Marriage Series

Marriage

All Scripture Marked NKJV: The New King James Version. 1996, c1982. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

Tonight, we are continuing a series called “From the Heart” and tonight we are talking about Marriage.

When I began thinking about this series, I was at home enjoying the time with my family. I began to realize how important my marriage is to me.

Several weeks ago, we celebrated our sixth anniversary. I guess you could say that we are still newlyweds—that’s ok because that means we have so much more to learn about each other.

We have a good marriage, but it is not with out its problems and challenges—one being that I’m in Iraq and she’s in South Carolina and will be moving to Fort Campbell within the next two weeks.

During these challenges, it is always important to go back to the basics of marriage.

As with any area of life, we constantly need to look at the very foundations to understand what makes them work and how we can improve on them.

Since God designed marriage, it is best to go back to the Bible to see how it is supposed to work. A successful marriage is one that conforms to God’s design.

So tonight we are going to look at the very beginning of the story at Genesis 2:24, which is found on page 4 in the Red Bibles underneath your chairs.

The story of marriage began when God said that “it was not good for man to be alone.” God saw this and created woman for man to be a helpmate. (Ge 2:18) So he took one of Adams ribs and created woman. Adam saw that she was “flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone.”

And then came to our focal verse tonight.

Genesis 2:24:

24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. (Ge. 2:24, NKJV)

The first thing this verse teaches about marriage is that the couple leaves father and mother.

Genesis 2:24 says;

24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother…(Ge:2:24, NKJV)

In order to conform to the design of God, the couple must

1. Leave

Those of us who are married know that this easier said than done.

One of the focal points of most weddings is the part that happens right after the processional when the father turns to his daughter and ceremonially gives her away to the groom.

This is a time of tears, but is an important symbol. It symbolizes that the daughter has left the family to go and start her own.

While we have a spiritual obligation to honor our father and mother, leaving is an issue of dependence. We are to leave our parent’s support, and begin to support ourselves, in every area of life—physically, emotionally, and spiritually. We are to seek one another’s support and begin to depend on each other.

Many times, we allow this one issue to come between the marriage relationships. We allow the parents desires and manipulation, in some cases, to dictate what will occur in our marriage. We never cut the ties between our dependence from our family. We hold on to those ties, because we have depended on them for so long and we don’t let go. But what happens is that, when we do this, we also don’t allow those bounds to build with our spouse. We are to leave our father and mother.

I’ve heard the statement; “My husband or wife may leave me, my family will never leave me.” The problem with that statement is that it is upside-down. You made a commitment to never leave your spouse regardless of the circumstances—you have never made any agreement like that with your family.

We need to honor our father and mother, yes; but we are to not seek to fulfill or needs through that relationship this needs to come through the marriage.

Then the very next statement that is brought out is that the two will be joined together.

Genesis 2:24 continues:

24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, …(Ge:2:24, NKJV)

In order to conform to the design of God, the couple must

2. Cleave

The word cleave comes from the traditional King James Version of the Bible. It is an old school word that we don’t use very much, but it means to

cling: come or be in close contact with; stick or hold together and resist separation; (wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn)

But the word cleave gives a stronger picture than simply joined.

You join a health club. You join a mailing list to a website. But, to cleave means to stick together and resists separation.

Once it is attached, the bond does not let go.