| Psalm 68:5–6 |
God's plan to scatter the enemy is Family
| There is a real enemy of God. This enemy is out to kill and steal and destroy. God's plan to defeat the enemy is to build family. God puts the lonely in families. He becomes a father to those who have been abandoned and forgotten. God is about building family.
Families provide identity and security. Families provide.... Let me start right there. Recent studies have shown the stronger the family the better the chances for upward mobility.
When we talk about families we tread into sensitive territory. This battleground is filled with emotional land mines.
For many talking of family is frustrating because the majority of the talk of family has to do with talks of marriage. And more today find themselves single than in previous times in America. Many are staying single longer. Many are single again.
We find ourselves looking for a model of what family is supposed to look like and the traditional nuclear family is becoming more and more rare.
I can't find a typical family to base my life upon from the people in the Bible.
Abraham had a beautiful wife that he twice he told people that she was his sister (which in fact she was his half sister) for fear of being killed. ( |
Ge 12 & 20).
Isaac's wife conspires with her son Jacob to steal the blessing forcing Jacob to be a fugitive.
Jacob has sister wives that fight over him offering their maidservants to mother additional children kicking off the nation of Israel from the ultimate blended family.
David the king has a wife given from Saul who despises him,
Saul’s younger daughter (1 Sam. 14:49), who became David’s wife. Her love for David was exploited by Saul, who hoped to dispose of David by asking an unusual and difficult bridal price (1 Sam. 18:20-29). Like her brother Jonathan, she saved David from Saul’s attempt to kill him, cleverly covering up his escape (1 Sam. 19:11-17). Saul later gave Michal to Palti (1 Sam. 25:44) but she was returned to David as part of a political bargain (2 Sam. 3:12-16). Michal and David quarreled over his behavior before the Ark (2 Sam. 6:12-23; cf. 1 Chron. 15:29) with tragic consequences for Michal. She died childless.
Achtemeier, P. J., Harper & Row and Society of Biblical Literature. (1985). In Harper’s Bible dictionary. San Francisco: Harper & Row.
a wife that from an adultress affair.
Bathsheba (bath-sheeʹbah), daughter of Eliam, the son of Ahitophel, one of David’s advisors (2 Sam. 11:3; 23:34). The wife of Uriah the Hittite, she was coveted and seduced by David while her husband was with Joab, fighting against the Ammonites at Rabbath, east of the Jordan (2 Sam. 11:1-4). After David had ordered Uriah sent into the forefront of the battle where he was killed, he married Bathsheba. The Bathsheba adultery was rebuked by Nathan the prophet. Bathsheba became the mother of Solomon (2 Sam. 12:24) and begged the elderly David for Solomon’s succession to the throne (1 Kings 1:15-17).
Achtemeier, P. J., Harper & Row and Society of Biblical Literature. (1985). In Harper’s Bible dictionary. San Francisco: Harper & Row.
Another wife Abigail (abʹi-gayl). 1 Wife of Nabal, a wealthy and churlish rancher in Carmel (1 Sam. 25:2-3). Nabal refused to acknowledge David’s authority and as a result David determined to have Nabal killed. Abigail, a beautiful and intelligent woman, arranged a meeting with David, unbeknownst to her husband, and persuaded him not to harm Nabal. Shortly afterward, Nabal died suddenly (apparently from shock after hearing how his wife had intervened on his behalf), and David married Abigail (1 Sam. 25:39-42).
Achtemeier, P. J., Harper & Row and Society of Biblical Literature. (1985). In Harper’s Bible dictionary. San Francisco: Harper & Row.
His children kill each other and rebell against him taking the throne for a time.
Absalom (abʹsuh-lohm), one of the sons of Israel’s greatest king, David. Because he was handsome and ambitious, Absalom was the most conspicuous of David’s sons; his mother was Maachah, princess of the neighboring vassal state of Geshur. The story of Absalom is told in 2 Samuel 13-20. When his half-brother Amnon raped his full sister Tamar and David took no action, Absalom took the law in his own hands and killed Amnon, after which he spent three years in exile in Geshur. Laborious mediation on the part of Joab brought Absalom back to the court, but David refused to see him for another two years. This filled Absalom with such anger and resentment that he harbored the idea of a coup d’état. It took him four years to prepare for an uprising that stood a good chance of success.
Achtemeier, P. J., Harper & Row and Society of Biblical Literature. (1985). In Harper’s Bible dictionary. San Francisco: Harper & Row.
Solomon is not a good example
1 Kings 11:1–3 (NIV84)
Solomon’s Wives
11 King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. 2 They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. 3 He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray.
Family has always been an issue. And yet God's intent is to use family for His purpose in our lives. And you are not the first person to encounter challenges in your family.
Building your family is key in success. And building family is more than just finding someone to marry.
| Ephesians 3:14–16 |
Our Identity is Found in Family
| Jude 1 |
| This is an incredible picture of finding your identity. This epistle is written by Jude, short for Judas. Why don't you refer to yourself as Judas? Well, of course Judas was the one who betrayed Jesus. Up until that time Judas was a very common name, but Judas the betrayer kind of ruined the name for everyone.
That would be a bad thing right? I wouldn't want to be the person who was so bad that I ruined the name.
So this author called himself Jude instead of Judas. |
| Mark 6:3 |
| Also he says he is a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James. Jude is telling you a great deal here without actually saying it. Because this James had a well known brother. |
Both James and Jude were brothers of Jesus.
Jude was not trying to flaunt this fact, however he wanted to let the reader know the truth of his connection with Jesus.
| Jude 1 |
a servant of Jesus Christ
| Jude was pleased to be called a servant of Jesus. To be called a servant of God is a noble calling. Moses was known as the servant of God. For the NT follower of Jesus to be called a servant of Jesus is both an honor and a humble distinction. The call to serve as Jesus himself served is the place of identity and it is an honor. |
| Jude 1 |
To those who have been called, who are loved.
| Jude, secure in who he was. Then turns to speak identity into the readers.
He starts by saying you were called. To be called by God, you must be known by God.
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| Jeremiah 1:5 |
God told Jeremiah he knew him before he was formed in the womb.
| It is so amazing to think that God would call me. What makes it even more meaningful is that God called me, knowing me. He knows my strengths and my shortcomings. He in fact made me and placed in me the gifts and abilities and the limitations that I face. He made me like He wants me.
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| Loved by God.
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| Living in the context of God's love is a life full of possibility. Our identity is found where we feel loved and accepted.
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People continually gravitate to the place where they feel loved and accepted. The enemy would try to convince you otherwise, but God loves you. Before you could ever love Him he loves you. And he is acting on bringing that love to you.
| 1 John 4:7–8 |
The identifying characteristic of God's people is love
| What characterizes God's people is love. Knowing and sharing God's love is where life is truly found.
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| Isaiah 43:1 |
When we know who we are and whose we are we can live without fear.
| Notice God used the name Jacob and Israel. Remember this is the name for the same patriarch. Jacob, a man born to be a trickster, deceiver and manipulator. He went through a great deal of struggles wrestling with God and man until the night he became the prince, Israel. |
When God speaks of your identity He knows where you came from, but even more important He knows what He is making you to become.
| John 1:12–13 |
Know your identity, and live up to the name by which you were called
