Old Things: Day 3

  Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. And the man and the woman were both naked and were not ashamed.

Genesis 2:24 ESV

Marriage, as God intended it to work, is another very old thing. The blueprint was given by Him in the Garden and recorded in Scripture for all who are interested.

I say that because these days, both in and out of the church, not too many are interested. The original model is exclusive, permanent, complementary, meaning man and woman (a feature that has proved to be pretty handy in the continuation of the human race), intimate and nurturing. These verses in Genesis present both the job description and the benefits of the marriage relationship that God blesses.

Truth to tell, there has never been a group that has gotten it entirely right, but enough have succeeded, and sometimes under really tough circumstances, so that we have examples in deed as well as the Word. For them we should be grateful.

It is easy these days to point a finger at those who insist that their exotic partnership should fly under the banner of marriage. But people have always married for money or security, to elevate their social status, to relieve loneliness or boredom or satisfy a million other felt needs. None of these is covered under the original blueprint either.

Maybe you noticed that a word our culture considers very important is missing from the Genesis 2 description. That word is “happiness.” And here we run into another old thing, an old argument dating back to a discussion between a lady and a snake in the afore-mentioned Garden. If you remember, it centered on whether God is as interested in our happiness as we are.

Don’t get me wrong, happiness is a great thing, but the sugar plums of happiness that dance in our head are circling around one great big word: ME. The Bible calls that idolatry. As Adam and Eve and all who have come after them have proved, that is our natural inclination. God says that all our hopes, aspirations, and dreams are to circle around Him and He will give us “the desires of our heart” (Psalm 37:4). Marriage is a life-long, all-in proposition that God has it right and our sinful human nature has it wrong.

Nancy Shirah