Husband

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her – Ephesians 5:25

I loved this verse so much we incorporated it in our marriage vows. I always tell people that saying I’d submit was no sacrifice when Lew was vowing to love me as Christ loved the church.

Ephesians 5 gives great insight into healthy marriage relationships patterned after our relationship with God.

• Wives are to be subject to their own husbands as we all are to the Lord.
• Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church–to the point of giving himself up for her.
• Husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies.
• Wives are to respect their husbands.

Ephesians 5 is as much about God’s love for us as it is about human marriage. Marriage is a picture of Christ’s relationship with His church. He loves us sacrificially and faithfully, as every good husband does.

I think that’s one reason marriage has come under such attack. Be it redefining what marriage is (destroying the millennia old concept of one man and one woman in covenant relationship as long as you both shall live) or dismissing  its importance or maligning it as somehow detrimental to a woman’s autonomy, the Enemy wants to undermine marriage.

Let’s reclaim marriage the way God designed it.

Your husband is your maker.

His name is Yahweh Tsebaoth.
Your Go’el is Qedosh Yisrael.
He is called the Elohim of the whole earth. – Isaiah 54:5 (NOG)

We’ve looked at these names before, but here’s a little refresher. Our husband’s name is the Lord of Hosts. Our kinsman redeemer (we’ll look at that one in a few weeks) is the Holy One of Israel. He is the Creator God of the whole earth.

He’s not an NFL quarterback or a Forbes’ list billionaire or even the leader of the free world. He’s the King of King and Lord of Lords, King of All Creation.

We didn’t choose Him. He chose us. Why? Because we deserved it? Not in a million years. He did it because He loved us and He wanted to.

Thank God.

This year-long series is inspired by Ann Spangler’s Praying the Names of God for 52 Weeks