Who loved God more than his spouse in the Bible?

Examples of those who loved God more than their spouses and families

Marriage happens between two people because they love each other dearly and have agreed to live together for life. So marriages are based on love. It can be said that the person you love most is your spouse. However, God requires that you love Him more than your spouse or any other person. For it is written,

³⁵ And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” ³⁷ And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹ And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:35-40

According to these verses, Jesus taught that loving God is the most important commandment. Loving God comes first before loving others such as your spouse, parents, family, etc. And, indeed, you would love your spouse better if you love God the most. These are examples of Bible characters who showed that they loved God more than their spouses:

1. Abraham

God called a certain man whose name was Abraham and He walked with him. For God’s sake, Abraham left his father’s house in Haran, wandered away into the land of Canaan, and lived there for many years. Abraham was married to a very beautiful woman called Sarah. Because Sarah was barren, the couple had no child and they longed for one. Then God promised the couple a son. Over time, at the time Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90 years old, God’s promise was fulfilled, and the couple had a child whom they named Isaac. And Isaac was dearly loved by the family.

However, when Isaac grew and was a teenager, God commanded Abraham to sacrifice him as a burnt offering in Moriah. Normally, Abraham should have told his wife, the mother of Isaac, that he was going to sacrifice him but he did not. Imagine, if Abraham had told Sarah that God said he should sacrifice Isaac, what would have happened? Sarah would have quarreled and fought with Abraham to her last breath to stop him from sacrificing Isaac. She would have preferred that Abraham would take her for the sacrifice instead of Isaac.

Also, imagine, if Abraham had indeed sacrificed Isaac as a burnt offering to the Lord and later, informed Sarah about it, what would have happened? To say the least, Sarah would have hated Abraham so much, her heart would have been bruised beyond repair, and she would have grieved to death.

Abraham could easily predict what Sarah would do if she were told that Isaac was to be sacrificed and he could also predict what would happen to her if she were told that Isaac had been sacrificed. Though he loved her so much, he was still determined to sacrifice Isaac, and he made sure she would not come between him and God.

Against all the odds, Abraham did what God wanted him to do. He took Isaac to Moriah to sacrifice him, but there, God withheld him from sacrificing Isaac and had a ram sacrificed in Isaac’s stead. And God swore to bless Abraham.

What Abraham did; the fact that he denied Sarah of knowing what the Lord had commanded him to do means that he was more determined to please God than his wife. He put God first and made his spouse second to God. Hence he proved to love God more than his spouse, Sarah. Reference Genesis 22:1-19

2. Job

There lived a man called Job. This man was God-fearing and upright. God blessed him and made every work of his hands prosper such that he acquired a lot of wealth and was exceeding prosperous more than any other person in the East.  

As usual, the devil was jealous of Job and anxiously sought his downfall, but the protection of God prevented him from harming Job. Along the line, God wanted to prove a point to the devil that Job was very faithful with or without his wealth. So the Lord removed His protection from Job, giving the devil a chance to harm him. 

The devil pounced on Job. In one day, Job lost everything he had – his children, his livestock, and all his wealth. Worse yet, the devil inflicted him with boils such that he was covered in boils from his head to his feet. Though Job was in a pathetic state in which it appeared God had disappointed him, he did not abandon the Lord nor speak any foul word against Him. However, at the height of the bad times, his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.” But Job replied to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Job rebuked his wife and forsook her evil advice and bad influence to honor God. Today, he is counted among the great men of faith for his faithfulness to God was extraordinary. He loved God more than his spouse and he proved it; he made his spouse second to God. Reference Job 2:9-10

3. David

When King David heard that God was blessing the house of Obed-edom because of the Ark of God, he sought to take the Ark from him and transport it to a more prominent place like Jerusalem. So David and company went to the house of Obed-edom and brought the Ark of God from there to Jerusalem. The event was accompanied by a great celebration – there was music, shouts of joy, and the blowing of rams’ horns. And David, wearing a priestly garment, danced before the Lord with all his might among the people.

But as the Ark of the Lord entered Jerusalem, David’s wife Michal, the daughter of Saul, looked down from her window. When she saw King David leaping and dancing to the Lord, she was filled with contempt for him.

They brought the Ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the special tent David had prepared for it. And David sacrificed burnt offerings and peace offerings to God. After that, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord.

When David returned home to bless his own family, Michal came out to meet him and said to him in disgust, “How distinguished the king of Israel looked today, shamelessly exposing himself to the servant girls like any vulgar person might do!”

Then David replied to Michal, “I was dancing before the Lord, who chose me above your father and all his family! He appointed me as the leader of Israel, the people of the Lord, so I celebrate before the Lord. Yes, and I am willing to look even more foolish than this, even to be humiliated in my own eyes! But those servant girls you mentioned will indeed think I am distinguished!”

Anyone who has read all the biblical accounts of David knows very well that he loved women. However, he proved to love God more than the women in his life. What happened between him and Michal says it all that if it comes to choosing between his wives and God, he will side with God. No wonder David, though had many wives, did not turn away from the Lord like how his son Solomon did. Reference 2 Samuel 6

Conclusion

Abraham, Job, and David have set the precedence for us modern-day believers to follow. These were good men who honestly loved their wives and families dearly and, at the same time, they also loved the Lord. However, they proved to love God more than their spouses and families in that they did not let them interrupt their obedience to God or their relationship with God. And also, like David, he was not ashamed of dancing to the Lord irrespective of the disapproval of his wife.