INTRODUCTION
The family is the cornerstone of society.
Family Research has shown that all societies rise and fall with their view of the family. Carle Zimmerman was a Harvard Sociologist that did extensive research on Family and Civilization. He spent his whole life studying families in different ancient cultures. He found that civilizations go through three basic phases before they disintegrate. The first stage for families is called the Trustee family. This stage has a big picture of marriage that is tied to the Divine. This view would be consistent with the nation of Israel’s view that they were all Children of Abraham. In this stage of family the Patriarch saw his role as a sacred trust. The family was a trustee to the traditions of the ones that came before them to pass down to the next generation. Economics was not the greatest concern but devotion to one’s Creator and the Law that had been established to be passed down was most important. This stage of family development is usually the strongest time for any civilization.
The next stage in family development is called the domestic family. This is the stage in which the Patriarch becomes the chief ruler of the family and economic concerns take precedence. Family decisions are based purely on Economics. What is best for the pocketbook becomes the decision driving mechanism for the family.
One can see this development in our own country.
If one were to look at politics soon after the American Revolution we would find candidates like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams talking more about virtue, citizenship, and caring for other Americans. They were concerned about the virtue and well-being of our country. Fast forward to our latest presidential election and you will find that Economics was the driving concern of our election. Americans that are polled today would tell you that the economy is one of the main deciding factors in the way people cast their vote. This also drives most family decisions today. We have to do what is best for the pocketbook many times instead of what is right for our families and children.
The last stage in the development of families and culture, according to Zimmerman, is the atomistic family. This type of family is very isolated and usually only consists of the single mother or father or a single parent. This type of family sees the family as a cocoon that the child is ready to one day break free from. At this stage adultery and sexual immorality is viewed less as a crime against society or against a Creator but more or less a personal decision. Things like personal choice and phrases like, “This is my body and I can do what I want to with it” would be the more common expressions of morality of that stage. Other phrases like, “Consenting Adults” is a common phrase of this time.
I think it goes without saying that we see many parallels in our own culture and what Carle Zimmerman saw in his studies on the rise and decline of civilizations. This book was written in 1947 and is almost prophetic of our own time.
The sad answer to all of this is the Church has the answer to this. The Scripture that God entrusted to us has the answer to these problems of our time but much of this is not being preached, discussed or talked about because of the fear of offending people.
I have a good friend of mine that has worked his entire life as a minister. He is a type of mentor to me and was a preacher that we had when we were first married. He has spent extensive time in studying churches and why they grow and the problems they face. I talked to him last week and we discussed that the number one problem churches and members are facing in his are legal issues that relate to family law. Many church members are wracked with legal fees due to custody battles and fractured families. One of the outreach methods being used by Churches not is to help in benevolence with these legal fees. It is a problem of epic proportions in our times. I have said all of this to lay out a series of lessons that I would like to share with you about marriage and the family for the next few weeks. I want to look at the cosmic view of marriage in Scripture that began in the Garden of Eden and then take it to very specific levels of what are roles are as grandparents, parents, and children. We will look specifically at God’s plan for calling our culture and country back from the brink by focusing on the very cornerstone of every civilization and that is the family.
This lesson today could be entitled ‘First Comes Love’. This expression is found in an old saying that we said in grade school that went like – First comes love, then comes marriage, and then so and so with a baby carriage.
To some extend I would say that this expression is 100 percent right.
First Comes Love:
Man is made in God’s image is the way to understand the family.
2 Creation accounts –
1st account the work of the 6 days that culminates with the Creation of man on Day 6.
Genesis 1: 26- 31
26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness ; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth." 29 Then God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed ; it shall be food for you; 30 and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food "; and it was so. 31 God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day
I. Marriage and the Family was Part of God’s original Plan and was in place before the Fall.
1st the revelation of marriage in God’s plan happens in the Creation account. Marriage is not something that was put in place after the Fall of man.
Marriage is one of the only institutions that we have continued from before the Fall.
The family concept was part of God’s perfect plan from before the Expulsion from the Garden.
Being Fruitful and Multiplying were a part of God’s original plan. God had always intended for man to have children and raise them as helpers in God’s Creation.
This gives us a glimpse at the glory of the Family that it was not an after thought of God but was part of His plan for a good creation.
The work in the Garden was a family experience.
Do we fully understand what a gift marriage is?
Are our marriages and families today a little piece of Paradise left over or a glimpse into Hell?
If it is not a glimpse into Paradise and what was lost in the Garden, I would like to propose that we have went wrong somewhere.
As we will study in the next weeks, there is grace given for us to get to that point of what God really wanted in our families.
II. Being Created in God’s image includes both the idea of being Male and Female.
Up until this point God had created a world to reflect His glory as an artist is reflected in their own work of art.
But now God is creating a creature that will bear the very image of the invisible God.
Here is the deepest mystery of all – He would create a unity in the creation of a plurality.
God also speaks of Himself as a plurality when He issues this command when He says, “Let us make Man”.
This is the only place that God speaks of Himself in this way and it is telling that He is creating man when He uses this phrase.
In other words, man and woman would be one and be one flesh but they were two separate Persons. We find a Unity in a diversity of Persons.
Many people have puzzled over the Trinity and understanding God as Father, Son, and Spirit but I would like to propose this morning that the best way to understand Trinity God gave us the family to show us what He is like.
We get a fuller explanation of the Trinity in the New Testament when we read Jesus in the Gospel of John speak of the Father unto which He prays and to Whom He will return.
The Father is a separate person from the Son but somehow they are a Unity.
Jesus also speaks of another Divine person called the Counselor in John 15: 26 also known as the Holy Spirit in John 20: 22.
In Matthew 28: 19 Jesus gives his Disciples a startling discovery by telling them the Name of God.
Up until this time the Name of God could not be spoken. The Jews taught that God’s name was not to be spoken, but in the great commission Jesus tells them to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Jesus in Matthew 28 uses the singular Name but then names three Persons- Is He confused?
These three Persons make up the one Triune God. What Scripture calls the Godhead.
What does this have to do with the Family?
To answer this question we must turn to the 2nd Account of Creation found in Genesis 2:
We get a little more detail and can answer the question as to how the mystery of the Trinity gives us a glimpse at the glory of the Family.
In this account we find Adam in his solitude to enjoy the Creation alone.
Genesis 2: 23
18 Then the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone ; I will make him a helper suitable for him." 19 Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. 21 So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept ; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. 22 The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. 23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh ; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man." 24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife ; and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
Pre-fall – We see God describe Adam being alone as NOT GOOD.
This is not a condition because of sin but it is a fundamental attribute of God given to us as being in His image.
Being alone is not something that God accepts.
The early Church called this the Original Solitude but this changed quickly.
So this takes us back to the mystery of the Trinity. God in Himself is the original Family.
You have within God eternal and perfect Fatherhood, eternal Sonship, and love reflected between the Father and Son in the Person of the Holy Spirit.
You see fellowship within the Godhead – A Family
A unity in the three persons of Father, Son, and Spirit.
That is why God created us as Man and Woman. To reflect who God truly is we must also have the ability to have unity in the diversity of persons.
We know this is true because we feel in our bones. We need each other. We need our families. We need our Moms and Dads, brothers and sisters. We need our wives and wives need their husbands. We crave intimacy with other humans. We want to share things with one another.
I know I want to share things with Allison. If something happens I want her to be a part of it.
When I win a football game I want her to be there to enjoy it too or it just seems incomplete. I want to have that person I share everything with.
There are not secrets between us, we share all of life’s ups and downs.
It is a glimpse – an imperfect glimpse- but a glimpse nonetheless of what life in God is like.
It is also a glimpse at the life God wants to give us in perfect measure.
This makes the issue all the more important for our families.
If God is a family and we are in His image we must ask the question, does our family reflect the love of God to the world.
Do people look at our families and see such a strong love that it images Who God is to the world.
St. Francis of Assisi once said, “Preach the Gospel and use words when necessary”
What type of gospel about God are we preaching to the world when people look at our families?
Do they see an unbreakable unity, a love that binds?
Do our children see a false picture of God from us as parents? Do they look at their mother and father and see how God really is to His children?
On judgment day will we as parents be able to stand before the God who is the perfect family and be able to give an account for our families?
III. Even is taken from Adam’s Rib.
Adam’s side is opened up and from it comes Eve.
What does this tell us?
Eve is created out of Adam’s rib is mysterious but it is profound.
One thing this tells us that men are mudpies and women are palaces.
That might seem like a strange statement but a return to the original Hebrew found in Genesis 2 will clear this up a little.
Genesis 2: 7
7) the LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being.
The word used here in verse seven for Formed is the Hebrew word, YATSAR and it literally means to build with bricks, earthenware, or pottery.
In other words we are mudpies.
Genesis 2: 22
22) The LORD God then built up into a woman the rib that he had taken from the man.
The word used here in this verse for the building up of the woman is a completely different word.
It is the Hebrew term, BANAH, and means to build a temple or a place.
This is a special term to show that woman was the crown jewel of Creation. This final Creation of God would be something special.
Husbands, do we treat our wives in such a way to reflect this term? Do we treat our wives as God’s palace or the special place that she has in Creation as God’s crowning jewel.
God saved the best for last with the creation of woman.
Eve is created from his rib – side by side – bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh – From this time onward this will be the case. Co-dependence –
Eve depended on Adam for her beginning and every human since that time depends on the womb of their mother for their existence.
This passage reminds us how much male and female are connected and are dependent on one another.
Earliest Christians saw a connection between the side of Christ being pierced and Eve.
In the crucifixion account we remember that when Jesus’ side was pierced both blood and water came forth. Christians from the earliest times immediately connected this with the Creation account and taught that just as Eve came from Adam’s side the Church was birthed from the side of Christ.
In saying this they pointed out that through the water of baptism and the blood of Christ we are born into the Church.
They saw an instant foreshadowing of Adam’s side in Jesus and the cross.
Do we treat each other in this way in our own families? Do we as husbands Lord it over our wives or do we treat them like they are as close to us as our heart?
Do we reflect that same self sacrificing love that Jesus displayed when he went to the Cross?
I would propose for husbands to be truly what God intended us to be we must see each day as taking up the cross for our family.
Are we sacrificing everything to get our families in a right relationship with God?
Are we doing everything we can to get their souls right with God?
Our wives and our children should be as close to our heart as possible because God reminds us of our dependence on one another.
IV. The first Creation focused on a Family and God’s New Creation and Plan of Redemption happened in a family Context.
We know that the first family on earth was imperfect. We see that Satan’s first attack on mankind happened in the family context.
I find it fascinating that the very act of Redemption started when Jesus was born into a human family.
I am sure God could have incarnated flesh in any way He saw fit. He could have created a human body for Jesus but God chose to send the Messiah, the Son of God into human history through the family.
There is much that could be learned from this in that God finds the family ultimately important. God choose the family of Mary and Joseph to send His Son into and be nurtured by.
Imagine if God called one of us up today and told us that we would have to raise His Son in our family.
What if we were in the place of Mary and Joseph today?
What if we had to raise the Son of God in our family?
Would God be pleased with our family? Would he feel comfortable in sending His Son into our family?
Why is that any different than the gifts of our own children that he gave us. Our children that God gave us are really His ultimately. WE are just trustees or stewards of these good gifts.
This morning I wanted to lay out for you a grand and cosmic view of marriage and the family.
In the next weeks we will look at many of the particulars that we find in Scripture.
One thing that we want to always share with you is that God has a plan.
God has a plan for our families and lives that leads to a fullness of life.
It all starts with becoming a child of His.
We want to offer an invitation to anyone that may need to respond to this grace.
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