The beauty of biblical marriage and God's gift of it has been attacked for years, not just in recent history. Everything God has called good has been turned on its head by humankind and their governments worldwide. This devotion is not about the attacks on marriage but the beauty of God's design. I will address it as it is mentioned in Genesis 1 and 2 and then repeated by Jesus in Matthew 19 and Paul in Ephesians 5. I will defend what God put together and says, "Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate" Mark 10:9.
Marriage is the first institution mentioned in Scripture. God saw that it was not good for man to be alone. There were animals, and the man had the company of God himself. What was missing was a companion for procreation, filling and subduing the earth as God designed them. "Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ' Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'" God created the union of man and woman to fill the earth.
The interesting thing we need to ponder is God's decision to use this design to fill the earth. He could have quickly filled the earth with a multitude of people. Being alone would not have been a consideration. People could have loved whomever they chose, but He designed with specificity in mind, biology, and with the intention of the two genders for His purpose. God chose monogamy; only including male and female. Now I know we have come a long way from God's prescription. There may even be reasons that make all other options look viable, but they are not the perfect. And all stray from what honors and obeys God. Heterosexuality is the only way God affirms; that's where biology fits. There would be no way for procreation to come about with a same-sex union. Our Nation and a few others have adopted same-sex unions as viable, but that will never fit God's design for marriage. It is not in His prescription.
We see polygamy filling the pages of Scripture. Because God does not condemn the practice many have adopted that as He is affirming a direction of marriage that also was not His prescription. When we read about multiple wives amongst the men that God honors in Scripture, we are reading a description of history, not condoning or condemning lifestyles. As you read about these relationships, you will see the complications of being outside God's will. God addressed multiple wives among those who were King among His people, Deuteronomy 17:17. Silence cannot be read as approval; we must take the whole of Scripture to find our answers. That is how we learn the difference between description, what happened, and God's prescription, what was to be obeyed.
As we move into Genesis 2:24, we see the generic presentation of all future marriages. It says, "Therefore a man (general) shall leave his father and mother (that's important) and be joined to his wife (woman), and they (man and woman) shall become one flesh (heterosexual intimacy)." This passage is essential as we see Jesus affirm this Truth in Matthew 19. He is being challenged over Moses permitting divorce. Jesus even stresses at the end of this clarification over divorce as He reiterates God's purpose for marriage "Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate." That doesn't just speak to the one couple but the institution God created. No one should attempt to change or separate it from God's design. We see that has been stepped all over in our current progressive epic. God will judge what stands against Truth. God's people must stand for Truth. We cannot let sentimentality turn us against God by affirming a lie and not standing for what His Word says is True about marriage.
Jesus' conversation with the Pharisees in Matthew 19 also emphasizes marriage as a lifelong covenant. At the same time, Jesus says that Moses offered reasons for divorce, breaking the covenant through adultery. It is only because one or each has become hard-hearted. While this is allowed, it does not compliment the couple, but it condemns one or both as the circumstances play out Malachi 2:16 says, "God hates divorce."
Should we be trusted with much else when we make a covenant before God and man and then so easily break it? Divorce has become so easy to get. The government can make the dissolution of a covenant for any reason today. People divorce and then say, "we are still the best of friends. We just can't be married." The difficult question is, "who is lying?" How can breaking something as serious as the most important relationship on earth be one that is done away with and then stay friends? That person cannot be trusted with anything of substance. What makes you think they will stick around for the friendship or anything having to do with the quality of life? Their word means nothing. This is not to condemn but to understand the seriousness of divorce. Read the Old Testament betrayal of Israel toward God. Every time he loved her again and offered her a chance to love Him back, she showed nothing but despising. The person who breaks the covenant cannot be trusted until they repent. Divorce is not as simple as irreconcilable differences. It's so much deeper to God.
Then Paul addresses this issue in Ephesians 5 more profoundly, talking about the symbolism of the two becoming one flesh. In verse 32, Paul , says, "this is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church." This follows his quoting Genesis 2:24 "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This is powerful; God's purpose for marriage is even bigger than procreation, but Jesus and the Church as his bride. The monogamy of marriage symbolizes Christ as having only one bride, The Church. Jesus does not have two brides, and that is a reason I follow what Paul says when he says in Christ, "there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus," we are One Bride. This is a monogamous relationship. Jesus will return for his bride, not multiple relationships. That bride consists of all his disciples, they are one.
We go back to the book of beginnings and come to God's marriage prescription. Nothing else than His perfect will do. While in this sin-filled world, other options exist, and some even appear to work. God will never affirm what is outside of Truth, even if it seems to go on unabated. History is being told, not a condemning or condoning of every storyline. Marriage between a man and a woman, being fruitful and faithful to death, is the only condoned way of exemplifying Christ and The Church. It highlights what God has set up in His Son with those of us who come into a relationship with Him.
Marriage represents something spiritual that the model of it should not defile. It is a great mystery, and it is God's design to actualize that mystery between only a man and a woman. Our differing designs no matter how sincere we are will make God change what He has said about marriage. That only makes things difficult for us. God does not change and will not be mocked. We must change and submit to please Him. The beauty of marriage is one unique spiritual reality we will understand someday. Today it is ours to obey.
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