The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Genesis 2:18
But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. Genesis 2:20-22
God was the establisher of marriage, and He created it to bless Man. You can see in Genesis that God created marriage because despite everything God creating being “good”, only one thing was “not good”, and that was the fact that Adam was alone. Man needed a helper, another person to share his life with and be one with in every way. A godly marriage produces oneness, help, love, security, and trust. It was designed to create an inseparable bond between two people so that they would never be alone on earth. It is a binding covenant that is meant to be a symbolic representation of the marriage between Christ and the Church (us). In the example given to us in Ephesians, husbands are to love their wives as Christ loves the Church. Wives are meant to love unconditionally, as well, and respect their husbands; but the masculine is the example given here because God is in the masculine, as the Husband of the Church.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church. Ephesians 5:25-29
We must understand that as important as marriage is to God, Satan will seek to destroy it. Already, he has perverted the truth about it; he has caused people to believe it is acceptable to defile the marriage bed, to not honor the covenant of man and woman together for life. Satan’s entire purpose for a godly marriage is to destroy it, thus destroying generations of families as they learn that ungodly behavior is acceptable and that marriage is a disposable byproduct of man’s law. The enemy’s plan is so much bigger than just your marriage. This is why standing strong is so important! If the enemy can come in and destroy a marriage, he can cause others to question the faithfulness of God. If he can destroy our trust in the goodness of our spouse, he can cause us to question the goodness of the One who brought our spouse to us. This is the ultimate goal of Satan, to destroy marriage, to destroy our faith in God, and to destroy generations of future families.
This is all very disheartening, but in the next several days, I’ll be sharing something that God showed me regarding rebuilding the walls around our marriages. Look at this verse in Matthew and you will see one of the most vital reasons that we are meant to be in a godly marriage:
For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them. Matthew 18:20
A godly marriage is a perpetual state of gathering together as two people in His name, meaning that together, you are unstoppable- because God is in the midst of you. The enemy has no ground to stand on when you walk in this. Knowing this, it is still unwise to stand unprotected. In Nehemiah’s story, Nehemiah asked God to help him rebuild the wall around Jerusalem because the city was unprotected. Nehemiah’s passion and God’s faithfulness brought glory to God and to His people. Rebuilding your marital walls can do the same for you and your marriage, if you allow God to help and guide you even in the face of adversity.