“But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female”
(Mark 10:6 NKJV)

God's blueprint for marriage

This discussion between Jesus and the Pharisees took place in Transjordan on the eastern side of the Jordan River. They found Jesus as He was teaching people who had gathered.

The Pharisees found Him, not to learn but to . . .

1. Enlighten Him. They think they have an unanswerable position on divorce.
2. Expose Him as a false teacher who denies the law of Moses.
3. Embarrass Him before His adoring disciples and listeners.
4. Entrap Him, probably hoping He will suffer the same fate as John the baptizer. Verse two says they came to test Him. Consider the parallels: John had told Herod, “It is not lawful” for you to have your brother’s wife (Mark 6:18). Now the Pharisees ask Jesus, “Is it lawful” for a man to divorce his wife (Mark 10:3). They appear to fall back on the same slippery ground that led to John’s death.

Obviously they will not stop with this question; they also believe that after divorce, they may remarry. (Deuteronomy 24:1-4 had allowed both divorce and remarriage under certain conditions.)

Jesus exposed their motives and their hardness of heart (Mark 10:5), and then returned to God’s original blueprint for marriage in Genesis 1-2. “But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man divide” (Mark 10:6-10). Jesus turned the tables on the Pharisees: He enlightened them, He exposed them as false teachers, and He answered their quibble as no other had done.

Frivolous divorce was never a part of God’s plan. God once tolerated some bad attitudes in the Jews, but Jesus takes everyone back to the beginning — God’s blueprints for marriage.

Mark 10:6, and its parallel, Matthew 19:3-9, is a valuable mem-ory verse because it teaches . . .

1. The truth on marriage, divorce, and remarriage. There was a time when God overlooked some of this ignorance, but now commands all people everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30-31).
2. The truth on creation. Male and female existed in the beginning of God’s creation, not billions of years after it as pseudo-science claims. Where there is creation, there must be a Creator. Jesus took part in this creation (John 1:1-3). He serves as an expert eyewitness of these events. No one on earth shares His unique knowledge. This means that Genesis 1-2 is accurate.
3. The truth on truth. Note that Jesus did not say to the Pharisees, “I personally disagree with your position, but since it is truth to you, I must respect it.” On the contrary, He opposed and destroyed their position. Truth does not tolerate contradictions.
4. That it matters what we believe. He could have said, “I personally disagree with your position, but you have a right to believe what you think, because sincerity is the only thing that matters.” Saul of Tarsus was sincere, but dead wrong.

– Rick Duggin