Created to Cleave

Genesis 2:18-25 And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. And the Lord  God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto 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 shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

This last week’s Sunday Sermon by Pastor Kyle covered the marriage relationship as Creator God designed it. He explained that the Lord God Almighty designed marriage from the beginning to be a lifelong complimentary and procreation partnership between a man and a woman in unperverted and unashamed intimacy. The Bible uses the term “they knew each other” to describe the multi-faceted intimacy of this mentally, physically and spiritual union, that the origin of marriage describes as “cleaving together” and “becoming one flesh”. The 1828 Webster’s Dictionary defines “Marriage” as; “The act of uniting a man and woman for life; wedlock; the legal union of a man and woman for life. Marriage is a contract both civil and religious, by which the parties engage to live together in mutual affection and fidelity, till death shall separate them. Marriage was instituted by God himself for the purpose of preventing the promiscuous intercourse of the sexes, for promoting domestic felicity, and for securing the maintenance and education of children.” It is sin that distorts the purpose of sex as it was intended by God.

Matthew 19:4-6 And He (Jesus) answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning (Creator Father God) ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”

God’s design in marriage for the man to “cleave’ to his wife is an interesting term because the word has two definitions that are opposite. The first definition of the word “cleave” in the 1828 Webster’s dictionary is: “To stick; to adhere; to hold to. To unite aptly; to fit; to sit well on. To unite or be united closely in interest or affection; to adhere with strong attachment. I once heard a pastor describe the “cleaving of the marriage relationship between a man and a woman” as if two pieces of wood were glued together to were the two became one solid piece, and two separate by force would split and splinter the pieces with great damage to both the cohering parts. The second definition of the word to cleave is the contrary to the first: “To part or divide by force; to split or rive; to open or serve the cohering parts of a body, by cutting or by the application of force.” Designed to “leave and cleave”, not "cleave and leave”.

Romans 12:1-2 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

God-designed marriage is the foundation of civilization, society and the family unit. The law of the land has been changed and marriage has been distorted from the original definition and redefined by secular society, but that does not change God’s definition. All have sinned and by the grace of God, all sin is atoned for by Christ redeeming sacrifice on the cross for the repentant sinner, who believes and receives regenerating rebirth. The question is whether you and I are going to hold to our belief and preferences that match the Holy Scriptures of the Word of God in the Bible as light or conform to the ways of the humanistic God-rejecting world system in which we are supposed to influence and clean up? Christianity gave birth to the good kind of tolerance, as summarized in Christ’s Golden Rule. Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets – Matthew, chapter 7, verse 12. This implies respect for others – even if they’re different. Tolerance is defined as: “The power or capacity of enduring; or the act of enduring. To put up with, endure and bear with those who have different views, habits and/or lifestyles than you, even though you do not agree with their view. Tolerance does not mean that you must agree with their views as well, nor hold that their lifestyle is equally true and equally valid as your own. Nothing usurps the authority and commandments of God Almighty, our sovereign heavenly Father. Evil in the eyes of the Lord is a “hate crime” against God. God is good. In God We Trust.

Romans 12:9 “Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.”

In Christ, Brian