July 04 – Marriage Honored

        Hebrews 13:4 – "Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all who are sexually immoral."

        My grandparents were married on July 4, 1943. They commemorated 50+ years of marriage. My parents were married on July 4, 1967. They commemorated 50+ years of marriage. Why someone would get married on Independence Day is beyond me. The same goes for Christmas. Why would you want to ruin a perfectly good holiday? (I do happen to know a couple who were married on Christmas.)

        All kidding aside, it is honoring to God to reach a human milestone in the life of a marriage. God made the first marriage with his first human creatures. He expected them to remain faithful to each other for their entire lives. God says in Malachi 3:13-16, "Another thing you do: You flood the altar of Yahweh with tears. You weep and wail, because he no longer pays attention to your offerings, or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. You ask, 'Why?' It is because Yahweh is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, as you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant. Has not Yahweh made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because God was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth. 'I hate divorce', says Yahweh, God of Israel...." In several New Testament passages, namely Ephesians 5:25-33 and Revelation 19:6-7, we see that marriage is a metaphor regarding believers and Jesus Christ, the ultimate wedding between the church-bride and the Lamb. So we see how serious God considers this concept, since faithfulness is actually pointing to that between us and him.

        What if I have broken faith with my spouse and with God? Is the relationship over? Not at all. God wants us to confess and turn away from our sinful behavior, so that he can forgive us (1 John 1:9). Then he asks us to be faithful from that point forward. Every day we can start again in that faithful relationship to our spouses and to God. Lamentations 3:22 states, "The steadfast love of Yahweh never fails; his mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning."

        Let's give glory to God for the example of faithfulness, when we celebrate someone's 50^th anniversary.