For this is what the LORD says: “…As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you…” (Isaiah 66:12-13, NIV)
“Look, I am sending you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the LORD arrives. His preaching will turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise I will come and strike the land with a curse.” (Malachi 4:5-6, NLT)
This is the week my youngest son gets married. While he and his bride have been working with the families on various details for the celebration and the honeymoon, I have busied myself specifically with preparing the words for their ceremony.
Weddings are one of those family times that we anticipate with joy. They’re a lot more work than a Sunday afternoon together on the golf course when the kids are small and any who do not play can enjoy riding along in the cart all the same. A lot more work than that, yes, but also a lot more memorable.
Weddings can also be complicated affairs, with personalities asserting themselves from all sides. Old rivalries must be navigated; new arrangements must be accommodated (or at least considered); and in a world where, when it comes to religion, even families live on different pages as often as they do the same one, humility and grace are priceless commodities.
“God and family” is one of those expressions you hear tossed about, and you can never quite be sure what the person employing it means. Is the speaker truly religious, or just appealing to some sort of cultural morality?
In a world where, when it comes to religion, even families live on different pages as often as they do the same one, humility and grace are priceless commodities.
Scripture, as you might surmise without me telling you, takes matters of God and family seriously. From “training up children in the way they should go” (Proverbs 22:6), to “keeping the marriage bed pure” (Hebrews 13:4), to “honoring your father and mother” (Exodus 20:12), God’s word applies the love of God to the home. In Deuteronomy, when Moses was delivering his final words to the people, he spoke of the land being given by God and passed down through the fathers, while the parents of that day were to give all they had been taught to their children and thus their grandchildren and all who would follow after.
And then there the basic heart of love.
I find it fascinating that in Isaiah 66, which is likely a prophecy for days yet to come, God says that he will do what the mother does. God created woman, yet here he speaks of her as the example, as though she came first. Why? Because people know a mother’s love, how in its purity it is undeniably sacrificial and kind. And God too is this way.
Malachi’s prophetic words are more challenging in several respects. They anticipate a separating judgment between those who answer Elijah’s call and those who do not. But in the midst of them, as a demonstration of those who would be reconciled to God, is another picture of familial love: fathers and children with united hearts.
I am blessed that my son who will stand at the altar this weekend is a believer. He and his bride have every faith-filled intention of carrying forward the love of God. That’s what Scripture encourages; that is all we parents can ask.
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Jeff Hopper
May 4, 2021
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The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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