THE VEXED ISSUE OF MARRIAGE & DIVORCE

          I want to take a break for a few days from our series on YOUTH, SEX and PURPOSE to discuss a matter that many of us do not want to get close to touching even with a ten-mile pole!  The issues we dread discussing are the most misunderstood and the ones that give us the most head and heartache.  Believe it or not, the one issue that is top on the list of such matters is the vexed subject of Marriage & Divorce.

          As much as I would want to be practical and unbiased about this matter, I am sure to attract comments from people who believe that I am speaking from a bent perspective either because of your personal knowledge of my person or from the side of one of those people who would not want to allow a second opinion into their head besides the traditional, popularly accepted even though not totally true concept that has been around for a while.  I will try very hard to be neutral without religious inclination but you must forgive me because my background as a Christian and a clergy will affect my discourse as I will use the Christian faith and doctrine as a reference point – for that I have no apology.

          I discovered recently that divorce like marriage is as old as the human race itself.  From biblical historical perspective, the matters of divorce came up as a law from Moses when he led the Israelites in the wilderness Church as they transited from Egypt to homeland Israel.  Divorce was becoming so rampant that God Himself had to ask Moses to pass a resolution regulating what qualifies for the right reason for divorce.  So the first time God intervened in the issue of marriage and divorce, he had to permit it to solve a problem.    Before your righteous self raise your hands to protest that it was in the law and in the Old Testament, I will save you that trouble by asking why we always want to pick the part of the Old Testament that appeals to us and drop the parts that do not support our warp theological beliefs.  For example, it is very hard for many of us especially in the clergy council to protest about Malachi 3:10.  That on its own is a subject for another day all by itself.

          Therefore, divorce is not new to God, it is not a subject that should be dreaded and in case you have misunderstandings about how it has been looked upon, the best place to look is Bible as a Christian.

          Lets face it… nobody in his right sense goes into marriage with a desire to mess things up later in life.  Marriage is always meant to be a life-long affair and God Himself meant it to be so right from the onset.  But, things do go wrong.  When God created the world, He made everything perfect and was pleased.  Things went wrong in Genesis 6 and he had a corrective measure handy… he destroyed all living beings that corrupted the earth and started again with Noah and his family.  Yes, God!  He knew the end from the beginning but He never meant to destroy the earth except that things went the way He did not plan.  

          Marriage is an institution like any other that God instituted to be run by imperfect human beings who may decide not to follow God’s injunction on how it should be run.  It is a bi-partisan relationship that takes two to tango; the two must necessarily agree for it to work.  It is a covenant with conditions to be fulfilled by all the involved parties with accompanying consequences for violation on the part of anyone who breaks the hedge.  

          God originally meant marriage to be indissoluble but makes provision to safeguard people in the event that they rock the boat so that the people are safe to be able to live again.  We rush to safeguard the institution and are not keen to note that the people who make the institution need to be safe too.  

          Keep your comments coming… lets continue our gist on marriage tomorrow.