Jesus did not answer the Pharisees’ question directly at first. Later he did (in verse 9). But here, instead of allowing the matter to be debated on their level - they were asking about the minimal grounds for divorce - Jesus raised the discussion to the level of God’s original intention in marriage, directing his questioners to the first and second chapters of the Bible where the institution of the marriage relationship is found.
Whom, therefore, God hath joined together, let no man put asunder." These are the words that end the most common form of marriage service used in Christian churches. They come just before the benediction. But men are "putting asunder," and women too. The statistics tell us that nearly one in two marriages taking place in the United States today will end in divorce, and the statistics are not much better for Christian marriages. We see the evidence of decay all around us.
God hates divorce because it is harmful. It is harmful to the couple involved, generally leaving scars that never truly heal. It is harmful to society. Above all it is harmful to whatever children may be involved. Divorcing persons generally do not want to admit this, and their reluctance is understandable. They have to raise their children, and it is difficult to do this if they are laboring under guilt that divorce has done the children great harm. But admit it or not, divorce does harm children.
The marriage of Olivia L. Langdon to the American writer Mark Twain is a tragic case in point. Olivia Langdon had been raised in a Christian home by devout parents and she professed Christianity. But when Twain, an open critic of religion, came calling, she eventually accepted his proposal, no doubt secretly cherishing the hope that he might in time be converted to Christ by her example. At first this seemed to be happening.
The first point Malachi makes in this passage is that God has created marriage. It is his idea. It was God, not man, who made the race male and female (Gen. 1:27). It is God who looked at the man in his singleness and judged, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him" (Gen. 2:18). It was God who brought the first man to the first woman and, as it were, performed the first marriage ceremony (Gen. 2:22). It was God who said, "Be fruitful and increase in number" (Gen. 1:28). It is to this original creation of man and woman and of God uniting them in one permanent marriage that Malachi refers: "Has not the Lord made them one?"
