If you’ll allow me, I’d like to travel with you through the Scriptures and take an intimate look at just how important your marriage is.
But before we discuss the institution of marriage, let us first take time to consider Moses. We know from the Bible that he was the meekest man that ever lived, and we also know that there was no prophet like him before or since. He saw the hinder parts of God. It could be said that he is the second most important figure in all of the Bible, second only to Jesus. Don’t forget that this is the man that was able to convince God to repent. Just review in your mind what Moses did. He was used to deliver the children of Israel, he lead them through the wilderness, and he stayed with them in their rebellion. He interceded with God to save the people and spent his life with one goal in mind: to reach the promised land.
But there was a problem. There was something that Moses did that made God angry. In fact he made God so angry that in spite of his life of service, and even though he was nearing his goal, God refused to allow Moses to step foot on the promised land. If you remember, in one of the several times that the wicked children of Israel were rebelling in their discontent, they complained against God about water. This infuriated Moses and he chose to disobey God’s instructions. Instead of speaking to the rock, he struck the rock twice. The water flowed, but things would never be the same (Num. 20:1-13). Moses, for all his wisdom and revelation, neglected a command of God and destroyed a type of Christ. Paul teaches us that, “And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ” (1 Cor. 10:4). You see, Moses in his anger defied something God wanted to teach the world about Jesus. This was such a serious crime that Moses would never receive the thing he had spent his life pursuing.
Come with me now to the creation. When God made one man, he was alone. There was another person to make. Now here God could have made the first human relationship father-to-son, or citizen-to-the-state, or brother-to-brother, or priest-to-layman. The first human relationship was husband-to-wife. There was a reason for this. God wanted to start the human race by drawing a picture of the coming Christ and His church (Eph. 5:32). The wonderful thing about this picture is that it is universal. In every age, in every nation, in every family, when a man takes a woman to be his wife, they are showing the world a picture of Jesus. This is true of the heathen home, the Christian home, of every home.
Now we know there are many important things about marriage. Marriage is important for our spiritual, and emotional health. It is vitally important to the future of our children. Marriage teaches us how to deal with the world. The most important thing is that every married person teaches the world about Jesus and His church. This is an important foundation for understanding what Jesus and the apostles have to teach us about marriage, its permanence and its defilement. Jesus is challenging current ideas about marriage and calibrating our minds to His will. In His teaching, Jesus forbids divorce on the one side, and forbids marrying the divorced on the other. He resets the clock to the original creation of one man and one woman for life (Matt. 19:3-9; Mark 10:2-12). Paul helps us understand even further, when he tells us, “So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man” (Rom. 7:3-4). We understand then that marital separation does not eliminate the connection that God made. “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”
Often when the consequences of Jesus’ teachings about marriage and divorce are discussed, we become confused or disheartened. We must remember that the importance and significance of marriage is eternally more important than any man or any woman. It is really about the revelation of Jesus’ love for His church. He has only one church. He will only ever have one church. He is faithful, no matter what, and will never take another. His commitment to her will never diminish. He lives to forgive and perfect her, and He will never give up on her.
If the picture of Moses and the rock was so important to God, in His plan of redemption, how important is this universal picture that is painted on every child’s heart, in every village, in every nation, in every city or jungle on Earth? Is it any wonder Jesus’ own disciples were shocked at His teaching? Is it any wonder they still are today?