Smeagol is Free!
A hermitudinal view of...stuff...


11.14.2004  

Marriage...again

A little explanation is in order. If you've already read the previous post, go ahead and read this one. If not, read the one below this one first, and then come back and read this one. Cool? Cool.



This post will serve as an addendum to the previous one, written roughly twelve hours ago. This morning, as I pondered what I had written last night, other thoughts on the subject of marriage, as defined by Scripture, came to me unbidden. Thus was born this follow-up post, which I hope further clarifies and undergirds my thoughts from last night.



Hosea is such a strange book. In it, the prophet Hosea is told to marry Gomer, a "woman of adultery"...a prostitute...a whore...the scum of the earth. Not just once is Hosea told to do this, but twice! The second time involves public shame, for Hosea must go into the marketplace and purchase her back like the cheap whore that she is. Is this not strange? Indeed, it is! Should it shock us? Indeed, it should! There is a very explicit point the Lord is making through the prophet Hosea and His adulterous wife; we would do well not to dilute this point. Over the years, however, people have called into question the validity of Hosea's experience. Some have argued that God wouldn't tell one of His people to marry a prostitute, let alone have one of His prophets do such a thing...it's far below God to do so! Yet isn't that precisely what God did with Christ on the cross? Is not Hosea's marriage to Gomer one of sacrifice and service, one of redemption and sanctification, one of love? It is...it is! The picture there is clear. Just as Hosea's love for Gomer should be shocking, so ought Christ's love for us be shocking. We should not take it for granted; instead, we should revel in the grace God lavishes upon us.



In the same way, husbands are to love their wives to the point of shaming themselves. Wives, as it says in Ephesians 5, are to "be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord." As to the Lord! Why? Because they should be able to rely upon the love of their husbands being as the love of Christ to His bride, a love that is shameless in the pursuit and redemption of its beloved, a love that is never ceasing and all-consuming. That is why they can submit as to the Lord!



*Sigh*...when I told Andrew it burns in me, I spoke not necessarily of the desire to be married. I must clarify this, lest I find myself in a situation much like Tom Hanks' character in Sleepless in Seattle, with crazy women writing in to find out who he is in order to gain the opportunity to throw themselves at him. *Shudder*. No thanks! To be perfectly honest, I'd prefer to be able to be single. Seriously. As much as I am a hopeless romantic, if God gave me the choice, I think I would tell him that I would like to be single, with no desire to be married. It would be easier on me, that's for sure; I could indulge in my own selfishness, and I wouldn't have to worry about anyone else. As it is, I'm not sitting here looking for a girl to be with me. Those that know me well will say that's never been the case, either. I'm a selfish person, after all. I'd love to be able to call up Andrew every day for the rest of my life and say, "when are we going surfing today?" It's a beautiful thing to be able to do that. By God's grace, however, He did not make me that way. I know that and I rejoice in that, just as I would rejoice if that were not the case.



So you see, the burning I spoke of really isn't a burning desire to be married right now; rather, it is a burning desire for the truth, for the gospel that we blind ourselves to when we take marriage and water it down into an end all its own. *Sigh*...it is not simply a way to procreate, not simply a fulfillment of hormonal or emotional desire! God gave us those desires in order that we might learn to love as Christ loves, that we might experience the love of Christ far more intimately and truthfully than we would have otherwise. Those desires speak of and point toward a higher calling, a deeper truth! God gave us marriage that we might learn to love as Christ loves and the Church in turn loves, and learn to submit as Christ submits and the Church in turn submits. That is what burns...the truth...the truth is what burns.

posted by Bolo | 11:24 AM
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