“Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.‘ Hear now, O house of Israel, is it not My way which is fair, and your ways which are not fair?” (Ezekiel 18:25).
Henry VIII, King of England from 1509 Until 1547, thought he way was right. So much so that he wrote a law to separate himself from the Roman Church, because it would not let him divorce his wife Catherine of Aragon so that he could marry his lover, Ana Bolena. But that wasn’t enough for him. He founded his own religion and set himself up as the Head of the Church of England. After Ana, whom he had decapitated, he married four more wives. Unfortunately, the case of this king is just one in a million where people choose not to heed God’s designs for the institution of marriage. In Eden, marriage had specific purposes and specific blessings. The influence of marriage is far-reaching, for good or for evil.
Just as anything that requires effort, dedication, compromise, and love in a world where those values are a scarcity, the institution of marriage has been under tremendous attack and has been greatly affected. More and more often marriages even within the church are quickly dissolved, often without sufficient reason.
«Like every other one of God’s good gifts entrusted to the keeping of humanity, marriage has been perverted by sin; but it is the purpose of the gospel to restore its purity and beauty» (Thoughts from the Mount of Blessings, ch. 3, p. 64)
Perhaps you have experienced the results of divorce within your own family, and you know how painful it can be. It is difficult in our world today to keep marriage pure on our own, when it is constantly under attack by the Enemy, but we have a beautiful promise: «The grace of Christ, and this alone, can make this institution what God designed it should be—an agent for the blessing and uplifting of humanity. And thus the families of earth, in their unity and peace and love, may represent the family of heaven» (ibid, p.65). What a great challenge and what a beautiful ideal!
I encourage you to think about restoration and blessing, and to realize that we are the ones who are not being fair and doing right, and we need God’s guidance.
I encourage you to give your life to Him today; determine to honor Him in your choices of companions today and of a spouse in the future, and pray for the couples that you know.
