INTRODUCTION:
The family that eats together stays together. But this requires further development.
THE TEXTS:
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so (Gen. 1: 27-30).
OVERVIEW:
We see in the first place that God created man (mankind) in His own image. We are told this twice in two different ways, and the writer of this passage goes out of his way to note that male and female together constitute this image (v. 27). Having created them, God blessed them and gave them their marching orders—he told them what they were to do. This is the task before you: 1. be fruitful; 2. multiply; 3. replenish the earth; 4. subdue it; and 5. exercise dominion over all living creatures. In short, the man and woman were told to increase their numbers fruitfully. They were told to restore to the earth what they had taken from it. They were told to subdue the earth, and they were told to rule the animals. All this was a tall order, quite enough to make you hungry. He gave them every herb-bearing seed, and all fruit-bearing trees so that they might eat. After the Flood, God included meat on the menu (Gen. 9:2-3). So this is the creational order in our passage. God created them. He blessed them. He charged them. He fed them.
AN ONGOING MANDATE:
This great creation mandate was not undone by the effects of sin. Immediately after history’s greatest judgment on sin, God renews this cultural mandate, with some modifications. Sin has never altered the task assigned to man—but it has destroyed our ability to fulfill it. The coming of Christ addressed this shortcoming, and was not an instance of God giving up on the task. Now, in the coming of Christ, we now see the only possibility of fulfilling the task.
STILL BLESSED, STILL FED:
Now remember the pattern from Genesis. God creates us, blesses us, charges us, and feeds us. We have the same (and greater) privileges in the new covenant. God has recreated us in the new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). God blesses us in that new creation (Rev. 22:14). God has given us something to do, which amounts to the same charge given in Genesis (Matt. 28: 18-20). And God gives us strength for what He has assigned to us. He feeds us (John 6: 35).
THE LORD FEEDS US TOGETHER:
This is all glorious, but let’s make it practical. Let’s get our feet under the table. How does all this apply to marriage? Remember, “male and female created he them,” and then, in that context, God blessed, charged and fed them. And in this biblical context, we need to realize that if half our meals are eaten over the sink, then something is wrong. How should we arrange our meals, the food we receive from God, in an appropriate hierarchy? Husbands and wives must beware of the temptation to gear all meals to the kids, and so together they must:
Feed on Christ’s words:
As Jesus talks about feeding on Him as the bread of heaven, He places this in an important context. “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6: 63).
Feed on Christ’s body: ”
The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread” (1 Cor. 10: 16-17). And of course this is done by faith alone.
Feast in our households on the Lord’s Day:
the sabbath is a feast day, not a fasting day (Lev. 23:1-3). The nature of this feast extends into “all your dwellings.” The meal in the church is called by the apostle a festival (1 Cor. 5: 8). The Lord’s brother says the same (Jude 12). One of the most pernicious forms of sabbath-breaking is this: “once every seven days God expects us to get chintzy for Him.” But not surprisingly, this attitude spreads throughout the rest of our lives.
Pray for and receive our daily bread with thanksgiving:
the Lord taught us to pray for our daily bread (Matt. 6: 11). The apostle Paul tells us that every French fry at every fast food emporium must be consumed to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31).
Now what this means is that the “nutrition” from each will cascade down to the ones below. As we hear in faith, we will come to the Lord’s Table in faith. As we come to the Lord’s Table in faith, learning how to eat together with His family, we will be enabled to gather together on the Lord’s Day to eat with our own families. As we honor the Lord on His day in our households, we will find that our own meals begin to grow and mature.