Marriage reflects . . .

Exodus 1; Job 18; Luke 4; 1 Corinthians 5

The Bible is filled with metaphors and symbols. One of them is particularly significant in these days because of increased divorce rates and a great deal of promiscuity . . .

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. (Ephesians 5:22–24)

 Because submission is wrongly interpreted (to mean doormat), many people miss what this is saying. It is not about him/boss and her/slave, not at all. Look again: marriage is God’s illustration of the relationship between Jesus Christ and His people. He asks for His Bride, the church, to follow the leading of Jesus. The man is to love his wife as Christ loves the church and the wife is to respect her husband and follow his lead. Sin in both sides creates a lot of problems, but rather than get into the issue of submission, I’m thinking of the other ways that marriage illustrates the relationship of God and His people.

The Lord is faithful to us and expects our faithfulness. In marriage, fidelity is expected. If I ran around on my hubby, my actions would illustrate those who worship and follow other gods instead of the true God.

For this reason, and because it causes so much pain to those involved, God condemns fornication and adultery. Even non-Christians know (by the pain) that such behavior is not the best way to live. Today’s reading in 1 Corinthians describes the will of God concerning those who pay no attention to the importance of being faithful:

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. (1 Corinthians 5:1–2)

This church may have thought that tolerating such a person is the ‘loving thing’ to do, but that is not love as God loves. He cares about us to a far greater degree than tolerating our sin. He died for it. He purges it. He knows that sin leads to death. It separates us from Him and from each other. He tells the church at Corinth that sin in their midst is serious, even more serious than the same sin in those who are not believers. After all, the people who do not know Christ cannot be expected to behave in a godly way, but those who belong to Him are called and equipped to live a higher standard:

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. (1 Corinthians 5:9–11)

The rest of the passage instructs the church to put unrepentant sinners out of their midst. They are like yeast and will permeate and affect everyone. Without fellowship and their support, that person will experience spiritual defeat and must fully repent or risks losing life itself.

Revelation 2:19ff records a letter to a church also guilty, this time because of a woman who was “teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.” The Lord “gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.” As a result, He “will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead.”

This is the seriousness of violating the will of God. If I or anyone else believes in Him but mocks Him by ignoring how I’m supposed to live, I stand on a slippery slope.

We live in a world that tolerates sin, not because it is ‘loving’ but because it opens the door for those who tolerate it to do the same things. Much of what God calls sin has become so commonplace that even Christians are no longer upset to see it all around us. At the same time, I need to remember that the Lord equips His people for victory over sin. He also wants us to tell the world about Him so that everyone can also be victorious. Without Jesus, and without obedience, I have no message about the wonderful plan of God.

Carried by Joy

Weddings are most often joyful occasions, as is the honeymoon. So also is that spiritual union Christians have with Jesus Christ, the ultimate Bridegroom, only with Him the honeymoon is never over. One reason is that amazing reality of belonging: “My beloved is mine, and I am his….” (Song of Solomon 2:16)

Another reason is His assured and eternal provision. Because I belong to Jesus and He belongs to me, we share everything. He takes my sin, I get His righteousness. I am also given His eternal home.

Apparently, the ancient Romans had a custom whereby when a new wife was brought home, she was given the keys of her spouse’s house, committing to her the treasure and custody of the house. In similar fashion, when Christ brings His bride to the home He is now preparing for me (and all His followers), He will also hand over the keys and we will be as rich as heaven can make us.

Another reason is the spiritual fruit Jesus brings into the marriage, the joy of the Lord. In being made one with Him, that alone calls for joy, but the joy He gives is part of His nature and therefore part of the union. This joy is a “for better or for worse” joy and because it comes from Him rather than circumstances, it is mine all the time.

Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. (Habakkuk 3:17–18)

The only times I cannot rejoice is when I harbor sin in my heart. Actually, it is a sin NOT to rejoice. This dishonors my heavenly spouse and grieves His joyful heart. Certainly there are times to feel sorrow, pain and weeping, but as the above verses say, I can be joyful in Him even when other things are less than perfect. Joy is about Him, not about having everything go my way.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. (Philippians 4:4)

Christ loves a cheerful bride. It’s very likely that the purpose of sadness is to give Him opportunity to make us rejoice. We sow in tears and reap in joy. Excessive sadness could make others afraid to embrace Christ, while our joy even in life’s challenges is a testimony to His grace and power.

Joy is also power, my source of strength. The Bible says this to God’s people when they were mourning their sin…

Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10)

Being a happily married woman is a good thing. Being happily united with Christ is even better. Jesus gives me a delight that no one or nothing can take away. He saved me more than forty years ago, and even though I disobey and disappoint Him far too often, He still carries me on the wings of joy.

More comfort from my spiritual Spouse

Glancing at today’s devotional verse, I realize I’ve more to learn about the nature of my union with Jesus Christ. This verse says we belong to each other, but do I fully grasp its significance?

My beloved is mine, and I am his…. (Song of Solomon 2:16)

The person who wrote the devotional lived in the 1600s. His interpretations are as timely now as there were then. The first thing he says is that my spiritual Spouse is kind. Today’s news is showing videos of a man who veered back and forth along a street hitting all pedestrians in his path. Would his wife (if he has one) say he is kind? What about those wives who are abused and mistreated? What about the woman whose spouse is always at work, or in the bar, or cheating on her? I don’t know if all women desire a kind man, but this is important to me. However, even the kindest husband can slip from thoughtfulness. Jesus never does.

My spiritual Bridegroom sticks by me in weakness. Human marriage vows say for better or for worse, but at the time they are made, no husband (or wife) can imagine the worst-case scenarios that could test that vow. I know a man whose wife was on life-support and he could not handle it. He left her. Jesus does not and never will do that. When I am weak, He offers me His strength.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Normal human marriage is “’til death do us part” but in my spiritual union with Christ, death is the physical beginning of that spiritual union I enjoy now. When I die, I will go to be with Jesus. In this world, God wisely allows change and trouble so I am weaned from its appeal, even longing for the day that my soul is divorced from it and from my body to be married to Christ.

The Bible says that each person dies once, and then there is judgment. I’m not afraid of that either, for my spiritual Husband will be my judge. Satan may accuse me, and often rightly, but my sins are obliterated in the blood of Christ. As the devotional writer says, He cannot pass sentence against His spouse without passing it against Himself for Christ and His Bride are one.

As for suffering, I have a Husband in heaven that cares about all that happens to me, but He and I know that one day those sorrows will be over and He will replace the cup of trembling with the cup of consolation.

He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. (Isaiah 25:8)

On that day, I will forget all sorrows and the challenges of life as I enter the banqueting house of heaven and sit down to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

The Best Bridegroom

NOTE: Tomorrow we begin a short vacation. I will be in airports five times, in hotels twice, and at our daughters for a few days. Our schedule includes a visit with a granddaughter we’ve not seen for a few years and exploration of the Smithsonian. While my daily devotions will continue, posting them may happen at odd times and probably later in the day than usual.

Widows are often comforted by an Old Testament passage that uses marriage as a figure of speech to comfort Israel for her failures…

For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called. (Isaiah 54:5)

This is one of many Scripture references that point to the spiritual marriage of Christ to His bride, the church. Because of God’s love, those who believe in and belong to Jesus Christ also are united to Him like a bride to a groom. In fact, God intended that physical marriage pictures that spiritual union…

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:31–32)

Marriages today fall short of the ideal in that many of them do not mirror the relationship between Jesus and His followers. In Christ, there is no divorce, no failure on the part of the bridegroom to love His bride, even though she may fail Him. In that spiritual marriage, there are hurdles to overcome, but greater joy than any earthly union.

Christ is a husband who cannot be paralleled. Song of Solomon says He is “outstanding among ten thousand” and the fairest of them all. He also excels in tender care. If His bride wanders out of the way, He guides her back on track. If she stumbles, He holds her hand. If she falls, He raises her. If she is sad, He comforts her. He is ardently affectionate. His love letter is always available to bless her and let her know of His love, as is the Holy Spirit whom He sent to make that love as real as can be.

Christ also puts rich clothes on his bride, even “garments of salvation” and “a robe of righteousness.” Because of this robe, God looks on His bride as if we had never sinned. Instead, we are justified and imputed with His goodness “so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). This means He imparts to us “the splendor of his holiness” and works in our lives so that He can see His own face in us. 

This amazing Bridegroom discharges our debt of sin and sets us free from all payments, principle and interest. Not only that, because of our unity with Him we can overcome sin and eventually be totally like Jesus as we enjoy His presence forever.

Christ suffered poverty and scandal to gain His bride. He who crowned the heavens with stars was Himself crowned with thorns. He leaped into the sea of his Father’s wrath to save his spouse from drowning. His love did not end with His life. Rather, His death sealed that love forever and His resurrection celebrates the reality of our life together.