THE PATH

J.C.Evershed

Genesis 2: 23,24; Psalm 119: 104,105

I cannot help saying, beloved brethren, how we rejoice whole-heartedly with our brother and sister in being united in marriage in the Lord. Theirs Is an unalloyed joy, a joy of a bridegroom who is prepared even to leave his father and his mother so as to be united with his wife, and the joy of a bride who so identifies herself with her husband that she takes his name and considers for him in everything. That is what we would expect of those instructed in the truth because this word is perhaps the first prophetic utterance in the Scriptures. The Lord said that "from the beginning" (Matt 19: 4) it was ordained that a man should leave father and mother and be united to his wife and the two should be one flesh.

Marriage was instituted in the garden of Eden. The practical working out of it is outside the garden of Eden; nevertheless we have to hold to God's original thoughts. Not only do we find this word here as to husband and wife, but we find in Ephesians 5 the reason for it; and that in its turn takes our thoughts to the greatness of the love of Christ for the assembly. Not only was this verse brought forward in a corrective way by the Lord Jesus Himself as being what was from the beginning, but it was brought in by the apostle Paul in connection with the love and devotedness of Christ for the assembly and the suited fear of a wife for her husband. It is an interesting point that this scripture brought into Ephesians is not in the earlier part of the epistle, in connection with the doctrinal or official side of the place that the assembly has and will have with Christ, but it is quoted in connection with the exhortations to husband and wife. Paul, as we know, says more to the husband than to the wife, as distinct from Peter who speaks more to the wife than to the husband. But Paul evidently had very firmly and strongly in his mind the affection of Christ for the assembly, in that He "has delivered himself up for it", Eph 5: 25. Having done that He washes and cleanses it, making it entirely suitable to Him and He will present it to Himself; then the scripture speaks of His nourishing and cherishing it. Well, this is the standard that our brother and our sister have to keep before them in their married life. I am not able to say much about verse 23 except that it brings before us again the wonderful truth that we are already members of the body of Christ, and scripture goes on to say "we are of his flesh, and of his bones Eph 5: 30.

I read in Psalm 119 because, as I said, the working out of this bond of marriage, practically, is outside the garden of Eden, where a path is needed. In a certain sense in Eden there was no path needed. God had said that a man should leave his father and his mother before there were a father and a mother to be left. It shows how original that thought was with God, that husband and wife should be one. And it is our desire that our brother and sister together might be able to take up and answer, as one, to what is in these two verses. This Psalm is exceedingly interesting and important. It sets out the experiences of one in whose heart the law of God was. We would not take it up now as being exactly a law placed within us to be kept as a law, but I believe we can say of both our brother and our sister that they have in their hearts a deep desire to be pleasing to the Lord, to maintain every divine principle in their conduct and home and to be a support to the testimony of God. So that whatever the future may be, they would now be able to say that "From thy precepts I get understanding". One cannot differentiate too well between the various features in the psalm, but I believe the 'precepts' would suggest the whole range of teaching, not only in word, but also by example of those who have gone before. This our brother and sister have richly enjoyed, both in their homes and in assembly life. The maintenance of those things which Paul, writing in the last days, spoke of as the "good teaching" and "my teaching" and the "faithful teaching" - things that had been seen in him in practice - would all come under this heading of precepts, and "From thy precepts I get understanding". Then the psalmist does not say 'therefore I avoid every false path'. I think this is an important point for all of us. That would be right, of course, and it must be right to avoid every false path, but he says 'I hate': "I hate every false path". That is not only righteousness but the working out of holiness. So our brother and sister as taking this on in their pathway would say that they hate every false path.

But then there is a right path for them, and for all of us, and it is not dark or dismal. We may not be able to see ahead in it, but it is a path that has been ordered of God in which He directs us as we wait upon Him. Therefore it says "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path". I think the expression "Thy word" would embrace the whole of what we know of revealed truth concerning God Himself and His testimony, and His word in testimony, so that the whole of that becomes a lamp unto the feet. It is remarkable that attention is drawn to the feet before it is drawn to the path. I think it suggests that not only is the path viewed as important, but the readiness, cleanness and preparedness of the feet to walk in the path of the Lord are vital. Our brother and sister as married in the Lord will have a path together and therefore attention is then drawn to that. So he says, "and a light unto my path". And that word 'path' according to the Proverbs and other scriptures means a way which is not always apparent and may take unusual turns. Well, we are here to wish our brethren every blessing and fruitfulness in their married life; but then Paul says, and we would say with him, that there are such things as tribulations and wondering what the Lord's mind or direction is; but it says here that the word will be "a light unto my path". Of course, the believer has much more than this writer had, however upright his heart was, because the Lord Jesus has said to us that "I am the light of the world; he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life", John 8: 12. What we desire for our brethren in their pathway is that they should together have the light of life and the blessing of God in it. In the Lord's Name, Amen.