52 Weeks in the Ark with Noah and Family (WEEK 42) – The Art of Husbandry (Part 2): The Marriage Covenant (The First and Ultimate Principle of Creation)
“And Yahuwah Elohim caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and They took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Yahuwah Elohim had taken from man They made into a woman, and They brought her to the man. 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.’
Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
“And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the Earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry.”
WEEK 42 (20th to 26th of Adar, the 12th Month, in the Hebrew Religious Calendar)
Noah Uncovers the Ark
Up until this week arrived, Noah had waited for months for the moment when the floodwaters would have already subsided and the ground fully dried. How did he know the moment had come? He only had a window to look out of and to send a raven and a dove to find out if there was dry land. If the Ark had stood on the peak of a mountain and the water was gradually “subsiding”, how did he know the water had reached its minimum level? What led him to decide to uncover the Ark?
The only way Noah could have known that moment had arrived would have been if he or his sons went out of the Ark to survey the land. Or for an angel to have told him about it. Some claim that he had sent the raven and the dove at weekly intervals to bring back evidences of the vegetation and the level of the Flood. Which would have been probably the most likely source of his decision to uncover the Ark, as he had to determine what kind of information those birds, especially the dove, gave him. Besides, it seems the narrative clearly tells us that Noah had the uncanny ability to communicate with animals. Why would he specifically send out birds if they had no ability to do what Noah wanted them to do? We assume homing pigeons and other birds can trace their way back home; but what gave the dove the ability to look for land and pluck out a leaf from a tree and bring it back to Noah? Was it merely trained to do that one thing? Or did it have the innate intelligence to understand human language and act accordingly? Dogs can easily do it, as we know; so why not other animals?
It appears that the act of “uncovering” the Ark was a way of bringing in the fresh air and the sunlight upon the roof of the Ark to allow Noah and his family to look out all over the land while awaiting the command to open the door of the Ark. The Hebrew word mikseh (covering) seems to tell us they had put up a shade over the Ark’s roof, most likely of goatskin, to prevent rain from collecting and deteriorating the wood through exposure to moisture and mildew and rotting from wet and dry conditions. Or it could have meant removing the roof or part of it. Whatever it meant, removing that cover allowed Noah to confirm the report that the ground was dry. As the text says, “Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry.”
Dry land is something we take for granted until floodwaters submerge our surroundings and put a stop to all our activities. For 42 weeks, Noah and his family had endured the Flood while ensconced inside a huge vessel along with many animals under their care. For us all, it is but a story and a lesson; but for them it was their life and the life of all the animals. No, for them and for us, it was the entire life and future of the whole Earth from that moment of time onward.
The Primary Purpose of Creation: Reproduction and Propagation of Goodness
The integrity of Creation had been preserved by the Creator through a few remaining good seeds that would be replanted upon the New Earth to repopulate it. As in the time of Creation when the land appeared from the waters that had covered the primeval Earth, we now see a parallel situation when the Creator would renew His covenant with His creatures in order to finish the work of raising a family of humans according to the perfect and righteous principles of the Divine Nature. This was the plan in the Garden of Eden. Noah and his family were tasked to carry on with the same plan. Yah, this time, would execute that plan using 4 pairs of pure human couples, 7 pairs of various clean animals, and 1 pair of various unclean animals.
The law of reproduction was originally meant to produce only pure, righteous souls of humans and clean animals. We knew what happened along the way. It was time to reset Creation through the same fundamental principles given to humans in the beginning. The inaugural marriage of Adam and Havah highlighted the fundamental principles and processes through which the essential goodness of Creation would be multiplied and propagated throughout the world and even beyond its limits.
Marriage as a Built-In Principle in Creation Manifesting the Divine Nature
Marriage, as a covenant and as a principle, requires much time for us to appreciate as it involves looking at its historical and spiritual foundation upon which it (and its antithesis, divorce) must be seen and understood. Of course, many have varying views on that fundamental premise itself; hence we must go back to the exact inaugural words of the Creator to remove any error or bias. Doing so is important because we all see Marriage and Divorce (M&D) through the lenses of our respective religions or legal frameworks. For those who fancy themselves as being “organic” persons, marriage is defined as the physical and spiritual union of man and woman which was conceived, designed, created, performed and perfected in the Garden through real humans: Adam and Havah.
We must remember that marriage does not only involve making vows and solemnizing them through a wedding ceremony prescribed by one’s cultural, ethical or legal paradigm but, first and foremost, creating all things and crowning Creation with beings made in the image of the Creator. This we see through the revelation in the Creation narrative. Moreover, it is not merely making man and woman one or united as one flesh and one spirit, after the act and fact of Creation as the foundational principle of all things, but before the act and fact itself. Yes, even before anything ever existed.
Elohim modeled and founded the unity produced in marriage upon the plurality within the unity of Divinity – a mystery that no one has yet unraveled or broken down into mere words, principles or laws so as to qualify anyone or any group as the highest or sole arbiter upon which any and all issues on marriage must be resolved. No one, except for the Originator of marriage itself and of Whom it represents and for Whom it has been reserved to be perfected in the presence of all humans at the proper time. Elohim created humans according to Their image as One Divine Nature – as Spirit. Perhaps, our physical appearance manifests the divine or spiritual image which we can only comprehend when we see ourselves being transformed into the divine spiritual nature that we were truly meant to be. This is not to say Elohim, being Divine or Spirit in essence, possess physical traits but that our physical traits were created in accordance to Their spiritual nature as the Creator.
The Marriage of Man and Woman Manifests Divine Unity
Mud or soil definitely does not picture in any way the Divine Nature; yet, by uniting it with the image of Elohim in creating humans, the life produced through spirit-beings living in flesh-and-blood vessels manifests the Reality and Nature of Elohim. Adam and Havah spoke, thought and worked as Elohim spoke, thought and worked. They used words that came from their Creator to name animals, believed and lived by the principles they learned from Him, and took care of the plants and animals according to the guidelines they had received from Him. Like Father, like children. And as would-be parents, their children were to behave in the same manner to preserve, enhance and propagate Creation.
We can use a simple illustration to portray the rather abstract concept of “being made in the image of Elohim”. We see, feel and consider ourselves as material beings with intelligence and even spiritual attributes. We also see ourselves indirectly through what we see in other people. Clearly, we image ourselves in others who also have eyes, ears, noses, mouths, arms, legs and abilities that we also possess and use the way they do. Yet, we can only acquire a better understanding of ourselves as we are when we look at ourselves in the mirror or watch and listen to ourselves through videos taken of ourselves. The images we see have physical reality but have no real, solid reality we can touch, smell or taste. The eyes and the ears remain as the only channels through which we gain an external picture of ourselves and the way others see and hear us from a distance.
In a parallel sense, the gap between the physical and the spiritual has been bridged by the Creator through the mirror of the written Word which tells us that what we see and hear in ourselves as creatures made in the image of Elohim reflects Their character. Thus, when the Word says humans are the image or reflection of the Divine Nature, the perfect design, balance and functions of our physical attributes manifest the higher and eternal will, harmony and intentions of the Creator. We may not touch, taste or feel Spirit as earthly beings; but we can see and hear (that is, understand through, at least 2, channels of our senses) through seeing own physical image and hearing the confirmation of our reality by the revelation of the Creator of the perfect image of His Divine Nature.
Reading or hearing the Word has one and the same effect: belief or unbelief. Those who do not believe are like people then who look at themselves in the mirror and see only themselves, not the Creator. Or those who look at Creation and all the beauty and complexity within it and do not see or hear the harmony and rhythmic balance that emanate from it and which sustain its existence. For instance, without the Water Cycle, which is sustained by the Light Cycle (Solar Cycle), the Food Cycle would cease – and so would the Life Cycle. Remember, Water came before the Light; and Light came before the Plants were made. Finally, Life on the Land, Air and the Seas came after all those things were already at work.
Revelation as the Mirror of Life
The Written Word is the true Mirror of Life upon which we must see and understand all things, especially about the Marriage Covenant. Only then can we accept that our spiritual essence is exactly in accordance to the perfect character of Elohim as the Creator. Hence, Adam’s very being was a perfect union of material and spiritual qualities that all came from Elohim. Now, since Elohim, as we said, are essentially united in essence, in purpose and in power yet separate in reality, in action and in function, humans were, likewise, created to imitate Their image as such. Meaning, as individuals, man and woman were to be one but having separate existence and functions. Marriage simply formalized that truth and reality by creating woman out of man and then making them reproduce their kind, as the animals did, through sexual union.
Marriage, then, as a covenant must be seen as a part, parcel and purpose of the whole Creation itself. In the final analysis, marriage is the first and ultimate principle in Creation and in Eternity. We cannot have plants without fruits that bear seeds to reproduce themselves. Same with animals. Also with humans. Marriage, or what we can define as the whole principle of creative and reproductive union of all living beings, is an organic, biological and spiritual process present in the entire Creation. But the union of Adam and Havah was the centerpiece of Yah’s Creation for their role as stewards who were given dominion over all things. Elohim gave the rulership over Creation to humans. The perfection and abundance of Creation was to be maintained through Elohim and humans remaining in fellowship or unionship as well. Walking in the Garden was the highest expression of divine and human marriage or communion.
Yahusha Masshiak Redefines Marriage and Defines Adultery and Divorce
Essentially then, the whole concept of marriage arises from the divine principle and act of Elohim reproducing Their Kind or Their Divine Nature through humans in order to multiply the perfection and abundance through the entire Creation. Establishing the union of man and woman was the key to propagate Creation not just on Earth but all over the Universe. We missed that train early on a long time ago. Thus, when the issue of divorce came forward, Yahusha said, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.” The union was permanent, except it be for sexual immorality.
“The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?’
And He answered and said to them, ‘Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what Yah has joined together, let not man separate.’
They said to Him, ‘Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?’
He said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.”
– Matt. 19:3-9
Divorce, on any grounds, was a concession to Moses on behalf of the rebellious Israelites. However, fornication or adultery was clearly the only basis or the cause for the dissolution of the marital union. Here, we must differentiate between the concepts and actions of divorce and of dissolution. Since marriage, as defined above by the Lord, is, essentially, “the two . . . becom(ing) one flesh’ So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what Yah has joined together, let not man separate.” Marriage is permanent by virtue of that declaration in the beginning. But He is saying that sexual immorality causes the breakdown or dissolution of the union. It practically means that the oneness of a married couple becomes destroyed, divided or brought into disorder by one of them “uniting” with another person and, thereby, “separating” himself or herself from the original union. The act of dissolving or destroying that union is the result of one person breaking the covenant bond between a man and a woman and between the couple (as one flesh) and Yah (as One YahHead).
Divorce, on the other hand, is the willful act of deciding to discontinue the relationship, which is the state of “being one flesh”, for whatever reason there might be. Meaning, a man or a woman decides to separate and live as an independent and separate individual from the partner. Now, the only basis that is possible is when a man or a woman commits adultery or fornication. And it is clearly allowed by the Lord as an exception to the general principle of the permanent oneness of marriage. The picture above illustrates that breaking of the covenant between humans and between humans and Yah. However, Paul, in 1 Cor. 7:10-16, advises believers not to remarry but, rather, to be reconciled; thus, he remains consistent with Yahusha’s organic teaching. Nevertheless, the privilege of divorce is implied by the Lord in the passage quoted above, thus:
And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.”
Hence, divorce or separation under such a condition cited here seems to give the right to the innocent person to remarry. To be precise, the one who divorces (that is, only the innocent party) can remarry without committing adultery. Furthermore, the one who is divorced (that is, the one who committed adultery) cannot remarry. Unfortunately, religions and legal systems have established laws and regulations covering marital issues which disregard this simple teaching of the Lord and Paul. Moses was given the same task; but was forced to compromise because of so many lawbreakers. But the original covenant stands as is. Those who wish to serve Yah must go back to the beginning. Reconcile or reunite. If not, live apart and remain pure. Thus, divorce is a recourse only allowed when the marital union has been broken through adultery. Why?
The Adulterous Rebellion of Fallen Angels as the Root of Adultery in Marriage
Because adultery brings us back to the idea of the fallen angels (pure spirits initially) committing illicit union (physical and spiritual fornication) with pure women, producing hybrid humans. Marriage was first present in the Oneness of Elohim as One Divine Nature, as we have established. It was then manifested through the union of man and human. Unfortunately, the wicked angels stepped over the line and married (or mated with) women, creating abominable creatures which corrupted the Earth. The Flood came to remove that curse. Still, humans, because of continuing corruption and the influence of demons, violated the covenant of marriage, in spite of Yah sending prophets and judges who sought to bring back humans to Yah. The Kingdom of Yah that Yahusha established is itself the final picture of the coming perfect and pure union of humans and the Creator as the ultimate step in refreshing Creation for Eternity. We cannot enter the Heavenly Domain of Yah without us being transformed into the same image or nature of Yah in His glory. This perfect or perfected oneness in image is the coming marriage of the Lamb and His Bride the Word speaks of. (Rev. 19:6-9)
The whole idea of keeping marriage holy and permanent is for the reproduction of good seeds or good humans. Mixing and interbreeding of good and evil seeds, pure and impure seeds, clean and unclean seeds only lead to further corruption of Creation. Today, the world is both physically and spiritually corrupted. All because we have not preserved the pure covenant of marriage set in the beginning by the Creator. But humans have simply disregarded the principles of the Creator, even among the chosen children of Yah. We will survey how the covenant of marriage has been changed and coopted by humans throughout the centuries, thus, losing its purity and vitality (much like food) and, in the process, leading to the devitalizing itself of the fruits of the process of human reproduction, as in the beginning. Individuals and nations, forgetting the pure origin of marriage, have ended up corrupting it through immoral living, through religion and through legislation to a point that many generations of humans have become heirs to the decay of the human soul and body through unrighteous living and degraded quality of human genes brought about by mixing of the pure human bloodline with that stained with unclean spirits. What happened in the time of Noah has redoubled and even multiplied to produce a more corrupted generation of humans out to annihilate the few remnants from Noah’s pure seeds passed on to his son Shem.
The Hourglass of Life
Imagine Noah’s seeds as the few grains of sands that fell from the upper cone of an hourglass, ending an era or period of time when a reset or a new beginning was given to renew the Earth. The hourglass is flipped and the first to go down into the empty cone below are the pure seeds of Noah through Shem, Ham and Japheth. In fact, only Shem’s seeds or descendants could be considered pure seeds that would repopulate the Earth. Hence, the only grains that would pass through the hourglass are those who remain pure and, thus, to be counted worthy to receive the promise of life when the time ends. This may be a good way to illustrate predestination of those whom the Creator have called to His grace. Meaning to say, those who follow the “narrow path” between the two cones (earthly life above and heavenly life below) are simply those who surrender themselves to the force of gravity (faith) and pass through the gate of salvation.
The hourglass, then, pictures the Kingdom or Body of righteous believers being transformed by Ruach into His glory and perfection. Thus, those who “fall” or “surrender to gravity” find “rest” or “salvation” at the end of time. On the other hand, unbelievers are never incorporated into the Hourglass of Life. That is, unbelievers are those coarse grains of sand that clog the “way”, preventing themselves and others from making it through the Gate of Life. Either way, only the Creator can fix the Hourglass of Life to allow it to reset time by “refining coarse grains of sands” so that they may “walk the Way” and be counted as fruits of His work of spiritual husbandry. With so many grains now present in the world, how does Yah deal with each and every one of them? He did it and He still does it through the family and the process of reproduction. Through seeding or planting and harvesting. Through nurturing and nourishing and maturing. Creation continues to function by the principles of the Creator. The Covenant of Marriage began it all and will end it all. Exactly how, we will discuss in the next article.