They said, “Moses permitted us to write a certificate of divorce and to divorce.”
The Pharisees mention the permission given by Moses and present it as though it were God’s original will concerning marriage. Yet the certificate of divorce was given not to encourage divorce, but to limit injustice and to protect the woman in a society where a man’s arbitrariness could become a grave wrong. They had turned permission into a right, and a mitigating regulation into a justification for their desire. This shows how a person can use the letter of the law to defend the will of his heart, instead of submitting to the spiritual meaning of God’s will. The Lord will next show that Moses’ permission was given because of the hardness of people’s hearts and was not the same as God’s original command.