#DailyDevotion The Day A Man Loves His Wife

Lent day 15 Friday

Read Gen 24:32–52, 61–67

Gen 24:63-67  And Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening. And he lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, there were camels coming.  (64)  And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she dismounted from the camel  (65)  and said to the servant, “Who is that man, walking in the field to meet us?” The servant said, “It is my master.” So she took her veil and covered herself.  (66)  And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done.  (67)  Then Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah his mother and took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.

 

We might note the character of Isaac here.  What is he doing?  He’s meditating in the evening.  We should all take some time out during the day to spend time pondering and praying God’s Word.   Isaac is a man devoted to the Lord who has blessed his father and now is blessing him.

 

We note Rebekah.  What is her character?  What is she displaying?  Modesty.  Something not so clearly demonstrated by today’s Christian women.  Modesty just isn’t for minutes before a man says, “I do.”  It ought to be the whole of the relationship before the wedding.

 

What a beautiful and simple marriage ceremony.  The servant brought the woman to the man, the man takes the woman into his mother’s tent and whala! They’re married.  No drama.

 

Finally we see the most important thing.  Isaac loved Rebekah!  No, it wasn’t a euphemism.  He gave his life for her.  She became a helpmeet to him.  This is what marriage is supposed to be about, the husband loving the wife as Christ Jesus loved the Church.  The wife being there for the husband to assist him as the Church does the work of Christ here on earth.

 

St. Paul describes it nicely here: Eph 5:22-27  Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.  (23)  For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.  (24)  Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.  (25)  Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,  (26)  that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,  (27)  so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

 

Lord Jesus Christ, may those who you have called into the holy vocation of marriage show the love and respect for one another as You and Your Church are reality of this institution. Amen.