| Reviving the Family |
| Strengthening The Bond Between God and Families |
| God's Original Plan For Marriage by Tony Edwards If I were to ask what are the two greatest decisions a person will ever have to make, many answers would probably be given. But when we really stop to ponder our purpose here on earth, the first greatest decision becomes evident. Solomon affirmed that our whole duty here on earth is to “Fear God, and keep his commandments” (Eccl. 12:13). So, the first greatest decision is whether or not a person will choose to obey the Lord. In my opinion, the next greatest choice to be made is who a person will spend the rest of his/her life with. To those who understand God’s marriage plan of permanency, the reason is quite evident. For those who do not comprehend the Lord’s design for marriage the reason is but a blur. Is it any wonder as to why many marriages today are ending in divorce one to six months down the road. God has always had a design for marriage. It began in the Garden of Eden when the Lord took a rib from Adam’s side and made woman. Adam thus proceeded to say “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” The word “now” is from a word that means “at last.” This implies that it was with great joy for Adam to finally have a wife. After all of the animals had been paraded before Adam, “at last” there was finally someone that was suitable for the taking. In Genesis 2:24, we find these words: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.” Since Adam and Eve did not have an earthly mother and father, we can therefore conclude that God was creating a precedent for marriage that would travel through every subsequent generation thereafter. Because God’s plan for marriage was not enough, men sought revision: 1) Lamech took two wives instead of one (Gen 4:19) and 2) Moses gave permission for divorce for any cause as long as the husband gave the wife a divorce certificate (Deut 24:1-4). Thews were the conditions when Jesus finally came on the seen. Knowing about the right that Moses gave on divorce, the Pharisees confronted Jesus with the question: “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason” (Matt 19:3)? Their purpose in asking Jesus this was to get Him involved in a contradiction with Moses. But Jesus knew that they possessed a copy of the Old Testament and referred them back to Genesis 2:20-24, thus going beyond Moses to the source of marriage, God. He did so by asking them something to which they should have known the answer to: ““Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate” (Mt. 19:4-6) This response that Jesus gave seemed to be foreign to what they knew or rather what they wanted to accept. Thus they asked Him, “Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away” (v7)? The Lord answered them by saying that Moses permitted divorce for any reason because of the hard hearts that the Jews possessed toward their wives (v8). He ends this same verse however by saying “BUT FROM THE BEGINNING IT WAS NOT SO”. Jesus was letting them know that when God made the first marriage, Adam and Eve, He did not intend divorce for any reason. As a matter of fact the Lord goes on in verse 9 to give them the only reason that God allows for divorce and remarriage. To rid them of the authority of Moses, Jesus utters, “And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.” The disciples understood the permanency of marriage so clearly from Jesus’ statement that they responded by saying “If such is the case of the man with his wife, it is better not to marry” (v10). Marriage is designed to be kept from the marriage alter to the cemetery. Paul stated, “For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband” (Rom 7:2-3).No matter what the world says or what unfavorable situations we may find ourselves in, let us not neglect our children by withholding these precious truths as they pertain to God’s original plan for marriage. |
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| Till Death Do Us Part |