This is the third post in a series that I am doing based on the lives of the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), the accounts of which are found in the book of Genesis. In spite of the title of this series, the record of the experiences of the men listed above are only incidental to me. What I find far more interesting, relevant, and important is the revelation of the character and nature of God that we can see by observing these men's lives. Each post will coincide with a lesson being taught in a classroom. As such, they will not be in a traditional essay format. Rather, it will be a slightly expanded version of the notes that I hand out in class.
The Genesis Account
Gen. 31:4-16 –
It is astonishing that in this culture where the relegation of women to
inferior stations was the norm Jacob sought counsel from his wives. It further displays his vastly altered
character and serves as a precursor to the vision of male/female relations that
God would later begin to rebuild with Israel.
Supporting Scriptures
Gen. 2:23 – This
is God’s original design of relationship between the sexes. There is a union here. There is a bond. There is a oneness. And it is set at a 1:1 ratio between male and
female. Roles and responsibilities and dissatisfaction with them fade into obscurity and insignificance in light of
the joyous coming together of man and woman.
Gen. 4:19-24 – Yet only two chapters later,
after sin has entered the picture, we now see the first recorded instance of
polygamy. Lamech takes two wives to
himself. Not only that, but notice his
attitude toward them. It is domineering
and prideful.
Gen. 20:17-18 – Fast forward to Abimilech,
the king of Gerar. The reference here to
his “wife and maids” indicates the presence of a harem. Before we’re even half way through Genesis
we’ve gone from two wives to a whole house full of women for the sake of one
man.
Ex. 21:7-11 – Although
in the Mosaic Law women were still inferior to men, we can see in this passage
that God is beginning to build into the social fabric of His people a
safeguarding of female rights and prerogatives.
This is just one example of several to be found in the Torah.
Questions For Meditation
To my mind there are three significant questions that arise from these biblical truths. First, what is the significance of the shift
between Genesis 2 and Genesis 4 regarding the male/female relationship?
God ordained that man and woman would cling to
each other. He prescribed a relational
bond between them of such a close and intimate nature that they would “become
one flesh”. Such a level of closeness and
unity of purpose, preference, and pleasure are frankly unimaginable for us
today. But the introduction of sin into
this image of oneness immediately disrupted the male/female relationship and
introduced not only the possibility but the fact of relational fractures. Although Lamech, probably years later, is the
first recorded instance of polygamy with all of its implications of diluting
the “one flesh” principle, immediately after being caught Eve attempts to shift
blame from herself onto Adam. The man
and woman are no longer one but have been separated into two parties, with
competing self-interests. Just imagine
for a moment what this must have been like for them. They retain the memories of their life
pre-Fall. They can recall how close they
were and how united they were. But the
memories are a curse to them. They can
never again achieve what their recollection describes to them. So they are doomed for the rest of their
lives, at least on some level, to sadness.
This doesn’t even touch on the far greater degree of sadness that they
must have experienced due to the fracturing of their relationship with God.
Secondly, what is revealed about God’s own
character in all of this? God states in Genesis 1:31 that He saw all that
He had made, and behold, it was very good.
Jesus posed the following rhetorical question to the rich young man in
Mark 10:18, “Why do you call Me good? No
one is good except God alone.” The
implication from these passages is that, although Jesus was specifically
referring to people, by extension for a thing to be classified as good it must
be possessed of some measure of God’s nature.
If this is so, then it would follow that all of these created things
that God is referring to in Genesis 1 bear His stamp, or His image, in some
way.
Further, the “all things” does not
only include material elements of nature such as what we typically envision. The creation account paints broad brush
strokes over all of the material universe, but it should not be seen as a
quantitative list of all that exists.
Genesis does not talk about the 2nd law of thermodynamics,
the theory of relativity, or the Pythagorean Theorem. These are all scientific laws or theories. They are not concrete physical
structures. Rather, they are ordered
constructs of information which aid humans in describing the material universe. Yet, if a scientific law is accurate it is
describing the universe that God created and therefore the law itself is a part of
that creation and must inherently have, at least originally, been classified as
“very good”.
What’s my point? Everything in the universe, whether material
or immaterial, bears the stamp of God’s image and reflects His nature to the
rest of creation around it. This extends
to the unblemished design of male/female relations. The manner in which God designated that Adam
and Eve should enjoy cohabitation is literally a reflection of God Himself. The truth of this is readily apparent when we
consider the ways in which God describes relations between the three members of
the God-head in comparison to the way that Adam described Eve and God described their marriage. Jesus said “I
and the Father are one.” (John 10:30).
He also said “Before Abraham was born, I AM.” (John 8:58). Paul describes the Holy Spirit as revealing
the mind of God just as a man’s spirit within him reveals his own mind (1 Cor.
2:10-11). There is a quality of oneness
and sameness present within the trinity that exactly parallels the oneness and
sameness present in the original marriage precisely because that original
marriage exactly parallels God’s own nature.
Thirdly and finally, do these principles apply in any
other situations besides marriage? Consider the following. In Christ’s high priestly prayer he makes some
requests on behalf of everyone who will ever believe in Him through the word of
the Apostles. And He defines the reason
for His asking as follows: “that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are
in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us.” (John 17:20-21). Christ’s description of all Christians who
have ever lived and will ever live is that they will have a unity and oneness
that, just as marriage is designed to do, mirror images the unity and oneness
of God Himself. What we are talking about is a
collective unification of the entire body of Christ with the Godhead and with each other to such an
extent that all of the elements of this massive relationship are
indistinguishable and indivisible from one another. A disruption in the relationship of two believers literally distorts the nature and impugns the reputation of the tri-une God. Think about that the next time you are
tempted to be angry or frustrated with someone at church.
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