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About Jesus Steve Sweetman
The
Wife Of Your Youth In
Malachi 2:15 God told Israeli husbands not to break faith with the wives
of their youth. Contextually
speaking, Israeli men were abandoning the Israeli wives of their youth to
marry pagan women, something God specifically warned them never to do.
Besides the fact that divorce is a form of unfaithfulness that
opposes every fiber of who God is, marrying pagan women would introduce
pagan ways into the community of God, thus destroying a people who had
been solely set apart to serve Him. For
this reason God eventually judged In
case you don't know, Israeli wives weren't given the same admonition to
remain faithful to their husbands because they didn't have the legal right
to divorce. That being said,
in today's world when wives have the legal right to divorce their
husbands, I'm sure the admonition of Malachi 2:15 applies to them as well.
Besides
the fact that God hates unfaithfulness as seen in divorce, there might
well be another reason for God's admonition to remain faithful to the
spouse of your youth.
Biologically
speaking, we were created to marry as young adults.
In today's world, young adults haven't fully matured into the
adults they will eventually be. When
a man and a woman marry as young adults, they mature into adulthood
together. During the process
of mutual maturing, individuality is melted into a certain oneness which I
believe was God's original intention at creation for a couple. One
issue you face in a second marriage later in life that you don't exactly
face in a first marriage early in life is that you've already matured into
adulthood. Who you have become
is who you will be, and, much of who you have become is a result of the
melting into oneness that took place in the maturing process with your
previous spouse. In other
words, when you remarry, you're marrying someone who has been molded by a
former spouse. Like it or not,
things you've learned and who you've become from a former relationship
creep into the new relationship in many ways.
One might be asked why he sets the washing machine for a four
minute cycle instead of eight minute cycle.
Well, as the obedient husband I thought I was the first time
around, there's only one answer to such questions. Of
course, there are more serious issues than this light hearted example that
puts stress on your second marriage vows.
As
an adult, it's not easy to unlearn what you've learned.
It may well be next to impossible to undo who you've become,
despite the well meaning attempts of your new spouse to help you out.
Such attempts seldom work and often backfire.
It's best to work on changing yourself instead of someone else.
Malachi
2:15 asks, "has not the Lord made them one"?
The answer is "yes'. Undoing
this oneness in a second marriage is not only difficult; it wasn't God's
will for men and women at creation.
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