In that day seven women will take hold of one man and say, “We will eat our own food and provide our own clothes; only let us be called by your name. Take away our disgrace!” – Isaiah 4:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 27, 2020): Isaiah 4

Marriage was always intended to be a team project. It doesn’t matter if you are more traditional and believe that Eve was made as a helpmate for Adam (Genesis 2:18) or if you are more egalitarian in your views and have thrown away the traditional marriage concepts and roles. In the end, marriage is intended to be a union that is worked at by two. In the Christian community, we often speak of marriage as being between one man and one woman, this even though the cultural reality through most of biblical history was that marriage was between one man, and one to a thousand women and that polygamy is still practiced in some places today. But what is essential to the Judeo-Christian concept of marriage is that it is a venture, and the work resulting from the project is meant to be shared between the participants. Again, traditionally, the man supported the marriage through some kind of work, while the household duties and the care of children were offset to the woman. More often, in contemporary society, the responsibilities of the man and the woman are set through a decision that is made by the couple involved in the marriage. And no two marriages are exactly alike.

Isaiah 4:1 actually belongs at the end of Isaiah 3. (It is important to remember that the chapters and verses which break up our Bible are arbitrary and human-made.) Isaiah’s prophecy here is a direct result of a statement that Isaiah makes earlier in Isaiah 3. “Your men will fall by the sword, your warriors in battle” (Isaiah 3:25). The result of the battle is that the society in question will be made up of many women and a few men. In that day, Isaiah argues that women will be willing to enter into marriage for the sake of respectability or status, and will not ask for the man to contribute anything to the relationship. And in the mind of Isaiah, this is a perversion of what marriage is supposed to be.

And, while Isaiah is speaking of a situation that results from war, it is crucial to recognize the warning here for all of us. The reasons for marriage are essential. Too many young people in our society marry to escape something rather than because of love or the strength that marriage can bring. These marriages usually don’t last. Isaiah probably couldn’t understand some of the reasons we give for getting married. Isaiah believed that marriage was a connection and the basis of a co-operation that was meant to last a lifetime.

A marriage that was born out of the idea that someone wanted to be married and, at the same time, the person agreed to remain independent was a perversion of the concept of marriage. And that perversion could only become a reality in times of high stress and at the degradation of society.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 5