Category: Wildman Journey (Page 1 of 78)

Bard  Wilcox’s new book, “Get Married” has caused quite a discussion regarding the state of marriage in American  culture.  Wilcox points out the single best predictor of long-term happiness is marriage.  “Americans,” notes Wilcox, “who are married with children are now leading happier and more prosperous lives, on average, than men and women who are single and childless.”  In fact, there is a, “startling 30-percentage-point happiness divide between married and unmarried Americans.”  

In an interview given to “Public Discourse,” Wilcox listed five forces behind the diminution of marriage in American life.  These factors, “have been championed by the elites who control the commanding heights of our culture, economy and government,” notes Wilcox.  Here are the five dynamics identified by Wilcox.

First – Expressive individualism – living for the desires and ambitions of the self, rather than for family and community.

Second – Secularization – the decline of religious authority and practice, which has diminished the normative power of marriage and the social supports that sustain marriage.

Third –  the rise of a post-industrial economy – making disadvantaged non-college-educated men, less “marriageable.’

Fourth – Statism – “the modern state’s tendency to supplant many of the functions and much of the authority once held by the family.”

Fifth – Electronic opiates – “Big Tech’s products have left too many young women anxious and depressed and too many men bereft of drive and ambition.”

He adds this observation, “Dominant elites have advanced ideas that devalue and demean marriage, cast aside the normative guardrails that forge strong families, passed laws that penalize marriage for the poor and working class, and superintended the rise of a new economy that benefits them but puts marriage and family out of reach for millions of their fellow Americans.”  He worries that we are facing a “closing of the American Heart,” in a nation where a large number of young adults will never marry and-or never have children. 

Demographer Lyman Stone projects that as many as one in three young adults will never marry and as many as one in four will never have kids.  Wilcox declares, “That’s a lot of kinless Americans.”  So where does this leave us as men who want to make a difference, as followers of Jesus?  Here are some suggestions.

1) God’s view of reality.  I strongly exhort men to view  marriage and family as the foundation of our society.  Don’t listen to the voice of the crowd, “the empty-headed, mindless crowd” (Eph. 4:17 MSG).  Paul says, “They’ve refused for so long to deal with God that they’ve lost touch not only with God, but with reality itself.  They can’t think straight anymore.  Feeling no pain, they let themselves go in sexual obsession, addicted to every sort of perversion” (Eph. 4:18-19 MSG).  

2) Commit yourself to be an exemplar in your marriage.  Pope John Paul IV considered marriage to be prophetic in its expression of the body and sex, proclaiming  “a profound mystery” of Christ and the church (Eph. 5:32).  Visualize your marriage as a prophetic expression of God’s love expressed in Christ.  Your marriage can stand as a light in a very dark world.

3)  Know that you are in a fight with the enemy of our souls.  The Pope noted, the union of the sexes, “is placed at the center of the great struggle between good and evil, between life and death, between love and all that is opposed to love.”  As we commit to our marriages, we will be fighting a significant battle against the enemy

4) Be joined to and committed to a group of believers who will encourage, support and interceded for your marriage.  

5) Commit to be available to younger men, who so desperately need exemplars in their lives.   

I was meditating on Ps. 11 recently.  Verse 3 visualize my experience as I watch nightly news.  “The foundations of law and order have collapsed.  What can the righteous do?”   In this Psalm, David  affirms his faith in a righteous, unchanging God.  “Even though the world appears hopelessly chaotic, both the godly and the wicked can count on God’s justice.  The godly can depend on him as a refuge and shelter” (NLT Study Bible). 

I  want to encourage younger men, committed to follow Jesus, in their concern for their families in the midst of our chaotic, changing world.  Make the commitment expressed by David, “I trust in the Lord for protection” (v. 1).  We can be assured of our trust in an unchanging God, who laid the very foundations of the world.  “In ages past you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands” (Ps. 102:25).  The creative order will change, but not our unchanging God. “Even they will perish, but you remain forever; they will wear out like old clothing.  You will change them like a garment and they will fade away” (Ps 102:26). 

God remains the same.  He never changes.  This should give us absolute confidence in the future of our children and grandchildren.  I personally take great comfort in these verses. “But you are always the same; your years never end.  The children of your people will live in security.  Their children’s children will thrive in your presence” (Ps 102:27-28).

You could be asking, as you listen to the dominant narrative of our day, why should I put my trust in the Lord.  “So why do you say to me, ‘Fly to the mountains for safety!'”  (Ps 11:1). It sounds like the phrase, “Head for the hills!”  Many men  are tempted to abandon responsibility for being protector and exemplar of their families and heading for the hills. It sure can be tempting, when those who are opposed to the sovereignty of God continue to shoot their arrows at us, often from the shadows. “The wicked are stringing their bows and setting their arrows in the bowstrings.  They shoot from the shadows at those who do right” (Ps 11:2)  

Habakkuk lamented the loss of law and order, “Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails.  The wicked hem in the righteous, so the justice is perverted” (Hab 1:4).  But the Psalmist assures us, “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you” (Ps 89:14).  But David acknowledges, “The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord still rules from heaven. He watches everything closely, examining everyone on earth” (Ps 11:4). 

After Job’s long lament before God in which he did not get any satisfactory answers from his three friends, God finally replied to Job from the whirlwind. “Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorant words?  Brace yourself, because I have some questions for you and you must answer them.  ‘Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?  Tell me, if you know so much.  Do you know how its dimensions were determined and who laid its cornerstone as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? (Job 38:1-7).  Job replied, “I was talking about things I did not understand, things for too wonderful for me …. I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance” (Job 42:3 & 6).

Men, don’t let “the talking heads” cause you to wonder if God is still on his throne.  Remember, “For the Lord is righteous and he loves justice.  Those who do what is right will see his face” (Ps 11:7)

Isaiah 63 portrays the victorious king’s return to Zion.  The prophet asks why the king’s garments are red, as if he had been stomping grapes in a winepress.  The Lord replies he has returned from stomping on the nations; it is their blood that is spattered on his garments. “I trampled them in my anger and trod them down in my wrath; their blood spattered my garments, and I stained all my clothing” (v. 3b).  The Lord laments, however, because there was no one to help.  “I looked, but there was no one to help, I was appalled that no one gave support; so my own arm achieved salvation for me and my own wrath sustained me” (v. 5).  

Isaiah then offers a lengthy prayer (7-19), proclaiming God’s faithfulness to his people.  But despite God’s kindness, they rebelled, prompting God to turn against them and become their enemy.  “Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit.  So he turned and became their enemy and he himself fought against them” (v. 10).  They had forgotten how God in his love and mercy had redeemed them. “In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them; In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old” (v. 9).  

 They ask, “….where is he who brought them through the sea, with the shepherd of his flock?  Where is he who set his Holy Spirit among them” (v. 11). They cry out to the Lord, “Look down from heaven and see, from your lofty throne, holy and glorious.  Where are your zeal and your might?” (v. 15). They ask, “Why, Lord, do you make us wander from your ways, and harden our hearts so we do not revere you?” (v. 17)

Then in heart felt prayer they cry out, “”Oh, that you would rend the heaven and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you” (Is 64:1).  The prophet affirms the uniqueness of God in doing “awesome things.” God had shown his favor and faithfulness to his people in the past.  But the people had ignored God.  “No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have given us over to our sins”(Is 64:7).

They acknowledge God to be their Father.  “Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand” (Is 64:8).  In intercession, they prayed, “Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look on us, we pray, for we are all your people” (Is. 64:9).  When they saw Jerusalem a desolation and all their treasure lying in ruins, they ask God, “After all this, O Lord, will you hold yourself back?  Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure?” (Is. 64:13).  God replied, “I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me….All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people” (Is. 65:1-2).  

But God give this wonderful promise. “Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth.  The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create…” (Is.65:17-8). 

In the end God’s plan will prevail among the Hebrew people as well as it will in our day.   God will show up and make all things new.  This is our hope and certainty in such troubled times as ours. But our hearts need to seek God in repentance.

Stephen Adubato had a very interesting article in Mere Orthodoxy entitled, “Grilling Man at the End of History.”  Adubato narrates how he grew up as a “privileged snowflake” of suburbia.  Like many millennials and Gen Zs, he grew up struggling with “risks, unpredictability, and challenges.”  Like many others, “we were afforded minimal independence.  The general attitude of parents and educators led us to be averse to risk taking and learning from mistakes.” The result was a “bureaucratic form of problem-solving [and] atomized relational structures.”  Adubato acknowledges the lack of “an existential horizon to imbue myself with a sense of dignity and to make sense of conflict and suffering.”

He refers to Umberto Galimberti who observes young people today are not well.  They lack purpose resulting in nihilism.  “For them the future has changed from promising to threatening.” A sense of interior bewilderment has resulted from the disintegration of the social fabric.  Philosopher Mary Townsend writes, “suburbia is a breeding ground for nihilism.”   

Adulbato then makes this statement.  “A mentality that offloads responsibility onto distant officials and attempts desperately to sweep the danger, conflict, risk, unpredictability of existence and ultimately death itself under the rug fosters the illusion that we live in a universe  where all risks can be managed, all engagements with reality should be mediated….But once you realize that there are wounds which can’t be fully healed, this same mentality begets the opposite idea: That in the end nothing will be OK.”  

Our writer calls this “the Spirit of the Suburbs.”  This flattened midcentury ideal of taming humanity produced “Grilling Man.”  “The fantasy of the perfectibility of the human into the post-historical Grilling Man is determined to ignore the evidence that indicates that man is constantly in conflict with violent and destructive forces….. Like the powerful flows of the tide raging against a dam wall…..The ‘horizontal’ ideal of well-being is incapable of fully flattening out the yearning to reach for ideals that would have us gazing vertically toward the infinity of the cosmos, and of restraining our inner Augustinian restlessness.  To be Grilling Man at the end of history is not fully satisfying for anyone.” 

Adubato warns, “It will only be so long until we hit the wall that forces us to confront those forces beyond our rational wills, and that we lack the tools to make sense of and adequately deal with……..outbursts, whose roots are set deeply in our nature, are impervious to flat, sociological and psychological interventions from trained professionals.”  But Adubato is not asking us to shun the grill and flee en masse from the suburbs into cities and rural areas.  

The concerns of the young today are more existential.  “To flock to existential fringes can feel as though one is opening to door to refreshing and meaningful questions that lead to a hopeful future, but what is behind those doors can also be hellish.  To discern the way out of suburban suffocation without falling into any of the dark pits from which, at the cost of our humanity, it protects us, is difficult.”

Beware of  the “Grilling Man,” who is a flattened out tamed man, afraid of taking manly initiative.  A godly man is characterized by “”orientation, direction, order and responsibility” (Payne).  For me this means, Jesus is Lord, He leads as I follow, He will prepare a way for me, and I need to take responsibility for my words and actions.  Malachi 4:6 speaks to our culture: “He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.” 

I am always looking for voices calling our culture back from the brink of gender confusion regarding toxic masculinity and the  relentless attack on patriarchy. To my surprise, Jerry Seinfeld has been making his voice heard in the media.  It seems like he is calling us back to a “common  culture” of the early 1960’s, when gender roles were not so confusing.   He laments the decline of “dominant masculinity,” which he suggests has led to the disintegration of the clear social hierarchy that once maintained American culture.  He made these remarks on a town hall at SiriusEM Studios, hosted by journalist Bari Weiss.

Seinfeld noted that a “key element” missing in modern society is “an agreed-upon hierarchy,” which he said “is absolutely vaporized in today’s moment.”  He even had the courage to point out the decline of traditionally masculine men in today’s culture as “a symptom of the disintegrating social hierarchy.” Seinfeld noted that people who lean on the horn and drive in the crazy way  they drive is because they have no sense of hierarchy.  “And as humans” he believed, “we don’t really feel comfortable like that.”

While he admired traditional masculinity, Seinfeld admitted he did not epitomize such traits.  Looking back at his youth, he admitted, “I’ve always wanted to be a real man. I never made it.” He looked up to men like John F. Kennedy, Muhammad Ali, Howard Cosell, and Sean Connery as examples of a real man.  He admits what he called “the toxic thing,” while still still having admiration for a real man.  Seinfeld also talked about “toxic masculinity” with Bill Maher on his podcast, during which Maher ascribed the decline of men in part to rampant perverted pornography.  

Seinfeld, who is usually not overtly political, has complained recently about the far-left “woke” culture destroying entertainment and pushing people from comedy because it is not policed by anyone.  “‘This is the result of the extreme left and PC crap,” he lamented, “and people worrying so much about offending other people.”  

At a recent 2024 commencement address at Duke University, many pro-Palestinian students walked out in protest of the Jewish comedian.  Seinfeld told Weiss that such display against him were silly, noting, “These people should focus their frustration over the geopolitical situation at those individuals who have control over the decisions.”  

As a male, striving to have a biblical view of reality, and a male who also lived through the 60’s and 70’s with Jerry Seinfeld, I have experienced the disappearance of male leadership in our society.  I am especially grieved that the young men of Generation Z and the Millennials have so few exemplars of wholesome male models.  I felt as I read several accounts of his interview with Ms. Weiss, that Seinfeld was longing for the old days.   

Those days are gone.  But men are being called again to embrace a God-given hierarchy, expressed in a divine order of authority.  In the beginning, “God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (Gen. 2:15).  Man was first. Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone.  I will make a helper suitable for him” (Gen. 2:18).  Eve was to be his helper.  They lived in harmony without conflict or competition.  “The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame” (Gen. 2:25).

Exemplary living starts with men being under authority.  “Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older.  All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another…..” (I Peter 5:5).   

In Isaiah 42:10-17 we are urged to celebrate all things being made new by singing a new song .  God is depicted as a warrior in this new song.  He is the warrior who causes all things to become new through his refining warfare.  “The Lord will march out like a mighty man, like a warrior he will stir up his zeal” (Isaiah 42:13).  God is first called a warrior in Exodus 15:3-4, where he rescued his helpless people by destroying the chariots of Egypt.  “The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name.  Pharaoh’s chariots and his army he has hurled into the sea” (Ex. 15:3-4).  When God comes as warrior there is no uncertainty about the outcome.  

Psalm 24:8 asks, “Who is this King of glory?”   The answer: “The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.”  The people of Israel were told that God would fight for them.  “‘Do not be afraid.  Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.  The Egyptians you see today you will never see again.  The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still'” (Ex. 13:14-15).  When Joshua was bidding  farewell to the Israelites, he reminded them, “It was the Lord your God who fought for you” (Joshua 23:3). When the people of God were rebuilding the city walls of Jerusalem, Nehemiah told them, “Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there.  Our God will fight for us!” (Neh. 4:20).  

Revelation depicts Jesus as a warrior.  “I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True.  With justice he judges and makes war.”  But king Jesus is also portrayed as the Lamb of God.  In a counterintuitive declaration, Revelation declares, “They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of Lords and King of Kings – and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers” (Rev. 17:14). 

The Lord is depicted in this new song as being aroused from silence: “For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back.  But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant” (Is. 42:14). The ESV Study Bible notes, “As a woman cries out after finally going into labor, God at the time he knows is best, will exert himself to bring his purpose to fulfillment.”  Nothing in creation will stand in his way (v. 15).  

God will deliver his people.  “But I’ll take the hand of those who don’t know the way, who can’t see where they’re going.  I’ll be a personal guide to them, directing them through unknown country.  I’ll be right there to show them what road to take, make sure they don’t fall into the ditch.  These are the things I’ll be doing for them – sticking with them, not leaving them for a minute” (Is. 42:16 – Message). 

Men, it might seem like God is silent.  But in his time he will act with zeal.  God will lead the blind, while turning the darkness into light, making the rough places level.  Jesus, the mighty warrior is also the Lamb of God, who defeated evil on the cross.  His enemies will one day cry out, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand” (Rev 6:16).  But we will overcome,  “by the blood of the Lamb” (Rev. 12:11) and by the word of our testimony.  

This is the title of Taylor Swift’s latest album.  I read a revealing article in First Things by Isabella Clarke,  entitled, “On Tortured Poets, Taylor Swift Dreams of Marriage.”  I have never listened to Taylor Swift’s music, but I am very aware of her worldwide influence as a pop singer.  What I find interesting in Clarke’s review is  Swift’s desire for marriage.  Clarke notes, “Despite its increasing fragility and lack of permanence in the modern West, Swift still desires marriage, which she invokes as the ultimate symbol of enduring love and commitment.”  Swift, who is thirty-four, seems to be giving a voice to many women in their thirties.  “The ‘waste’ of youth is inherently more cutting for women than for men.”  

Swift views her new Album as “female rage, the musical.”  Clarke observes, “She increasingly gives voice to her anger at the inability of men to match her desire to pledge lifelong loyalty … In Swift’s world, it isn’t her career that gets in the way of marriage, but the men who made grand declarations only to ‘ghost’ her when things get too real.  These experiences make Swift’s songs relatable to many younger women.  ‘Ghosting,’ the Peter Pan syndrome, and men who want “long term, distance, low commitment, casual” girlfriends are common in today’s modern dating scene.”

In The Prophecy, which the reviewer sees as the most poignant track on the album, Swift turns her eyes upward and begs an unspecified higher power to change her fate:  “A greater woman wouldn’t beg / But I looked to the sky and said / Please I’ve been on my knees / Change the prophecy / Don’t want money / Just someone who wants my company.”  “This album,” suggests Clarke, “reveals that even individuals as powerful and successful as the Taylor Swift can desire the validation of marriage.”  Clarke closes her review by saying, “Swift, on Tortured Poets, makes it very clear who she blames for thwarting her dream, namely the men who ‘didn’t measure up / in any measure of a man.’  Perhaps the culture, who raised these men to take women and talk of marriage so lightly, ought also to bear some of the blame.” 

Wow!  This review seems to beg for a reply from an older man, who has been married to the same woman for 59 years.  To me it is a sad testament to our confused culture that a young woman of the stature of Taylor Swift felt the need to be so open and transparent about her apparent desire for permanency with a man.  I find it very telling that inThe Prophecy Swift seems to be calling out for help from heaven.  What do the words “change the prophecy” imply?  My take is that Swift sees little hope except that God would change what could be her future –  one without a fulfilling marriage.

My testimony: Nearly every morning I say to my wife, “Thank you for staying with me for these 59 years.  You are a long suffering woman.”  What is implied in these words?  1) I take no credit for the blessing of 59 years with Judy.  Marriage is a gift from God.  My wife has responded to me in a very godly manner.  For that I am very thankful.   2) My marriage is the greatest gift given to me by the Lord, other than my salvation.  3)  I am truly thankful for Judy’s companionship, support and genuine love.  I don’t deserve this gift.  4) I only pray that I might continue to reflect the love of God through my marriage. 

In days such as ours, a godly marriage can actually be a prophetic statement to a hurting culture.   

“Faith, fatherhood, and masculinity” was the title of a panel at the recent National Religious Broadcasters convention. The focus was on the needs of families in today’s increasingly hostile culture.  In her remarks, Mary Eberstadt summarized the 20th century in six words, “Men are at war with God.”  She contended, “Men and women are at war with God over the first question in history, which is ‘Who gets to direct creation?'” 

She believes the major social issues of our day can be traced back to the sexual revolution.  “It loosened the bonds of family, the bonds of community, patriotism and love of community.”  As a result, Eberstadt contends we have three “crises of paternity.”  They are: “1) The crisis involving our Supernatural Father, and our relationship to Him.  2) The crisis involving our earthly fathers.  3) The crisis involving patriotism, our love of country.  She maintains, “If we understand that these three crises are interrelated, we’ll have taken one step towards starting to address them.”

Also on the panel was Nancy Pearcey, author of “The toxic war on Masculinity.” “Certainly one of the tragedies of our day is the way fathers are ridiculed and mocked in the media today,” Pearcey noted.  She gave several examples including an article in The New York Times, which said in part, “One of the most frustrating problems in evolutionary biology is the male, specifically, why doesn’t he just go away?”  Another from The Atlantic – “The bad news for dad: There is nothing objectively essential about his contribution.”

Pearcey counters such widely held sentiment regarding the masculine,  by referring to examples in modern research and data that disprove the toxic masculinity point of view.  First, she cited anthropologist David Gilmore.  He found that all cultures affirm that good men do three things: provide, protect and procreate.  Secondly, Pearcy cited research that shows, “Christian men who are authentically committed, and attend church regularly, are actually the most loving and engaging husbands and fathers.”  

Thirdly, Pearcy cited Brad Wilcox, author of “Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization,” who found that, “the happiest of all wives in America are religious conservatives.  73% of women who hold conservative gender values, and attend church regularly with their husbands, have high-quality marriages.”  Lastly, Pearcey noted that contrary to popular claims, fatherhood is not a “social invention.”  Psychologists have found what they call, “the dad brain.”  “There is a nest of neurons that are activated when a man becomes a father….. God has literally given men a biochemical boost to bond with their children.  So, the facts are in, men are wired for fatherhood.  It’s not a cultural invention.  God has designed the neurochemistry of men to be engaged and loving fathers.”  

This is all “good news” for embattled fathers (and grandfathers like myself).  Here is reinforcement for men both young and old to stand as exemplars of a godly father in an age of tragic fatherlessness.  In Psalm 10, the Psalmist asks why do the wicked succeed? Although God may seem to be hidden at times, we can be assured that he is aware of every injustice.  He sees the plight of the fatherless.  “The victim commits himself to you; you are the helper of the fatherless” (Ps. 10:14).  As men we can pray, “You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order that men, who is of the earth, may terrify no more” (vv. 17-18).

 “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families (Ps 68:5-6).

The title above comes from a quote attributed to C.S. Lewis in The Stream: “God is going to invade, all right, but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural  universe melting away like a dream and something else – something it never entered your head to conceive – comes crashing in; something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left?”

“For this time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature.  It will be too late then to choose your side.  There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up.  That will not be the time for choosing; it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen; whether we realized it before or not.  Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side.  God is holding back to give us that chance.  It will not last forever.  We must take it or leave it.”  

When I read this quote I was reminded of the times in scripture when God is called a warrior.  In Exodus 15:3, after crossing the Red Sea, the people of Israel sang, “The Lord is a warrior, the Lord is his name.”  Before the people  prepared to cross, Moses had told them, “Do not be afraid.  Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.  The Egyptians you see today you will never see again.  The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” (Ex. 14:14).  In Psalm 24, the psalmist asks, “Who is this King of glory?”  The answer: “The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle” (Psalm 24:8).

In Deuteronomy, Moses reminds the people how the Lord fought for them and carried them.  “Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them. The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in the wilderness.  There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place” (Deut. 1:29-31). In Zephaniah, the people sang of God’s victory: “The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves (Zeph. 3:17).  

We need to pray passionately for God to arise and do battle for us.   Psalm 78:65 declares, “Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, as a warrior wakes from the stupor of wine.” We could now be experiencing the anger of God as a warrior.  The prophet Isaiah describes Jerusalem drunk from the cup of God wrath (Is. 51:21-23).  She staggers through the streets and falls to the ground in a drunken stupor (vv. 17-19).  But then God changes direction, as he removes the cup from her hand and forces her enemies to drink from it (vv. 21-23).

We can pray with the psalmist, “Arise, Lord, in you anger; rise up against the rage of my enemies.  Awake, my God decree justice” (Ps. 7:4).  God declared in Isaiah 63:5-6, “I am amazed to see that no one intervened to help the oppressed.  So I myself stepped in to save them with my strong arm and my wrath sustained me.  I crushed the nations in my anger and made them stagger and fall to the ground, spilling their blood upon the earth.”

Remember: “If God is for us, who can be against us”  (Rom. 8:31). 

Daily Citizen recently published a good article on marriage entitled Why Marriage Matters: Understanding its place in the beauty of the Christian story.  The article encourages us to appreciate how profound marriage is in God’s story, especially since marriage is undervalued in our culture.  Quoting from Genesis, Paul wants us to see marriage at the heart of God’s divine plan to save us.  “‘Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’  This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” (Eph. 5:31-32). 

Back in Genesis 2:24, God declares his intention for humanity and marriage.  The first thing God does with Adam and Eve is create them male and female so as to complement and complete each other.  Then he joins them together as husband and wife.  First, Adam and Eve bear the image and likeness of God as male and female.  Then, after their creation, they are made husband and wife. In Genesis 1 we read, “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it'” (Gen. 1:28).  As the article states, “God performed their wedding … called them to live as husband and wife, be fruitful, start a family, fill the earth, and engage all of creation.” 

Later in Genesis, Adam declares the beautiful advent of women, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man” (Gen. 2:23).  Then God declares what Paul quotes in Ephesians 5: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. ”  The article’s takeaway is this: “Marriage is central to God’s plan for humanity and his divine purposes … What God created in marriage from the start for man and woman is also intimately and mysteriously related to the beautiful truth of Christ and His Church.”  As Paul himself states, “This is a profound mystery – but I am talking about Christ and the church” (Eph 5:32). 

Marriage is thus central to the whole story of the Gospel from Genesis to Revelation.  In the prophets God pursues his unfaithful bride.  The Song of Songs is an allegory of the marriage relationship with Christ and his Church.  Jesus tells us He is the bridegroom, seeking His beloved bride.  Revelation speaks of the wedding feast of the Lamb. “Our marriages have been an imperfect signpost pointing to this glorious nuptial truth of Christ and his Church.”

The article ends with this: “Marriage is a beautiful thread running consistently and significantly through God’s divine narrative from the first page to the last … it is true that one cannot really tell God’s story of his divine plan for humanity and the Gospel itself without speaking deeply and intimately of marriage.  Marriage does matter, more than we can ever know.”

This article impacted my thinking of marriage in several ways:

• Marriage is central to God’s intentions for the inhabitants of his creation.  Marriage has not  evolved by human necessity or thought; rather, it is at the heart of God’s story and plan for the men and women.  I dare not tamper with his intentions.
• Marriage is the greatest gift given to us, other than God’s salvation in Christ.
• Marriage has survived the ups and downs of history.  God’s intention is for our marriages to reflect his glory in the earth.
• Because of this, esteem and honor marriage.  The enemy our our souls, Satan himself, wages constant warfare on our marriages.