When Adam joined Eve in eating what God had forbidden, was that the first act of chivalry in the human race? Did Adam eat to join Eve in death? Adam knew his bride was doomed at that point, and he did not leave her to die alone. He joined her. Is that what Christ did as well? He joined us in death. He did not leave us to die alone, but He did what Adam could not do, and by His death, He gave us our lives back.
Was Adam’s action a prophetic act? Did it foreshadow what Jesus would do? Jesus became mortal for the creation He loved. Had Adam deliberately "become mortal" for the woman he loved? Jesus fully understood what He was doing. I don’t believe Adam would have if my theory is correct. Was Adam’s act the first selfless act of mankind; one with devastating consequences for all who followed?
Prior to the fall, Adam had received his bride through sacrifice and a wound in his side. Adam paid a physical price for his bride. Almost as if, while he was still sinless, he was making a prophetic atonement for the coming sins of a bride. Did that wound and sacrifice point to Jesus? Were they prophetic shadows?
Millennia later, Christ—the sinless Lamb of God—paid a physical price for us. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities (Isaiah 53). Like Adam, Jesus received His bride through a wound. Jesus bore our sins on pierced hands and feet. Adam gave blood through a wound in his side to receive his bride and his family; and Jesus poured out His blood through a wound in His side to receive us. Just as marriage is supposed to be between one man and one woman, for the divine purpose of procreation, so is our relationship with God to be exclusive.
No wonder God hates divorce so much and limits it.
God created marriage in the beginning, and He established its boundaries. We have no authority to undo the order that He created, and we are not to have any other “gods” before the Lord. Christians have no right to redefine marriage, or gender, and we are commanded to not commit adultery—either spiritually or physically.
As Christians, we are espoused to one husband, and God wants us to be a chaste bride for His Son (2 Corinthians 11:2). Just as God wanted Israel to be faithful only to Him, God wants the church to be faithful only to His Son. Abraham sought a wife and family for his son, Isaac, just as God sought a wife and family for His Son, Jesus. Hosea sought reconciliation with his unfaithful wife, just as God sought reconciliation with His unfaithful bride. As Christ’s bride, we are to build a family of faithful believers for Jesus. We are called to lead others to reconciliation and relationship with Him. That certainly includes women.
Marriage is an illustration of our relationship with God, and divorce is a picture of its fracture. As I said, like everything else, Satan wants to destroy marriage and corrupt and mock God’s purpose for it. Just as he wants to mock and corrupt God's purpose for the rainbow.
It is foolish and pointless to mock God; for God will not be mocked in the end.
Since this is related, I am including a section at the end of chapter one of my book, Sailing into the Storm of Christian Controversies:
The story of Christianity is the story of God pursuing His runaway bride, even though she is a harlot. The Bible tells that story, beginning with the fall of the bride into unfaithfulness and God’s plan to restore her to her original state of purity. We are God’s lost love, seduced by a snake. Satan is the one who deceived Eve. He also deceives us and leads us farther and farther away from God into degradation and destruction. But God loved us enough to break into our world and pursue us. He took a path that ended and began again on a Roman cross outside the gates of Jerusalem. There God drew us away from our seducer and offered us anew that sinless union we began with. There He renewed the fellowship we once had with Him. Once again, we can walk with God in the cool of the day in the paradise He first created for us.
Are Women Saved Through Childbearing at Amazon. Temporarily out of print.
Sailing into the Storm of Christian Controversies at Amazon.
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