In the book of Genesis:
For every great man of God there is the name of a great woman of God who stands out with them!
For Adam there’s an Eve
For Abraham there’s a Sarah
For Isaac there’s a Rebekah
For Jacob there’s a Rachael and a Leah
It is a remarkable feature of the first book of the Bible that there is for each Godly man a Godly woman. The one encouraging the other and both working in harmony together!
Who could forget the faith of Rebekah (Gen24) going out in faith from Mesopotamia to meet a man she had never met before; one of the great love stories of the scripture.
Peter in 1 Peter3 reminds us of the dignity, the Holiness and the subjection of Sarah.
It must be said too of course that where we find failure in the life of a great man of God we often find failure in the life of the woman of God:
Eve is deceived and Adam falls
Sarah loses faith in the promises of God and so follows that whole sorrowful episode with Hagar and Ishmael (Gen16)
Rebekah has a soft spot for Jacob and so the deceived Isaac blesses the wrong son!
Genesis is marked by tremendous fellowship between husband and wife.
We chose 1 episode to illustrate that fellowship (Gen23):
First funeral in scripture
The first burial in scripture
First mention of tears in scripture
Tears of a husband for his bride
There was a deep and rich bond between Abraham and Sarah.
Some of the things we might say will seem a little Archaic, a tad old fashioned, strange by modern thinking but these features of 1 Peter 3 will:
Firstly bring Christ into our marriage
Secondly bring our marriage into Christ “in the Lord”
With that will come these: a deep and an abiding affection, a bond unbreakable on earth, broken only by death, because it will be a bond which does not depend upon the things of time, the things of the flesh, it goes deeper than that as deep as any bond can go, it lies in Christ!
‘The couple who prays together stays together!’
It is the end of that union in death that brings the first patriarch to tears!
This is a rich and an enduring bond through all of the highs and lows, all of the joys and sorrows of the patriarchs life.
It is when Abraham buries Sarah his wife that we have the first burial, first funeral, the first tears and the first pledge of Gods inheritance!
This is the first portion of the promised land that Abraham owns, it is the grave of Sarah his bride, both died in faith.
There Abraham was buried, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah!
These relationships were not only great relationships, they were enduring relationships, standing the test of time.
It is interesting that in the pages of scripture that follow we never really see the like of it again.
Not long into Exodus when we are faced with friction / animosity between Moses and Zipporah (Ex4:25); the Polygamy of David with the trouble surrounding David and Michel and David and Bathsheba. David sows a seed into his family that perhaps is not a huge hindrance to him but it is the end of his son Solomon; if David could have 7 wifes (2Sam3 + Bathsheba + /- Michel), more followed later (2Sam5:13) I can have 700 and his heart is taken away after the false Gods of his wifes! Be careful the seeds we sow for a future generation. David introduced something that the next geneation took a stage further!
It is not till the advent of Christ that the marital relationship becomes what it ought to be again; there we begin to see the great couples of scripture again:
Mary and Joseph
Elisabeth and Zacharias (Luke1)
Aquila and Priscilla – a remarkable couple:
In their home the church finds true fellowship (1Co16:19)
In their home Paul found true friendship (Rom16:4)
- In their home Apollos found the true faith (Acts18:26)
What is it that restores the sanctity of the marriage and that elevates once again the dignity of fellowship between a man and a woman?
It is surely this – the presence of Christ in that marriage!
In 1 Peter3 we have this – Christ brought into the marriage bond, that the marriage might be brought into Christ!
A woman saved out of the world, her husband is still an unbeliever, so what will she do:
Have a chaste conversation (3:2)
Marked by a meek and quite spirit (3:4)
Like the Holy women of old (3:5)
Marked by subjection (3:5)
Maybe you won’t be too surprised, bearing in mind all we’ve said in the previous Tuesdays to learn this:
“chaste” is used of Christ: “Even as He is pure” (1John3:3)
“meek” the same word is used of Christ: “thy king cometh unto thee meek and sitting upon an ass…” (Matt21:5)
“Holy” is the very person of Christ:
“The Holy one of God” (Mk1:24)
“Thine Holy One” (Ps16; Acts2:27; 13:35)
“Ye denied the Holy One and the Just” (Acts3:14)
“That Holy thing” (Luke1:35) – ‘thing’ not in the Greek lit. “That Holy” – used as a noun here.
“He that is Holy” (Rev3:7)
“Holy, Holy, Holy” (Rev4:8)
What is happening in this home? This woman has been saved, and she’s bringing Christ into this home! In purity (v2), in meekness (v4) and quietness (v4), in holiness (v5) and in subjection (v5).
In so doing she is so different from what is found in the world (v3) – the outward, the external and the corruptible!
This can only be done in the power of the sanctuary!
Carrying a fragrance of Christ from feeding on Christ and being founded upon Christ and now displaying the features of Christ!
This is a battle won without a word being spoken (v1).
Remarkable for in 1 Peter we are brought to the power of the word (1:23) – revealed to the prophets (1:10); preached to the world (1:25) and believed on to salvation (1:23).
Here is a woman and she is in a home with a husband who doesn’t read his bible he reads her!
Marked by purity of life (v2)
It is this change in life that will make the biggest impact in the life of her husband!
One verse for the husbands (v7):
“Heirs together” – the word in the NT always anticipates a heavenly or spiritual inheritance – where we began our epistle with the believers inheritance.
“Grace of life” – The Grace which is life.
Where our section begins so too it ends: with the woman bringing Christ into the marriage and a marriage now brought into Christ.
Here we have a man and a woman together anticipating their inheritance together and ensuring that nothing spoils their enjoyment of Christ together!
0 comments:
Post a Comment