WEDDINGS FIRST & LAST

Weddings First & Last

I had the privilege of walking my eldest daughter down the aisle and presenting her to her husband to be. I also had the privilege of marrying her to her husband. I don’t know which wedding number this was on the long list of weddings that have taken place since the beginning. The very first wedding took place on day six of ‘Creation Week.’ Of course, like every other wedding, this wedding was special. But unlike every other wedding since then, this wedding was even more special. For God had first to build the woman He was going to give to the man!

It was no problem for the eternal God to bring into being the whole of creation out of nothing. He simply spoke and things that were not became things that are. He formed Adam from the dust of the ground, and showed Adam all the birds and animals. Adam named them all. Thus Adam could see that not even a chimpanzee was comparable to him. As Scripture says, ‘But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.’ Genesis 2:20b. Chimps, cats, dogs, and budgies might be good company, but who wants to marry one? Each according to its kind! The very first wedding is prefaced with the following: ‘And the LORD God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”’ Genesis 2:18. Marriage is very good because God instituted it because it was ‘not good that man should be alone,’ and also because at the end of that very first wedding-day we read these words, ‘Then God saw everything He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.’ Genesis 1:31.

‘And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.’ Genesis 2:21. Back in the 60s and 70s cloning was the stuff of science fiction. Then in the 90s some son of Adam named a Scottish sheep ‘Dolly.’ This sheep was special. It was the first cloned animal to survive – for a wee while. Why then should anyone think it strange that the first woman was ‘built’ from a man’s rib? ‘Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made [lit. built] into a woman, and He brought her to the man.’ Genesis 2:22. Then the LORD God – as her heavenly Father – walked Eve down the aisle and presented her to Adam. Then He married the two. And just as there are wedding speeches today, so the very first wedding speech was uttered by Adam who waxed poetic and 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.’ Genesis 2:24. Adam knew exactly what the woman was. And they both knew that they could now lawfully also reproduce themselves, for Scripture says, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.’ Genesis 2:24. ‘Leave and cleave’ is how we put it nowadays. And so we see that marriage was instituted in the beginning by the LORD God Himself.

It is interesting to note that Jesus performed His very first miracle – attesting to the fact that He was the Son of God in the flesh – at a wedding. As the LORD God transformed the dust of the ground into a man, and the rib of the man into a woman, so Jesus transformed into wine the water in six large water-pots  (of over twenty gallons each) filled to the brim (John 2:6-10). Why so much wine, especially since the wedding guests had polished off whatever wine there was till that point? That great Reformer, John Calvin, offers the following answer: ‘But it is wonderful that a large quantity of wine, and of the very best wine, is supplied by Christ, who is a teacher of sobriety. I reply, when God daily gives us a large supply of wine, it is our own fault if His kindness is an excitement to luxury; but, on the other hand, it is an undoubted trial of our sobriety, if we are sparing and moderate in the midst of abundance; as Paul boasts that he had learned to know both how to be full and to be hungry, Philippians 4:12.’

Nothing to everything, the dust of the ground to man, a man’s rib to a woman, and water to wine, nothing is too hard for God. He can even transform a multitude innumerable, dead in its trespasses and sins, into the living Bride of Christ ‘that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.’ Ephesians 5:27.

O to have our heavenly Father walk us down that aisle on the last day and present us to His Son! I love weddings! Such joyous occasions!