Why get married?

Yesterday night, I happened to see my ex-girlfriend online who I haven’t talked to for months so I decided to talk to her.  It was good, catching up.  She then dropped the bomb on me.
“Dave, I got something to tell you. I’m engaged and getting married in May.”
To give you a summary of our relationship, we met while we were serving in China in the summer of 2007. We then started dating later that year around September.  We really enjoyed each other’s time but for some reason, she ended up breaking up with me late December, one week before finals.  Ouch~!  I recovered.

I started talking to her again around spring time and into summer but after that, we just lost contact.  At the time, she said she wasn’t seeing anyone…not that it would have bothered me if she was seeing someone.  Last night she told me she got engaged in December of 08.
My thoughts…”wow! She got engaged only from a year since we broke up.”
I ended up congratulating her and blessing her and her future.  I am truly happy for her.  I really am…and although I am over her, I still can’t help feeling “something” about it.  Mind you, she was my only girlfriend and I can assume I was her last boyfriend.  
But as I sat at work this morning and pondered about it more, I realized why I was happy for her.  She found the one.  She found who God as prepared for her.  And with that thought, I can only be encouraged that there is someone for me that God has prepared where we can become one and glorify him together.  Praise God that he provides and that he has a perfect plan for us.
So with all this said, I ask a question to you…
We obviously know WHAT marriage is…
but…
What is the PURPOSE of marriage?
The first commandment that God gave to “man” and “woman” was to be fruitful and multiply.  We see that in Genesis 1:28
28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
Does God want us to “get jiggy with it” and pop out kids? Sure.
Is it to find someone that we enjoy and to love? Yeah.

But I believe there is a greater purpose than those when God has intended for us to get married.

When we examine Malachi 2, the central theme of it is about keeping the Covenant.  We see that throughout the book of Malachi and especially in CH. 2 that the Israel people were constantly breaking the covenant with God.  God shows this to us by saying that the priests have not been doing their priestly duties as they should have.  They have been doing their duties out of burden.  God curses them and sends them this abomination SO THAT his COVENANT with Levi may continue.

In the latter part of the chapter God begins to speak about marriage.  God is not pleased in verse 10 when Malachi says, “Why do we profane the covenant of our fathers by breaking the faith with one another?”  When he says breaking the faith, he’s talking about divorce.  God even CLEARLY points out, “I HATE DIVORCE” in verse 16.
Why does God hate divorce?
I believe it’s because God has given us marriage for the main purpose of showing the world in a tangible example of what God’s covenant with us.  God has given us marriage to show the world how much he loves us and made a promise to be with, be our God, and we his people.  A covenant that is pure, solid, and that of one that would never be broken.  So when God said, I hate divorce, I believe it’s because it shows the world that this covenant can be broken.

Christ has called the church his bride.  When I look at that passage, he is saying that he has made a covenant with us to be our Lord and savior for all eternity.  Christ is calling us to be keepers of the covenant.  He is calling us to be faithful to him.  He is calling us to be the living examples to the world of his perfect covenant with us.


By: David Kim