Marriage - God’s Design For Life?

It can be hard to enjoy some of life’s rich variety of experiences when you are on your own. Often we get far more pleasure from what we have or what we experience when we share it with another person.

According to Genesis, Adam - the first man God created - had a comfortable life. God provided ‘trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food’ (Genesis 2:9 New International Version) and company and help in the form of animals and birds. But none of those creatures were adequate companions for Adam.

So, ‘God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man’ (2:21, 22). The debate over whether these words are to be taken literally or metaphorically can mean there’s a danger of losing some splendid truths contained in them.

With a rib missing, Adam would never be complete. In being united with Eve, Adam got his rib back - he was complete once more. Bible scholar Matthew Henry explores this idea further: Eve, he writes, was ‘made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved.’

Genesis 2:24 reads: ‘That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.’ The King James Bible talks about Adam ‘cleaving’ to - or adhering strongly to - his wife. This indicates God’s intention for the strength of their bond.

But no relationship flourishes without commitment and the investment of time, care and attention. It is God’s design that marriage should last. A good marriage requires the mutual determination to be married for good.

UK & Ireland War Cry July 2013