[Wisdom of Solomon] the Wedding Day and NightSample

No More Contracts

Do you enjoy weddings? Is it the dancing, the food, or the fact that your friend, best friend, or family member is making one of the most significant decisions of their life? One of the greatest things about a wedding is that all the friends and family are there to celebrate. It is a day to celebrate this man and woman’s covenant publicly.

Imagine you get to the vows of this wedding and hear the husband say, “If you do the dishes, I will mow the lawn.” Then it’s the wife's turn, and she says, ”If you help with the kids, I will wash your clothes.” You would be shocked! This is because wedding vows are supposed to be covenantal and not contractual. It is not a mere exchange of promises but an agreement where the bride and groom give their very selves.

A marriage covenant must be protected. All the people supporting the bride and groom should be there to help protect their marriage. In the passage you just read, you see that King Solomon had sixty men as his groomsmen, and all of them were skilled with swords and trained in warfare. This symbol reminds us that we must protect our marriages at all costs. We must hold this covenant we made above all else. We must surround ourselves with people who value our marriage so we can be shielded against anything or anyone who might want to harm it. Do you have people around you who care about your marriage and the covenant you made? We need to protect each other’s marriages and our own marriages.

If you are a married man, are you a protective husband? Are you protecting your wife and her heart in your marriage? Are you providing? Are you doing the things you need to do to make sure that your wife is safe and cared for? If you are a married woman, do you feel cared for, secure, and protected in your marriage? I implore you to have an honest conversation about this with yourself and with your spouse. The marriage covenant is to imitate the covenant that Jesus made with us, the one that says when we are faithless, He remains faithful. We must fight contractual tendencies in our marriages, or future marriages, and see them as an agreement to give of ourselves wholeheartedly for our partners’ sake. We must always do this, knowing how hard our Lord fights for us, cares for us, and loves us.