God's Laws Pertaining to Marriage

Preview: This lesson is a guide to the laws of the Bible. Since the Bible is the foundation of the legal system of all civilized nations, it is very important that matters concerning the laws be understood.


Scripture Reading: Genesis 2:18-25.

Memory Verse: Genesis 1:27.

1. Did God, according to the foregoing Scriptures, bless the union between man and wife and cause them to be one flesh? Discuss. 
2. Who ordained marriage? Genesis 1:27-28, Genesis 2:18-25.
Note: Even though Adam declared Eve to be bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, it was God Himself who arranged that union.
3. What did God forbid His people to do? Genesis 24:3, Deuteronomy 7:1-3.
4. Why did God forbid this? Deuteronomy 7:4-6.
5. What example of this do we have? Genesis 6:1-5.
Note: All these things were written as an example for us today; so it is just as important now as then that God’s people not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.
6. Was monogamy (one spouse) the divine ideal from the beginning? Why? Genesis 2:18-24, Matthew 19:3-5, Psalm 128:2-4.
7. Was polygamy always discouraged even though it was practiced? Why or why not? Deuteronomy 17:17, Leviticus 18:18, Mark 10:2-12, I Timothy 3:2-5, Genesis 16:3-5.
Note: Broken vows produce broken homes and broken lives. It produces hardness of hearts toward God and man. Ideally, God intended man to have one wife and be faithful to her and she to him for life.
8. What was the law concerning incest? Leviticus 18:5-17, Leviticus 20:17-21, Deuteronomy 22:30.
Note: Compare the law to what we see happening today.
9. When was it permissible for a man to marry his brother’s wife? Deuteronomy 25:5-10, Genesis 38:6-8.
Note: We see here that when the man died, his wife became his widow. The brother was instructed to marry her if she had no children. But a man was not to take his living brother’s wife.
10. What were God’s laws concerning purity in marital relationships? Exodus 20:14, Exodus 20:17, Leviticus 20:10.
Note: Today we find so-called Commandment keeping ministers seeking to change this law because divorce is such a prevalent disease in the churches today. This law - like all of God’s other laws - cannot be changed.