This lesson is an introduction to our study of the Ten Commandments.
Weddings are always exciting and full of emotion. When God created us, male and female, in His own image and likeness, he also created marriage. The original intent of marriage included the blessing of procreation of little images of God who would grow up and marry and continue the process until the whole earth was filled with the image of God in human form. Sin has messed up the original intent, but the beauty is still there. It was after God made man and woman and blessed them that He said, “It is very good.”
Marriage has both physical and spiritual implications. Physically, a man and woman join together as husband and wife in a covenant that transpires at what we celebrate as a wedding. Family and friends are gathered together, an authority figure officiates the ceremony, and the groom stands waiting with his best man and groomsmen while the brides maids enter and line up in place. Finally, the bride comes, escorted by her father, and they walk down the aisle between the groom’s family and the bride’s family and they approach the groom. The preacher asks: “Who gives this woman to be this man’s bride?” And the father of the bride chokes out, “Her mother and I.” Then he gives her hand to the groom and goes to his seat beside his wife, with whom he once took her hand from her father. And the saga continues.
A wedding is all very carefully orchestrated with each part planned with significant meaning. Words are spoken about the relationship of husband and wife. Scriptures are read. Sometimes symbols are performed by such things as candles lit, songs sung, and letters read. But the core of any wedding is the vows. They are the words of the covenant of marriage and we seal them with the exchange of rings.
Ray Vanderlann has suggested that what happened at Sinai at the giving of the 10 commandments has all the elements of a wedding ceremony. This is exactly what the prophets tell us happened between Israel and God. Jeremiah says: Jer 2:1-2
2:1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 "Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem: "'I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert, through a land not sown.
Isa 62:5
5 For as a young man marries a virgin, So your sons will marry you; And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, So your God will rejoice over you.
But when Israel was unfaithful to God listen to what the prophet says: Jer 3:6-14
6 During the reign of King Josiah, the LORD said to me, "Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every spreading tree and has committed adultery there. 7 I thought that after she had done all this she would return to me but she did not, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it. 8 I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries. Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear; she also went out and committed adultery. 9 Because Israel's immorality mattered so little to her, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood. 10 In spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, but only in pretense," declares the LORD.
11 The LORD said to me, "Faithless Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah. 12 Go, proclaim this message toward the north:
"'Return, faithless Israel,' declares the LORD, 'I will frown on you no longer, for I am merciful,' declares the LORD, 'I will not be angry forever.
13 Only acknowledge your guilt-- you have rebelled against the LORD your God, you have scattered your favors to foreign gods under every spreading tree, and have not obeyed me,'" declares the LORD.
14 "Return, faithless people," declares the LORD, "for I AM YOUR HUSBAND...
When did God become Israel’s husband? When did God and Israel come together and exchange vows? It would appear that Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 are much more than a record of God giving the 10 commandments. God certainly did give Israel His laws there. God even wrote them on two tablets of stone… twice. By the way, it wasn’t that it took two tablets to write all Ten Commandments on, most scholars agree that they were all ten written down twice: one copy for Israel and one copy for God. This is how covenants were done.
It is not that these were not laws, they most certainly were. But they were more than just laws. They were vows of relationship. They describe how God chose Israel for Himself and how Israel was to respond to God’s choosing and delivering them. God describes their relationship to Him and to one another and how to live together as one people under one God in love.
This wedding between God and Israel took place under the canopy of God’s glory in the cloud on Mount Sinai. This motif of marriage between God and His people continues. The people of God are still called His bride.
Ephesians 5:21-33
21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church- 30 for we are members of his body. 31 "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." 32 This is a profound mystery-but I am talking about Christ and the church.
Revelation describes the church in the same language: Rev 19:6-9
6 Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:
"Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. 7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. 8 Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear." (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)
9 Then the angel said to me, "Write: 'Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!'" And he added, "These are the true words of God."
Rev 21:1-4
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
Rev 22:17
17 The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.
Why does God select the image of marriage to reveal His relationship to His people?
First, marriage was created by God and blessed by God in the very beginning in part as an expression of who God is. God created us in His likeness and image and that was male and female as husband and wife. There is something in marriage between a man and woman that has to do with being created in God’s image. Being made in God’s image is more than simply an individual thing. God Himself is a being of relationships, intimate and creative. As Father, Son and Holy Spirit, God begets. Marriage is the human relationship God designed for begetting to occur. Every living thing is from God! In Him is life and all of life comes from Him. But this begetting of God occurs within moral, spiritual boundaries that are holy, so that the offspring of God are holy, legitimate, and fully formed and produced from God’s glorious character. That’s what God wants in all marriages. Mal 2:15 Has not [the LORD] made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because HE WAS SEEKING GODLY OFFSPRING. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth. God has defined marriage and its purpose. Anyone who defines marriage otherwise does violence to the image of God expressed in marriage.
Second, marriage expresses intimacy of relationship more than any other human relationship. God wants us to be more than friends. God wants us to have more than a religious connection. God wants us to love Him with all of our hearts, all of our souls and all of our strength. This is indeed the very first and foremost commandment of God. Jesus himself confirmed this. God wants a serious relationship where nothing is hidden and nothing comes between us. In fact, God has a word for when something comes between you and Him, it is called adultery. Another word is idolatry. But to God these are the same.
Third, marriage is designed to be a permanent relationship for as long as both partners live. God doesn’t die. And in Christ, God calls our physical death sleep in Christ. Jesus will return and awaken all those who are asleep in Him to eternal life at a wonderful wedding celebration in glory.
How do we enter into this relationship with God?
I’m glad you asked! Look with me at Romans 7:1-4 (read)
Jesus gave his life for us and in his death, we find this new life in Christ. We are set free from the curse of the law and free from the bondage of sin when we enter the death of Jesus Christ and join in His resurrection.
When does THAT happen? Again, I’m glad you asked! Back up in Romans to chapter 6:1-14. (read)
Look at this. We have a wedding ceremony, of sorts, that God has given us to identify us with Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. When we come to Christ, trusting His grace through faith, confessing our sin in repentance and His Lordship as the Son of God, our Savior, we may then be buried with Christ in baptism in His name, baptized into His death, and raised up to walk with Him in newness of life. Like Israel, we pass through the waters and on the other side we are free from slavery to sin. (1 Cor. 10) We are born of water and the Spirit. (John 3:5) We are clothed with Christ, all become one in Christ, belong to Christ, are Abraham's seed, heirs according to God's promise. (Gal. 3:26-29)
When I do weddings, somewhere in the service as the couple stands together before God and all who are gathered as witnesses I will say to them: “You came here as two singles, but after you state these vows and seal them with these rings you will leave here as one, joined in marriage by God. And what God joins together, let not man separate.” In doing this, you are committing your lives to one another. This is a serious relationship.
When Israel stood at the foot of Mount Sinai and heard the voice of God and accepted God’s words of covenant, they were accepting all that that relationship entailed. It was serious, life and death serious.
God is longing for us to seriously commit our lives to Him. He is life and death serious. Heaven and hell serious. On the cross, Jesus gave us the full expression of His commitment. How will we express our commitment to Him? We do it through love and obedience to His commands.
