How Long Does Marriage Last (Part One of Series)
February 27th, 2006 by natalie
We have fundamentally erred in our thinking if we accept the cultural position that divorce is the termination of marriage.
A careful study and understanding of Scripture will reveal that God instituted marriage as a life-long covenant between a man and a woman. Period. When a man and woman are married and physically consummate their marriage, God joins them together for life. God specifically instituted marriage because of His creation of the two sexes. We see God’s institution of this union immediately after His creation of Eve:
“And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; 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.â€
Genesis 2:21-25
In God’s covenant with Israel (and then Christ’s covenant with His church), which is set forth as a model for marriage, we again see the permanent nature of this union. It is critically important to our understanding of the marriage covenant that we don’t miss this important foundation of God’s covenant with Israel: The covenant was based, not on the faithfulness of both parties, but on the faithfulness of God. This becomes distressingly clear as we observe Israel’s behavior in the years to follow as she plays the harlot and prostitutes herself with the gods of the heathen nations.
“The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot. And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also. And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks…Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion.â€
Jeremiah 3:6-9, 14
This is critical because the prevailing mindset in our society is that if a husband or wife is unfaithful, the other spouse has just cause to end the marriage. This is not the example that God has given us. (We see in the above verses that even after God had given Israel a “bill of divorce,†he still claimed He was “married unto [her].†Thus, the bill of divorce did not terminate the marriage.) And this is not the standard to which God has called us to live. A marriage covenant must be entered into with each party vowing to be faithful to the other unto death, regardless of the faithfulness of the other spouse.
Thank you for your posts on this subject… After hearing from many Christians that adultery and divorce break the covenant, I endeavored to understand the concept of covenant because this didn’t seem to be what Scripture reveals. I came across Galations 3:15 “Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto.” This confirms for me that death alone ends a covenant.