What does the Bible say about marriage?

I am responding today to an article entitled, Michele Bachmann, Please, Girl, Read Your Dang Bible. Julia Ioffe writes about Michelle Bachmann’s comment on the recent Supreme Court gay marriage ruling in Minnesota. Here is Michelle’s statement as found in Minnesota Reacts to SCOTUS Decision on DOMA:

“Marriage was created by the hand of God. No man, not even a Supreme Court, can undo what a holy God has instituted,” Bachmann said in a statement to the press. “What the Court has done will undermine the best interests of children and the best interests of the United States.”

Julia Ioffe discredits Michelle Bachmann’s statement by telling her she needs to read her Bible and by alluding to stories in the Bible of men, such as Abraham, Jacob, David and Solomon, who had wives and “handmaids” and “concubines.” These accounts are in the Bible. Does this mean that God condones polygamy?

How does God view marriage? I like to think that God is not as complicated as we make him out to be. Yes, we can benefit from the work of theologians who invest their lives in defining the details of theology, but the basics are fairly clear. In the beginning God created Adam and removed a rib from his side and fashioned Eve. He brought her to Adam to be his help-mate. One woman for one man, and God saw that this was “very good.”

God evidently allowed men to have multiple wives but we also see that it wasn’t “very good,” as there was conflict and envy, not only between the wives and mistresses, but jealousy and strife between the children as well. The consequences are woven throughout the historical account and continue today. I concur that it is in the best interests of children to be raised in a home where there are two loving parents, the father and the mother.

Understanding God

I look around at creation and I see the beauty, the perfection, the order, the precision, of God. Take a flower, or a tiny bug and examine it in detail. Doing so can bring me to my knees in awe and wonder. Every blade of grass, every leaf on every tree, every mountain, every ocean, every moon and star, is testimony to the character of God.

We have the knowledge that the sun is 93 million miles away and it is a continual burning fire. It is only one star within a galaxy and there are numerous galaxies with stars and planets and moons. The Bible tells us that God created the stars and in the Psalms we read that he calls them by name. The planets and stars and suns and moons are suspended at a precise distance from each other and consistently rotate and revolve at the exact speed required to maintain the balance of the universe.

When we begin to glimpse who God is, our reverence for him will be so great that we may not be able to help but fall down and worship him. Like the prophet of old, we may even despise ourselves, in light of his greatness.