Give her vineyards
Prove Me now by it, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
And I will rebuke the devourer [insects and plagues] for your sakes and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine drop its fruit before the time in the field, says the Lord of hosts. Malachi 3.10-11 (AMP)
We are instructed about few permanent relationships, that instruction is focused upon the example from marriage, and that relationship is intended to bear fruit. Schaeffer, referring to Romans, terms it a double in order that. “The picture here is overwhelming. As the bride puts herself in the bridegroom’s arms on the wedding day and then daily, and as therefore children are born, so the individual Christian … will bear Christ’s fruit into the fallen, revolted, external world.” (Schaeffer, The Church Before the Watching World)
In the world, children are born when the picture is incomplete, defective, fallen, but a child is nonetheless the intended fruit of the relationship between a man and a woman. The incomplete and fallen relationship (I’m allowing here for fallenness to be attributed not just to matters arising within the relationship, but also to matters arising out of the intersection of the world and its nature with the individuals, relationship and the person of the child) is neither to be permitted to destroy the intended fruit nor cause it to be dropped before its time.
That is a powerful argument for acting to protect the legitimate interests of children, to introduce them to the world only when they are ready, and to respond when others are themselves unprepared, unable or unwilling to act.
To act, to tend that vineyard makes the door of hope.
Therefore, behold, I will allure her [Israel] and bring her into the wilderness, and I will speak tenderly and to her heart. There I will give her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor [troubling] to be for her a door of hope and expectation. And she shall sing there and respond as in the days of her youth…. Hosea 2.14-15 (AMP)
Sing and respond.
Thomas Jahl, Headmaster, Cono Christian School
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.