A Biblical Perspective On Marriage

Doug Wilson had a great column today on his blog, about marriage...

Michael and Rachel
Topic: Wedding Exhortations

One time the Pharisees came to Jesus in order to test Him, and they made that attempt in a question about marriage and divorce. Is it lawful, they asked, for a man to put away his wife "for every cause"?.... Christ replied in the negative, as we know, but I would like to draw your attention to a point He made several times in His reply.

"And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so" (Matt. 19:4-8).

At the beginning. From the beginning. We need to reflect on this for a few moments. God is the master storyteller, and He is the one who has given us the concept of a beginning, middle, and end. History has chapters. The front cover has been opened, and we will all one day arrive at the back cover. But what separates a novel from a series of short stories? There is a theme from beginning to end. The characters are consistently and identifiably the same characters (even including their transformations and changes and all) from beginning to end. If something is established in the first chapter we expect it to still be there in the last chapter. We therefore see that God is a novelist.

This is what Jesus is assuming in His reply to the Pharisees. When He says "at the beginning" it was this way, He is not expecting His questioners to say something like, "But that was then. This is now."...
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