February is the month of love according to most Americans. We decorate our windows with big red hearts. We give gifts of chocolate and flowers to girlfriends and loved ones. We even take our special people in our lives out to a romantic dinner for two. When I think of February, I think of how many people are looking for marriage and a spouse. But here’s an interesting twist on this. Who instituted marriage. Was it a man made ceremony where two people decided to legally live together, a contract of sorts, or was it something higher? Was marriage instituted by God?

At almost every wedding we hear this verse from Ephesians 5, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." Another one we hear is from Genesis 2, "Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.’"In those two instances we see the institution of marriage. God made a helper for man. That helper is woman. And with the advent of the woman, a man shall leave his family as he knows it and become a family with his wife.

The court system in America these days has taken it upon themselves to re-institute marriage. We hear such slang as "Civil Unions" and "Same-sex" marriages. Those are not an institution of God. Recently I read an article in the Billings Gazette in the opinion section. It was actually from a person calling himself a Reverend. In it he actually defended same sex marriages saying that God just said that man needed a helper and didn’t specify if that was to be male or female. He also defended polygamy giving the patriarchs of Abraham and Jacob as an example. This supposed learned man of the Bible, forgot to look at Ephesians. God instituted marriage to be for His glory, not the glory of man. He didn’t say that He would start this idea and let man figure it out. He specifically said that a man shall "Hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh."

And here’s the most interesting twist of it all. When Moses was setting up the court system, he was to discern the will of God. Not the will and laws of man. The will of God always superceded the laws of man. In our United States governmental system, the courts by definition are there to "interpret the law" not to make the law. They are to enforce the laws which have been made by congress. Lately we have seen the courts stepping out of their bounds by saying that laws enacted by local governments are null and void in their court system. True the Supreme Court can reject a law as being unconstitutional as long as it isn’t an amendment to the constitution. But if that happens, Congress can try to amend the constitution which will force the Supreme Court to accept that law. So here’s the question of the month. When did the people of the United States give the right to make laws to the court system. Especially when it deals with an institution which not only dates back to the beginning of time but also was given by our Creator Himself.

So during this time of reflection on love and companionship, let us remember who in fact instituted the rite of marriage. Let us remember that God gives us our spouses because we needed a helper. Let us remember that the will of man never supercedes the will of God. It is my prayer that the judicial system will realize what they are doing and correct the wrongs they are committing.