That Blessed Arrangement

He who finds a wife

finds a good thing,

and obtains favor

from the Lord.

Proverbs 18:22, NKJV

 

Marriage is honorable

among all...

Hebrews 13:4, NKJV

 

 

 

 

It was God's idea.

 

In the very beginning, God created a man.  He gave that man a home, a job, a yard to keep, a smorgasbord of fruits and vegetables to eat, a menagerie of animals to name and have as friends.  But God saw that it was not good for man to be alone.  He had no one like himself, no one to share his life or his heart or his home.  So from man God took a rib and fashioned a woman, whom he brought to the man.  The man recognized that she was from him and for him, like him but different.  And through marriage the two became one again.  What had been divided was now made whole.

 

Marriage was God's idea.  But Genesis Chapter Two was the only time God ever created one specific woman for one specific man and actually put the two together.  Everyone else pretty much had to figure it out on their own.  Or let their parents choose for them.

 

Whether Cain married his sister or not, the men of old generally looked within their family group and community for suitable brides.  Abraham married his half-sister, then sent his most trusted to servant to find a wife for his son Isaac among his near relatives.  Isaac married his first cousin-once removed.  Isaac's sons both married their cousins.  The parents of Moses were apparently Aunt and Nephew.  Later, the Law of God forbade marriage between immediate relations.  The Law also commanded God's people not to intermarry with foreigners, which wasn't about racial purity so much as it was about spiritual fidelity.  Foreign wives meant foreign gods, and God would have none of that.

 

In all the Bible, I can't think of a single instance where God instructed anyone to marry a specific person.  Except for maybe Hosea.  God told him to marry a prostitute, but apparently Hosea got to pick the hooker he wanted.  And I can only think of one instance where God told someone not to marry.  That was Jeremiah the Prophet, whose message was one of death and destruction upon wayward Israel, pronouncing a curse on all the children born in Israel, and upon the parents who bore them.

 

The Apostle Paul wrote, in First Corinthians Chapter Seven, that he thought singleness and celibacy was preferable to the troubles of marriage.  He thought it was easier to fully serve and please the Lord if one the distractions of marriage were absent.  He thought, regardless of our marital status, we should stay focused on Jesus.  But he also said marriage was not a sin; in fact, it was the preferable alternative to sin.  Don't burn, he said.  Get married!  And later he would write that anyone who commanded people not to get married was a false teacher.  Marriage is honorable among all!

 

Jesus first miracle was to bless a wedding couple with a gift of good wine.  In recent days, there has been much made over a fragment of an ancient manuscript suggesting Jesus had a wife.  But the Bible already tells us as much:  the Church is the Bride of Christ, betrothed to Him through salvation, awaiting His return to catch her away to the wedding supper and the fulfillment of all things.

 

And then there's one of my favorite verses in all the Bible (right up there with all the rest of them), the one from Proverbs 18:  The man who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. 

 

Marriage is a blessing!  It isn't something to be put off and avoided.  It is something to prepare for and anticipate.  It is the highest expression of human relationship, God's way of giving us the kind of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual fulfillment we need from each other.  It is a physical representation of the mysterious and miraculous union between God and man.  It is a wonderful, beautiful, glorious thing, and should be treated as such, especially in the household of faith.  Marriage is a good thing, it is a God thing.

 

And I am more than ready to be favored and blessed.