Marriage Matters Series

A pastor visited a fourth-grade Sunday School class and asked the young disciples this question, “What does God say about marriage?” Immediately one boy raised his hand and replied, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do!”

I enjoy hearing what kids say about love and marriage.

• Alan, age 10, remarked, “No person really decides before they grow up who they’re going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out later who you’re stuck with.”

• Cory, age 7 said, “Love will find you, even if you’re trying to hide from it. I been trying to hide from it since I was five, but the girls keep finding me.”

• Lori, age 8, was asked what her mom and dad have in common. She quickly replied, “Both don’t want no more kids!”

• And Gavin, age 8, gave his insight into why married couples often hold hands: “They want to make sure their rings don’t fall off because they paid good money for them.”

If you’re married, how do you make sure your rings don’t fall off?

Because the topic of marriage brings up all sorts of reactions, I want to repeat what we said last week: “If you’re single, divorced, or widowed, it doesn’t mean something is wrong or you are somehow ‘less than.’ Please forgive us when we put pressure on you to get married, or make disparaging comments, or tease you, or just leave you out of things. Forgive us as a church for the times we’ve made you feel second class or unimportant. That’s wrong. And we must stop. We must do a better job helping you live out your singleness with single-minded devotion to the glory of God.”

Last week we learned how Adam broke out into poetry when he met Eve. I challenged men to do the same. I didn’t do so well on the assignment, but I did receive this piece of poetry from Marshall Jensen. Marshall and Janet are new members of Edgewood. He titled it, “Marriage: God’s Plan.”

To the beautiful lady and her handsome man,

God has given a master plan.

To nurture and love each other,

Will mean doing what’s best for the other.

A love which gives no sacrifice,

Will in the end not suffice.

What God has put together as one,

No one must say it’s done.

Though God allows us to go through the fire,

Conformity to Him is His desire.

From Scripture I can confide,

Faith, hope and love in Christ abide.

His word is one source of daily bread,

It’s most useful when daily read.

If you will seek his kingdom and righteousness first,

God will surely quench your thirst.

Will the beautiful lady and her handsome man,

Trust in the master’s plan?

Let’s consider God’s master plan for marriage from Genesis 2:24-25: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”

Here’s what I hope we learn: Because God designed marriage, we must do marriage His way.

The word “therefore” abruptly interrupts the flow of reading and can be translated, “For this reason, with respect to, because of, that is why.” Most of the first two chapters of Genesis contain doctrine, history, and theology, but now doctrine turns to duty. This links us back to the previous passage where we learned how marriage is made in heaven, but it matures on earth. We saw how God’s provision of partnership solved the problem in paradise.

As always, our text must be understood in context. When Adam met Eve, he declared these words with great delight in verse 23: “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man.” The word “bone” means of the same substance and “flesh” refers to his body. Eve was like Adam and yet she was different because she was “taken out of man.”

I appreciate the insight of my friend Bryan LaBerge who helped me see this is not merely poetic but also foreshadows and speaks of Calvary. When God opened Adam’s “flesh,” there must have been blood. When Jesus was crucified, and His side was pierced, blood flowed, which paid the price for our sins. In Psalm 22, a psalm about Jesus, His “bones” were “out of joint,” which would have happened during crucifixion.

Since “Eve was taken out of man,” therefore, or “for this cause,” God called Adam to independence by leaving, interdependence by cleaving, intimacy by weaving, and innocence by believing.

I’m reminded of the couple who eagerly went to the courthouse to get their marriage license. When they arrived, they were met by a sign on the door which said: “Out to lunch. Back at 1 o’clock. Think it over.” That’s good advice. Let’s spend some time thinking it over now.