Deuteronomy 23-24: What's the Deal With Divorce?

Divorce is a divisive issue.  Genesis 2:24 clearly describes the utter seriousness and sacredness of marriage.  No mention of divorce is found in these early chapters of the Bible in which the institution of marriage is introduced once for all.  More than likely, divorce crept in as man's inerrant ways became more prevalent.  For divorce is part and parcel with sin.  If man and woman both lived sinless lives (i.e., lives of unselfishness and virtue), divorce would be an unnecessary thing.  But divorce becomes an issue when one or both of the partners forget the sacredness of marriage and begin to live selfishly.  A man commits adultery, a woman doesn't want the responsibility of motherhood anymore, a man shows no affection or care for his spouse, a woman is distrustful and disrespectful of her spouse, and on and on and on.  Essentially, when humans start acting human, divorce becomes almost necessary.  No doubt the bar God sets is high.  Two becoming one is no slight thing.  But in Deuteronomy we find some verses that seem to undermine God's great proclamation of matrimony in Genesis.  Deuteronomy 24:1 seems to grant permission for divorce, and at that time, yes, it did just that.  It may seem difficult to reconcile God's decree in Genesis and Jesus's decree in the Gospels with this verse in Deuteronomy, but Jesus Himself clears it up for us.  Matthew 19:7-8 says, "They say to him: Why then did Moses command to give a bill of divorce, and to put away?  He saith to them: Moses because of the hardness of your hearts permitted you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so."  And there it all is.  It's a simple case of the Old Law versus the New (which in many ways is much older than the Old Law!).  God's original plan was too much for the Israelites to handle, so Moses, in an effort to avert worse sins, permitted divorce among those early Jews, though stressing that it didn't change God's original proclamation that the flesh of two become one, which is why adultery was still committed when remarriage occurred (committed though the consequence presumably lessened).  But when Christ came, He made all things new, and in the case of marriage He actually made things old!  He re-instituted the eternal sacredness of those words in Genesis.  Marriage was once again indissoluble (though, again, scholars say it always was).  Divorce need not be permitted because of the hardness of men's hearts anymore, for the Light of Christ has filled the world, granting strength to the married, to live virtuously, and to have no need of divorce; for saying humans still need it is to say Christ made no difference by His coming.