<p>19:5&nbsp;<em>And said: For this cause shall a man</em>- Although a different original word is used, the idea is clearly the same as in the original question in :3, about whether it was lawful to divorce &ldquo;for every cause&rdquo;.</p>
<p><em>Leave-&nbsp;</em>The Hebrew and Greek words for &ldquo;divorce&rdquo; mean literally to go or send away from. And this is the same idea which the Lord now uses (although a different original word) in saying that because of how God created humanity, a man will leave or go away from [the same idea as &lsquo;divorce&rsquo;] his parents and cleave to his wife. The Lord is surely saying that the process of leaving / separating and cleaving to another is natural and intended by God- but it must be done within the bounds of His intentions.</p>
<p><em>His father and mother and shall cleave to his wife</em>- Translated in Eph. 5:31 as &ldquo;shall be joined to his wife&rdquo;. The reference in my opinion is not to the wedding nor to the sexual act so much as to a process of being joined together, parallel with &lsquo;becoming one flesh&rsquo;, which is conducted by God in response to a man and woman wishing to come together. This involves His work on the minds of the couple and through orchestrated circumstance in their lives which results in their coming together as one. But the process is ongoing. This is surely a parade example of where God is able and eager to work on the minds of people directly. There could be no falser impression than that an indifferent God faces off against man over an open Bible, leaving it over to us how far we wish to be obedient. He is actively seeking to work in the very inward parts of the minds of His people, by His Spirit, in order to bring us together with Him and each other. The reason why sex before marriage or casual sex is wrong is that this is a physical coming together without the spiritual bonding or joining process which God has promised to perform in the lives of His people. The existence of this bonding process is another reason why marriage to unbelievers is not appropriate- because it will be hard for God to work on the heart of a person who has closed their heart to Him.</p>
<p><em>And the two shall become one flesh?</em> - &ldquo;<em>Shall be</em>&nbsp;one flesh&rdquo; (AV) is a future tense. The process of unifying works towards a final unity between persons called &ldquo;one flesh&rdquo;. It&rsquo;s hard to say what point is in view here- a point where a married couple are &ldquo;one flesh&rdquo; presumably speaks of the consummation of marriage in sexual intercourse. Clearly the whole implication here is that two people cleave to each other whilst at the same time leaving their parental background or family of origin, and during that process there is a psychological process of confirmation going on from God, binding them together; and this then comes to term in &ldquo;one flesh&rdquo;. This intended process rules out casual sex, just as it rules out individuals remaining psychologically bonded to their parents or family of origin. The false teaching regarding sexual matters argued that sleeping with a prostitute was OK so long as it was understood that the sexual act made two into flesh (1 Cor. 6:16); but this of course was just attaching a Bible verse to a situation in order to justify what people wanted to do. In sleeping with a prostitute, two do not become one in the Biblical sense because there has not been the spiritual process of God joining the couple. And that is what is wrong with it.</p>
