Mar-16-0075-You shall not commit adultery
75_You shall not commit adultery Ex 20:14 “You shall not commit adultery. A veteran carpenter was crafting a beautiful dining table as a wedding anniversary gift for his daughter and her husband. He used rare and costly wood, and put in months of painstaking effort to bring out its beauty in every detail. When the table was finally complete, it became the centerpiece of their home—a tribute to his love and dedication. After some months, he visited them. He found the table covered with an old sheet. Lifting it, he saw that the surface was scratched and stained. Its beauty was marred by carelessness and neglect. Heartbroken, he said, “It was meant to last generations, but it wasn’t cared for.” This story mirrors God’s design for marriage—a holy and intentional union crafted with love, meant to reflect God’s glorious love for his people. When we fail to honor and nurture this precious gift, the consequences are devastating for families and for human society. In the beginning, God looked at his creation and declared it good. Since it was not good for man to be alone, he created a partner comparable and complementary to him, yet unlike him. No suitable companion was found for Adam among the animals, even though pets offer solace to the lonely today through their presence to listen, without criticism or advice. Instead, God’s plan was that the woman would complete and strengthen the man. When he fashioned Eve and brought her to Adam, the man was overwhelmed with joy. Seeing Eve, Adam broke into the Bible’s first recorded song: “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman because she was taken out of Man.” In this union, God established marriage, a covenantal, lifelong, all-encompassing relationship between a man and a woman. Genesis 2:24 declares, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Matthew 19:6 reaffirms this: “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” Marriage is God’s design and work—a relationship of immense value, created to be held in honor and holiness. Hebrews 13:4 exhorts, “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.” Because of the fundamental importance of marriage, it has been under attack since the fall of humanity. When sin entered the world, Adam, who once rejoiced over Eve, turned on her, saying, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:12). Instead of being together in serving God, they cooperated in sin and were hurled apart ever after. From that moment, the enemy has sought to corrupt and destroy God’s design for marriage. God created humans with natural needs—hunger, thirst, the desire for love and companionship, and the longing for physical pleasure. These needs are legitimate, and God’s creation is designed to fill each one. The temptation is to meet these needs independent of God’s will. In the wilderness,