Personal Matters

Recently I have found the pastoral counselling of disturbed Christian marriages has caused me great distress. To find vehemence, unforgiveness and accusation amongst believers holds no real excuse (Matt 5:43-48).  To ignore the command, “be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 5:1-2 ESV) is to deny the global reconciling power of the blood of Christ and acts as “enemies of the cross” (Phil 3:18). I find that when I am dealing with immaturity in the marriages of believers my own marriage suffers strain; I become more demanding, needy, clingy and hypersensitive. Donna and I have been married a long time, and we fairly speedily bring these situations to prayer; but where today is the reconciling power of the blood of the cross in its capacity to create astoundingly beautiful marriages to the glory of God (Col 1:20)? This issue is much beiger than we first imagine.

I was praying middle of night about two seemingly unrelated subjects, marriage and the marketplace/workplace. Suddenly I saw an intimate and marvellous connection between the two. As Christians we are united to Jesus as Bride to Bridegroom (2 Cor 11:2)in a union which is all encompassing, “And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills who fills all things everywhere with himself.” (Eph1:22-23).  Our marital relationship Jesus encircles everything, including all our working lives. This means that in the Spirit’s power the ultimate purpose of employment is a calling to bring the glory of our Husband into the workplace for the praise of God’s glorious grace (Eph 1:6). Although this insight came to me suddenly it is a majestic theme so wide and deep that it needs to be expounded in several steps.

In the Beginning

Genesis 1 describes a life call that embraces men and women in their mutual responsibility to enact the divine likeness; “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, ““Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.””(Gen 1:27-28 ESV). The command to men and women to “multiply” tells us the covenant of marriage is in view, and the exercise of “dominion” extends to a worldwide call for husbands and wives to domesticate and civilise the planet.  In this unblemished picture of human beginnings no one would be left out and the divinely instituted covenant of marriage would have been the unifying foundation for the extension of the kingdom of God[1]. Genesis 2 adds another layer to this glorious description.

Adam is commanded to “work and watch over” the Garden of Eden (2:15). The language used here is found elsewhere in the Old Testament of the priestly service of guarding the sanctuary of God (Num 3:7-8; 8:26; 18:5-6). Eden was a temple in which the presence of the LORD was found in the most intimate way as he walked and talked with humanity (Gen 2:15ff; 3:8); but it was a presence that needed protecting. Added to this priestly call was the kingly ministry of ruling exhibited in tending the flora and fauna of the garden. Finally and most climatically was the prophetic office entrusted to Adam. God spoke to him directly, ““You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17 ESV). This word was not to be conveyed to the animals, who were unfit to partner with Adam in his call as prophet, priest and king, but were part of a holy vocation to be shared with a true working companion in the whole of life, the woman, Eve (Gen 2:24). Together as one in love this first married couple were to distribute God’s glory in all things over the earth (Gen 2:24).

The first marriage in Eden was not as yet perfected in the work of the LORD. If wisdom is the first and final characteristic of union with God and proceeds from holy fear, Adam and Eve needed a confrontation with the power of evil in order to spiritually mature in their married vocation (Prov 9:10; 2 Cor 7:1).

A Failed Marriage

Spiritual warfare is a feature of co working with God in a world which knows the intrusion of evil powers (2 Cor 6:1). When Satan confronted Eve it was evident that she knew the command of God concerning the tree of knowledge. This was something that Adam must have conveyed to her in fulfilment of his prophetic ministry in their marriage. Although “her husband was with her” at the time of the temptation he is entirely passive and silent (Gen 3:6). God desired that Adam and Eve exercise faith together in their guarding of Eden, instead they mutually broke their covenant with God through unbelief (Hos 6:7). Their eyes were indeed opened through transgression (Gen 3:7), but instead of the heavenly wisdom God offered, “pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere” theirs became a demonic wisdom saturated by “jealousy and selfish ambition…disorder and every vile practice.” (James 3:15-17 ESV).

The evil force which drives men and women in the workplace to back stab, gossip and ruthlessly climb over others in fierce competition has its foundations in the failure of a married couple to work together in union with God by faith in his holy Word. The glory so often associated with achievement through promotion and enterprise is simply an attempt to replace the lost glory of God with a cover up of more sophisticated fig leaves (Gen 3:7; Rom 3:23).

Conclusion

The foundation God laid in the beginning reveals that marriage and work are inseparable in the divine economy[2]. The glory of a holy marriage embraced in a covenant with God was designed to overflow into all the spheres of work and culture. Eden represents an abysmal failure in marriage in this regard and its consequences flow down to the workplace today. However the basic structures God embedded in creation remain. The LORD’s work in history proceeds beyond Paradise through covenant and marriage, this time however not with a single couple but with a nation. Israel is a prophetic, priestly and kingly people married to the LORD called to bring his glorious light to the nations of the world. This is the second stage of the story of Marriage at Work.