60 Seconds – Leave and Cleave

Henry Ford, founder of the Ford empire, was a hard-working, simple man. At his fiftieth wedding anniversary, he was asked by a reporter, “How do you account for your happy marriage?” Henry did not hesitate for a moment before he replied, “By sticking to the first model!”

When God brought Eve to Adam to be his wife, He declared, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh,” Genesis 2:24. The Hebrew word for “leave” means “to relinquish, to loosen.” “Cleave” is dabaq, meaning “to adhere, to be glued and to stick.” Andre’ Maurois suggested that this vow be made a part of every marriage ceremony: “I bind myself for life! I have chosen; from now on my aim will be, not to search for someone who may please me, but to please the one I have chosen.”

In Matthew 19:5, Christ affirmed Genesis 2:24, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is repeated in Ephesians 5:31. Marriage is the abandonment of all others and the joining of self to one another. In the book, Anchors In Troubled Waters, Harold Hazelip wrote, “Someone has said that marriage is a work of art that is never finished. It is the most challenging and complex of all the works a human being can create. It is not like painting, poetry, architecture, or a novel. We can never put down the tools of this art form, step back, and pronounce the work complete. Marriage is an ongoing project.”

The old couple, so obviously devoted to each other, were celebrating their golden anniversary. The event was attended by the usual newspaper reporter, looking for a human interest story, who asked the usual questions: “Are you still in love with your wife?” “More than ever; I adore her,” was the immediate answer. “You mean,” persisted the obviously doubtful reporter, “that despite fifty years of being married to the same woman, you are more in love with her than ever before?” “No, son,” was the slow reply, “not despite the fifty years, but because of them.”

“Fewer marriages would dissolve, if more who said, ‘I do’— did.”