Never did I imagine that when I laid out what seemed to be a logical and simple outline of what I wanted to accomplish in this blog would I encounter so much analysis paralysis. When I went to the OT and NT Scriptures, using an inter-linear Bible so I could see the original Hebrew and Greek, I found myself digging deeper and deeper into the nooks and crannies of Scripture. I was seeking a concise definition of marriage and specific Scriptural instruction regarding marriage. The passages I found were mostly examples. There was no concise definition of marriage and how it was to be undertaken.
Yes there were some specific instructions to be found. And there were quite a few instructions on how to live as a godly husband and a godly wife. But what I did not find was an example marriage that could be used as a "type" for understanding Scriptural marriage from a perspective of how one enters it and the marriage becomes "realized". But what I did find was that there are three examples of marriage that provide the bulk of the understanding of the "realization" of marriage: the first marriage of Adam and Eve, God's marriage to His people Israel, and Christ's marriage to the church.
Though we tend to think chronologically and would order Adam's marriage prior to God's marriage to His people (through Abraham) and Christ's marriage to the church, when you think about it, that is incorrect. Firstly, the human marriage is modeled after the divine marriages and not the other way around. We know this because God did not change His plans through time and decide at a later time to marry His people, nor did He set about the marriage of Christ to the church as an after thought. All these things were determined long before the foundation of the world. Which leads to the second point: the first human marriage actually actually took place in time after God designed the divine marriage.
In those three models of marriage we see in each a different emphasis for our study. In the marriage of Christ to the church, we see marriage from the perspective of a betrothal, for we the church are betrothed to Christ and have not fully realized that marriage. It will come in the fullness of time. In God's marriage to His people Israel, we see marriage from the perspective of a realized marriage. God did dwell among His people and they enjoyed the benefits of His presence. And finally in the human marriage of Adam and Eve, we see those two divine models scaled down to one man and one woman and it shows us how we are to think about marriage in terms of human relationships.
What is also significant is that in all three models we see some things in common and some things that are uniquely different. And it is in those similarities and differences that many people get caught up. They either try to over-extend the divine model of marriage onto the human model of marriage, or they sell the divine model of marriage short as their grasp of it is limited by their understanding of the human model.
It is my desire that through this blog and the posts I write in it, that I will be able to explore the Scriptural construction of marriage and its various facets in greater detail. I come to the Scriptures to learn from them, not build a case for a position. So any conclusions posted will be in reality "conclusions" and not presuppositions around which a defense case has to be built. And that is as it should be with all Scripture: bend your mind and your will to the Scriptures, do not try bending them to your will and the fancies of your human mind.
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