Question: What did Jesus say about a bill of divorcement: at the beginning? Later on disciples said of account of hardness of heart a bill of divorce could be written. Intro: The passage is Matthew 19:1-9. Note that it was Jesus, not the disciples, who spoke of Israel's hardness of heart. 1. "From the beginning it hath not been so" (Matt. 19:9). Reference is to the beginning of creation. This is established in Mark 10:6: "But from the beginning of the creation, Male and female made he them." Reference is to Gen. 2; the home as God would have it. Malachi voiced God's attitude toward divorce (Mal.2:16) 2. Bill of divorcement. This takes us back to Deut. 24: This had the effect of regulating divorce and actually discouraged it. a. See Deut.24:3: The force of this stipulation would be to discourage hasty divorce. 3. "Moses for your hardness of hearts suffered you to put away your wives." One of those things that was tolerated during the dispensation in which God was awaiting what Paul called "the fullness of times" for the coming of Christ (Gal.4:4). (Acts 17:30 is also to be understood in this light). a. Ill. Polygamy 4. This is to be contrasted with what Jesus said: vv. 4-6,9. 5. The adulterer or adulteress is one who has been unfaithful to his spouse. He or she has gone outside the legitimate realm of marriage to commit lasciviousness and uncleanness (Heb.13:4). 6. Whether or not one is lost depends upon whether he has obtained forgiveness that is in Christ (1 Cor.6:9-11).