Isaiah 54:13 - A United Family.
Isaiah 54:13 (NKJV) All your children shall
be taught by the LORD, And great shall be the
peace of your children.
Isaiah 54:13 (ESV) All your children shall
be taught by the LORD, and great shall be the
peace of your children.
COMMENTARY PEARL
The family is the basic unit of society.
But from the very beginning, since man sinned
against God, the family has been in trouble. The
first crime we read about in the Bible occurred
when Cain killed his brother Abel. Instead of
love, family life all too often became marked by
conflict and tension.
For best results in marriage and building
a stable home, follow the instructions of the
One who performed the first wedding in the
Garden of Eden. Those instructions are in the
Bible. The reason the family is in critical
condition today is that we have neglected His rules
for a successful home. We have put self in place
of sacrifice. We have valued things more than
we have valued people.
You can have the right kind of home. Your
home can be united if it is now divided. The
place to begin is on your knees, asking Christ for
forgiveness and then asking God to give you a new love
for each other - and for Him. Don't let your
family drift apart, but with God's help resist the
pressures and come together around the Cross.
The greatest commandments apply to the
family as a whole just as they do an individual
believer. Love the Lord with all your might and your
neighbor (spouse / child) as yourself. Families
could be healed if we went back to the basics.
[Hope for Each Day by Billy Graham]
COMMENTARY
And He answered and said to them, "Have
you not read that He who made them at the
beginning 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For
this reason a man shall leave his father and
mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall
become one flesh'? So then, they are no longer two
but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined
together, let not man separate." Matthew 19:4-6
(NKJV)
When the Pharisees afterward questioned
Him concerning the lawfulness of divorce, Jesus
pointed His hearers back to the marriage institution
as ordained at creation. "Because of the
hardness of your hearts," He said, Moses "suffered
you to put away your wives: but from the
beginning it was not so." Matthew 19:8. He referred
them to the blessed days of Eden, when God
pronounced all things "very good." Then marriage and
the Sabbath had their origin, twin institutions
for the glory of God in the benefit of humanity.
Then, as the Creator joined the hands of the holy
pair in wedlock, saying, A man shall "leave his
father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his
wife: and they shall be one" (Genesis 2:24), He
enunciated the law of marriage for all the children of
Adam to the close of time. That which the Eternal
Father Himself had pronounced good was the law of
highest blessing and development for man.
Like every other one of God's good gifts
entrusted to the keeping of humanity, marriage has
been perverted by sin; but it is the purpose of
the gospel to restore its purity and beauty. In
both the Old and the New Testament the marriage
relation is employed to represent the tender and
sacred union that exists between Christ and His
people, the redeemed ones whom He has purchased at
the cost of Calvary. "Fear not," He says; "thy
Maker is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is His
name; and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel."
"Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for
I am married unto you." Isaiah 54:4, 5;
Jeremiah 3:14. In the "Song of Songs" we hear the
bride's voice saying, "My Beloved is mine, and I am
His." And He who is to her "the chiefest among ten
thousand," speaks to His chosen one, "Thou art all
fair, My love; there is no spot in thee." Song of
Solomon 2:16; 5:10; 4:7.
In later times Paul the apostle, writing
to the Ephesian Christians, declares that the
Lord has constituted the husband the head of the
wife, to be her protector, the house-band, binding
the members of the family together, even as
Christ is the head of the church and the Saviour of
the mystical body. Therefore he says, "As the
church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be
to their own husbands in everything. Husbands,
love your wives, even as Christ also loved the
church, and gave Himself for it; that He might
sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by
the word, that He might present it to Himself a
glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any
such thing; but that it should be holy and
without blemish. So ought men to love their wives."
Ephesians 5:24-28.
The grace of Christ, and this alone, can
make this institution what God designed it should
be--an agent for the blessing and uplifting of
humanity. And thus the families of earth, in their
unity and peace and love, may represent the family
of heaven.
Now, as in Christ's day, the condition of
society presents a sad comment upon heaven's ideal
of this sacred relation. Yet even for those who
have found bitterness and disappointment where
they had hoped for companionship and joy, the
gospel of Christ offers a solace. The patience and
gentleness which His Spirit can impart will sweeten the
bitter lot. The heart in which Christ dwells will
be so filled, so satisfied, with His love that
it will not be consumed with longing to attract
sympathy and attention to itself. And through the
surrender of the soul to God, His wisdom can
accomplish what human wisdom fails to do. Through the
revelation of His grace, hearts that were once
indifferent or estranged may be united in bonds that are
firmer and more enduring than those of earth--the
golden bonds of a love that will bear the test of
trial. MB63-5
EXCELLENT PRESENTATION THAT RELATES TO THIS
TOPIC
When Inches Become Miles by Randy Roberts
10-08-2022 | Loma Linda University Church
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkoNMmglSxM&t=2107s
PASSAGES FOR FURTHER STUDY:
Genesis 2:18 (NIV) The Lord God said, "It is
not good for the man to be alone. I will make a
helper suitable for him."
Ecclesiastes 4:9, 10 (NLT) Two people are
better off than one, for they can help each other
succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out
and help. But someone who falls alone is in real
trouble.
YOUR COMMENTS
If anyone has a paraphrase, commentary or
testimony on this passage of Scripture, either
personal or otherwise, I would be interested in
hearing from you. Thanks in advance and let's keep
uplifting Jesus that all might be drawn to Him. Fred
Gibbs
LINKS WORTH CHECKING OUT
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