Is it God's will for anyone to be alone? Let's examine that question.
My answer is, "no."
From the very genesis of humanity, God made the first man, He named Adam. God had made everything. He made the cattle of the field, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. Yet, for Adam there was not found a companion. And God said, "It is not God that the man should be alone." One thing this tells us is that God did not intend for man to have relations with animals. But still Adam was alone. What did God do? He made a woman for Adam. Some say that was God's crowning achievement. Some say the reason she was called a woman is because she provided a lot of woe for a man, hence woe-man.
So, from the very beginning, it was not good for the man to be alone. Some say in an effort to minimize the plight of the lonely, that God was being specific to Adam. That may be true, but there are other passages of Scripture with the same message that it's not good for the man to be alone.
Ecclesiastes 4.7-12 is one of those passages of Scripture. There it is written:
- Quote :
- Then I returned, and I saw vanity under the sun. There is one alone, and there is not a second; he has neither child nor brother: yet is there no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches; neither does he say, For whom do I labour, and bereave my soul of good? This is also vanity, yes, it is a sore travail.
Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falls; for he hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
The writer of Ecclesiastes, Solomon, calls being alone a "sore travail." Other translations uses terms like, "grave misfortune," "grievious task," "unhappy business," "miserable business," and the Amplified Bible says, "a painful effort and an unhappy business."
I Corinthians 7.9, in the Amplified Bible says, "But if they have not self-control (restraint of their passions), they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame [with passion and tortured continually with ungratified desire]."
Being alone is a miserable existence, according to Solomon. And, if one does not have
self-control, being alone can produce burning desire, otherwise known as lust, according to Paul.
These passages of Scripture confirm for ages past creation that God's initial statement that it's not good for the man to be alone is still applicable today.
So, what is the God-given solution to the problem of being alone? We see what He did in
Genesis 2. He made a woman for Adam. So from the very genesis of humanity, God's solution for loneliness for a man is a woman. Not an animal, and not another man. So, by God's design, marriage is between a man and a woman.
What then is the purpose for marriage? Well, from the beginning, to fulfill the loneliness of
humans. From Genesis 1.28 we see that another purpose for marriage is to have children, thus populating the earth. From I Corinthians 7, another purpose for marriage is sexual pleasure. From Ephesians 5.22-33, another purpose is to have a Christ centered relationship.
But all that doesn't answer the initial question, does it? Is it God's will for anyone to be alone? Well let us look at a few more passages of Scripture. Proverbs 18.22 states that ia man finds a wife, he finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. And the second part of Proverbs 19.14, tells us that a prudent wife is from the Lord.
Since it is God who established marriage, and the purpose for marriage, and that there is blessing, or favor from the Lord, in marriage, it does not seem that being alone is ever part of God's will. However, there are examples of those who served in ministry that were not married. Paul is one. Was it God's will that Paul be unmarried. Scripture indicates that Paul made that choice himself for the cause of Christ. Nowhere is it said that God did not allow Paul to be married.
I have no doubt that some astute student of the Bible will bring up Matthew 19.10-12. Certainly it is God's will that the eunuch from birth to be unmarried. Is it? Is that what this is saying? Isn't there more to marriage than physical pleasuring? A eunuch may not need to be married for physical reasons, but that doesn't mean they don't have the need for companionship. Can't eunuchs feel lonely? Don't they have the need to fill their loneliness? And besides, there is more to physical pleasuring than intercourse. So, just because someone is born a eunuch, or becomes one, does not mean that it is God's will that they be alone.
I believe that God's purpose for marriage is predicated upon the statement, "It's not good for the man to be alone." So to answer the initial question, I don't believe it is God's will for anyone to be alone.
