We’ve all heard the phrase “a marriage made in heaven.” But depending on your life situation, the word marriage may bring to mind different thoughts and images. Perhaps it’s of your parents’ marriage and whether it was a good one or a contentious one. Or maybe it’s your own marriage and the thoughts, dreams, commitments, and even preconceptions, you had when you married. Or perhaps, marriage is something you are still looking forward to.

Wherever you are … married, divorced, widowed, or single, I pray you’ll take away truths from this series that will help you in your own or any future marriage or help you minister to others who are married.

Note: At the bottom of this post, you’ll find links to the other posts in this series.

Marriage Made in Heaven

Was Marriage Made in Heaven?

In this introduction, we’ll just lay a little groundwork and answer a few questions. Questions like:

Where did we get the institution of marriage? Did it start in one particular civilization? Is it the creation of government or prehistoric social engineers?

We have to go back to the beginning, to the book of Genesis to find that answer.

¹⁸And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” ¹⁹Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. ²⁰So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.

²¹And 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. ²²Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.

²³And 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.”

²⁴Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

²⁵And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

God said it was not good that man should be alone and He knew that nothing else in creation could take the place of two human beings in a relationship like the one shared within the Trinity itself.

So, He created a woman that was taken out of man. Then He called them to a “one flesh” relationship. He made two from one and then called the man and the woman to have a relationship that makes them one again.

Yes, marriage was “made in heaven” or perhaps, more accurately, in the heart of God. But many marriages, even Christian marriages, fall far short of God’s design.

Questions about Marriage

But if we want to have the kind of marriage that God designed for us to have, we must study what He says about it.

What does it mean to have a one-flesh relationship?

What is the purpose of marriage? Is it about our immediate happiness or is it about something deeper and richer?

What about the husband’s and wife’s roles? Do they change with the times?

When is it permissible to end a marriage that doesn’t seem to be made in heaven?

I hope to answer these and other questions in this series.

But for today, let’s look at what went wrong after God created that first man and woman and placed them in a garden and gave them the covenant relationship of marriage.

What Went Wrong?

We had to go back to the book of Genesis to find the origin of marriage. But we must, also, go back there to find out what went wrong.

You see, there was another being in the garden who tempted the first couple to disbelieve God (Gen. 3.1-6). Their decision to go against God’s command and eat the fruit had an immediate effect on all of life, including their marriage.

Genesis 2.25 says, “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” This is about more than just physical nakedness. Adam and Eve had a perfect relationship, one without shame and duplicity. They had no shame in their relationship with one another and no fear or shame in their relationship with God. Their disobedience changed all that.

After they listened to the devil and went against God’s clear command, it says:

⁷Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

⁸And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

⁹Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”

¹⁰So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

Fear, shame, and anxiety entered the world. Yet, instead of humbly admitting their own wrong, Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the devil. And the cycle of finger-pointing, shame, fear, and hiding has been with us ever since.

The Good News

The first and best good news is that God sent His son as an answer to the broken relationship between us and Himself. It’s called the gospel.

But He also has answers for the sinful tendencies that cause brokenness, disappointment, heartbreak, and divorce in our marriages. I hope to share many of those answers in this series.

My husband says that marriage is the greatest thing on this side of heaven. And I can tell you, it isn’t because he found the perfect wife! And it’s not that we started our married life with little or no baggage, had the perfect Christian upbringing, got the right pre-marital counseling, or were extremely compatible. In fact, none of those things was true. The fact is, we had almost everything going against us.

In the next post in this series, I’ll share our testimony, so you can see what I mean. Just click on the link below.

Blessings,
Donna

Was marriage made in heaven? #marriage #soulsurvival

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This post has been updated from an earlier series.