Biblical Marriage - Day 236 Through the Bible

This is the most prolific season for butterflies that I have seen.  Expect more butterfly photos from the cabin garden - near Mt. Celo Church

My Lessons and Applications from Today's Readings

(Ellipses are mine and are used for contemplation.)

Job My Servant - Job 40 and 41 - "Can you draw out Leviathan...snare his tongue?...put a reed through him?...pierce him?...will he make a covenant with you?...will you lay with him as with a bird?  No one is so fierce that he would dare stir him up.  Who then is able to stand against Me?  Who has preceded Me that I should pay him?  Everything under heaven is Mine.  Job answers, "I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.  You asked, 'Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?' Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know...You said, "I will question you and you shall answer Me.'  I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You.  There I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes."  This was the denouement - this admission and submission to Almighty God.  Then God...speaks to Eliphaz and the two friends, "My wrath is aroused against you for you have not spoken of Me what is right as My servant Job has...offer up for yourselves 7 bulls and 7 rams, go to My servant Job, and My servant Job shall pray for you.  For I will accept him, lest I deal with you according to your folly; because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has." Then "God...restored Job's losses...WHEN he prayed for his friends.  Indeed the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before...his brothers, sisters and acquaintances came to him...ate food with him in his house...consoled him....and comforted him for all the adversity that the LORD had brought upon him."  Then "God...blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning.  He also had seven sons and three daughters...in all the land were found no women so beautiful as the daughters of Job; and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.  After this...Job lived 140 years and saw his children and grandchildren for 4 generations.  So Job died, old and full of days."

My Lessons and Applications - 1) Have you noticed through our study of the Bible that when the soul - king or commoner - bows in abject humility to Almighty God - that that is the moment the life is transformed, the prayer answered or God's answer accepted?  It is followed by repentance and a changed life.  Am I there?  Have I humbled myself and repented in dust and ashes for not totally trusting God, for believing my way was best, for demanding He explain Himself to me for the tragedy or horror that occurred in my life?  Have I acknowledged in the depths of my soul and spirit that He is God, and I am not? 2) Do I pattern my communion with God after Job's?  Do I repeat the question the Word of God has shown to me (or that the Holy Spirit has given me) back to God - to make it very clear to Him and to myself that I hear, I understand, I am listening to Him.  Then do I confess and repent in humility my presumption before Him?  3) Were you as quickened by this statement as I am each time I read it? "And the LORD restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends."  The first thing Job did to return to God's blessings was to humble himself before God in confession and repentance.  The second thing was to pray for the very people (at God's command) who had been cruel and tormenting to him in his agony.  Have I done both of these?  Have I prayed for those who have persecuted me and spitefully used me? (This is Jesus' command in Matthew 5:44 and confirmed in Romans 12:14)  Am I remembering to come to God alone - not human counselors - for Him to convict, restore and revive me?  As a believer no other comforter can heal me.  Will my tragedy, my loss be given back to God as a paean of faith - of my love for Him, not just for His blessings?  Will my handling of this tragedy and loss be my magnum opus of faith in God to the generations of believers that follow me?  Will God call me, "My servant in whom I am well pleased?" (Matthew 12:18)

Biblical Marriage / Walk According to Your Calling - 1 Corinthians 7: 1-19) Paul has been dealing with sexual immorality in the church at Corinth and now speaks to the principles of a Biblical marriage...to render to each other the affection due to each other...that the wife has authority over the body of the husband, and the husband has authority over the body of the wife, that neither should deprive the other except with consent for a time..."But I say this as a concession, not as a commandment."  Then Paul says that it is best for the unmarried and the widows to remain unmarried - if they can exercise self-control.  He then moves to commands of the LORD regarding marriage, "Now to the married I command, yet not I but the Lord: A wife is not to depart from her husband.  But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband.  And a husband is not to divorce his wife."  Then he deals with the Lord's command on marriage to an unbeliever - that they should not divorce over this - if...the unbeliever is willing to live with the believer...for..."the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband:  otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.  But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart; a brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases.  But God has called us to peace.  For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband?  Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?"  Then Paul admonishes, "But as God has distributed to each one, as the Lord has called each one, so let him walk...Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters."

My Lessons and Applications - So much of this is avoided if the "Do not be unequally yoked" command is obeyed. (2 Corinthians 6:14).  So much also goes back to our sin nature, to a lack of knowledge and understanding of the Bible, of the Biblical reason for marriage - going back to Malachi 2: 10-16:

"Have we not all one Father? 
Has not one God created us?
 Why do we deal treacherously with one another 
by profaning the covenant of the fathers?

Judah has dealt treacherously,
 and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem,
 for Judah has profaned
 The Lord’s holy institution which He loves:
 He has married the daughter of a foreign god.

May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob
, the man who does this, being awake and aware,
 Yet who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts!

And this is the second thing you do: 
You cover the altar of the Lord with tears,
 with weeping and crying;
 so He does not regard the offering anymore, nor receive it with goodwill from your hands.

Yet you say, “For what reason?”
 Because the Lord has been witness 
between you and the wife of your youth, 
with whom you have dealt treacherously;
 yet she is your companion
 and your wife by covenant.

But did He not make them one,
 having a remnant of the Spirit?
 And why one?
 He seeks godly offspring. 
Therefore take heed to your spirit,
 and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth.

“For the Lord God of Israel says 
that He hates divorce,
 for it covers one’s garment with violence,”
 says the Lord of hosts.
“Therefore take heed to your spirit,
That you do not deal treacherously.”

Please listen to today's sermon on the Book of Ecclesiastes, "King Solomon's Table of Wisdom" by Dr. Carl Mumpower, Christian Psychologist from Asheville, to prepare for our study beginning tomorrow in Ecclesiastes.  The audio of the sermon can be accessed on the right sidebar of the blog under "Ministry of the Word."