God and Family: a Relationship

God makes Eve grow from Adam's rib, Byzantine gold ground mosaics, Cathedral of Santa Maria Nuova, Monreale Cathedral, Monreale, Province of Palermo, Sicily, Italy.

God and Family: a Relationship.

A classic verse in the Psalms which describes God's blessing on families is from Psalm 128:3, "Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table". This is a Pilgrims Psalm; a Bible Commentary says that it's a piligrimage of heart rather than of the feet.

A family would be like a father, a mother and children, which came down from our first ancestors Adam and Eve, who were made out of the hands of our Creator. Let's see some of the creation mythologies around us.

According to the Mixtec Indians of Oaxaca, Mexico, illustrate how their gods created the world. According to their cosmology, the first humans were the Primordial Twins. One Deer, with magic incense copal and ground tobacco, created the Mother and the Father of the Gods. Mother and Father then made four men and an entire constellation of spirits for crops, fire, smoke, forests, and other aspects of nature and the world.

The Chinese mythology, a giant called Pangu used his own body to create the world. Before creation, Pangu was like an egg yolk inside an egg. After eighteen thousand years, the world began to open. The light air called "Yangqi" flew up and became sky, and the heavy and wet air called "Yinqi" sank down and became earth. When Pangu breathed, his breath became wind. When he cried, his tears became oceans and rivers. After many years, Pangu died, and his head, body, and limbs turned into five famous mountains in China. Pangu created the world, but left imperfections. Because the sky was tilted at the northwest corner, the sun, moon, and other celestial bodies were not in harmonious order. The earth was lopsided because Pangu did not fill the southeast corner, causing the oceans, lakes, and rivers to pour in one direction. Nüwo, the Goddess of Creation, fixed these mistakes and then used mud to make men and women.

The Symposium by Plato (428–347 B.C.), depicts a first human as described by the playwright Aristophanes in the text: "The primeval man was round, his back and sides forming a circle; and he had four hands and four feet, one head with two faces. . . . He could walk upright as men now do." After these humans rebelled against the gods, as Zeus punished them by slicing them in two. Ever since, according to Aristophanes, humans have been driven by love into trying to reunite with their missing half to make a perfect whole.

In Egyptian creation mythology, the self created god Atum, after self impregnating himself brought out Shu and Tefnut, when they were lost in the dark waters of Nun, after finding them with the help of his eye, out of his joyful tears, sprang out men and women.

In Norse mythology the genderless giant Ymir and a Audhumla a hornless cow came out when Niflheim (ice/waters) and Muspell (fire) met. When this cow licked people from blocks of ice, the first day hair, second day his head and on the third day the shape of the whole man was revealed, whose name is Buri. Buri took wife from giants and had a son Bor, who again married another giant Bestla and had children  Odin, Vili and Ve. These three killed Ymir the giant. Out of the giants flesh made soil, his bones into mountains, his teeth into sand, the stars is the upper part of the skull, and the water was already present there. Because it's a flat earth, as to keep the waters at bay, made walls out of Ymir's eyelashes. This place is called Midgard. Midgard was empty. At the edge of the sea/waters Odin, Vili and Ve found two logs. One log was of Ash wood and the other was Elm wood. Odin breathed life into them. Vili gave them will, intelligence and made them to move. Ve carved the logs and gave them male and female genitals. The man was named Ask and the woman Embla.

Can you spot the difference, they all are believed to be true by their adherents. In creation of man and woman, some were finished by later gods, some were done in parts, some were already there, some were made out of secretions and some made out of scrap. How a god can have a loving relationship with those who are not part of his emotions or in a Biblical view who have not shared his attributes? How can the created beings find love for each other if they are not connected with one universal thing? How can they trust their Creator, if they are not one with Him?

Genesis 2:7 reads, "And the Lord formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul". To this man God brought every living creature, but still God did not find a suitable 'help' for him (v19, 20). So God made Eve out of the rib and flesh of Adam (v22), and a new relationship was born, "bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man" (v23). Now Adam has a suitable help. 'Help', in hebrew is ēzer, which has ʿAyin ע‎ Zayin ז Rēsh ר‎ as alphabets. Each and every hebrew alphabet has a specific meaning to it. To understand the word 'help', I choose to go with the original form of hebrew, which includes a Pictographic form, a Mnemonic meaning, a Syllabic meaning and a Phonetic sound. Of these I use Mnemonic meaning. Every Pictographic alphabet has a Mnemonic meaning, which has the extended meanings related to the picture (Pictographic alphabet). 

ʿAyin ע‎ 𓁹 (Ghan) = watch, pay attention, heed - as keeping a close eye on something; occupation - one paying attention to the task.

My comments : The suitable 'help' as in Ge.2:20, is a powerful caretaker of the family and keeps a strong watch over the affairs of the family.

Zayin ז 𓏭 (Zan) = tool, harvest; food - from the cutting of the crops with the tools; for storing the harvested food.

My comments : Understanding 'help' from this is, a useful tool/weapon which would work in storing of the food for the family.

Rēsh ר‎ 𓁶 (Res) = head - as top of the body; chief - the head of the tribe; rule - the role of chief; who can reason.

My comments : Through this we can understand 'help' as, one who can take up the responsibility, who can think and reason.

From the above analysis, we can understand that a wife is equal to the husband. She is no property to be owned, no inferior being and no subordinate. We can understand that a "suitable help" of Adam, his wife Eve is an equal partner who can take care of the family, who can provide, who can take up responsibility. What more can a man ask God more than this? God has great thoughts for us, He knows our needs and He knows how to meet them and He knows how to fulfill them. What more can a husband expect more than this from his wife, who is a bone of his bones, and flesh of his flesh.

The best example I can say is from the Book of Esther. King Ahasuerus (heb, Xerxes) made Esther his Queen who replaced Vashti (Es.2:17). And Haman the Amalekite(?) was been promoted in rank and gave him a higher position than all other officials (Es.3:1). His position is supposed to be a Vizer or a Prime minister to the King. He is responsible to the King, and not a subordinate to the Queen. The Queen has her place beside the King, but the Vizer can't sit beside the King. The Vizer can make a proposal to the King, for his authorization, but not to the Queen (Es.3:9,10). But a Queen doesn't have the power to over-rule the decision taken by the King, but definitely has the power to redraw a new draft or an ammendment to the order given by the King (8:1,7,8). That's the place of a suitable wife, who can refine the decisions that are going to be taken. A wife is not above or a subordinate to a husband, but an equal partner, who is an ēzer.

Till now we saw how God has a relationship with His creation. Now let's see how He intervenes in their lifestyle to be a blessing. To not to be distracted from His blessings, He gave us some commandments to be followed. These are (Exodus 20:1-17, Dt 5:6-21), the Ten Commandments, of which 4th, 7th and 10th are for a better family relationship. And I want to concentrate on the 4th commandment, "Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee", (Ex 20:12). Showing obedience to one thing results in receiving something more. The words "Honor" and "giveth" or in a different word "receive" are our focal points.

In different purposes of God's intervention in our lives, one of which He desperately wants is a relationship with us and to bless us though undeserving, out of His abundance. To bless us He demands us our faithfulness, "Honor", is one of them. Honor, in hebrew is "kābēd", which means to weigh heavily, to be heavy... It actually means a responsibility to be done. For example, if an ox has a heavy yoke on it's back, it knows that it's master has a task for it to do. In the same way, we too should feel like God through His commandment has His heavy hand laid on our shoulder expecting something from us. He is expecting Honor for Himself and for our parents as well, which in return we are honoured with the blessing. Whatever the situation might be around you, when you honor God you're blessed.

Let's see some unusual blessings of Israel. When I say Israel; from blessing within the family, some readers might think that I'm going out of context, but as parents are the head of the family, so do Israel is a family and God is the head of that family.

1. In Isaiah 26:15, "Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth".

On reading Isaiah 26:7-15, though the Israelites has turned against their evil, and started honouring God, they are blessed by undeserving kindness of God. God is honoured by blessing them, this is how God can be trusted.

2. Psalm 22:23,24 "Ye that fear the Lord, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel. For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard".

For glorifying or honouring God, has made God to listen to our petitions, He will not hate the helpless and He will not turn away when we reach Him.

3. Jeremiah 30:18,19, "Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have mercy on his dwelling places; and the city shall be builded upon her own heap, and the palace shall remain after the manner thereof. And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small". 

Here we can see the Lord's hand at work. On honouring the Lord, the Lord will honor you back. 

From the above three readings, we saw how honouring God will work for our best. In the same sense, when you honor your parents, they will bless you because you've honoured them. Though you may not done your best in your life tasks, they are trying to fulfill your needs, they will not hate you when you are troubled, they will not turn their face away when you reach them, with their help you can have joyful songs, you're boundaries are enlarged, your failures will be met with possessions (the Parable of the Prodigal Son, Luke 15:11–32), your lives will be rebuilt, you will be blessed in such a way that you will be honoured before all. More so, they are happy to go into debts to bless you, this is what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. He paid the price of our debts and gave us a new beginning. This is how honor works. Lord blesses us in such a way, that as in "like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither.." (Psalm 1:3), and we are so blessed so blessed with abundance that our hands cannot fit to hold those blessings as like Peter, John and James were surprised by the catch though they tried all night (Luke 5:5-10). What they did was honoured the words of Jesus and rowed back into the sea again. 

In this troubled world, "Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (1Peter 5:8), to devour the families and your minds. This is the need of the hour to retrospect ourselves. Before closing I would like to direct you to some needful things for a happy family relationship. "Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble", "..and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought", "Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace" (1Peter 3:8, 1Coronthians 1:10, Ephesians 4:3). This is the secret of a happy and a successful family relationship.

To conclud, heading of Psalm 128 reads, "a song of ascents", "maàlāh", mean in hebrew to ascent, used as a step or stair towards Jerusalem/God. Let's always remember the above read three Scriptures and start our watchful journey step by step ascending the stairs of the throne of God to reach Him by honouring Him and showing our complete obedience towards his commandments. Amen.