Marriage and the Sabbath are the sacred twin institutions of Eden established by God Himself before the Fall. These institutions were to be a model and were given to mankind for all future generations. Not only did God create and found these two great institutions, He shared with us His reasons for doing so.
The Sabbath was to be God’s sacred day of rest, set apart and sanctified by Himself, so that the beings He has created would not be tempted to forgetfulness of the One who brought us into existence.
The second institution, which is marriage between one man and one woman, forms the structural building blocks of all society, and is well designed by a perfect God to bring stability, longevity and happiness to nations and individuals alike.
Regarding the Sabbath
Genesis 2:2-3 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it”….
In Exodus, we read, “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” Ex. 20:11. Thus God established the Sabbath as a memorial for all time.
The Sabbath is the place we are told that God is our Creator of heaven and earth, and all that is therein. This speaks to God’s authority and power. In addition, the Sabbath was to commemorate God’s creation of the world in six literal days, and His resting on the seventh day. The Sabbath is a reminder to humanity that it is Him who sanctifies us.
As history unfolded, it of course commemorated for the children of Israel (Jacob) their deliverance from slavery in Egypt. (Deut. 5:15). This exodus also gave rise to the nation of Israel which later split into two kingdoms (north-Israel, south-Judah).
God knew that we would need a day of rest from the work, especially after the fall, from wresting a living from the cursed earth; the Sabbath is the delightful day that God has lovingly provided to us to meet our need. (Mark 2:27; Isa. 58:13; Luke 11:46; Mat. 11:28-30).
The Sabbath is also a sign of ceasing any efforts to secure salvation through our own works, and resting in the Salvation of God provided through Jesus Christ. (Ex. 31:13; Heb. 4:9-10).
The commandments existed from the beginning but sin had so corrupted mankind, that after the exodus from Egypt God wrote them in stone with his own finger. The Sabbath is to commemorate God’s creation of the world in six days and His rest on the seventh day. That being the case, Sabbath is for all of humanity.
God has revealed in Scripture the authentic and historical account of His creative activity. He created the universe, and in a recent six-day creation the Lord made “the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them” and rested on the seventh day. Thus He established the Sabbath as a perpetual memorial of the work He performed and completed during six literal days that together with the Sabbath constituted the same unit of time that we call a week today. The first man and woman were made in the image of God as the crowning work of Creation, given dominion over the world, and charged with responsibility to care for it. When the world was finished it was “very good,” declaring the glory of God. (Gen. 1-2; 5; 11; Exod. 20:8-11; Ps. 19:1-6; 33:6, 9; 104; Isa. 45:12, 18; Acts 17:24; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2; 11:3; Rev. 10:6; 14:7.)
Regarding Marriage
21 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; 22 And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 23 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. 24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
What is the reason for the other institution of Eden, marriage? Regarding marriage, Christ said:
“But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female. For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So, they are no longer two, but one flesh.” (Mark 10:6-8).
“Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?” (Mat. 19:4)
Because God wanted to have marriage, he was forced to create two different sexes? No. Surprisingly, it is just the opposite: Because God created them male and female in the beginning, because He created two different sexes, therefore—for that reason, because of that—He established marriage. Two created sexes are to marriage as the six-day creation is to the Sabbath; that there are two sexes is the reason for marriage, just as the six-day creation is the reason for the Sabbath.
Just as there is more than one reason for the Sabbath, so also there are several reasons for marriage. In Genesis 1:28, Adam and Eve are told to “be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.” God created humanity to reproduce sexually, and one of the reasons for marriage is to conceive and raise children. And in Genesis 2:18, God says of Adam, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” So there are at least two more biblical reasons for marriage: (1) reproduction, and (2) companionship.
And yet when Jesus was discussing marriage, and revealing that divorce was not part of God’s original plan but was a concession to sinful humanity, what did Jesus mention? Jesus mentions neither of those seemingly more obvious rationales for marriage. According to Jesus, the reason for marriage is that God made them male and female. God created two sexes, and He does not want any more, nor any fewer, than those two.
The twin Edenic institutions of marriage and the Sabbath were designed for all mankind for all time. Among others, these are two institutions Satan knew to attack in order to break down our society.