TUESDAY, June 9, 2009                                                       READ: Genesis 2: 15 – 17, 23 – 25                                                                                                        

THE HUMAN FAMILY AND CHRIST’S CHURCH

MEMORIZE: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”         Genesis 2: 24

God designed and created the human family to serve the divine purpose. God designed and created the human family to begin with the coming together, the marriage of the man, whom He created male, and the woman, whom He later built, as female. Not two males, nor two females. In Genesis 2: 15 – 17, we are able to see how God disclosed the man’s responsibility, to care for His creation, to propagate and protect life by remaining in dependence upon, in union and communion with Him. God built the woman as female and gave her to be the adequate helper for the man. She was to enable him to fulfill his God-given life-mission. When God brought the man and the woman together, to be husband and wife, together, they constituted the first human couple and human family began. We are able to see how the man recognized the woman as God’s provision to enable him to fulfill his divine life’s-mission (cf. 1 Corinthians 11: 7 – 9). We are able to see how he was delighted with her and felt his need for her. For that reason God made it an ordinance that “… for this reason shall a man leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” (Genesis 2: 24). This verse of the Scriptures is repeated in the New Testament, in Matthew 19: 5; Mark 10: 7, 8 and Ephesians 5: 31. In each situation it is used to emphasize God’s intention for marriage between man and woman, husband and wife, to be a permanent growing relationship. In both Matthew 19: 5 and Mark 10: 7, 8, this verse which points to God’s intention for the man, to leave his parents home and cleave to his wife, and establish his own. It is used to point to the fact that it was never God’s intention that married people should divorce each other. In the best of situations, life happens and husbands and wives do not want to persevere with each other. Relationships deteriorate, and whereas God provides for us to be reconciled to each other, because of hard heartedness, we resist being reconciled. We tear apart from each other. That is antagonistic to God’s plan for marriages. In Ephesians 5: 31, we see the verse used in the discussion about the role which the relationship between husbands and wives plays in making the mystery of Christ and His Church known. The relationship between Christ and His Church is a truth which God has concealed but has now been making known progressively (cf. Ephesians 3: 1-7). Paul cites Genesis 2: 24, to show that, from the beginning of the creation of family, the bringing of man and woman together as wife and husband, God was actually prefiguring the relationship between Christ and His Church. The relationship between husband and wife, which in itself is a mystery, was to serve as an object lesson of what God was doing, and was going to be doing, in bringing Christ into the world and establishing the relationship of Christ and His Church. That is still a big mystery to us today. How do two individuals, affected by sin, actually grow to become one flesh? Remember that when the ordinance was stated, neither Adam nor Eve had yet sinned or become affected by sin. It was not until after they had begun their relationship in harmony, intimacy, trust and transparency, that the devil saw this as his opportunity to frustrate the will of God, and got the man and the woman off course. Instead of seeking the glory of God, they began to seek, each, his and her own. Would it be right to say, as goes the family, then, so goes the Church, or, as goes the Church, so goes the family? In either case, God still holds the man, the father, responsible to be engaged in the responsible and beneficial behavior.

How significant is family to you? How vital or significant is the role of father in your family? How well is your family conforming to God’s revealed will and design for the human family?

PRAY: LORD, God Almighty, thank You for making me aware that You are God and that Your ways are perfect. You are Father and You hold human fathers responsible for posterity. Things are not what they should be. LORD, please work to make things right, in Jesus’ strong name. Amen.