Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: family

  • Deceived

    Deceived

    L. It is her. I know it is her. She is to be God’s blessing to me. But what of this mystery (a sadder eyes)? How could it not be her; what can it mean? 

    Psalm 116

    10 I believed, even when I spoke:
    “I am greatly afflicted”;
    11 I said in my alarm,
    “All mankind are liars.”

    12 What shall I render to the Lord
    for all his benefits to me?
    13 I will lift up the cup of salvation
    and call on the name of the Lord,
    14 I will pay my vows to the Lord
    in the presence of all his people.

    Genesis 28:20-22 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.”

    First, a riddle, then a Psalm; then, a vow of Jacob at Bethel. What does this have to do with marriage?

    See the relationship of truth to vows and covenant and worship and yes, the importance of truth in marriage: a lesson Jacob had to learn as consequence of sin and consequence of deceit. Let’s begin with his blessing by his father, prior to his marriage:

    Genesis 27:22  So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” …

    29b Be lord over your brothers,
    and may your mother’s sons bow down to you.
    Cursed be everyone who curses you,
    and blessed be everyone who blesses you!”

    Rebekah deceived her husband; Jacob deceived his father Isaac.

    42 But the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob her younger son and said to him, “Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban my brother in Haran…

     Jacob flees to live under the protection of Laban, his mother’s brother, rather than risk his life in the lands of his father. Isaac confirms it. 

    Genesis 29

    10 Now as soon as Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, Jacob came near and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother. 11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud. 12 And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s kinsman, and that he was Rebekah’s son, and she ran and told her father.

    13 As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things, 14 and Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh!” And he stayed with him a month.

    This relationship ‘Surely you are my bone and my flesh’ should sound familiar (even familial): a closeness of husband and wife, a closeness of sister and brother, a closeness of relatives – different, each; but all important relationships.

    Now deceit enters once more into the picture:

    15 Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?” 16 Now Laban had two daughters. The name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.

    17 Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance.

    18 Jacob loved Rachel. And he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.”

    A bargain for love (not arranged by the fathers). A romantic picture… then they should ‘live happily ever after;’ that is, except for sin and lies and deceit.

    Imagine this romantic picture. Jacob has worked for his soon-to-be father-in-law for seven years and not had sexual relations with Rachel, whom he loved. A wedding feast; and then…

    21 Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife that I may go in to her, for my time is completed.” 22 So Laban gathered together all the people of the place and made a feast. 23 But in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and he went in to her.

    Deceit! Betrayal! As Jacob had lied and betrayed his own father’s trust to receive his blessing.

    Now what? Laban scrambles to make amends and keep the peace. He provides for both daughters and his new son-in-law, married to Leah; and, oh, by the way… if you will work for me another seven years, I will give you Rachel.

    Agreed. Now Jacob has two wives! But just like his Grandfather Abraham, he will reap the double blessings and increased difficulties of marriage even more-so. (We won’t go into that here.)

    First, God will bring Jacob back to truth, before confirming with him covenant.

    Genesis 31:  Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, “Jacob has taken all that was our father’s, and from what was our father’s he has gained all this wealth.” 2 And Jacob saw that Laban did not regard him with favor as before. 3 Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.”

    Jacob flees Laban with his wives, children, herds and possessions. Laban pursues and catches up. They make a truce.

    48 Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me today.” Therefore he named it Galeed, 49 and Mizpah, for he said, “The Lord watch between you and me, when we are out of one another’s sight. 50 If you oppress my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one is with us, see, God is witness between you and me.”

    They become two families at peace, though separated by distance and a border. The wife given by the father to her husband… both wives to their one husband, Jacob; and the servant wives as well (another story) and all the grandchildren.

    Jacob has become a sojourner once more (as was his grandfather, Abraham).

    Genesis 32 Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 2 And when Jacob saw them he said, “This is God’s camp!” So he called the name of that place Mahanaim…

     Finally, after all these years… after all these lies and consequences of lies: humility, obedience and a confession of repentance of sin before God:

    9 And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’ 10 I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan…

    22 The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had.

    24 And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day…

    27 And he said to him, “What is your name?”

    Jacob had clung to Esau’s heal at birth. Jacob had bought Esau’s blessing and fought to keep it by his lie to his father; for when Isaac asked his name, Jacob had replied with a lie: “Esau.” He now wrestles with the Lord.

    But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

    And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” 

    Do you believe that you can prevail against God, unless it is God’s will?

    We must be humble to become god-like. We must confess truth to reap truth. We must honor our word.

    Israel: God prevails.

    God IS part of a godly marriage and a covenant of promise.

    Relationship requires truth. God knows truth.

    • Is your relationship with God honest?
    • Is your relationship with the husband (wife) of your vows honest?
    • Is your relationship with Christ Jesus honest?

    Is our witness of Christian marriage truthful when Christ asks:

    What is your name? 

     

    Next: A confession

  • In the beginning, Marriage

    In the beginning, Marriage

    God’s true intention for marriage preceded original sin.

    Genesis 2:18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

    I must confirm from a terrible emptiness and great incompleteness: It is not good for a man to be alone… so alone without God’s help meet (mate).

    22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said,

    “This at last is bone of my bones
    and flesh of my flesh;
    she shall be called Woman,
    because she was taken out of Man.”

    24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

    What a joy! What promise – and this, before sin.

    Genesis 4:1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.”

    Genesis 4:17 And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch…

    Genesis 4:25 And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.

    In the beginning, marriage.

    Genesis 5:6 When Seth had lived 105 years, he fathered Enosh. 7 Seth lived after he fathered Enosh 807 years and had other sons and daughters.

    The Bible does not mention the names of the wife of Seth or the names of the help meets of most of these ancestors of Noah, but they had wives and sons and daughters – family, with a husband and a wife and their children.

    Noah was married. Noah’s sons, who were also grown men and had the faith to obey God and Noah, had wives who were saved along with them.

    In the beginning, marriage. Not one whisper of any relationship of family other than marriage. Not one mention of any end of marriage, even for these first forefathers who lived hundreds of years with their wife and grown children. Not one mention of any alternative, until further sin of compromise entered into the lives of Abram, Jacob and others. (We will address the issues of their multiple wives later.)

    In the beginning, God ordains that “a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” And yes, it’s okay that they are naked and unashamed in their own bed chamber; for as it was in the beginning, they are now one.

    A man desires to know a woman. A husband desires to know his wife. A wife is a part of her husband, not to be torn away any more than a man would tear out his own rib.

    I am witness that a wife torn away from our oneness is more deeply painful than the tearing out of any rib. For by divorce she has cut away with anger into your heart.

    I too am witness to a wife being torn away by death.  As for most husbands and wives, most shall part one prior to the other in the death of their beloved ‘other half.’  Your wife torn away, her soul separated from you for a time, is a pouring out of your own heart.

    Husbands and wives this is the temporal end of the vows of your earthly commitment; but union with the soul and the uniting of these souls to God is quite something more.

    It is not good that man (or woman) should be alone.

    Are you a blessing to your husband? (Are you a blessing to your wife?)

    What is your daily witness to your covenant of marriage before God?

    What is the witness of your marriage to Christ?

    In the beginning, marriage.

     Marriage: To be continued…

     

  • The First Family

    The First Family

    I have gotten a man from the LORD.

    These are the words of Eve from Genesis 4:1 KJV.

    The relationship is with her husband: “And Adam knew Eve his wife…” the conception is by her husband and the birth is through the woman. She conceived and bare a son, Cain, who is a man created in her womb by God.

    Cain and Abel

    4 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.”

    Some time passes. Adam knew Eve, again (yada`).

    2 And again, she bore his brother Abel.

    More time passes as their boys grow up, as happens seemingly quickly in all families. Description of these young men now is of their vocations – work. It is a description of the purpose of their work and their attitude of relationship toward God in this land East of Eden.

    Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. 3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions.

    (No specifics here, just that both came to worship the Lord – a relationship and a thankfulness of an offering. Yet how thankful? God must judge.)

    And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard.

    (Imagine that! God likes someone else better than ME!) Is envy not also evil?

    So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.

    6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen?

    7 If you do well, will you not be accepted?

    And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

    Is the Lord God, your Creator who knew you in your mother’s womb not the loving Father who will accept what you do when you do well?

    Of course. Do not compare your offering to your brother. Do what is good in the eyes of the Lord.

    Again, a rule so simple. Yet Cain failed to rule over his sin.

    Skipping over (though not lightly) his murder of his brother and continuing in the story of Adam and Eve and the first generation of this first family, evicted from Eden. Cain is driven even further from Eden and further from his biological parents, Adam and Eve.

    How they must have grieved over the loss of the younger brother. And now God drives the older brother even further from the first parents of this first broken family.

    13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. 14 Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”

    Genesis 4 continues the story of Cain, but let us remain on the ground absorbed with the blood of Abel and the grieving parents, Adam and Eve. (O, to be back in Eden; but it can never be.)

    Adam and Eve age, even as Cain, a grown man continues to age and have children and grandchildren of his own in another place. (The Bible does not relate the beginnings of most of the women married to these men.)

    25 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.”

    100 year old man and family26 To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord.

    Grandchildren, blessed grandchildren; and they call on the name of the Lord.

    Adam and Eve have not forgotten the Lord. They obviously raised Seth in the knowledge of the Lord.

    Adam’s Descendants to Noah

    5 This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. 2 Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created.

    3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.

    (Adam, 130 years old and his slightly younger wife, Eve, had another baby!)

    We can barely imagine a mortal man living nine centuries, instead of struggling to survive just one… generally even fewer years of our mortality.

    4 The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters. 5 Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.

    The generations of the cursed ground are then counted in this first Book of Moses through the sons of Noah.

    Then the Lord would have need to cleanse the earth and begin once more…