One major aspect of the wedding preparations that ladies generally give meticulous attention to is their wedding dress-the gown, the shoe, the bag, the jewelries, the bouquet and the make-up in general. How a lady appears to her would-be husband and the entire cloud of witnesses on the wedding day is of paramount importance to her. In fact, for her to appear in a most attractive and befitting way, the service of a make-up artist is nowadays employed to ensure the desired gorgeous appearance reminiscent of a bride on her wedding day. Everything must be to-match, there must not be any colour contradiction in the pieces that make up the entire dressing. Every reasonable bride desires and prepares to appear descent, smart and presentable on the wedding day.
However, as great and desirable as that could be, it is one thing to be dressed for wedding, it is another thing entirely to be dressed for marriage. Wedding dress and marriage dress are two and different things altogether. A lady could be gorgeously dressed for the wedding and be shabbily dressed for the marriage itself. This is because wedding and marriage are two similar but different things. Wedding is a single day event while marriage is a life-time affair. Wedding is an event which only marks and herald the commencement of the journey of marriage; marriage begins after wedding. Wedding is temporal while marriage is permanent. It is this clear difference, therefore, that also places a clear demarcation between wedding dress and marriage dress. Wedding dress is sown and sold by people; marriage dress is not available in the boutique. Wedding dress is a “put on” material; marriage dress is an “in put” qualities. Wedding dress reveals your physical outlook; marriage dress defines who you are as a person. Wedding dress is to make appearance and sometimes create an impression. But marriage dress is for performance and impactful expressions. Wedding dress is physical, marriage dress is “spiritual”. Wedding dress is relevant just for a single day, marriage dress will be relevant until death do you part. And because of this vast difference, it is just logical that the efforts put into making marriage dressing should far outweigh that of wedding dress. But unfortunately for many ladies today, the reverse is the case. Some spend fortune on buying their wedding dress with little or no provision for their marriage dress. What a paradox. They spend months and pay huge cost preparing for a single day event without taking along necessary victuals for a life-time journey. Such definitely, will be stranded on the way.
While the great, gorgeous and enviable Temple of Solomon was in the process of building, there was a silent but salient comment made about the pieces of stones used in its construction which everyone who desires a glorious marriage must ponder upon very well. The Scripture records that all the stones used in the building were all DRESSED at the quarry BEFORE they were transported to the building site to be part of the great Temple-the great House of the God of Israel. And because of this dressing before the building, there was no noise at the Temple site while it was in the making!
1 Kings 6:7
And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building. KJV
The stone blocks for the building of The Temple were all dressed at the quarry so that the building site itself was reverently quiet — no noise from hammers and chisels and other iron tools. THE MESSAGE
When the house was built, it was with stone prepared at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built. ESV
In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built. NIV
The stones used in the construction of the Temple were prefinished at the quarry, so the entire structure was built without the sound of hammer, axe, or any other tool at the building site. TLB
Solomon did not want the noise of hammers and axes to be heard at the place where the temple was being built. So he had the workers shape the blocks of stone at the quarry. CEV
The wedding ceremony is the beginning of the journey of building a married life. The builders are the husband and the wife who come together by their acts of volition in holy matrimony with a decision to be committed to the marriage covenant. And like the Temple of Solomon, if there will not be noise in the marriage, individual actors in the marriage union must have been made ready, fully dressed and finished upon for the home building. Otherwise, noise and shouts of trouble will be the daily experience of everyone in the marriage house. The present state of many homes is that fraught with noise of fighting, lingering conflicts, sexual unfaithfulness, and different forms of marital abuse. This is basically due to the fact that many who rush into marriage today have little or no quarry experience. There was no place where such can say they were made before marriage. And some who had the privilege of being fully dressed at the quarry dropped out as they could not endure the cutting into sizes, beating into shapes, melting into another forms; breaking, cracking, and other forms of quarry dealings. The temporary pain at the quarry site has clouded and blinded their sight of the enduring glory of making it to the Temple site.
Watch out for the next episode…
