Marriage
Ministry Note
To receive maximum Spiritual growth read one section and Meditate on that section for 24 to 48 hours. Allow your Spirit to be moved by the Holy Spirit through the content of each section.
Marriage
A short word but describes man’s oldest and most honorable institution. As an ordained minister, you will most likely deal with the institution of marriage on either one or all three levels: (1) as a Bible teacher or student, (2) as a married individual, or (3) as an ordained minister responsible for counseling couples and performing marriage ceremonies.
The Institution of Marriage
Institution – the act of instituting or establishing an established law, custom, or public occasion. God established or instituted marriage when he created man and women. In Genesis 2:18 God said, “It is not good that man should be alone. I will make a help meet for him.” In that moment, the institution of marriage was created.
The Institution of Marriage
Marriage is a divine provision. Its institutor is God the Creator. Its date of origin coincide with the creation of the human race. It was ordained by God in the Garden of Eden before man sinned. The institute of marriage was created even before the Sabbath, the blood covenant, and the tithe.
The Nature of the Help Meet
God used three words to describe what Adam needed: “a help meet.” The word meet mean “fit or suitable for.” In the original Hebrew the word “meet” meant “a front, a opposite, a counterpart, or mate.” Man’s companion was created for him to correspond with and to complement him.
The Nature of the Help Meet
Genesis 2
21 So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.
22 And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
Crossway Bibles. ESV Study Bible (Genesis 2:21-23). Crossway. Kindle Edition
The Nature of the Help Meet
God didn’t make man after any lower animal but “in His own image.” Neither did He make man’s companion from a lower animal but from man, the same substance. The woman was made of more than man’s image but was formed from man’s substance. Unlike God, man is not pure spirit.