Sent into Poverty

The Bible was written on the streets not in some quiet study, so it is relevant to us in our lives on the streets. God is the living God and speaks to us through his Spirit and his Word. Here is a series of posts on my understanding of what God says about divorce. 

Divorce in Bible times was much harder on women than on men. What was more treacherous than divorce to a woman? Only killing her is more treacherous, for it was extremely hard for a divorced woman to live. A man would be committing adultery if he married her while her ex-husband was still alive. Without a husband, she would also have no opportunity to have children. Her father could take her back, but when her father died, she would have no income and would have to depend on gifts from the synagogue. Because she didn’t qualify as a widow she would have to receive gifts as one of the poor.

If anyone was remarrying, it would have to be the men, NOT the women. The men would have to use the certificate of divorce to blame their wives and justify their action of remarrying, otherwise having a new wife would be considered adultery.

(Based on Deuteronomy 24: 1-4, Matthew 5:32-33, 19:1-9)