Marriage, A Great Mystery

Introduction. Attending a wedding ceremony, like watching a baptism can either be a deeply emotional and spiritual experience or just another commonplace event taking up time out of our busy schedule. Through the eyes of faith, which can see the unseen, each baptism is a new birth where a man or a woman with a dead spirit and a lost soul comes and joins with Jesus in His death, burial and resurrection, and through the blood of Christ, receives new life and forgiveness. In the same way, each wedding by the eyes of faith is an act of power as God glues and cements a man and a woman into one flesh.
 
What God has revealed to us about marriage is that it is a “great mystery,” far more than meets our eyes, or that we could even comprehend (Eph 5:32). By knowing it is a “great mystery,” we are prepared to approach marriage as the majestic supreme mystery that will require all our effort to sift through the Scriptures to gain as great an insight as possible, all the while knowing that, as the final act of creation, it rises far above our comprehension.
 
When God created Adam, He created him in an unusual way. This was the first and only time in all God’s acts of creation where it is said “it was not good.” When God created Adam, it was in such a way that “it was not good for him to be alone.” He shorted Adam on some things and Eve on others, so that only as one could they be complete. Hence, only with a woman by his side could Adam: “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it,” (Gen. 1:28). Adam alone could not do these things, so it was not good for him to be left in this condition. It was made clear to Adam that he needed a “helper comparable to him” to be complete. The term helper comes from the Hebrew “ezer ... a noun meaning a helper, aid or assistance that is given.” We know it from the song “O Thou Fount of Every Blessing” when we sing “here I lay my Ebenezer” where “Eben-ha-Ezer meaning "stone -eben of help - ezer" (1 Sam. 7:12)

 Although man can use the animals for help and aid, this help is from far beneath him as an inferior. God also renders help and aid, but as a superior from far above. Eve could give Adam help and aid as one who is “comparable to him” in equity and similitude neither above or beneath, but upon the same level. In the beginning, God gave both Adam and Eve the same privileges and rights, in full fellowship, working together:
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." (Gen. 1:27-28)

It appears that this is why God did not make Adam and Eve at the same time. He first showed Adam all the animals, allowing Adam to see that there was nothing comparable to him for help. By the time Adam was put into a deep sleep, he was fully aware that he was incomplete with no one on the same level to help him. He was then prepared to understand God’s intent in creating Eve and creating marriage.

• But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. 21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 22 Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. (Gen. 2:20-22)

It appears that God took the rib from Adam’s side as a type and shadow of all future marriages. This emphasized the oneness that is created when God joins them together. This was unlike any other life God had created. Everything else was made from dust, but Eve was made from Adam’s rib. When Adam woke, God revealed to him that they were now one flesh and that it would be the template for all future marriages. As bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, their oneness was clear.

• And Adam said: "This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man."  24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. (Gen 2:20-24)

When asked about divorce, Jesus revealed that there was so much more to marriage than man can comprehend, because if they really understood, they would not ask such a question. As He quoted Genesis, He added that “they are no longer two, but one flesh,” because with each marriage, “God has joined together.” Jesus uses two terms to describe the bond God creates with each marriage. First, the term “cleave” or “join” which means “to glue, cement, to join one metal to another, to make [a crown] inlaid with gold and ivory.” Whenever two things are glued or soldered together in such a way that they actually become broken if separated. The second term is “what God has joined together” which means, “to fasten to one yoke, to yoke together, to join, unite.” Thus, in each marriage a man leaves his family and cleaves to his wife, being glued and cemented together, because in each marriage God has yoked, joined, and united them together.

• "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,'  5 and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'?  6 So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate." (Mt. 19:4-6)

Clearly, this joining did not stop with the creation of Adam and Eve. God does essentially the same thing with each of their children as each of them leaves his father and mother and are cemented and yoked together. In each marriage ceremony, we witness something as beautiful as a sunset or rose, as powerful as the surging sea, and as amazing as the birth of a child. Paul later revealed that this is so complicated that it is a GREAT mystery.

• “For we are members of His body. ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’” This is a great mystery.” (Eph. 5:30-32)

The word “mystery” as it is used here means “a divine secret,” or “something above human intelligence,” or both. Either way it is not something we can fully understand. Clearly it still remains one of “the secret things that belong to God.” (Deut. 29:29).
Yet the fact that Paul called it not just “a mystery,” but “a great mystery” (mega - a superlative, greatest highest, longest, most majestic,” This is among the greatest, deepest, highest and most majestic of mysteries. Thus, by illustrating it, first with a rib taken from Adam, literally making them of one flesh, and second by affirming that all future marriages would be glued together in exactly the same way: “for this cause ... a man shall cleave to his wife, and become one flesh.” This is what God does in each marriage ceremony. He joins, glues, cements and yokes them together in such a way that “they are no longer two but one.” Since this is a great mystery, it cannot be fully comprehended and certainly should not be minimized.
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Conclusion: Thus, witnessing a marriage ceremony is a test of faith for each Christian. We are witnessing the final act of creation all over again. Each marriage is a beautiful as any other portion of God’s creation - majestic in its unfathomable wisdom and power. Throughout our lives together each of us who is married must respect that bond for “she is your companion and your wife by covenant” until death do we part (Mal. 2:13-16).