Genesis 46-50
Exodus 1-20
Psalms 16-25
1. Genesis 46-47: Joseph brings his family to Egypt, where he functions effectively as the Pharaoh's prime minister. The wisdom of the Pharaoh's decision to make Joseph second-in-command after himself is vindicated when, "the first recorded rationing in history was a hit," saving Egypt and the Egyptian treasury was fattened as people, like Joseph's family, came from throughout the region to buy food stored in Egyptian granaries during the "fat years."
2. Genesis 47-49: Jacob dies in exile, just as generations of his people would. Before dying, he prophesies about his sons and their descendants. He also blesses his family.
3. Genesis 50: This contains one of the most poignant passages in all Scripture. Joseph's brothers obviously find it hard to understand things like forgiveness and grace. Joseph had long before forgiven his brothers. But when Jacob died, they were certain that Joseph, no longer needing to show deference to his father, would act vengefully against them. They even appear to fabricate a lie, telling Joseph that Jacob had instructed them to tell Joseph not to do anything against him after he had died.
Joseph ignores the lie and responds in an extraordinary way.
First, he weeps. It saddens Joseph to know that his brothers have so little faith in the forgiveness he offered because of his trust in God. Thousands of years later, Jesus wept when considering the utter hopelessness of those mourning for his friend Lazarus in Bethany. It saddened Jesus to know that they had so little faith in His power over death and life. ""I am the resurrection and the life," Jesus said there. "He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." (John 11:25-26)
It grieves God and it grieves believers like Joseph when people are so hardened by sin, so resigned to the grim realities of life, that they can't trust in God or in His grace or in His power to help ordinary people--like Joseph--to forgive.
Second, Joseph says that it isn't his place to judge his brothers. "...Joseph said to them, 'Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God?'" (Genesis 50:19).
Joseph insisted that while he forgave his brothers, it wasn't his place to judge them for sins. That is God's place.
This is jarring for us. When others hurt us, we feel entitled to judge. In his book, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis talks about how Jesus went around forgiving people for their sins, as though he were the one chiefly offended. The fact is, whenever we sin against another person, whenever we hurt them, it's God Who is chiefly offended. Why? Because He made us. Because He is fully invested in every human life, having lived as one of us in the person of Jesus and having died and risen so that all who throw in their lots with Him have everlasting life. In His great parable of the last judgment (Matthew 25:31-46), Jesus says that whatever we do to "the least of these," we also do unto Him.
Even before God took on flesh, Joseph understood this fact: The One Who breathed His very Spirit into us to give us life, was always the one chiefly offended by sin.
Third, Joseph saw that God's "unseen hand" had been at work even in the midst of his pain. He's unflinching in acknowledging that his brothers had been the agents of that pain. Forgiving is not the same as forgetting.
But Joseph thought that God even used his brothers' selling him into slavery for God's good purposes because had he not been sold into slavery, he never would have been in a position to save millions, including God's people. Joseph says: "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." (Genesis 50:20)
Finally, Joseph committed himself to caring for his brothers and their families (Genesis 50:21).
The grace and forgiveness Joseph displayed aren't virtues that come naturally to human beings. Only God can give us the power to live as he lived. Joseph's is a story of faith in the God ultimately revealed to the world in Jesus Christ.
4. Exodus 1: It doesn't take long to become "yesterday's news." God's people, Israel, once provided for in Egypt, become slaves. They live in that condition for 430 years, to the point that many had given up on God. A hard lesson for the person of faith is that just because God doesn't answer all our prayers, or even most of them, with the immediacy we want, it doesn't mean God hasn't heard or isn't answering.
5. Exodus 1-12: In these chapters, we're introduced to Moses, a man God saved by extraordinary means, for His purposes. As Christians, we should remember that God saves us from sin and death by His grace through our God-given faith in Christ, but God never saves us just to save us. He saves us so that we become His agents in saving others. 1 Peter 2:9-10 says: "...you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."
6. Exodus 3-4: Moses offers one excuse after another for not taking the mission God was giving to Him. They come in 3:11, 13, 4:1, 10, 13. But 4:13 probably best conveys Moses' attitude about doing what God wanted him to do: "...Moses said, 'O Lord, please send someone else to do it.'"
Many of the reasons we Christians give for not taking on ministries we're invited to prayerfully consider is we want someone else to do it. It may be fear. But any time we take on ministries that fulfill our mission as Christian believers or fulfill the promise the lives God gives to us, need not fear. The Holy Spirit will enable us to do God's will. 1 Timothy 1:7 says: "God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline."
7. Exodus 3:14: God gives His Name to Moses. "I AM WHO I AM," He says. In Hebrew, the Name is Yahweh. Its exact meaning is mysterious to us, though to me the name suggests that in God, we meet the foundational personality, the Is Who from Whom all existence comes.
The fact that the infinitely powerful and holy God of creation makes Himself accessible to us by revealing His Name is an incredible privilege. Reverence for God explains why many Jews refuse to speak God's entire name or shortening it to avoid presumption, as when only the first syllable of God's Name, Yah, is used. (As in Hallelujah, which means Praise to Yah.)
We post-modern Christians would do well to adopt a similar reverence for the Name of God, to recognize that it's a privilege of eternal dimensions to be able to address and know the God revealed to the world in Jesus. In The Small Catechism, Martin Luther teaches that God's Name is to be used for three purposes: prayer, praise, and thanksgiving.
Jesus identifies Himself as the God Who spoke to Moses at the burning bush. "Before Abraham was born, I am!" He says in John 8:58.
8. Exodus 5:1-10:29: The succession of plagues from God were designed to demonstrate to the Pharaoh, whose people were taught to regard him as a god, both what real Deity was and to "convince" Pharaoh to relent and set God's people free.
In the meantime though, we're told that God hardened Pharaoh's heart. This could be easily understood. I think that we shouldn't see this as God playing a cat and mouse game with Pharaoh. Rather, because of Pharaoh's arrogance and presumption, God allowed him to live with the consequences of his spurning of God.
9. Exodus 12: The blood of the Passover lamb was the method designated by God as the means to protect His people from the angel of death. Today, the blood and body of Christ give life to God's people.
10. Exodus 15-20: God's people begin their journey to the promised land. What took them so long? The same thing that keeps us from living the life of peace with God that God wants to give to us: Our insistence on doing things our way rather than God's.
11. Exodus 20:1-17: These verses, conveying the ten commandments are the "fine print" of God's great commandment: Love God; love neighbor.
Showing posts with label Genesis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Genesis. Show all posts
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Monday, January 20, 2014
Read the Bible in a Year (Days 12-15)
Genesis 34-45
Psalms 12-15
1. Genesis 37-50 recount the history of Joseph and Israel's migration to Egypt. The story of Joseph, next to youngest son of the third great patriarch, Jacob, is among the most poignant and important in Scripture. Not only does it explain how God's people came to live in Egypt--where they would ultimately live in slavery for 430 years, the personal story of Joseph tells us about how God can be faithfully working in the adversities and seemingly purposeless circumstances of faithful people.
2. Genesis 37: This, of course, isn't the first instance of sibling rivalry to show itself in Genesis. Because Cain resented that the offering of his brother Abel was more pleasing to God than his own, Cain killed Abel. Jacob and Esau had titanic sibling struggles. Here, Jacob's preference for Joseph breeds resentment from his older brothers.
The first commandment of the second table of the Ten Commandments (the fourth commandment, "You shall honor your father and mother") shows the important role God assigns to the family. Mothers and fathers and their families are the core building units of human existence. But the condition of sin burdens families, resulting in alienation and sinful actions.
Parents need to work hard to help their children know and submit to Christ, the One Who works reconciliation between God and humanity and among people. Martin Luther said that the family was to be a "little church."
2. Genesis 39: Wherever Joseph went, his special gifts--administration and dreams--brought him, at least at times, special notice and favor. He became the overseer of Potiphar's properties in Egypt. Here though, Joseph becomes the victim of false accusations and ends up in prison.
Later, as we'll see, Joseph will see this horrible experience as part of God's overall plan for his life. I myself often wonder when I go through far less horrible situations than the one Joseph faced, what God is up to. What good is there in it?
Some situations in our fallen and imperfect world are, of course, senseless, the result only of human beings given over to depravity doing horrible things to others. The hand of God can't be seen in things like the Holocaust or in the abuse of children, women, or the elderly--except in the faith-filled and noble ways the victims behave.
But, there are times when God allows us to endure harsh circumstances for His purposes. Joseph will affirm this later in Genesis.
On other occasions, God may use such circumstances to deepen our faith and character. Hebrews 12:4-11, has these difficult words:
I don't think it's a stretch to say that Joseph was sustained by his faith in God. When Potiphar's wife had pressed Joseph to have sex with him, Joseph asked, "How...could I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" (Genesis 39:9) This, from a man who had already been exiled from God's people--His family, a people for whom their relationship with God was so important they were willing to sell their own brother into slaver, even consider murdering Joseph. But Joseph held tightly to God!
Besides, Joseph the dreamer and interpreter of dreams understood that, for him anyway, dreams spoke powerfully of God's will and that the dreams he had when he was young pointed to a purpose and a goal beyond the horrors he endured in the days leading to their fulfillment. Joseph had learned from God at an early age that he was to become a ruler (Genesis 37:5-11). Later, after all that had come to pass, Joseph indicated his belief that the years of his suffering had been for a purpose. He told his brothers, fearful that after Jacob's death, their powerful brother would now get revenge on them for selling him into slavery, "Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good...." (Genesis 50:20).
Joseph would fully understood the words of Saint Paul written nineteen centuries later: "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us" (Romans 8:18). Joseph trusted God and that pulled him through.
4. As to his dreams, it's important to remember that Joseph had faith in God, not in his dreams. They were simply signs he had learned could point to God.
Not every dream does that, of course.
And not every person is granted the spiritual gift of understanding and interpreting dreams that Joseph possessed.
But it is very true, I think, that God is reaching out to us and communicating to all of us far more often than we realize. When we cultivate a close relationship with God, there is no limit to the ways in which He might communicate with us. But always keep in mind that God will never communicate anything to us that is inconsistent with what He has revealed of His will and His character in the Old and New Testaments.
There's a book I'd like to recommend to you along these lines: Dreams: A Way to Listen to God by Morton Kelsey. I don't agree with everything Kelsey asserts. But this is really good.
Psalms 12-15
1. Genesis 37-50 recount the history of Joseph and Israel's migration to Egypt. The story of Joseph, next to youngest son of the third great patriarch, Jacob, is among the most poignant and important in Scripture. Not only does it explain how God's people came to live in Egypt--where they would ultimately live in slavery for 430 years, the personal story of Joseph tells us about how God can be faithfully working in the adversities and seemingly purposeless circumstances of faithful people.
2. Genesis 37: This, of course, isn't the first instance of sibling rivalry to show itself in Genesis. Because Cain resented that the offering of his brother Abel was more pleasing to God than his own, Cain killed Abel. Jacob and Esau had titanic sibling struggles. Here, Jacob's preference for Joseph breeds resentment from his older brothers.
The first commandment of the second table of the Ten Commandments (the fourth commandment, "You shall honor your father and mother") shows the important role God assigns to the family. Mothers and fathers and their families are the core building units of human existence. But the condition of sin burdens families, resulting in alienation and sinful actions.
Parents need to work hard to help their children know and submit to Christ, the One Who works reconciliation between God and humanity and among people. Martin Luther said that the family was to be a "little church."
2. Genesis 39: Wherever Joseph went, his special gifts--administration and dreams--brought him, at least at times, special notice and favor. He became the overseer of Potiphar's properties in Egypt. Here though, Joseph becomes the victim of false accusations and ends up in prison.
Later, as we'll see, Joseph will see this horrible experience as part of God's overall plan for his life. I myself often wonder when I go through far less horrible situations than the one Joseph faced, what God is up to. What good is there in it?
Some situations in our fallen and imperfect world are, of course, senseless, the result only of human beings given over to depravity doing horrible things to others. The hand of God can't be seen in things like the Holocaust or in the abuse of children, women, or the elderly--except in the faith-filled and noble ways the victims behave.
But, there are times when God allows us to endure harsh circumstances for His purposes. Joseph will affirm this later in Genesis.
On other occasions, God may use such circumstances to deepen our faith and character. Hebrews 12:4-11, has these difficult words:
In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as children? It says, "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his child." Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined--and everyone undergoes discipline--then you are not legitimate children at all. Moreover, we have all had parents who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! Our parents disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.3. Genesis 40: How did Joseph keep from becoming bitter? The cup-bearer got his freedom and went on with his life, forgetting how Joseph had interpreted his dream and given him hope, not to mention strong reason to believe in the God of Israel.
I don't think it's a stretch to say that Joseph was sustained by his faith in God. When Potiphar's wife had pressed Joseph to have sex with him, Joseph asked, "How...could I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" (Genesis 39:9) This, from a man who had already been exiled from God's people--His family, a people for whom their relationship with God was so important they were willing to sell their own brother into slaver, even consider murdering Joseph. But Joseph held tightly to God!
Besides, Joseph the dreamer and interpreter of dreams understood that, for him anyway, dreams spoke powerfully of God's will and that the dreams he had when he was young pointed to a purpose and a goal beyond the horrors he endured in the days leading to their fulfillment. Joseph had learned from God at an early age that he was to become a ruler (Genesis 37:5-11). Later, after all that had come to pass, Joseph indicated his belief that the years of his suffering had been for a purpose. He told his brothers, fearful that after Jacob's death, their powerful brother would now get revenge on them for selling him into slavery, "Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good...." (Genesis 50:20).
Joseph would fully understood the words of Saint Paul written nineteen centuries later: "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us" (Romans 8:18). Joseph trusted God and that pulled him through.
4. As to his dreams, it's important to remember that Joseph had faith in God, not in his dreams. They were simply signs he had learned could point to God.
Not every dream does that, of course.
And not every person is granted the spiritual gift of understanding and interpreting dreams that Joseph possessed.
But it is very true, I think, that God is reaching out to us and communicating to all of us far more often than we realize. When we cultivate a close relationship with God, there is no limit to the ways in which He might communicate with us. But always keep in mind that God will never communicate anything to us that is inconsistent with what He has revealed of His will and His character in the Old and New Testaments.
There's a book I'd like to recommend to you along these lines: Dreams: A Way to Listen to God by Morton Kelsey. I don't agree with everything Kelsey asserts. But this is really good.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Just Arrived
Genesis by R.R. Reno, an installment in the Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible, to which I subscribe. I like the commentaries in this series. There's always something new to be learned about the Bible, of course, with new developments from the archeological, social-historical, and linguistic fronts. The Brazos commentaries incorporate these and are written by an eclectic group of scholars, including people of varied denominational and confessional backgrounds.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Faith Tidbit #18
The Old Testament portion of the Bible begins with the book of Genesis. Genesis means origins or beginnings. The first two chapters of Genesis contain two different accounts of creation: Genesis 1:1-2:3 and Genesis 2:4-2:25. Should this shatter our faith? Of course not. The Bible, while it encourages human intellectual pursuits, is not a book of science. Each of the two accounts convey important truths to us about God, love, life, and humanity. Each are true, even though they differ substantially.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Sunday, July 01, 2007
Husbands and Wives (Joyful Relationships, Part 3)
[This message was shared during worship with the people of Friendship Lutheran Church on July 1, 2007. If you live in or are visiting the Cincinnati area, feel free to worship with us at 10:00 AM on Sundays.]
Genesis 2:1-9, 15-25
A little girl had just seen the movie, Snow White, for the first time and excitedly told her grandmother about it. After recounting how Prince Charming came along and kissed Snow White back to life, she asked her grandmother, “Do you know what happened next?” “Yes,” grandma replied, “they lived happily ever after.” Her face screwed up in a quizzical expression, the little girl said, “No! They got married!”
After being married nearly thirty-three years, I can report that it is possible to be both married and happy. I agree with the sentiments of a friend of ours who gets a lot of teasing for her attempts at matchmaking. “I’ve always been happy married,” she tells us. “I just want my friends to be happy, too.”
Today, I want to look at the Biblical account of the world’s first marriage to see why marriage is a good thing.
The first reason that marriage is good is that it’s a gift from God. Marriage has its roots in God looking at the first man and saying, “It’s not good for the man to live alone.” According to our Bible lesson for today, God then sets out to make something or someone with whom Adam can share life. God creates one life form after another. But we’re told that “not one of them was a suitable companion.” Old Testament scholar Elizabeth Achtemeier says that if we could translate this passage with absolute clarity, it might say, “no companion able to complete the man’s humanity was found.”
But, as you and I know well through Jesus Christ, God’s love is tenacious. God doesn't give up on helping us. Our lesson shows us that God was determined to create the perfect companion for man. That’s when God made woman, Eve, whose name means life.
Marriage is a gift which, for those willing to treat it as such, can make marriage partners happy and complete.
A second reason we see for saying that marriage is good is that it can bring joy! Many of you have heard me say that most mornings when I wake up, among my first thoughts is to wonder at God’s grace. Like the psalmist whose words we used for our opening call to worship, I’m amazed that the God Who made this vast universe cares about me. We also see the depths of God’s care for us in Jesus, Who went to a cross and rose from the dead, to give all who follow Him everlasting life. That’s an amazing thought that brings joy!
But here’s another thought that often crosses my mind when I wake up in the morning: I’m amazed that my wife married me. Given our history--that in high school, she rightly dismissed me as a big-mouthed weasel, I find it hard to believe that she gave me the chance to become her friend, to go out with her, to marry her, and to have a life with her. Knowing that you’re loved like that brings both mystification and joy!
Third: Marriage is good because it can bring husbands and wives safe, affirming intimacy. We see this at the end of our Bible lesson for today. It tells us, “The man and the woman were both naked, but they were not embarrassed.”
This line isn’t primarily about our bodies or about sex. It’s about having a safe place to be who you are. The poet Carl Sandburg’s daughter once wrote about their parents’ marriage:
And yet, God made marriage to be a relationship in which we can stand naked--naked in our strengths and weaknesses, naked in our virtues and our faults--and still be loved. While openness and a certain degree of intimacy should characterize all of our relationships, nowhere should it be more present than in marriages.
Finally: Marriage can be good because it truly can provide husbands and wives and those who live close to them a glimpse of what heaven will be like. I'm not kidding! Throughout the Bible, when God wants to describe the intimacy, joy, and love that comes to all who follow God, He uses the analogy of marriage. When He wants to describe the human penchant for walking away from God, God speaks of adultery and prostitution. And one of the images Jesus uses to describe the Church is “the bride of Christ.”
Good marriages incorporate forgiveness, intimacy, loyalty, encouragement, mutual affection, and unconditional acceptance. I get a hint of heaven every time I make another bonehead move and find that the next morning, my wife is still around, forgiving me, loving me, and rowing in the same direction.
If heaven is a kingdom of undeserved grace and love, then the love of a wife or a husband who knows all about us and keeps living with us anyway must surely point us to what God has in mind for us when He calls us to follow Him. No wonder then that when Martin Luther cast about for a way to describe the family, he said that it was to be “a little church”: a place where the God we meet in Jesus Christ was to be known and celebrated in the day-in, day-out relationships that exist in families.
Of course, not all marriages are heavenly enterprises. That’s one of the reasons that so many marriages end in divorce these days. This brings us to a very important point: The goodness of marriage is only experienced by those husbands and wives who devote themselves to the hard work involved in real love.
Marriage is a gift. But like all gifts, it requires care to keep it working. Adam and Eve had a great marriage in Genesis, chapter 2, the portion of the Bible from which our lesson is drawn. It lost its luster in chapter 3. They got out of touch with God and as always happens when we lose touch with God, they fell into sin. The next thing you know, these two people who, just a few verses earlier, were gah-gah over each other, are blaming one another for the fix they’re in. Adam even tells God, “This woman you sent me has really messed things up!”
Fortunately, God didn’t give up on the first human beings as quickly as they gave up on each other. He gave them second chances. He kept loving them up and invited them to start afresh. With prayer and work, they did start again and they experienced renewal in their marriage. God helped them to do the hard work required to keep the wonderful gift of marriage in happy working order. And God can do the same thing for married people today if both husbands and wives are willing to accept God’s help and to do the hard work good marriages require.
Marriage is good because
I ask those who aren’t married to pray for the marriages of family and friends so that they too can become all that God intends.
All of society has a stake in seeing that marriages are strong. God stands ready to help make that happen.
[Links to the first two installments of this series:
How to Have and Be a Friend
How Will I Know?]
Genesis 2:1-9, 15-25
A little girl had just seen the movie, Snow White, for the first time and excitedly told her grandmother about it. After recounting how Prince Charming came along and kissed Snow White back to life, she asked her grandmother, “Do you know what happened next?” “Yes,” grandma replied, “they lived happily ever after.” Her face screwed up in a quizzical expression, the little girl said, “No! They got married!”
After being married nearly thirty-three years, I can report that it is possible to be both married and happy. I agree with the sentiments of a friend of ours who gets a lot of teasing for her attempts at matchmaking. “I’ve always been happy married,” she tells us. “I just want my friends to be happy, too.”
Today, I want to look at the Biblical account of the world’s first marriage to see why marriage is a good thing.
The first reason that marriage is good is that it’s a gift from God. Marriage has its roots in God looking at the first man and saying, “It’s not good for the man to live alone.” According to our Bible lesson for today, God then sets out to make something or someone with whom Adam can share life. God creates one life form after another. But we’re told that “not one of them was a suitable companion.” Old Testament scholar Elizabeth Achtemeier says that if we could translate this passage with absolute clarity, it might say, “no companion able to complete the man’s humanity was found.”
But, as you and I know well through Jesus Christ, God’s love is tenacious. God doesn't give up on helping us. Our lesson shows us that God was determined to create the perfect companion for man. That’s when God made woman, Eve, whose name means life.
Marriage is a gift which, for those willing to treat it as such, can make marriage partners happy and complete.
A second reason we see for saying that marriage is good is that it can bring joy! Many of you have heard me say that most mornings when I wake up, among my first thoughts is to wonder at God’s grace. Like the psalmist whose words we used for our opening call to worship, I’m amazed that the God Who made this vast universe cares about me. We also see the depths of God’s care for us in Jesus, Who went to a cross and rose from the dead, to give all who follow Him everlasting life. That’s an amazing thought that brings joy!
But here’s another thought that often crosses my mind when I wake up in the morning: I’m amazed that my wife married me. Given our history--that in high school, she rightly dismissed me as a big-mouthed weasel, I find it hard to believe that she gave me the chance to become her friend, to go out with her, to marry her, and to have a life with her. Knowing that you’re loved like that brings both mystification and joy!
Third: Marriage is good because it can bring husbands and wives safe, affirming intimacy. We see this at the end of our Bible lesson for today. It tells us, “The man and the woman were both naked, but they were not embarrassed.”
This line isn’t primarily about our bodies or about sex. It’s about having a safe place to be who you are. The poet Carl Sandburg’s daughter once wrote about their parents’ marriage:
“There were never loud arguments...in our house. My father...roared...But [when he became angry] Mother coaxed him out of it. Once when he was very old, I saw him pull at a door that was stuck. He rattled the handle and shouted. My mother, a small woman, looked up at him and patted his chest. ’ What a fine, strong voice!” she said. Disarmed, he stood there in love. It was a thread established early and woven through their life.”Carl Sandburg had the ability to be himself with his wife. I’m often astounded at the numbers of husbands and wives who tell me their perceptions of their spouses--good things and bad. When I ask them if they’ve shared these things with their mates, many tell me, “No. I could never do that!”
And yet, God made marriage to be a relationship in which we can stand naked--naked in our strengths and weaknesses, naked in our virtues and our faults--and still be loved. While openness and a certain degree of intimacy should characterize all of our relationships, nowhere should it be more present than in marriages.
Finally: Marriage can be good because it truly can provide husbands and wives and those who live close to them a glimpse of what heaven will be like. I'm not kidding! Throughout the Bible, when God wants to describe the intimacy, joy, and love that comes to all who follow God, He uses the analogy of marriage. When He wants to describe the human penchant for walking away from God, God speaks of adultery and prostitution. And one of the images Jesus uses to describe the Church is “the bride of Christ.”
Good marriages incorporate forgiveness, intimacy, loyalty, encouragement, mutual affection, and unconditional acceptance. I get a hint of heaven every time I make another bonehead move and find that the next morning, my wife is still around, forgiving me, loving me, and rowing in the same direction.
If heaven is a kingdom of undeserved grace and love, then the love of a wife or a husband who knows all about us and keeps living with us anyway must surely point us to what God has in mind for us when He calls us to follow Him. No wonder then that when Martin Luther cast about for a way to describe the family, he said that it was to be “a little church”: a place where the God we meet in Jesus Christ was to be known and celebrated in the day-in, day-out relationships that exist in families.
Of course, not all marriages are heavenly enterprises. That’s one of the reasons that so many marriages end in divorce these days. This brings us to a very important point: The goodness of marriage is only experienced by those husbands and wives who devote themselves to the hard work involved in real love.
Marriage is a gift. But like all gifts, it requires care to keep it working. Adam and Eve had a great marriage in Genesis, chapter 2, the portion of the Bible from which our lesson is drawn. It lost its luster in chapter 3. They got out of touch with God and as always happens when we lose touch with God, they fell into sin. The next thing you know, these two people who, just a few verses earlier, were gah-gah over each other, are blaming one another for the fix they’re in. Adam even tells God, “This woman you sent me has really messed things up!”
Fortunately, God didn’t give up on the first human beings as quickly as they gave up on each other. He gave them second chances. He kept loving them up and invited them to start afresh. With prayer and work, they did start again and they experienced renewal in their marriage. God helped them to do the hard work required to keep the wonderful gift of marriage in happy working order. And God can do the same thing for married people today if both husbands and wives are willing to accept God’s help and to do the hard work good marriages require.
Marriage is good because
- it’s a gift from God;
- it can bring joy;
- it can bring husbands and wives into safe, affirming intimacy with each other; and
- it can bring spouses and those who know them glimpses of heaven.
I ask those who aren’t married to pray for the marriages of family and friends so that they too can become all that God intends.
All of society has a stake in seeing that marriages are strong. God stands ready to help make that happen.
[Links to the first two installments of this series:
How to Have and Be a Friend
How Will I Know?]
Saturday, April 28, 2007
"You have to do your work whether you get recognized or not."
So says veteran jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins of all the prizes and awards he's received during a sixty-five year musical career.I heard NPR's profile of Rollins as I headed to another part of town to conduct a funeral. His words grabbed me. The reason: In our media-saturated culture where every blogger is a potential celebrity and people are extolled as idols and superstars because they entertain us, Rollins' words are a needed smack-in-the-chops.
Part of the joy and the glory of being human is that we're privileged to work. We can set out to accomplish something and at the end of the day, behold, it's done. Or, we've advanced toward getting it done.
None of this is to say that some work isn't arduous and repetitive.
Nor is it to say that some who work aren't exploited by others. (It happens and it's immoral.)
But I'm convinced that work was never meant to be like that. Work is meant to be an expression of beings created, as Genesis tells us, "in the image of God." (Work, according to the Genesis account, was also never meant to be punishment of humanity. Human beings were charged with working, including caring for and ruling over creation, before sin entered the human picture. God will even have work for us to do in heaven. The old saying has it that there's no rest for the weary. The Bible seems to say that in heaven, we won't be wearied by work.)
But, even work that we love can become boring or difficult. In fact, the more difficult our work, often the more fulfilling it is. Just ask your local heart surgeon, flight controller, housewife, store manager, or pastor, among others.
Nonetheless, it's taken (taking) me a long time to get over this recognition thing, my addiction to being lauded for simply doing my job. According to Rollins, though compliments are nice--and I believe in handing them out liberally--they can't be the reason we work. Here's what he also told NPR:
The real deal is doing it, as best you can do it. And that's it. That's its own reward.Amen!
[UPDATE: Amba picks this topic up and makes some interesting points.]
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