Why Is Marriage Essential to God’s Plan of Happiness?

            My Come, Follow Me studies took me to Genesis 24-27, and I continued to learn about God’s covenant with Abraham. Part of the covenant included a promise that “all the families of the earth [shall] be blessed through Abraham and his posterity. (See Abraham 2:11.) God’s promise was a continuing one rather than one that could be fulfilled in one generation.

            God made the covenant with Abraham and renewed it with Isaac. The experiences of Isaac and his wife Rebekah teach us about being part of the covenant. They set examples of kindness, patience, and trust in God’s promised blessings. These chapters also teach us the importance of keeping an eternal perspective and not giving up eternal blessings for worldly “pottage” (Genesis 25:30).

            One of the principles taught in these chapters is that marriage is essential to God’s plan for the eternal happiness of His children. Satan works to destroy God’s plan, and he has influenced people in our day to put a low priority on marriage or even to consider it to be a burden. Abraham had an eternal perspective, and he considered the marriage of his son Isaac to be of highest importance.

            Genesis 24 tells us that Abraham was concerned that Isaac would marry a local Canaanite girl who would lead him away from God. Therefore, Abraham sent his most trusted servant back to the land of his family to find a suitable wife for Isaac. The servant thought that Isaac should go with him to the city of Nahor in the land of Mesopotamia, but Abraham told him no.

            The servant took ten camels from Abraham’s herd and left. He arrived at the city of Nahor in the evening and caused his camels to kneel down outside the city by a well of water. Then he prayed that God would help him to find the right damsel. He suggested a test to show him the girl: He would ask a girl to give him a drink, and the right girl would give him water to drink as well as draw water for his camels.

            Rebekah – daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah and Nahor, Abraham’s brother – came to draw water. She was a virgin and “very fair to look upon” (Genesis 24:16). She filled her pitcher with water, and the servant asked for some of her water. She gave him water to drink and then said, “I will draw water for thy camels also, until they have done drinking” (Genesis 24:19).

            The servant watched as she drew water for the camels and wondered if the Lord had led him to her. He gave her some jewelry and asked about her parents. He also asked if her parents had room enough for him to stay with them. She told him that she was the daughter of Bethuel and the granddaughter of Milcah and Nahor. She also told him that they had enough food and room for him, the men with him, and his camels. The servant offered thanks to God for guiding him to her.

            Rebekah ran home to tell her family about the man. Laban, Rebekah’s brother, ran out to meet the man at the well and to invite him to the family home. Dinner was prepared, but the servant refused to eat until he told them why he was there. He explained that he was Abraham’s servant, and Abraham was rich. He also told them that the Lord had blessed Abraham and Sarah with a son in their old age and that Abraham had sent him to their house to find a wife for Isaac in his father’s house. He explained how he had prayed and asked God to show him the girl, and that Rebekah answered his prayer.

            The servant told Laban and Bethuel to answer him truthfully and tell him if Rebekah could go with him. They agreed that God had guided the servant and that he could take Rebekah. Again, the servants offered gratitude to God. He “brought forth jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment, and gave them to Rebekah” (Genesis 24:53). He also gave gifts to Rebekah’s brother and mother.

            After dinner, the servant suggested that he should leave the next morning, but Rebekah’s brother and mother wanted the damsel to remain with them for ten days and then go. The servant did not agree, and they suggested that Rebekah should make the decision. They called Rebekah and “said unto her, Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go” (Genesis 24:57-58).

            The family sent Rebekah, her nurse, and her damsels with Abraham’s servant and his men. “And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them” (Genesis 24:60). The next morning, Rebekah and her damsels left with the servant and rode on the camels.

            Isaac was out in the field when the entourage arrived. When Rebekah saw him, she asked the servant about him. When the servant answered, “she took a veil, and covered herself” (Genesis 24:65).

66 And the servant told Isaac all things that he had done.

67 And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death (Genesis 24:66-67).

            The importance of marriage and family are being taught by prophets and apostles in our day. Elder D. Todd Christofferson taught the following:

A family built on the marriage of a man and woman supplies the best setting for God’s plan to thrive—the setting for the birth of children, who come in purity and innocence from God, and the environment for the learning and preparation they will need for a successful mortal life and eternal life in the world to come. A critical mass of families built on such marriages is vital for societies to survive and flourish. That is why communities and nations generally have encouraged and protected marriage and the family as privileged institutions. It has never been just about the love and happiness of adults.

The social science case for marriage and for families headed by a married man and woman is compelling. And so “we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.” But our claims for the role of marriage and family rest not on social science but on the truth that they are God’s creation. It is He who in the beginning created Adam and Eve in His image, male and female, and joined them as husband and wife to become “one flesh” and to multiply and replenish the earth. Each individual carries the divine image, but it is in the matrimonial union of male and female as one that we attain perhaps the most complete meaning of our having been made in the image of God—male and female. Neither we nor any other mortal can alter this divine order of matrimony. It is not a human invention. Such marriage is indeed “from above, from God” and is as much a part of the plan of happiness as the Fall and the Atonement (Liahona or Ensign, May 2015, 50-53).

            God ordains marriage between a man and a woman. He has also provided a way that marriage and family can last for eternity. Marriage and family are essential for the eternal happiness of God’s children.