MARRIAGE RELATIONSHIPS
MARRIAGE RELATIONSHIPS
Genesis 2:21 - 23, Genesis 11:29; Genesis 24:15 - 21
The tendency of human hearts would be to regard marriage from a natural point of view, and probably it is to counteract this tendency that God has throughout Scripture connected spiritual thoughts with it. He would have the marriage relationship to be taken up by His saints in the light of what is spiritual.
When the marriage relationship is brought before us in Scripture the feminine side of it is made prominent, indicating that the spiritual features involved are intended to characterise the saints subjectively. Our attention has often been called on such occasions to the wonderful acting of God as recorded in Genesis 2. There is something, indeed, in the type which is far greater and deeper than anything that could be true of the Christian husband and wife. For naturally the wife is never of her husband in the same way that Eve was of Adam. But the assembly is of Christ in that way, and the Christian husband and wife are to take up their marriage relation in the light of this.
Eve was taken out of Adam, and the assembly is composed of those who are members of the body of Christ. We have a more intimate link with Christ than with the nearest earthly tie. Eve could have said, Every bit of me came out of Adam. She must have learned from Adam that she was of him: “And Man said, This time it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh: this shall be called Woman, because this was taken out of a man” It is from what Christ has said in us that we know that we are of His body, and in union with Him. Paul says, “This mystery is great, but I speak as to Christ, and as to the assembly” Two persons becoming one flesh is a figure of this great mystery, and the Christian husband and wife — the one in his love and the other in her subjection — are to take up their relationship in the light of it. It is a type of what belongs to eternal purpose.
Sarah is the next wife in Scripture connected with the faith line, and she brings another great spiritual instruction before us.
[p. 6] It is not quite so elevated as the Eve type Sarah is a dispensational type in contrast with Eve, who is a type of what is in divine purpose. Sarah appears in Scripture as representing the system of grace as over against the system of law. She is “the free woman” in contrast with the maidservant Hagar; what is of promise and of Spirit comes in by Sarah. So that in connection with Sarah we learn to distinguish the speciality of the dispensation under which we live. There will be no liberty in anything that we take up if we do not take it up as under grace. A sense of that will preserve us from any spirit of demand in our relations one with-another. It is important for husband and wife, and for all of us, to walk together in liberty as under the great economy of grace. We are favoured to take up things as knowing God in His unmerited grace, and knowing that He can be counted upon as faithful to all that He has promised. And along with this there is the Spirit for power.
Peter exhorts husbands to dwell with wives “according to knowledge”; that is, they are both to understand the terms on which God is with them, and to act on the same terms towards each other. They will thus be “fellow-heirs of the grace of life”; they are both to have part in this. And they must be careful that nothing is allowed to come in to take them off the line of receiving from God. They must preserve liberty of access to God in dependence upon Him for all they need. So Peter adds, “that your prayers be not hindered”. God is always to be counted on, and that intelligently. Liberty in our relations with God lies at the root of happy marriage relations, and all other happy relations. If we take them up in natural power we shall break down, for when we deviate from liberty and promise, and the thought of receiving from God in pure unmerited favour, we lose touch in a practical way with the Spirit, and then we have no power to move in acceptability to God. But as we go on according to knowledge and according to Spirit, we shall acquire likeness to Rebecca, who is the next prominent bride in Scripture.
In Rebecca we see a beautiful additional characteristic. Eve as a type connects with God’s eternal purpose; Sarah brings out His grace dispensationally; but Rebecca sets forth those captivating personal qualities which are suitable to satisfy the affections of the heavenly Man. The particular feature which the [p. 7] servant looked for was a readiness to serve, and he found an unaffected spontaneity in this way that caused him to be astonished at her. All truth should work out in this way, whether it be the truth of the assembly or the truth of the dispensation of grace. It was Rebecca’s qualification to be Isaac’s wife. She “let down her pitcher on her hand, and gave him to drink. And when she had given him enough to drink, she said, I will draw water for thy camels also, until they have drunk enough” She was truly a woman of worth.
The marriage relationship taken up according to knowledge should give more scope for the spirit of service, for there are many things which a husband and wife can do which neither of them could do alone. Rebecca (meaning noose, or captivating) sets forth in type the beautiful feature of willing service. Some — like Mary of Bethany — have been found ready to serve fitly at the right moment. There is nothing really greater than to serve with intelligent readiness when service is required, and when is it not required?
I do not think Rebecca acquired this aptitude in a moment. She could not have taken on this character so simply and unaffectedly if she had not been habituated to it. I have no doubt she had grown up in having delight in serving others. It has been said in the world that an act repeated becomes a habit, and a habit continued becomes a character. We can only acquire by steadily pursuing the line of the Spirit. Phoebe is a beautiful illustration in the New Testament of readiness to serve; Paul commends her as “servant of the assembly”. There was no partiality with her, no personal favourites; she served the assembly. She was ready to help everybody; she had helped many, even Paul. The Son of man came to serve, and this feature is to come out in a feminine way in the assembly. How attractive is this feature to the heavenly Christ! It is the feminine reproduction of Himself. The spirit of Rebecca is to mark all who are of the assembly. May we all seek to be more characterised by this beautiful spirit of service! May God impress the lessons taught in connection with these three early marriages in an effective way, not only on the hearts of our brother and sister but upon all our hearts!
A Word given at a Marriage Meeting