Daily Devotion by Ray Stedman

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for April 12th​

Purpose Of Marriage​

The man said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man. For this reason man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

Genesis 2:23-25

This is a remarkable passage because it gathers up the great concepts of marriage that run throughout the Bible. After God finished making woman and Adam slept off the deep unconsciousness into which he had fallen, God brought the woman to Adam. What a scene that must have been! Here is the first of a long series of boy-meets-girl stories. Out of this account emerges four factors that are essential to marriage.

The first is that marriage is to involve a complete identity. The two are to be one. Adam's first reaction when he saw his wife was, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh, or, She is one being with me. This is strengthened in the latter part of verse 24, which adds, and they will become one flesh. It is not without reason that this has become part of the marriage service, this recognition of unity. As someone has well said, the one word above all that makes marriage successful is ours. The second thing is the biblical principle of headship, which is developed at much greater length in the New Testament. She shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man. Paul expands on this in his letter to Timothy to point out that man was not made for woman, but woman was made for man. It is the man who is ultimately responsible before God for the nature and character of the home. It is the man who must exercise leadership in determining the direction in which the home should go and must therefore answer for that leadership, or its lack, before God. The woman's responsibility is to acknowledge this leadership.

Then the third factor indicated here that characterizes true marriage is permanence. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. In the Hebrew text is the word dabag, which means to adhere firmly, as if with glue. A husband is to cleave to his wife. He forsakes all others and adheres to her. Whatever she may be like, he is to hold to her. He is to stay with her, and she with him, because marriage is a permanent thing.

Finally, the fourth factor is set forth in verse 25, The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. This speaks clearly of openness between man and wife. They have no secrets, nothing that they do not share with each other. It is the failure to achieve this kind of openness that lies behind so much breakdown in marriage today, the utter breakdown of communication, where two sit and look at one another and say nothing or talk about merely surface trivialities. Often this is why they are so judgmental with one another, each one trying to get the other to agree and not being willing to allow differences of viewpoint to exist. There is to be a freedom of communication, one with the other. Marriages shrivel, wither, and die when this is not true.

Thank you for the gift of marriage, Father and for revealing Your perfect plan for the functioning of husband and wife.

Life Application​

Have we recognized and fully accepted God's perfect plan for marriage? What are four factors that are essential to marriage as God intended it to be?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2026 by Ray Stedman Ministries. For permission to use this conten

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for April 13th​

The Enticement Of Evil​

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made

Genesis 3:1a

Let us move on to consider the strategy that the Tempter employs. This is most instructive because it is exactly the strategy he employs when he appears as an angel of light to us—not that we shall see visions of shining beings—but the personality that he exemplifies, the character in which he appears, is the same now as then. He is an angel of light. Scripture makes clear that the devil can also appear as a roaring lion, meaning he can strike in tragedy, in sickness, or in physical evil, as he struck Job or Paul, with his thorn in the flesh, which Paul called the messenger of Satan. When he appears as a lion, he can strike fear into our hearts. But his most effective strategy is to appear as someone good, someone attractive, something or someone who appeals to us as an angel of light.

If you learn how to recognize the strategy of the devil, you will find that he invariably employs the same tactics. There is a sense in which he is very limited, and he doesn't vary his tactics widely. Sometimes we feel as if we shall never learn how to anticipate the devil. But we can learn. Paul said that he was not ignorant of the devil's devices (2 Corinthians 2:11). If we learn how he works, we can easily learn to detect him in our lives.

James has described this strategy very plainly in one or two verses. He says, ...each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death (James 1:14-15).

There is the strategy of the devil. He always approaches us in the same three stages, and those steps are outlined clearly in this text. His first tactic is to arouse desire. James says that every man is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed (James 1:14). Each step the devil takes with us is always to arouse desire to do wrong, to create a hunger, a lure, or enticement toward evil.

The second is to permit intent to form an act to occur. James describes this: after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin (James 1:15). Notice that the symbol he employs is that of conception and birth. There is a gestation period in temptation, for once desire is aroused, there occurs a process within which sooner or later issues in sin, an act that is wrong.

The third stage is that the devil immediately acts upon the opportunity afforded by the evil act to move in and to produce results that Scripture describes as death—sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. This is the devil's ultimate aim. Jesus said that he was a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44). He delights in mangling, smashing, twisting, destroying, blighting, and blasting. We can see his activity present everywhere; it is going on around us, in our own lives and in the lives of others. These are the works of the devil, says the Scripture (1 John 3:8).

Lord, thank You for this reminder that I have an enemy, and I am in a battle. Teach me to see through the strategies of Satan and to stand firm against his attacks.

Life Application​

The devil delights in the fallacies we have about him. Have we learned to recognize the strategies of Satan and the repetitive three stages he uses to approach us?

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for April 14th​

The Package Deal​

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Genesis 3:7

This account reveals three things that mark the beginning of death, and the proof that this story really occurred is found therein, because these three things are true for every person. When we yield to temptation we experience the pleasures of sin. But what this account forces us to face is that with the pleasure comes an undesirable accompaniment, a fall-out of sin, which we cannot escape. It is all a package deal. Here is spelled out for us the three things that mark the beginning of death.

The first one is this: they realized they were naked. They were naked all along, but they did not know they were naked until the fall. Why? Because they had never looked at themselves. Their awareness of their nakedness is a symbolic way of expressing the idea that they experienced the birth of what we call self-consciousness. They saw themselves, and the immediate effect was their feelings of shame and embarrassment.

So, like Adam and Eve, we find ourselves making clothes to cover our self-consciousness. This is true at the psychological level as well. This is what lies behind the universal practice of projecting an image of ourselves. That is a form of psychological clothing. It is a way of trying to get people to think of us differently from how we really are. This is why we all find ourselves struggling with the matter of being honest, of being open. We do not want people to see us or think of us as we are. We do not want to spend much time with any one person because we are afraid he or she will see us as we are.

The second thing this account shows us is found in verse 8. Hiding is an instinctive reaction to guilt. Here is the first description of a conscience beginning to function; that inner torment we are all familiar with that cannot be turned off, no matter how hard we try. In fact, often the harder we try to ignore it, the deeper it pierces and the more obdurate it becomes. Psychologists agree that guilt is a universal reaction to life, from which, without apparent reason or explanation, all of us suffer. This sense of guilt haunts us, follows us, makes us afraid. We are afraid of the unknown, of the future, of the unseen.

But there is still a third aspect of this death revealed here: The Lord said, What is this that you have done? Adam said, Well, the woman that you gave to me, she gave me the fruit, and I ate. It's her fault. The woman said, Well, it's not my fault; it's the serpent's fault. The serpent beguiled me, and I ate. This is the first human attempt to deal with the problem of guilt. This is where blame always comes. Ultimately it points the finger at God and says He is at fault. People are simply helpless victims of circumstance. This is what lies behind our urge to blame each other and pin the blame for our actions or attitudes upon some outward circumstance.

Lord, I confess I have seen the marks of death in my own life: self-consciousness, guilt, and blame. Thank You for Your grace, which seeks me out even as I try to hide.

Life Application​

Why is it so easy to blame leaders, spouses, friends, enemies, and even ultimately God for our troublesome circumstances? What three things mark the birth of death?