Matthew 19:1 says, And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judaea beyond Jordan;  After teaching in Galilee, Jesus went to the coasts of Judea.  Jesus was often on the move, and the Holy Spirit is on the move and active in the world today.  We need to learn from what God teaches us and be going into the world with His message.  Verse two states, And great multitudes followed him; and he healed them there.  The disciples were not the only ones following Jesus.  We are told that great multitudes followed Jesus as well.  It would be nice if great multitudes were coming to Jesus today, but I believe that for the most part the multitudes were following Him for the wrong reasons.  They were coming for physical reasons and not spiritual ones.  Verse three declares, The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?  The Pharisees were following Jesus as well.  They were not following out of belief, though as some of the most devout of religious leaders they should have been.  There are those today who come to Jesus only for material reasons, and some who come simply to try to discredit Him.  Once more, they thought they could trick Jesus into saying something that they could use against Him.  This time, they raised the question of divorce.  They asked if a man could put away his wife for every cause.  Verse four states, And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,  Jesus once again asked the Pharisees if they had not read the scriptures.  God made people male and female, and that has not changed, no matter what we might like to think.  Verse five continues, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?  Jesus tells us that in marriage that two people, male and female, become one flesh.  God's law for marriage will never change.  Verse six declares,
Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.  Jesus tells us that what God has joined together that man should never attempt to take apart.  The two become as one, both necessary for the completion of the other.  We have reduced marriage to a legal act and not spiritual one.  Verse seven states, They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?  The Pharisees attempted to justify divorce based on the teaching of Moses, or the scripture.  What Moses taught was more to protect the wife than to justify divorce.  The husband could not just put her out of the house without written documentation that he had divorced her.  In verse eight Jesus replies, He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.  Jesus told the Pharisees that Moses suffered, or allowed, men to put away their wives out of the hardness of their hearts, but this was not what God had intended.  God always intended for marriage to be until death.  In verse nine, Jesus continues, And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.  Jesus tells us what God intends.  Divorce is not acceptable except in the case of infidelity, and even then it is not ordered, but only allowed.  Verse ten states, His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry.  The disciples then asked Jesus if it was best not to marry.  Maybe they had no faith in people remaining faithful, but Jesus had not said that marriage was wrong.  When we make marriage a legal institution instead of a moral, or spiritual one, we might ask the same question.  Verse eleven declares, But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. Jesus said that not all men were destined to not marry.  Marriage, the spiritual joining of a man and woman to become one flesh, was God's plan from the beginning.  Verse twelve states, For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother’s womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.  Jesus said that some were born to be eunuchs, or unmarried, and some were forced to be that way by the world, and yet others remained that way for spiritual reasons.  This was never God's plan for all men, though.