Deuteronomy 24:1 –
“Suppose a man marries a woman but she does not please him. Having discovered something wrong with her, he writes her a letter of divorce, hands it to her, and sends her away from his house.”
Ok, we saw earlier a man could do this to a foreigner, but now it appears that they can do it to whomever they wish! Divorce is one of those subjects we are taught that God thinks is detestable, yet the Law makes it so easy to leave. I have been married 20 years and there have been times Katy has not “pleased” me, but divorce was not an option. Now Jesus changed the definition of divorce in Matthew 5:32 saying adultery was the only justification for divorce. So I can understand the Christian stance on divorce, but wonder why it’s a bigger problem with us?
I am surprised to see this worded in this manner. What if a man does not please a woman? Does she have the same rights to a letter of divorce? This really highlights one of the major complaints today about the Bible, it appears to make women “second class” to men with little or no rights. Men have used this for millenniums to throttle women’s rights. If you look at great women in the Bible and history you will notice God does not take this stance, so why do we?
Everyone blames Eve for the fall, but if Adam was a “man” he would have never agreed! I could spend hours ranting over how there are perceptions of male dominance and higher standing, but once you dig and learn you notice that’s not true. But it remains a dogma with many religious groups even to this day. One of my favorite teachers, Joyce Meyers, shows the strength of women in the ministry.
Have fun with this chapter and see what other “gems” you get from it. It’s a hodgepodge of laws from loan security to skin disease to dealing with the poor. Again some make sense where others don’t. Now when you see how the Pharisees then took these regulations and expanded on them you can see how our country today has become such a mess. We took a simple document called the Constitution and over 200+ years have made it a mess! Seems no one learns from history, be it “written” or “Biblical”!