God takes the marriage covenant seriously. Genesis 2:24 describes marriage as the joining of a man and a woman into one flesh. It is a word picture to illustrate both the permanence and the interconnectedness of the marriage relationship. The seventh word forbids adultery as the blatant dismantling of what God has joined. In the Old Testament it was punishable by death (Lev. 20:10). In the New Testament it is stated as clear grounds for divorce (Matt. 5:32). It is the consistent metaphor used to