Symbolic Marriage
Notes
Transcript
Is Your Marriage Symbolic?
Is Your Marriage Symbolic?
Is Your Dating Life Symbolic?
Is Your Dating Life Symbolic?
3 And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” 4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
Verses 5 and 6 is the connecting point between the marriage of a man and woman and God’s covenant with the church.
As a man and woman become one flesh the church is to become one flesh with God. This is the symbolism of marriage. Marriage is a representation of God’s covenant with His church.
Even more so it’s a type of statue you are making to reflect God’s character to the world.
Statue Illustration
The better the sculptor is at creating the image of the person it’s meant to resemble the more easily you will see the person in the statue.
7 They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” 8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.
Because of the Israelites stubbornness Moses created a law for divorce. Jesus says; however, this is not what God intended from the beginning. He intended for man and woman to come together in a holy covenant that lasts until they die.
Multiple times in the Bible God makes this connection between Him and HIs children and marriage between a man and woman. Jeremiah 3:20
20 Surely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband,
so have you been treacherous to me, O house of Israel,
declares the Lord.’ ”
The entire book of Hosea is about this connection.
39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”
Sexual immorality in your marriage is to be unfaithful in the most intimate places of your life. If you’re not married, it is to be unfaithful in the intimate places in your relationship with God.
Jesus’ only reasoning for divorce is because of sexual immorality. Sexual immorality is not ok in marriage just like adultery in our relationship with God isn’t ok.
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,
10 The disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.”
This is a depiction of just how unfaithful men were to their wives during this time. Divorce had to of been so normal that they thought it would be impossible to not divorce someone for only sexually immoral reasons so it’s better to just not marry.
Again, this is a way that Jesus elevated women during that time. They were obviously seen as disposable. If a man didn’t want to be with her for any reason he would sign the divorce certificate and that would be that. Jesus is correcting this terrible mistake.
In this passage we also find an “It is better...” phrase. This phrase is used in the Bible when talking about every part of our life that is supposed to be a representation of God’s covenant with His children.
The disciples said “It is better not to marry” and Jesus confirms what they have said in the next verses.
11 But he said to them, “Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. 12 For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.”
What is a eunuch. It is a man who is castrated in order to keep a bed chamber for royalty pure. They wouldn’t have to worry about the person going and sleeping with the king’s haram or concubines.
Jesus isn’t saying they need to castrate themselves, but He is saying it is better for them to remain single than for them to defile the Kingdom of heaven.
What if I Have Already Messed Up?
What if I Have Already Messed Up?
21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.
22 So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.