Scripture reading: Genesis 1:26-28
“AND THE TWO WILL BECOME ONE”
Part 1

Everybody loves a wedding! A wedding is considered a great cause for celebration, not just for the bride and groom, but also for family members and friends. When a man and woman pledge their entire lives to one another, it’s sacred for them and for all who stand with them. They are making vows of fidelity and love to each other for life. We all know the love story of all the ages. Man and woman meet, they fall in love, they marry and they live happily ever after. But we must always remember that marriage is God’s idea. From the beginning, God anticipated that man and woman would be joined together in holy union, a holy mating or holy matrimony.
He called this sacred covenant becoming one flesh (Read Genesis 2:18-25). And joining in marriage became His most vibrant illustration to fallen mankind of the intimate relationship He sought with them. Why did God choose to describe His love relationship with us as His people through the experience and significance of a wedding and marriage? Isaiah says, “As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you” (62:5). In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit gives the crowning joy of the mystery. Jesus, our Savior and Lord, is the bridegroom of the Church and we are His bride to be (Read Revelation 21:9). I believe God chose the wedding and the marriage to illustrate His relationship with His people because it is the most intimate and personal relationship we experience in our natural lives.
In the book of Ruth, God gives us a beautiful example of how Jesus becomes our Bridegroom, and we became His beloved. As a Moabite and a former idol worshipper, Ruth represents us, the church. Like Ruth, we once lived under the rule and influence of Satan and a world system that is totally opposed to God’s Kingdom. As Ruth’s deliverer, Boaz represents Jesus. Jesus is our kinsmen who loves us, and paid the price to redeem us from our spiritual poverty and then takes us as His bride. Throughout the Bible, God repeatedly uses weddings and marriage to reveal His love for us. Here’s another thing: Marriage is a God created relationship. In spite of what people think, marriage has never been a secular institution. In fact, those who march to the drum beat of the world, the lust of their flesh, and the lies of the enemy have very little use for marriage. They would rather do their own thing, and fornicate and commit adultery with whomever they choose.
It doesn’t bother them to father children and never be a father to those children. It doesn’t bother them to have children by several different men and never have contact with those men again. The world has little regard for the demands of fidelity “until death do us apart” vows. They have a high degree of tolerance for marital infidelity which leads to separation and divorce. However, marriage is holy and divine in its very definition and nature. That’s because God created the wedding and marriage to be a picture of how Jesus would pursue, commit to, and love His bride and how she should love and cherish Him in return.