Exhortation, April 24

This exhortation was inspired by recent lectures by James Jordan.

In this morning�s sermon, Pastor Wilson will be talking about learning and growth in marriage, and as he will point out that this growth, even apart from sin, can be awkward and difficult. Between one stage of knowledge and illumination and another can be the darkness of confusion and ignorance.

This should not be surprising. This is God�s way with the world, from the first chapter of Genesis and throughout history. When He set about creating a world, God didn�t make a fully-formed world all at once. It takes Him six days, and throughout those days He divides, reunites, and glorifies. He divides light from darkness, and unites them in a sequence; he divides waters above and below, and unites them with a firmament. He forms plants animals from the earth, dividing land from living things.

Each day makes the world better than it was, but notice that this improvement is not simply a movement from glory to glory. Between each improvement there is a cessation. Each new formation is the result of a division. God doesn�t simply move from light to brighter light; between the light and the brighter light is a period of darkness. Between each new birth of sunrise is the death of night.

When God created man, He continued the same pattern. He doesn�t simply create man male and female. He moves Adam from glory to greater glory, the greater glory of Eve, but between the glorious Adam and the more glorious couple, Adam falls into deep sleep and is divided in two parts. This is God�s way with us: We can move from glory to greater glory only through awkward and often painful changes, only by first being divided into two.

We resist this. We want to move from being alone to being fulfilled in marriage without going through deep sleep. We want two to become one without any radical surgery. Our resistance is resistance to God and His way with us, and our resistance condemns us to perpetual immaturity. If we want to grow from glory to glory, we need to trust God through the awkwardness of learning about each other. If we want our marriages to manifest glory, we have to be ready for deep sleep and the knife.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, April 24, 2005 at 09:10 AM

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