Online Reporter
Cuthbert Mavheko, Correspondent
ZIMBABWE witnessed a staggering surge in divorce cases in 2024, with 3 214 cases recorded across the country, compared to 2 149 cases in 2023.
These tragic statistics are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg as many marriages of couples, who tied the knot under customary law, are also crumbling like a deck of cards.
Something is painfully wrong when so many marriages end in divorce. When we take a cursory glance at the average wedding picture, we see the husband and his wife beaming. Their smiling faces radiate joy and happiness.
However, a few months or years after the wedding, the smiles are no longer there. Anger, frustration and disappointment have set in. Trust has been replaced by suspicion and the couple now feel it is better to break up rather than to continue living in the misery of an unhappy marriage. Nowadays when serious marital problems arise, married couples generally view divorce as a solution – a parachute out of their problems.
The sad reality on the ground is that divorce destroys lives, it tears apart the very heart and soul of a family.
Dr Archibald Hart, a clinical psychologist and author of the book Children of Divorce wrote, “Parents are a child’s whole world. When they divorce, they are actually breaking up the world of their own child. They are shattering the child’s emotional security. The child feels abandoned, frightened and insecure about the future.” This raises the obvious question: But why are so many marriages breaking up? Marital infidelity, gender-based violence and financial challenges have been cited as some of the major causes of divorce.
It is undeniable that these factors are contributing to the breaking up of many marriages. But the one root cause goes a lot deeper than any of these factors. There’s a broad consensus of opinion among sober, discerning and analytical men of the cloth that no discussion of marriage and divorce can be complete without mentioning the role played by Satan the devil, who is the very personification of evil. “Those who view things through spiritual eyeglasses are aware that it is Satan the devil and demonic spirits, who are destroying marriages. It is common knowledge that in order to have a successful marriage, a person must choose the right partner during courtship. Marriages fail because incompatible couples are getting married. What is actually happening is that Satan and his demonic followers are inducing men and women who do not match to get married, knowing very well that such marriages will not last. Satan’s overall goal is to destroy the marriage institution,” said Sister Angela Edmore of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Elder Brian Moyo of the United Methodist Church, echoed similar sentiments. “As followers of Jesus Christ, we firmly believe that demonic spirits, led by Satan the devil, are behind this alarming disintegration of marriages. Satan knows that if he destroys the marriage institution, he has destroyed society, because marriage is the glue that cements and holds society together. For marriage and the home are the basis of all decent society,” said Elder Moyo.
In this sceptic modern age, to believe in a malevolent spirit, who is the embodiment of all evil, may sound a bit far-fetched and superstitious. If indeed the truth be told without prejudice, the devil has become a laughable cartoon figure in these modern times.
He is often pictured as a funny-looking creature with little horns growing out of the top of his head and a long, pointed tail. Very few people view the devil as a living spiritual being, who exerts his control over humans through deception. Some academics portray the devil as a convenient literary metaphor for evil. But the Holy Bible, which is the Creator’s divinely inspired revelation and instruction to mankind, reveals that Satan is a real spiritual being.
According to the Bible, the being whom we know as Satan today was once a powerful archangel, Lucifer.
As a righteous being, God made him ruler of this earth. But that position did not satisfy him. He wanted control over everything, not just this earth.
In fact, his desire was to be like God himself (Isaiah 14 verse 12 to 14). Driven by vanity and greed, Lucifer and a third of the angels mounted a rebellion against God’s throne in heaven. But he was defeated and cast back down to earth with the angels that rebelled with him (Revelation 12 verse 9). He became Satan, the adversary of God and the enemy of all those who want to obey God. The Bible reveals that Satan and his demonic forces exercise power over all the nations.
The Apostle Paul, when writing about the devil, said he is “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4 verse 4), “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.” (Ephesians 2 verse 2). To enhance his deceptive tactics, Satan usually transforms himself into an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11 verse 14).
Satan’s influence is not limited to cults that worship him or to ritual killings. The Bible reminds us that Satan can adversely influence even genuine Christians if they are not spiritually watchful. Put simply, even those who faithfully follow Jesus Christ are not immune to the devil’s evil machinations. The Scriptures warn that Satan roams among God’s people, trying to entice them to disobey God. The spiritual conflict between God’s people and Satan is brutal. In animal documentaries on television, we often see scenes of lions, tigers or leopards chasing down, throttling and tearing apart their helpless prey. This is the image the Apostle Peter used to describe Satan’s attempt to spiritually destroy God’s people. In 1 Peter 5 verse 8, he wrote, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”
Satan is a master of the art of deception and has practiced his deceptive tactics from the very earliest times. He is vastly experienced in seducing people into doing his bidding without them being aware of it.
The Book of Genesis gives us the story of Satan’s visit to Eve in the Garden of Eden. In the guise of a serpent, he deceived Eve into eating fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, saying she would not die (Genesis 3 verse 4). Contrariwise, God had warned Adam and Eve that “. . . in the day that you eat of it (the forbidden fruit), you shall surely die” (Genesis 2 verse 17). It sounds incredible, but it’s true.
Satan is antagonistic towards God, and one of his most deceptive tactics in these hectic modern times, was to induce higher education to callously deny the existence of God and accept, with virtual unanimity, the theory of evolution.
The evolutionary theory, which was founded by the likes of Charles Darwin, Huxley, Haeckel, Vogt et al is the explanation of the natural mind of the existence of a creation without the pre-existence of a divine Creator. For the benefit of the uninformed, the evolutionary theory advances the universally accepted fable that mankind is merely the highest animal species and came into existence by the process of evolution.
However, contrary to this fallible human teaching, the Bible reveals that God is the Creator of man (Genesis 1 verse 26) – that He is also the Creator of everything in the vast universe – the stars, the galaxies in endless space, the earth and everything in the earth.
Marriage is not something that just evolved through the reasoning and gradual civilisation of man. Marriage was created and ordained by God. Genesis 2 verse 18 tells us that after God had created the first man Adam, he said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meant for him.” God saw that the man was incomplete by himself, and so he decided to make someone suitable for the man-someone with whom he could share his life. That is how God created marriage.
It is crucially important to state that in order to get rid of the devil’s evil influence in our marital relationships and avoid the pitfalls of divorce and other evils that beset this world – a world riddled with broken homes, hate and violence – we should turn to God and ask Him for wisdom and guidance.
Our only hope of overcoming the devil’s evil machinations is to commune with God through regular, faith-based prayer. God hears and answers our prayers when we keep his commandments and do those things which please him.
This biblical truism is buttressed by 1 John 3 verse 22, which says, “And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.”
Cuthbert Mavheko is a freelance journalist and theologian based in Bulawayo. He can be contacted on 0773963448/0775522095 or via email [email protected].
Bongani Ndlovu