![]() ![]() Deuteronomy 25:6: “The first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.” That’s an amazing provision for the perpetuation of the name through physical seed. The rule was that the first son born would bear the dead brother’s name. Remember the whole elaborate system of Levirate marriage - that is, the marriage of a man to his deceased brother’s wife so that the name of the deceased brother would not be lost. First Samuel 24:21: “Swear to me therefore by the Lord that you will not cut off my offspring after me, and that you will not destroy my name out of my father’s house.” Levirate Marriage and Ruth So Saul asks David to swear that he will not cut off his offspring for the sake of his name. These offspring are crucial not only for the preservation of the covenant but also because a person’s name would end without children. God reaffirms the same to Isaac in Genesis 26:3: “I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father.” Again physical “offspring” are crucial for the covenant. Sarah your wife shall bear you a son.” In other words, the physical offspring mattered. And when Abraham could not have a son because of Sarah’s barrenness, Abraham said, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” But God answered, “No. So in Genesis 1:28, the first thing God says to Adam and Eve is, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” And in the account of Genesis 2:18, when woman was not yet created, God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone I will make him a helper fit for him.” Abraham and IsaacĪnd when Abraham was chosen as the father of God’s people, God took him out and showed him the stars and said, “So shall your offspring be” (Genesis 15:5). Therefore, being married and having offspring was of paramount importance for one’s name and one’s inheritance and for the preservation of God’s covenant people. ![]() God was focusing his covenant-keeping faithfulness mainly on an ethnic people. In the created order that God put in place before sin was in the world, and in the covenantal order that God put in place with the Jewish people from Abraham to the coming of Christ, “God is primarily building his covenant people through the mechanism of procreation” (Danylak, 9.). The Bigger Picture in Redemptive Historyīut to see this more clearly we need to get the bigger picture. ![]() In other words, God promises those of you who remain single in Christ blessings that are better than the blessings of marriage and children. God promises to bless obedient eunuchs with blessings that are better than sons and daughters. I will give in my house and within my walls “No family relationship is ultimate relationship to Christ is.” And here let me give credit to Barry Danylak for his research on this issue and his very helpful paper, “A Biblical-Theological Perspective on Singleness.” Let’s start in the middle of the Bible at Isaiah 56:4–7: Now let’s step back and look at the Scriptures. To be single in Christ is, therefore, not a falling short of God’s best, but a path of Christ-exalting, covenant-keeping obedience that many are called to walk. To say the main point more briefly: God promises spectacular blessings to those of you who remain single in Christ, and he gives you an extraordinary calling for your life. No family relationship is ultimate relationship to Christ is. That faithfulness to Christ defines the value of life all other relationships get their final significance from this. ![]() That marriage is temporary and finally gives way to the relationship to which it was pointing all along: Christ and the church - the way a picture is no longer needed when you see face to face That the family of God grows not by propagation through sexual intercourse, but by regeneration through faith in Christ that relationships in Christ are more permanent and more precious than relationships in families (and, of course, it is wonderful when relationships in families are also relationships in Christ but we know that is often not the case) My main point is that God promises those of you who remain single in Christ blessings that are better than the blessings of marriage and children, and he calls you to display, by the Christ-exalting devotion of your singleness, the truths about Christ and his kingdom that shine more clearly through singleness than through marriage and childrearing. I will start and end with my main point and in the middle cover a wide terrain of Scripture to support it. ![]()
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