man. What the Lord did was to regulate it in order to protect the woman back in the day. Back then the man provided the livelihood for his wife. She was dependent on him for food and shelter. It wasn't customary for a woman to run off to the office to work, in order to provide her own livelihood.

This dependency left her in a precarious situation, should her husband decide to part ways with her. If he told her to get out and not come back, she wouldn't have the opportunities available for finding a job. She would be forced to marry someone else in order to eat. Or she could return to the home of the man who was her head before she married and hubby became her head…Daddy dearest! If she had no male relative who could support her, then she was in dire straits. She could wind up in the red light district.

Regardless of which scenario applied, the woman was in danger for her very life. In sending her away, hubby didn't write her a certificate of divorce or file any legal papers. He simply gawked at his burnt toast and yelled, “Get out and don't come back!”

That being the case, a vindictive man could seek revenge against his wife by claiming he hadn't divorced her. If she married again in the interim, the first hubby's claim would brand her an adulteress. The penalty for adultery was death by stoning.

In the Law of Moses the Lord derailed all such shenanigans. He charged categorically without mincing words, “If a man sends his wife away, then he must write her a certificate of divorce which she can take with her.” Ah, that piece of paper protected her from false accusations by a vindictive husband. The Lord never told man to divorce his wife: He regulated something that men already did with increasing frequency. The Lord's regulation was given to protect the woman, no