10:3
As always, we can learn a great deal from the way that Jesus dealt with “difficult” questions. Note that the difficulty usually ended up being on the side of the questionnaires (or accusers). Jesus rarely dealt immediately with the matter raised, but went to the Biblical fundamentals, i.e. to the heart of the matter. The heart of the matter in terms of what God says, and the heart of the matter of what needs to change in our hearts. So here Jesus goes back to the Law of Moses. This would be particularly poignant because the Pharisees were so proud of their assiduousness in keeping the Law of Moses.
10:4
The Pharisees answered by saying that “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away”. The relevant teaching of Moses is Deut 24:1-4, and doesn’t actually “permit” a man to write a certificate of divorce. Rather it assumes that this has happened, and the crux of Moses’ teaching in that section is that the woman and the original husband must not remarry if the second husband also divorces her. It was assumed that divorce would happen, and that divorcees would often remarry.
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