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Marriage: Three In One? – by Rene Milner

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I love verses that encourage me in my walk with God and often just in my plain old daily walk. (Is there a difference?) I was reading recently in Malachi and read over a verse I had read many times. Don’t you love it when all of a sudden something new pops out of something old?

The verse is Malachi 2:15. Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth.

I first remember reading this verse when God impressed on me for the first time the solemnity of the marriage vow. I am saddened to say it was years after I had made that covenant. God is real serious about covenants. More on that later. The second time that a portion of this verse stuck out to me was when God pointed out that He had a purpose in making them one. He wanted Godly offspring. Well, that seems straightforward. As we had children, they were the result of our oneness and should be raised to become Godly offspring. Sounded real easy for me to do. That is until I look back and realize how little my striving to produce Godly offspring really produced things. Yes, I took them places and walked with them along the way explaining what little I knew and telling them of the faithfulness of the Father, but for all of that when I look back I can only see the hand of God on the big changes in their lives. I still look for that movement in somewhere despite my best efforts they don’t seem to be fully where God wants them to be.

In my most recent reading of this verse, I was struck by a small phrase that I am sure God must have added into His most recent update. I had never seen it before. “with a portion of the Spirit in their union?” Is there truly a piece of my marriage that is a portion of the Spirit, separate from my wife or me? I know that the Spirit dwells in each of us. I have come to grips with the idea of the two of us as individuals becoming one unit permanently glued together by God. This, however, seems to say something a little more. It sounds like there is an extra, third piece added in when the two become one. A “portion” of the spirit. King James uses the word remnant. In the Old Testament, the word is mostly used like residue or left over piece. The picture to me is a piece of the Spirit that is set aside for this union. Almost like this is the thing that binds them together. Separate from either of them and the Spirit that indwells them but together with them as one. I have in my head the picture of molten plastic. When the “molten” spirit of two mixes with the molten residue, the Spirit that is reserved for that union, they become one piece. What God has molded together, how could this ever be separated? What happens to that special piece of the Spirit designed to complete that union? It is one with the two. It can never be separated. I would argue that it can never be removed from that intended union no matter the distance of the physical beings. Three in one once again.

What a fantastic picture of the Trinity. Three yet one. A cord of three strands. The whole picture helps me understand why Jesus used marriage metaphors and word pictures to try to get across the union of us as Christians with Him. It would appear that it is His intention from the beginning to make them one. Stuck together inseparably, creating a picture of the Trinity and a picture of the life in Christ. Through our marriage, the world can see the results of this kind of work of God. Now I know why God looks so harshly on breaking covenants. To attempt to break such a bond would be to blur what God wants the nations to see clearly. It would be to give a distorted picture of God Himself. It would be to violate His name, a thing He takes very seriously. As we live out our life together in the bond as one, let us instead, honor that picture. Christian may we always show the world clearly what it means for two to become one eternally.

Rene Milner

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