Last week we saw how Yeshua’s assertion of authority and fulfillment of His role as protector is an aspect that should be included in our efforts to live out YHWH’s design for marriage. In the previous weeks, we also looked at other aspects of His ministry and how they should be applied to our marriage. There are a couple more characteristics that need to be covered to complete the study of His ministry’s application to our marriage before we move on to other New Testament scripture regarding marriage.
The first of these remaining characteristics is His fulfillment of the role of provider. Not only did Yeshua provide the Word, teaching His followers the truth about it and what it means, which is being a spiritual provider, He also was a physical provider. He gave what was needed physically when it was required, so the people were not only being given spiritual nourishment and lacking the physical nourishment they needed.
In addition to the many physical healings Yeshua performed, cleansing leprosy, restoring sight and speech, etc., when He saw those that came from far and wide to hear Him needed food, He provided it (Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 6:30-44, Luke 9:10-17, John 6:1-15). Not only that, He provided more than they needed, leaving much left over. And He didn’t just do this once, He did it at least twice according to scripture (Matthew 15:29-38, Mark 8:1-9).
All symbolism and numerical significance of these events aside, Yeshua knew that man is a being of multiple parts and that all parts need to be cared for in order that the whole person is cared for. He started with the spiritual nourishment because our nature is, at its core, spiritual. You must start with our spiritual aspect to make it the head, the leader, of our whole person, and then you can address our flesh, or physical nature, to identify it as the subject of our spirit rather than its leader. We’ve looked at this before, but it bears repeating: the flesh, our fleshly nature, is the most easily deceived part of us and is the primary target of evil to influence us. If we let our flesh be the head of our person, we will inevitably be led down the path of destruction rather than the path of righteousness.
The same way Yeshua provided first spiritually and then physically to His followers, in our marriage we are to provide spiritually and then physically to those that we are designed to lead. The man provides to the woman and the woman provides to the children. This is not to say that these are independent situations, only that if done independently, that is how it should flow. In other words, the man can certainly provide to the woman and children in one go (e.g. when holding a family bible study or obtaining food for the entire family), but if the man is at work, for example, it now falls on the woman to provide that spiritual and physical nourishment for the children.
Another aspect of being a provider is a key one that needs to be mentioned. Fulfilling the role of provider does not mean giving your followers whatever they want. That, by its nature, puts the followers in a position of leadership since they are determining what the “leader-in-name-only” provides them rather than the other way around.
Yeshua certainly did this during His ministry. While He healed many that came to Him because of their ailments, as we identified last week He didn’t just cow-tow to what anyone of that time, especially the religious leaders, expected Him to be or to do as their Messiah. They clearly had a vision in their mind of how the Messiah should be and what He would do, but rather than give them what they wanted or were expecting, He gave them what they required, what they actually needed. This even included the fact that they expected, even demanded, signs as proof of who He claimed He was (Matthew 16:1-4, Mark 8:11-13, Luke 12:54-56), but Yeshua knew that not only was a sign not what they needed, even if He provided one they would not have believed. After all, even when displaying His power and authority to cast out demonic spirits, they accused Him of doing it under the power of evil rather than through the authority of YHWH (Matthew 12:22-30, Mark 3:20-27, Luke 11:14-23).
The final characteristic of Yeshua’s ministry as it applies to how we live out our marriage is one that is a theme throughout His ministry but is most evident and emphasized at its end: Yeshua lived out YHWH’s will in place of, and even at times against, His own. He willingly gave Himself over to the chief priests, elders, and even Rome, knowing to what end would be the result and despite the fact that He absolutely had the power and authority to go against their desires and avoid that result.
Yeshua knew what the end of His ministry entailed for Him, and even provided that information throughout His ministry to His disciples. Whereas initially it was sort of matter-of-fact statements by Yeshua, the closer to the crucifixion it came, the more emotional Yeshua was about what was going to happen to Him. The first indication of this is what’s labeled in my Bible as His “Lament over Jerusalem,” where He expressed sadness over the fact that despite His efforts (including, it seems, those He did while still in heaven, before He came in the flesh) the city chose the path of death and desolation (Matthew 23:37-39, Luke 13:34-35). He desired that they chose the righteous path, but knew that His efforts were unsuccessful and what was coming to Him meant He would no longer be able to keep trying.
The most significant indication of His feelings about His impending death was at the very end when He was praying in the garden. He told Peter, James and John, that His soul was consumed with sorrow to the point of death (Matthew 26:36-38, Mark 14:32-34). He prayed to YHWH and asked three times that He not have to bear what was going to happen to Him (Matthew 26:39, 42, 44, Mark 14:35-36, 39, Luke 22:42). His anguish about it was so great it affected Him physically in the form of sweat made of blood (Luke 22:44). However, even with this, He gave up His will and fulfilled YHWH’s will instead.
Sometimes, as followers of Yeshua in the fulfillment of YHWH’s will, we seem to think that we’re supposed to always be happy with YHWH’s plan in our lives and what He leads us to do. We’re just supposed to accept it and move out smartly, and questioning it or desiring that it be something else is a sign that we’re not being good Christians or somehow we’re doing something wrong. Yeshua’s actions in Gethsemane show us that is not an accurate viewpoint, and it makes sense because if YHWH wanted that He wouldn’t have made us with our own will and ability to choose.
We’re not supposed to just mindlessly and emotionlessly follow YHWH’s will in our lives. In fact, according to Yeshua’s example, we can even pray that His will be something else instead of the thing we are dreading. We shouldn’t be surprised if He doesn’t change His plans though, and when we find the answer to our prayers is that His will hasn't changed, ultimately we are to move out with whatever it is He is leading us to do. No matter what that means to how nervous or apprehensive we are doing it or what it will be the result to us physically.
YHWH has a will and desire for us not only in our individual life but also in our marriage and family life. If we are not praying for that will to be revealed to us, we are doing something wrong. Even more, if we are not doing all that we can to fulfill that will, regardless of its result, we are not being obedient to Him. It’s ok for us to question what it is, and even not like it. But in the end, if He doesn’t change it, we are to live it out, whatever it may be.
We’ll start looking at other New Testament scripture regarding marriage next week, but to close out our study of the application of Yeshua’s ministry to our marriage we are called to be providers for those put under our leadership according to YHWH and we are to seek His will and execute it in our marriage and our family. It’s not always easy to do either of these things. The world desires us to fail in both of them. However, our strength is in Yeshua, and if we call on Him, He will help us to do everything He expects of us (Philippians 4:13).
Shabbat shalom and YHWH bless you!
-Rob and Sara Gene
Comentários