Marriage
Marriage is Important to God. Is it to the Couple?
A husband and his wife walked into an office of the Federal Bureau of Investigations and stated, “We want to become FBI agents.” “Well,” the agent who met them responded, “FBI agents usually do not just come off of the streets—there is a process of vigorous training to become an elite agent of the FBI.” Nevertheless, this did not deter them from their quest of becoming FBI agents. “All right,” said the agent, “let us see if you qualify to become an agent.” Then, he directed the husband to one room and the wife to another room. A short time later, he knocked on the door of the room with the husband and led him to the next room. He opened a desk drawer and pulled out a revolver. “If you want to become an FBI agent, you must take this gun and go into the room with your wife and kill her.” The husband took the gun, went into the room with his wife and shut the door behind him. The FBI agent listened for several minutes and heard nothing but silence. Then, the door opened, the husband stepped back into the room, placed the gun on the table in tears and said, “I cannot do it.” He then went back into his respective room. A few minutes later, the agent knocked on the door of the wife, who then proceeded into the next room. The FBI agent did the same thing—he took the revolver out of the desk and instructed her to go and kill her husband if she qualified to become an agent. The woman took the gun, went into the room with her husband and shut the door behind her. The FBI agent only listened for a matter of seconds before he heard in rapid succession, “BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM,” and then what he heard next surprised even himself. He then heard wood breaking and shill screams. A minute later, he sees the wife walking out all flustered as she said, “Did you know this gun had blanks? I had to beat him with a chair to kill him!”
Such is humorous if it were not for the fact that in many marriages, such is serious. The greatest relationship on earth is the one between husband and wife. I believe the Lord knew this, because this was the first relationship that He created. In Genesis 2, seeing the loneliness of His created man, Adam, God stated,
It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him…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. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh [Gen. 2:18, 21-24].
Not only that, when Paul, by inspiration, chooses to describe the blessed relationship between Christ and His church (Eph. 5:32), he does so by describing the relationship between a husband and wife (Eph. 5:22-33). Thus, by understanding the beauty in the relationship between a husband and wife, we are only able to gain a glimpse of the wonderful spiritual relationship that exists between God and us.
It is sad that many husbands and wives treat each other in contemptible ways, often leading to the dangerous stage of divorce. Yet, when husbands and wives treat each other in ways that pleases God, it is a wonderful and beautiful thing! May we all ascribe to grow our marriages in the type of relationship that best emulates the relationship of Christ and His church—filled with love and submission.