On marriage:Biblical & Ecclesiastical reflections

 Jan 8, 2020

How come di church nuh fi a promote marriage of youth members as it should (my church at least) and where it does so (especially in abundance like in the 7th day church) how come it nuh equally promote celibacy [which both Jesus and Paul endorsed as a valid and even better alternative to marriage] and give it due prestige and make provisions for it (like the Catholic church does with it's priesthood)?

The only restriction on marriage is to not be unequally yoked.

As a christian, once the other person is a christian and you want to gratify your sexual urges with that person where your sexual urges are on par in strength to committing to continence (>=), go ahead and marry.

Proverbs 31 is a picture of an outstanding married woman. Ephesians 5 describes how a husband should treat a wife (as Christ loves the church). As long as both parties are willing to submit to the truth of God, are surrendered fully to him and his mandate for human sentimental relationships, they are fit for marriage. 

God highlighting in Genesis the kind of man for whom it is not fit to be alone is instructive. It provides a standard by which a man can know whether he is greedy for/idolizing sex, or marriage or having a partner.

[Twas God who said it's not good for man to be alone, not Adam. God then gave him options to choose from to 'fill that void'.]

See Genesis 2:15-18. God gave man the command to KEEP and TEND the garden He God had planted. God also commanded (imperative) the man saying: "Of every tree of the garden YOU MAY FREELY EAT."

The next command God gave Adam was this: "but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil YOU SHALL NOT EAT, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die (indicative mode -- simply stating fact).

Did Adam not show enough fortitude to Eve when he told her about God's command? Did he not seem sufficiently convinced and so failed to fully convince Eve of the truth and finality of God's command? When compared to the second Adam, Jesus Christ, we see where Christ was always assertive in proclaiming what he had heard from his father. His demeanor and commitment to God's word therefore testified to the truth of his claims and were summarily convincing.

*God always reflected on his work after completing a series of actions.* 

After giving the first man work to do and commands about what is permissible and what is not (one of each command) God then said that it is not good for man to be alone and declared that He would make him a helper comparable to him (nkjv). 

God then brought all the animals he had made from the ground and every bird to Adam for him to name them but there was not found a helper comparable to him (Adam) among all the animals. [This did not surprise God. He already had woman in mind.] The Lord then did what he had promised in verse 18, i.e. to make for Adam a helper comparable to him. From verse 21 we read that the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam and he slept and he took one of Adam's ribs and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He, God, made into a woman and He brought her to the man.

And this is how Adam responded with what some term as poetry: "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man." So Adam upon waking continued to name, continued to give names.

The author continues: therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh (v. 24). The author then remarks that both were naked and not ashamed and he also described them as "the man and his wife".

In Chapter 3 of Genesis we see where the serpent approached the woman, not the man, and questioned her about God's command. The woman answered for both herself and her husband. She added a phrase in quoting God that we had not seen before, namely: 'nor shall you touch it'. The serpent then recognizing the doubt and uncertainty LIED to her that she would not surely die diminishing the negative consequence and then proffered a positive consequence. The woman seeing the tree for what it was, good for food and being pleasant to the eyes as all the other trees in the garden, and desired (lusted after) the wisdom it could provide (greed, idolatry) and so took of the fruit and ate and gave to her husband who also ate. This was when they realized that they were naked. They then sought to cover themselves by sewing fig leaves together something God had never commanded them to do but I guess the wisdom, the being made wise from eating the fruit might have something to do with them coming up with that innovation. Next they heard together the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden which God himself had planted. That's up to verse 8 of chapter 3. 

God similar to the serpent opens with a question but he addresses Adam the man, not Eve the woman. (By the way, at this time the woman was not yet named Eve. Twas not until verse 20 that Adam called her Eve.) Adam responded to God truthfully explaining that he feared the presence of God because he was naked. This might not have been the complete truth after all. God continued with a question: "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?" Adams response was this, "The woman who you gave to be with me she gave me of the tree and I ate." He blamed the woman [and GOD!]. In answering God he did not assume his responsibilities. The Lord God then addressed the woman also with a question "What is this you have done?" The woman like Adam blamed another, not assuming her own responsibility. So I guess she spoke the truth too, partial truth at least. She said, "The serpent deceived me and I ate." So the Lord followed this trail of accusations. He did not question the serpent but instead cursed it then he cursed the woman then he cursed the man.

All curses are important for this discourse. However, we will focus on what was said to the woman and then to the man. (Side note however, that the prophecy of Christ was here made.)

To the woman God promised a multiplication of sorrows and conception. (It would seem that Eve was here cursed to have many children. Could it be then that given that she would not have died had she not eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil she would not have conceived as many times as she did considering too that she would not die.) She was then cursed to bring forth children in pain. She was further cursed to have her desire be for her husband and told that he, the husband, would rule over her. 

God now addressing Adam upbraided him for heeding the voice of his wife over His own voice, God's own voice. God then cursed the ground because of Adam. God cursed him to have to work hard to gain sustenance and that he would die and become as dust again. Here God reaffirmed his original declaration that having eaten of the fruit of the tree Adam would die.

It was after this episode that Adam named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all living (verse 20). God's grace becomes immediately evident. God made tunics of skin and clothed them. Then like he did before he made men he went into conference with himself. In verse 22 you see God admitting that man has become like one of us to know good and evil. God saw too that this man might take and eat of the tree of life and live forever so evidently man had not yet done so. It was only then that God evicted man out of Garden of Eden and placed the sword and an angel to guard the way to the tree of life and the Garden of Eden respectively. 

Chapter 4 starts with Adam having sexual intercourse with his wife and she conceived and bore Cain and said I have acquired a man from the Lord. She went on to conceive again. Now, it would appear from this reading that Adam first knew his wife after they had been cast from Eden. Also Adam newly naming his wife the mother of all living in verse 20 after recieving the curses and hearing how the woman would conceive many and have pains for it, etc seems to reveal that he got some new revelation about the role of his wife. We already know from Genesis chapter 1 verse 28 that the two were blessed and there told to be fruitful and multiply and fill the Earth and subdue it to have dominion over the animals of the Earth before the sixth day ended. So Adam was aware of this command to procreate. Yet it was not until they were evicted from the Garden of Eden that we see Adam having intimate sexual intercourse with his wife.

24May23

Oh what grief we often forfeit oh what needless pain we bear, all because we do not have marital counseling formally or informally.