ADAM’S MARRIAGE SONG

When Adam received his partner for life from the hand of God, his poetical soul reacted thereupon at once, saying, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” This is the happy jubilation which sounded through Eden’s garden at the closing of this first marriage.

We, fallen, corrupted people, cannot realize what that has been. Two sinless people, in full bloom according to both body and soul, united in the love of God. Someone has once said that if we fallen people could have seen man in his holy state of innocence, we would simply have fled away because of the majesty which did radiate from the image-bearer of God.

And although marriage is often called a flower of Paradise, we nevertheless must say that much of the beauty of this flower has been lost, and that even in many cases the present picture is a caricature of the original. But notwithstanding … the marriage-song is in this fallen creation not totally brought to silence. Thanks be unto God’s universal goodness that we yet hear a weak echo. We therefore find in the Holy Scripture that the relationship between bridegroom and bride is pictured in the most lovely colors.

If the poet of Psalm 19 needs a figure to sketch the beauty of the rising of the sun, then it is the bridegroom who must serve as an object of comparison to illustrate the glory thereof. But what has even greater meaning is this, that the relationship between the Lord and His people is expressed in many places in the Word of God by the symbol of bridegroom and bride, man and wife.

Especially the prophet Hosea brings that forth clearly, but also in the New Testament the same symbol is used. Only think about Ephesians the 5th chapter: when the apostle Paul shows unto us the close bond and relationship there is between Christ and His church, then he compares this, referring to Gen. 3:16, to the close relationship between man and wife.

If, however, in Revelation the destruction of the great city of Babylon is described, then it is also said: “And the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee.” Then the universal goodness of God has also ended. But then we also hear from the shores of a blessed eternity the joyful heavenly-jubilation. as we find it in the next chapter the 7th verse: “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready.” Then the blessed realization has come of that which has only been seen here as in a silhouette.

The history of mankind begins with a marriage, and this leads us through the ages to the eternal marriage and its feast in the house of the Father. “And He saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.” Rev. 19:9).

— The Friend of Old and Young

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