Unto the Married

"And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made [them] at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." (Matthew 19:4-6)

These are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ; which is God's final revelation to man (Hebrews 1:1,2). His words include everything for marriage. For Christians when you talk about marriage you're talking about a very old subject—"that he which made [them] at the beginning…."

As long as man has been on the face of the earth so has marriage. It is a union between a man and a woman instituted by God Himself. If you are married stop for a moment and pray. Think about your marriage and what can be changed to make it better. As always we endeavor to stick with what the Scriptures say, not me but what God has to say, and it is Him in which we receive answers.

Where did marriage come from?

When we discuss marriage, the Christian marriage, there are some things we need to make clear. First, as professing Christians we must understand God created and installed marriage for us (see Genesis 1:28; 2:18,23,24; Proverbs 18:22).

"And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." (Genesis 1:28)

Notice in this passage God blesses them, and asks them to procreate the earth for Him. And in Genesis 2:18 it says, "I will make him an help meet for him." It's clear God created marriage.

God's word is true and authoritative

Second, we must understand that God is God, and what He says we must obey without question. It's so vital we understand that His word is to be obeyed, believed, and trusted (Exodus 19:3-5; Deuteronomy 11:26,27; 13:4; 27:10; Matthew 7:24-27; Acts 5:29; 2 Thessalonians 3:14). God's word that has come to us in the Scriptures must be trusted, and obeyed. The Bible is both without error and authoritative. For if we do not believe in the word of God, we'll be prone not to believe Him either. See Daniel 10:21; John 2:22; 10:35; Galatians 4:30; 2 Timothy 3:16; James 4:5; 2 Peter 1:20,21.

When we speak of "without error" we mean that all the doctrines, revelations, and theology in the original manuscripts was without error, and the faithful copies from which the King James was translated. The best version is the King James. It is worthy to note that when Jesus was confronted by the religious leaders, because they regarded not the Scriptures, He said, "Ye do err not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God." So we would do well to heed the Word of God. See 2 Peter 3:16; Revelation 22:18,19; Matthew 4:4,7,10; Romans 2:8-10; 2 Thessalonians 3:14; 1 Peter 3:1; 4:17.

Now that we have established that God's word is true, trustworthy, and authoritative we must realize. 1) God created marriage. 2) His word is to be obeyed and trusted. 3) His word must be authoritative in all areas of our life. We have seen where marriage comes from and why (Genesis 2:18). God made man first then He made the woman for the man (Genesis 2:22). God made the woman for the man not the other way around. Now some women will be saying "we are liberated, we're in the 21st century, you don't believe we should listen to our husbands?" Yes we do!

Most of the problems in Christian marriages comes because the man and the woman do not know their rolls in the Christian marriage. The man does not know his roll and neither does the woman. Jesus said, "at the beginning made He them male and female." Let's look a little closer at what happened at the beginning to try and better understand this. In Genesis the fall of mankind into sin has just occurred, and God is delivering His judgment upon all involved, He comes to the sentence for the crime upon the woman represented by Eve.

"Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire [shall be] to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." (Genesis 3:16)

Notice, the sentence upon the woman comes just after satan's sentence, being the initiator of the rebellion, and before the man. This is because satan deceived Eve then Adam sinned. Notice the phrase "…and thy desire [shall be] to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." Let's look at a couple of words, desire and rule. First, desire (teshooaw) in Hebrew means a longing, a stretching after. Second, the word rule (mawshal) means to have dominion over, govern, reign, or to have power over.

The judgement of Eve (representing all women) by God was, "…and thy desire [shall be] to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." To put it another way, "…and thy desire (longing for, stretching out after) [shall be] to thy husband, and he shall rule (have dominion, govern, have power) over thee."

Remember it's God who passed this judgement. One reason women don't like this passage is, not because they don't want to obey God, but because they don't want to obey their husbands. They would rather listen to satan's lies then God's appointed man for them. If we resist this we're fighting what God has placed as judgement, and this curse can never be altered. I would challenge anyone to find a verse in God's word that annuls this fact. So what do we do with this? How do we handle this? We obey it regardless what the world, satan, or anyone else says. Now, let's look at the judgement of Adam.

"And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed [is] the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat [of] it all the days of thy life." (Genesis 3:17)

We notice harsh judgement dealt to Adam. Notice, he hearkened unto the voice of thy wife.   He broke the commandment of God—the only one God give to him. And he must work the rest of his life in toil. The word hearkened (shama) in Hebrew means to listen, obey, regard, or understand. Adam literally obeyed the voice of his wife; which he knew to be wrong because it resulted in breaking God's word.

Because of the fall they were now subjugated to a chain of command and natural order that is to be obeyed. 1 Corinthians reiterates this as well—God, man, woman, children. As the woman took upon herself authority, and as the man submitted to it, it's now the reverse women are to be subject to men. If some women are upset about this they should remember they were deceived in the beginning, and just as the man must suffer the consequences of his actions so must the women.

Biblical New Testament Marriage

Marring and marriage how was it conducted? How was it done in the New Testament era? Was there some formula that the body of Christ instituted? In lands, states, or countries is there laws for marriage and how to perform them? One thing is we should not seek any government approval for getting married http://www.kingshouse.org/nostatelic.htm   Let's look at marriages from the beginning. In the patriarchal period wives were sought for sons by his father's servants. The purpose was 1) to maintain social continuity. 2) the perpetuation of the group (Genesis 1:28).

It was much the same in the exodus-settlement period as was in the patriarchal period. Moreover, during this time polygamy was not uncommon (Judges 8:30). Much of the same practices remained through the monarchy period. However, in the exile return period we see a change, such as divorce of Israelite wives for indigenous women, for two reasons. 1) social acceptability. 2) assured title to the lands.

By the New Testament time weddings and marriages were celebrated with a wedding feast, the bride was brought to the wedding by the groomsman, while the groom was accompanied by the bridesmaids, a steward was placed in charge of the arrangements, festivities, and the parceling out of wine. To separate these activities form other events that might have been going on at the same time special garments were required for admission to the wedding. So through out the Old Testament times and into the New the type of marriage stayed the same. This is also consistent with the Lord Jesus (John 2:1-10; Matthew 22:1-13; Matthew 25:1-10). In the gospels this type of wedding is mentioned seven times (Matthew 22:3,8,10,11,12; Luke 12:36; 14:8).

Among the Jews the marriage supper took place in the husband's house and was a great social family event. There was hospitality and resentment at the refusal of an invitation (Matthew 22:1-14). The marriage in Cana exhibits the way in which a marriage feast was conducted in humbler homes. So what about vows in the New Testament times? Did people in both Old and New Testaments take what we call marriage vows? What did God do when He married Adam and Eve? (Genesis 2:22-24 see also Genesis 1:28).

We know that marriage is for one man and one woman for life. So any "promises" made should be upheld as sacred. Were told not to "vow" so we must honor marriage and keep our spouse as we declared we would.

Amen?

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