A friend of mine called me and sounded very troubled, he wanted me to come quickly and follow him to see a couple. As we arrived at the property and the front door was opened, the first thing that caught our attention was blood on the floor. It was a case of domestic violence and the scripture that came to my mind was not a scripture, it was a prayer, “Oh God, what kind of wahala (problem) is this”. In serving as a pastor over a couple of decades, I have been brought into all kinds of personal, family and community situations and some are never easy to deal with.
The Pharisee’s asked Jesus about divorce so He answered in Matthew 19:9, “And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.” This scripture and another one in Malachi 2:16 which states that God hates divorce are strong scriptures that have been used to discourage couples from divorce.
When you are brought into a situation where there has been some form of abuse, violence or infidelity in a home, the atmosphere is so pregnant with the devastating effects of what has happened that the last thing on ones mind is a scripture about divorce, rather a prayer wells up, “God, we need your help here”.
There are only two events that can end a marriage, one is death which is inevitable, and the other is divorce which is a choice. But before we delve into the topic of divorce, it might be useful to understand God’s perspective on marriage in the first place, and the help He has made available to keep marriages strong and healthy. So many people do not have a perspective on marriage, and are unaware of why God intended it. Therefore, to properly understand why people get to the brink of divorce, we need to look at the context of thier lives and not just their intention at that moment.
Over the next couple of weeks I will share scriptures that will help us understand Gods intention for marriage, the place of commitment, love, and forgiveness, why it is important to be taught about marriage before getting into it, and much more. These short write ups are not meant to be an exhaustive guide, rather they are a pointer into areas for more study.
Please feel free to comment on these posts directly or anonymously, and do reach out to me if you would want to discuss any personal issues in more details.