MARRIAGE, DIVORCE AND REMARRIAGE (7): God’s Design for Marriage

When we open the sacred page and gaze upon the dawn of human life, we behold the first marriage — pure, unadorned, and heavenly in its simplicity. No choir sang. No priest spoke. No vows flickered beneath candlelight. There was only God, His creation, and two souls drawn together by His hand.

“Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to 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 a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:22–24)

God Himself was the witness, the officiant, and the author of this first holy union. Adam and Eve were not joined by words but by divine act. Their covenant was written not on parchment but in the mystery of flesh and spirit. The union was not performed — it was created.

Here we see marriage in its purest form: not ceremony, but covenant; not ritual, but reality. It is the sacred weaving of two lives into one, ordained by the Lord of heaven and sealed by His presence. What God joined in Eden was more than companionship; it was a reflection of His own image — two becoming one, even as the Father, Son, and Spirit are one. Every true marriage since that day is but an echo of that first divine joining.

Jacob and Leah: The Covenant in the Tent

If we allow Scripture to define marriage, we must let its narratives speak plainly. Genesis 29 tells of the strange and sorrowful joining of Jacob and Leah.

“And Laban gathered together all the men of the place and made a feast…Then he took Leah his daughter and brought her to Jacob; and he went in to her…So it came to pass in the morning, that behold, it was Leah!” (Genesis 29:22–25)

There was a feast, but the feast was not the marriage. There was celebration, but celebration was not covenant. The covenantal act occurred in the privacy of the tent, where Jacob — believing he was entering marriage — gave himself in the one-flesh union.

Here is the point: Jacob intended marriage, though he intended it with Rachel. His heart, his will, his covenant-aligning intention was set upon a bride. Laban’s deception changed the identity of the woman, but not the reality of the covenant. Jacob entered the union with the intention of marriage, and God counted the union as marriage — not because the act itself creates covenant indiscriminately, but because Jacob entered the act as a husband entering a covenant.

Had marriage been only a ritual, the deception could have been easily undone. But covenant runs deeper than ceremony. It is not made by men’s speeches, but by God’s recognition of two made one.

Still, the act alone does not create covenant. Union without intent is corruption; intent without union is incomplete. Marriage requires both — the heart’s will and the body’s sealing.

This is the weight and wonder of the one-flesh bond. It is sacred because it reflects Christ’s inseparable union with His Church.

The Wedding at Cana: A Celebration of Covenant

In the Gospel of John we find Christ attending a wedding in Cana. “On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee…Jesus and His disciples were invited” (John 2:1–2).

There was joy, laughter, and hope — yet no vows are recorded, no ritual detailed. What Christ blessed that day was not a ceremony in itself, but a covenant already formed. His miracle honored a union, not a script.

By turning water into wine, Jesus sanctified the gladness of marriage and declared that such joy is worthy of heaven’s smile. The feast celebrated what God had already joined.

So it is today: ceremonies may be holy, but God alone joins the hearts. The altar may bless the covenant; the Spirit alone seals it.

Marriage, Intention, and Covenant

From Eden to Cana, from the Garden to Calvary, Scripture speaks with one voice: marriage is a covenant of faithfulness between one man and one woman, joined as one flesh and blessed by God.

Sexual union, rightly ordered, is meant to seal that covenant — never to cheapen it. To enter that act without covenantal intent is sin; to enter it with covenantal intent is holy. Paul calls this “a great mystery” reflecting Christ and the Church (Ephesians 5:32).

The Role of Ceremony and Society

Although Scripture does not prescribe a formal ritual, it affirms the wisdom of public covenant. A ceremony does not create a marriage, but it declares it. Society records it; the church blesses it; God ordains it.

The joining is divine, but the witness is wise.

God’s Design and Human Distortion

In our day, marriage’s holy pattern has been blurred. But the Word remains unchanged: marriage is the sacred union of male and female — two distinct yet complementary, forming one flesh. Same-sex unions, however affectionate, cannot fulfill that design. They cannot mirror Christ and the Church.

Truth must be spoken with compassion. Holiness without love is harsh; love without holiness is hollow.

Grace, Repentance, and Renewal

Where hearts are wounded, grace still flows. Many have stumbled in passion or ignorance; yet Christ forgives, cleanses, and restores. The past can be washed, the covenant renewed, the heart made whole.

Repentance opens the door; mercy rushes in.

Walking in God’s Covenant

Marriage was born in Eden and will be fulfilled at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Every faithful union is a small reflection of that final glory. When a man and woman join their lives with lifelong intent, God blesses the covenant they form.

Let our homes be sanctuaries of grace. Let husbands love as Christ loves; let wives honor as the Church honors her Lord. Every true marriage becomes a sermon — a living parable of redemption.

For “from the beginning it was not so” that man should stand alone. And from the beginning until the end, God’s design remains the same:

two made one, joined by His hand, blessed by His Spirit, and kept by His grace.

Bryan Dewayne Dunaway