6,000 Years — 48 Years
Genesis 2:22-25, “And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 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. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.”
Here, on day six, immediately after her creation, Eve is presented to Adam and God institutes marriage. A wedding ceremony is the first thing God did after He created everything. It must be important to Him.
The human race is unique in God’s creation. Everything else came from His voice. “And God said…” is repeated throughout Genesis 1. But when it comes to us humans, it reads, “And God said, Let us make man in our image…” (Genesis 1:26). We are created in God’s image: spirit, soul, and body. Also, “…and the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground…” God made us with His hands.
Some think that since God made man the head, they believe the Bible teaches that women are some second-class human. That is far from the case. Yes, man is the head, but the woman is the crown (1 Corinthians 11:7). Woman was the last thing God created, and God did save the best till last. If the Bible taught that women are not as important as men, God would never set the standard that how well God listens to a man’s prayers is determined by the honor he gives to his wife. 1 Peter 3:7, “Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.”
God has given me a wonderful wife. God’s greatest gift to me is His salvation. A salvation that will last through eternity. The second greatest gift He has given me is Julie. Marriage lasts until one of us dies. It is my prayer that we are both living at the time of the rapture and are caught up together. Julie is not perfect; no mortal is, but she is perfect for me, and God knew that before He even created Eve.
At the first wedding, there was no best man present, no maid of honor to stand with Eve; there were only three persons: God, Adam, and Eve.
As I type this, in two days, the calendar rolls over to our forty-eighth anniversary.
Julie and I have always recognized that, unlike Adam and Eve’s wedding, we did have a wedding party, but like Adam and Eve, we knew God was there.
People ask me about the secret to a long marriage. Sometimes, I tease them and tell them not to get divorced and not to die. But kidding aside, for the best of marriages, that third party, God, needs to be in the picture. I fully understand that there are marriages that have lasted for decades and God was not part of their lives, but what I am about to say can only be proved if you have lived it. No marriage is perfect, but with God, every marriage will be better when both husband and wife think in a godly way, when their love for each other far supersedes their love for themselves; a happy marriage becomes an ecstatic marriage.
Look at the verbiage of Genesis 2:24 above. “Cleave” and “shall be one flesh” do not indicate two people doing their own thing. Adam and Eve, and every marriage since, are unions of three people (husband, wife, and God). They think and act with one purpose. The couple must seek God’s will together for an ecstatic marriage.
Long before marriage, the couple should make decisions. How faithful are we going to be to God? How do we handle finances? The discipline of children? How to handle the in-laws? How are we going to serve the Lord?
I won’t get into the long story of how it started, but Julie and I were writing to each other twice a week before we were dating. It was basically a Bible study. We only saw each other at church or church events. During the week, we would read the Bible and take notes. On church days, we exchanged our notes. Unknown to us at the time, we were developing our worldview together within the pages of Scripture. I can’t express how important that is for young couples. Know what you believe and why you believe, and beyond anything else, agree with one another. The cleaving, the one flesh thing, is basically impossible if you are not of one mind.
When disagreements or arguments do arise, always go back to the Bible. One verse we have always done our best to obey is Ephesians 4:26, “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath.” In what is soon to be forty-eight years of marriage, I’ve never slept on the couch. We always settled things before bedtime. Now, our bedtime might be moved from 11 pm to 4 am, but we settled the situation before crawling into bed together.
A detail from the previous paragraph that I must mention: we can count on one hand the number of times this had to be done. The arguments were not that many. Why? As I mentioned before, long before marriage, couples should make decisions about God, life, and how to live for God. Once that is established, arguments are few because you already know each other’s opinions and you are of like mind.
Lastly, I want to have a personal moment and tell my wife, “I love you! Happy anniversary! My life has been void of so much sorrow because of the joy you have inserted into the empty areas of my heart.”
Preacher Tim Johnson is Pastor of Countryside Baptist Church in Parke County, Indiana. His weekly column “Preacher’s Point” may be found at: www.preacherspoint.wordpress.com