Bible Basics

A Divine Covenant

It is common today for people to look upon marriage in a casual way. That is, many think nothing of entering into a marriage with little intention of permanency in the relationship. Many take the attitude that if they don’t like it, get bored with their spouse or find someone they like better, they’ll just get a divorce and marry again – and again – and again. When the Pharisees tested Jesus concerning the proper cause for divorce, He said, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ “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’? “So then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no man divide” (Matt. 19:4-6). Jesus quotes from Genesis chapter 2 in this passage, and in so doing makes an appeal to God’s original plan for marriage. There are several things we want to observe from this passage. To begin with, God ordained marriage for all time, for all people. The institution of marriage is a Divine Covenant, that which Malachi calls a berith Elohim, a covenant of God (Mal. 2:14). It is God that “joins together” the husband and wife in a covenant relationship that imposes certain restrictions as well as granting certain privileges.

                                                                                                               -- Clark Dugger

Bible Basics