Marriage - Part Deux

After my son's wedding this year a retired Baptist minister told me that I had tied a very tight knot.  I believe that is the point of the wedding these days, to make sure that everyone, including but not limited to the bride and groom, know that this is a lifelong commitment.  If we are going to reclaim marriage as important we will do so not at the ballot box but in the church.  I believe that is possible but only if we recover the Christian understanding of marriage, only if we tie tight knots. 

In our tradition we speak of the covenant of marriage and I believe it is indeed a covenant.  The ceremony itself has all the earmarks of a covenant, vows, symbols (rings), terms of agreement, third party witnesses and an official who ratifies the covenant, and finally a meal at the conclusion of the covenant ceremony. 

Covenants in the Bible are everlasting, they have no expiration date and they are irrevocable, they depend on God's faithfulness not man's.  The Israelites broke covenant immediately and then constantly thereafter by transgressing against the terms of the covenant and failing to perform the required sacrifices to re-instate the covenant but that didn't end the covenant relationship.

Through multiple prophets the Lord accused Israel of prostitution and infidelity.  The covenant relationship between God and His people was likened to a marriage between a man and a woman.  The intimacy of the relationship is similar to a marriage and the sense of betrayal of the marriage bed is God's chosen way of expressing His side of things.  What emotions are embedded in that idea of a spouse who has been betrayed in a most intimate way?  That is how God feels about His people breaking covenant with Him.

The prophet Hosea had to act out the relationship between God and His people by first marrying a prostitute, then having her stray from the marriage via sexual infidelity.  His life became a sign to Israel concerning their relationship with God.  Hosea was to love and forgive all the sins of his wife and to be willing to reconcile and restore the marriage relationship no matter how hurt and angry he might be, no matter how horribly she treated him.  He was to be faithful to her and his love was not to wane.  All because Godly covenants are everlasting and only dependent on the faithfulness and love of one party.

We are to be like Him in every way.  Marriage is an incredibly important covenant because it is the only intra-human covenant God instituted and it is to be a sign and symbol of the covenant between God and His people.  Our understanding of marriage and our keeping of that covenant is to show the world what it means to be in covenant with God.  If the church fails to uphold the covenant of marriage, we lose a significant witness to the relationship with Him. 

Let's spend some time looking at our marriage ceremony together and see how tight the knot is to be tied and how to maintain it.