So I lied. All that about a marriage ceremony and surgeon's table is not going to happen, because when I got down to business studying through Genesis 2 and 3, things got way out of hand. In this post, I will simply attempt to look into what I would consider to be the second significant “biblical marriage,” how it compares to the first marriage (Genesis 2-3 will come up here), and some of its significant nuances. Consider, by way of introduction, the complete reversal of events we observe in each:
The marriage of Adam and Eve: a creation, a romance, a marriage, a betrayal, a separation, a firstborn, a murder. Death.
The marriage of Abram and Sarai: Death(pagan isolation from God, and barrenness), creation of life (the spiritual life of faith in their own hearts, new life in the womb), a uninting (Abram and Sarai are brought into relationship with God, instead of being separated from Him), a firstborn of life and faith.
Get your Bible out, and see if you see what I see!
Thoughts on Biblical Marriage, Part III: A Second Biblical Marriage, and an Offspring
In the very first pages of the Bible, we encounter the first biblical marriage. The marriage of Adam and Eve. They were both formed by the hands of God, in the image of God. They were brought to one-another through the work of God, and united in purpose and mission by the design and decree of God. Adam sees Eve, and he loves and delights in her. After the creation of Man, and after God united (or married) them in identity and mission (Gen 1:27-28), God directs them and everybody (every creature) present to a huge wedding feast prepared beforehand for them by the Word of God Himself (Gen. 1:29-30). Genesis 2 elaborates on this marriage, saying that they were both naked and were not ashamed (Gen 2:25). They were totally exposed and vulnerable, they saw each other completely and truly, and they recognized in one another, sameness in design and purpose (Gen 2:23-25). Then comes a more detailed description of the marriage feast, introducing us to a warning that foreshadows what kind of marriage this first one will be. First God provides the newly married man and woman with life sustaining and renewing fruit, growing and ripening on the branches of the tree of Life, but then He warns them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Partaking of this forbidden meal, He warns, will surely bring death.
Marriage one, zoom out:
Adam and Eve get married. They love one another, they delight in one another. More than that, they love and delight in God. They are united with God in their very design and in their mission, presenting us with a bigger biblical marriage. God sees them and delights in them. He blesses them in His delight, just as Adam blesses Eve. Then He leads them to the wedding feast, a feast of life, a feast that seals their hearts to His, a feast that initiates their marriage to Him, and their reign with Him on earth. He brings them to the feast, but here the story takes a turn.
Presented with a royal marriage feast, a throne, and a kingdom, Adam and Eve choose rituals of death. They eat the forbidden fruit of unfaithfulness instead of eating of the blessed feast of life, devastating the earth, themselves and their marriage to each other and their marriage to God as they pursue the calling of darkness and chaos rather than the calling to unite in spreading light and order. They listen to the serpent, who, like a forbidden lover, whispers intoxicating and alluring flattery. The Serpent doesn’t do this out of love for the bride (Adam and Eve) of God, but out of self-glorification and human objectification. And he promises them ultimate authority—the wisdom and power of God. They choose the false lover, the glory of man, the bitterness of tyranny, the toil and pain of fruit-bearing in dark, barren lands. They leave the presence of God (Gen 3:24). Outside of Eden, Eve gives birth to her firstborn son, their first hope, their firstfruit, and his name is Cain. He becomes a murderer, offspring of death (Gen 4).
And so began the reign of death(Rom 5:14). The firstborn of creation and his bride start their family in the wilderness outside of Eden, and eventually, prematurely, they die.
A romance, a marriage ceremony, a deadly feast, betrayal, a separation, a firstborn, a murder. Darkness. Death.
Now, there is a promise given to Adam and Eve before they are sent out from the garden. There is a promise and a provision. I can’t cover it all in detail here, but the promise will come up in the last bit.
A Second Biblical Marriage
Flip some pages. Many years have passed. Adam and Eve did indeed multiply and spread throughout the earth, and with their offspring spread the kingdom of darkness. A great flood washed the womb of the earth, flushing out the corruption of mankind, and then humanity spread once again (Gen 5-10). Mankind continued to run from God, continued in the footsteps of their first parents, toiling to preserve their own lives, tyrannizing one another, and consuming each other and the earth, betraying the One who loved them from the beginning. But one day, descendents of Adam (their names were Abram and Sarai) were seen and loved by God.
In Genesis 12:1-3, we see language reminiscent to the creation and marriage account of Adam and Eve. Genesis 2:24 presents us with what I like to think of as the Charge to the Bride and Groom, given to us by the narrator of Genesis: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” And yes, though this directly addresses the “man,” it obviously applies to the woman in question as well. This is a significant text, introducing us to the concept of dying (in a sense) to our past identity in order to enter into a new family identity with someone whom we see and love, and who sees and loves us. Genesis 12:1 says, “Now the LORD said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” God calls Abram and Sarai to leave their family and their inheritance, to enter into His family and His inheritance. Abram and Sarai were called to be the bride of God.
Following the creation of Adam and Eve, God blesses them. Genesis 1:28 says “…God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion…’” In Genesis 12:2, the same blessing and purpose is given to Abram and Sarai: “And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” Jump ahead to Genesis 17:1-2: “The LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless, (2)that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” God calls Abram out of darkness, into His presence. He forms Abram with the power of His Word. He commands Abram to “be blameless,” calling him to take on the image of God as was intended in creation. He promises to make a “covenant” with Abram, to take marriage vows, so to speak, promising to multiply him greatly. In 17:4, God officially tells Abram that “my covenant is with you.” In verse 5, He renames Abram “Abraham,” or “father of a multitude,” promising to make him “exceedingly fruitful…into nations,” and He says that “kings shall come from [Abraham].” God says the same thing of Sarai, Abraham’s wife: “And God said to Abraham, ‘As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name, I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.’” Again, as in Genesis 1-2, we see the pattern of creation applied to Abram and then to Sarai, and to them as a unit. God, in whom “[Abraham] believed, who gives life to the dead” (Rom 4:17), creates His people, giving them faith, He separates them from their pagan heritage, and he classifies them into the family of God, renaming them into His lineage. He then proceeds to bless them, promising to Himself multiply and expand them, and to take dominion over darkness through their Offspring. “Calling into existence the things that do not exist,” God the Father brings forth this offspring of faith from the barren womb of Sarai.
Abraham and Sarah give birth to Isaac, the firstborn of their covenant marriage with God, the son of sacrifice, the son that came from the emptiness of a barren womb, bringing the hope of life into the darkness of death. He passed through the darkness of death (Gen 22), and lived, carrying forth the promise of faith to coming generations. Sounds like someone we know, right?!
Galatians 3:16 expounds on this covenant marriage firstfruit: “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, ‘and to his offsprings,’ referring to many, but referring to one, ‘and to your offspring,’ who is Christ.” And again in 3:26 “for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. (27)For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. (28)There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (29)And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.” God has called us out of the darkness and into His light. He has given us His name and brought us into His family. We are His bride, increased, multiplied, eternal. And through Christ, we are offspring of the covenant, born through the Spirit of Jesus, heirs to the promise of life.
Ask yourself, what is biblical marriage?