Genesis 2:24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

This is the intent of marriage, a bonding of two lives into one. Not just a blending of lives, a bond. The word marriage did not appear until Genesis 34 when things got a little more complicated.

Genesis 34 English Standard Version

The Defiling of Dinah

1 Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the women of the land. 2 And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he seized her and lay with her and humiliated her. 3 And his soul was drawn to Dinah the daughter of Jacob. He loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her. 4 So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, “Get me this girl for my wife.”

Lust predated marriage and the “rapist” begged his father to buy Dinah.

The custom of the bride-price is introduced. 12 “Ask me for as great a bride-price and gift as you will, and I will give whatever you say to me. Only give me the young woman to be my wife.”

Jacob answered in this way. 14 They said to them, “We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a disgrace to us. 15 Only on this condition will we agree with you—that you will become as we are by every male among you being circumcised. 16 Then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to ourselves, and we will dwell with you and become one people. 17 But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter, and we will be gone.”

All the men of the Hivite were circumcised to honor the son of Hamor the prince of that land. They changed the way they worshipped so the son could have his bride.

Now comes the Son of Man into the world seeking a bride and in order to receive His bride all must change the way they worship in order for the marriage to take place. In this we find once again the institutional demand of the bride-price is placed upon the Father in order to secure a bride for His Son. The original meaning of bride price is engagement present. It must be made before the betrothal can be contracted. See Mark 10:45 This was the usage of ransom by Jesus according to the International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia.

 To Whom Was the Ransom Paid?

(1) Not to Satan

(2) To Divine Justice

(a) Redemption by Price

(b) Redemption by Power

Genesis 15:13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.”

Perhaps Abram did not tell his son about the four hundred year affliction because God didn’t tell Abram it was going to be Egypt that would enslave them. Abram and his offspring were nomadic so the idea of traveling in a land that was not their own was not foreign to them.

Genesis 12:1-3

The Call of Abram

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

This first promise of faith to Abram contains the words “a great nation” which is ill defined in its intent. Many will see that as land that belongs to them. This is an arguable point.

• Exodus 13:5
  And when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you shall keep this service in this month.
• Exodus 13:11
  “When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your fathers, and shall give it to you,

There is a sense of an end to the sojourner’s journey to possess land. History has shown us that the sojourning of Israel did not end there. Perhaps it did not even end in 1947. That battle rages on to this day.

• John 3:35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.
  John 13:3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God,

Since God the Father gave all things to the Son, then we never own anything and we have always been and always will be sojourners, at least until we are called home to eternity.

The nature of mankind is to possess. “I have a title to my home. It is mine”. I ask, “Who is the issuing authority? God?” If God didn’t give it, then man can take it away. That is exactly the attitude of Satan. John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. What God gives cannot be taken away.