Deuteronomy 24:1-5 “When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, when she has departed from his house, and goes and becomes another man’s wife, if the latter husband detests her and writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her as his wife, then her former husband who divorced her must not take her back to be his wife after she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the Lord, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

We need to be careful that we do not make this law broader than it is intended in this text.  It restates from previous scriptures that immorality was a divorce-able offense, but the plain sense of this law is that once she married another man, she is impure as far as her first husband is concerned, and he could not be permitted to marry her again. This was important in this way: Marriage and re-marriage was forbidden, preventing the appearance of moral laxity – A moral laxity that would be improper for the chosen people of God, a nation that was to be a light to the world.

The aim of this law was to prevent the misconception of, or the REALITY OF moral laxity. If an adulteress woman was returning to her husband from a second divorce, the movement between men could have created an impression that her adultery was tolerated. Quite frankly, divorce is immoral. God never said that He condones divorce. In fact, Jesus said, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so” (Matthew 19:8). God never describes divorce as anything but displeasing to Him.

Malachi 2:16 (NKJV) “For the Lord God of Israel says That He hates divorce, For it covers one’s garment with violence,” Says the Lord of hosts. Therefore take heed to your spirit, That you do not deal treacherously.”

But because of the hardness of the hearts of man, divorce would happen, and so the purpose of Deuteronomy 24:1-5 was to prevent the appearance of tolerating immorality.

It would be wise for the Christian to consider what impression he leaves others with. The Bible calls us ambassadors because we are. Everything we do or don’t do communicates something about our Lord to others. And so we should consider our actions … how are we pointing people to Jesus? Or, how are we mis-representing Jesus or taking people’s eyes off of Him? There will be a day when Jesus will return to claim the throne and an account will be required from each of us. We should take impressions seriously. We can’t be afraid of our shadow, but we should be wise about how things can be misconstrued. The stronger believer may be free to exercise His Christian liberty, but he is not free to stumble other believers by the exercise of His Christian liberty. To do such violates the law of love that is in Christ. And to give the impression of moral laxity to those who do not know Jesus brings shame and besmirches the Name of our Lord Jesus.

In Jeremiah 3, we find this interesting parallel:

Jeremiah 3:1 (NKJV)  “They say, ‘If a man divorces his wife, And she goes from him And becomes another man’s, May he return to her again?’ Would not that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the harlot with many lovers; Yet return to Me,” says the Lord.

In the time of Jeremiah, Judah had sunk to a very low level and there was great immorality in the land. Israel had played the harlot. Yet God asked her to return to Him. It’s a picture of God’s great grace … some may call it easy greasy, but I think it’s pretty great. And if God is willing to receive by grace those who by law should be forever cut off from Him, then we too should operate on the basis of grace rather than the law. People need to know how sinful they are and the law does just that, but we are not ambassadors of the law. We are ambassadors of Christ. To use the law lawfully means using the law only in that it is a schoolmaster that will lead people to Christ. And so it is grace that we must minister, so that we lead them to Christ.