Joie de Vivre A Wretched Man’s Quest To Follow Jesus Christ

In today’s world where we read and hear of failed marriages leading to divorces, adultery and of couples that no longer communicate, it’s time to take a step back and see what God intended for men and women in the institution of marriage.

What most married couples don’t realize is that God has ordained separate and distinct roles for men and women in a marriage, and that it is exactly this failure to recognize and fulfill their roles that most couples end their marriages citing irreconcilable differences.

Let’s take a step back and start from the beginning of time when the first marriage took place, and find out exactly what God intended for man and woman in a marriage.

In Genesis 2:7, we find the first man, Adam, created by God:

“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

– Genesis 2:7 (KJV)

Adam was alone for a good time in the Garden of Eden. To keep him company, God made a variety of beasts on land and birds of the air and told him to name them. However, we are told that even with the thousands of species of animals, there was “… not found an help meet for him” (Genesis 2:20, KJV).

Wait, I hear you asking — if God was all-knowing, why did He have to create so many animals and birds for Adam to name, then realize that Adam needed someone to help him?

The answer’s simple: God already knew, as we read in Genesis 2:18!

“And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.”

– Genesis 2:18 (KJV)

God merely wanted Adam himself to be convinced that he indeed needs a partner and assistant!

Thereafter, as we read further in Genesis 2:21-25 (KJV), God created woman.

“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.

– Genesis 2:21-25 (KJV)

Immediately, we have the ordination of marriage:

“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.”

– Genesis 2:24-25 (KJV)

In the above verse, we learn two basic things about marriage:

1. Man shall leave his parents and take for himself a wife, and both shall become a family unit.
2. Marital sex is part and parcel of married life.

Thus was marriage ordained as an institution by God from the beginning.

In the second part of the series, we shall examine what specific roles God has ordained for men and women in a marriage.