Proverbs 18:22 I Take Thee…
Solomon speaks of marriage as a thing from God. God did not make man to be alone; He created woman. I take thee ____ to be my wife.
When I looked at what my bible helps said was the next section, my mouth dropped! It puts Proverbs 18:22 – 20:4 together. Fortunately they broke it down into a few sections later. They state that several proverbs between the two ‘bookends’ are very similar. When they started making smaller groups though, this verse stood alone. So we will take it alone and see where the Spirit takes us.
The first thing that comes to mind after reading this verse is that Solomon says finding a wife is “a good thing.” Solomon found over 700 “good things.” I think he would agree that too much of “a good thing” isn’t such a good thing after all.
When a man finds a wife she is special. He looks for the one who will complete him. The one who will come beside him and be his helpmate. The one God made for him. That union is unique and special.
In our society today, finding a mate is treated like trying on clothes. Put one on and see how it moves. If you don’t like it, take it off and look for another that fits or flatters better. Some go home from shopping empty handed because nothing fits like they want. Another can’t choose between the ones that fit and winds up taking them all home. This last sounds just like Solomon.
God made man as a part of a whole. He was originally unique among all that God had created. But he was alone. He had no one to share his highs and lows with. No one to talk things over with. No one to dream with. GOD said this was not good. He presented Adam with every option from all He had made to see if one of them might fill the part of a helpmate. But Adam “went home empty handed.” He chose nothing for there was nothing that was like him in all God had created.
So God took a part of him, a rib, and fashioned it into woman. God chose carefully what He would extract from man.
“The woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved.” Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible.
What God extracted is something that man can live without but he is not whole apart from it. Woman is not whole apart from the man either. Together they become one; a gift of God.
“Then the man said, ‘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.’ Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:23-24).
When the two are joined, God no longer sees them as separate. HE sees them as one; complete.
“’Haven’t you read,’ he replied, ‘that at the beginning the Creator “made them male and female,” and said, “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. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’” (Matthew 19:4-6).
Jesus said GOD joined them together. Not man. Not a minister. Not any entity of man. God joined the man and wife and He blessed their union.
There is a whole other teaching on divorce and remarriage that we are not going into today.
Father God, thank You for my husband; my helpmate. I truly believe You placed us in each other’s path. I want to please You by pleasing him. Help me be the best wife I can be for him. Knit us together stronger each day.
