Four couples in the Bible

The original Korean text: https://blog.naver.com/stevision/50025357602

 

How beautiful it is when a couple meet, get married, live long together happily unto death. Looking at the couples in the Bible, you can see the right view of married couples in Christianity.

 

1. The couple of Ananias and Sapphira: These two were punished and died on the same day in the early days of Christianity. Some saints sold their land and put the sale money before the apostles, saying, "Please use this for the kingdom of God." And the couple, Ananias and Sapphira, sold their land. But they became stingy when they saw the money. They took some of the money for themselves and offered the rest to the apostles. However, the couple died on the same day when they said, "Yes," to apostle Peter who had asked them, "Is this the whole price of the land?" They took some money for their life in old age but died without spending a penny of it. What an unhappy couple! Punishment like this comes upon those couple who deceive the Holy Spirit together.

 

2. The couple of Nabal and Abigail: This couple kept their wealth and lived safely under the protection of David. However Nabal flatly refused when David asked him for some material help. He uttered insulting words, too. And David went to him to kill him, but his wife Abigail met him before her husband, apologized humbly to him, and offered him some gifts. A few days later, Nabal fell ill and died. And his wife, Abigail, became King David's wife. She had such good character that she could become a queen even though she had been a housewife.

 

3. The woman of Shunem and her husband: This couple treated Elisha, the servant of God, with all their heart and were blessed abundantly. They could shake off the stigma of childlessness, and might receive the blessing of health and longevity as well. What is certain is that the couple were blessed with a healthy sex life even though they were old. Couples receive this kind of blessing when they do their best to work for God together.

 

4. Joseph and Mary, the physical parents of Jesus: God made Jesus born by the body of the virgin Mary when they only got engaged, before they had a married life. Mary, despite the suspicion on her of the people round about, undertook the tremendous task of bearing a child before marriage; and Joseph, a righteous man, knew that he could be thought to be a fool if he took responsibility for it all, but he did it. When Jesus was born, Joseph took Jesus as his son and raised him.

 

Mary's pain doesn't stop here. Jesus must become a political king according to the promise of the angel of God. Jesus was so clever that he, already as a boy 12 years old, could have a discussion with the best religious leaders of the time. But when he was about 30 years old, he started wholly the work of God. But he failed from a worldly perspective, for he had a shameful crucifixion when he was thought to be a political criminal. His mother's heart must be broken then, and she must feel ashamed among the people.

 

But after all these, Mary is praised as the woman who is 'the mother of the God'. Of course Jesus called Mary his mother, and Joseph his father. Jesus is the God. How great an honor it is to be called by such titles? But the couple, Mary and Joseph, had suffering others couldn't know all their life for the work of God. "You'll reap what you sow."