Faithfully Yours

I’ve heard hunters say that Canadian snow geese pair up for life. Whether flying next to each other in a chevron formation or just following each other wing to wing they never separate until death do they part. Hunters have reported after downing one of a pair of geese that their mate will fly back over and circle around their dead partner. These Canadian “honkers” partner for life in much the same way God designed our lives as well. It’s really a blueprint for our eternal relationship with God and becomes a model for the relationship between Christ and His bride, the church.

In chapter 5 of the book of Numbers we get to glance at the faithfulness between a husband and his bride. In chapter 6 God explains how a man or a woman can separate themselves from the world living only for God by taking the “Nazirite Vow”. There is something to be said about people who live their entire lives devoted to their spouse. That level of commitment between two people is really quite unique in today’s society. But back in the desert wandering days of Israel it was really the standard by which they the nation lived.

If you take the time to get acquainted with ancient Israelis wedding ceremonies you will discover how many of the things that Jesus did on His last night on earth become brightly illuminated by that knowledge.  One similarity is when the groom came to the bride’s home and asked her to marry him. If she was in agreement with his proposal, then the groom would ask her father and if all were in agreement they would all seal the arrangement by taking a drink of wine from the same cup. Jesus did this very same thing by coming to the earth, our home, and paying the bride price for us. Then at the last supper He offered the cup of wine to us, sealing his proposal of marriage.

Immediately after the bride’s acceptance the groom returned to his father’s house. Once there, he would begin a focused building project where he would add onto the family’s ancestral home providing a new space for the new couple to dwell. Once the room was completed the Father would tell the son to return to get his bride and bring her home. This process could take anywhere from months to years but when the father deemed the wedding chamber was ready then he would tell his son to go and get his bride!

This is what many of us are now waiting for, Jesus Christ to return to earth for His bride. Yes, that is why the church is called the bride of Christ. Now, the bride’s responsibility was to cleanse herself inside and out, always being ready for the groom’s unannounced return. She was to be found faithful upon the groom’s return.  In Ephesians 5:22  we find this “Wives submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is the head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.”

OK men, before you drop Maxwell’s silver hammer on your pretty little wife’s head, let’s read the next section. “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”  Men, go back and read this again and again and again until it penetrates the thick fog that usually hangs around our understanding.

As men, if we are honest with ourselves there probably is not too much washing by the word going on in our homes. Probably some grumpy, reluctant Sunday morning trips to church followed by an afternoon full of car washing, golfing and fishing trips.  I’m willing to bet the ranch that there is not much foot washing, dish washing or clothes washing going on in our homes. The whole point to this section of scripture is the great value that God puts on women and their need for our constant love, care and affection. So don’t let anything get between your relationship with God, your wife and children. There is no higher or more precious cause then nurturing and cherishing our family relationships. Jesus loved His bride so much that He gave up His life for us.  So next time you take the cup remember what you are agreeing to do; believe in Him and live for Him.