When I was about sixteen or seventeen, my dad sent me to town one day during planting season.
“Gabe, I need you to go to Agri-supply to get [so-and-so] bags of fertilizer.”
“Ok.” I was always happy to drive a truck somewhere; much better than one of the many more physically demanding jobs on the farm.
“And while you’re in town, go by [such-and-such] and get a few so-and-sos]. And you might as well swing by [what-cha-ma-call-it] and get a [thing-a-ma-jig].”
“Yes sir.” I took in the whole list of items but mostly thought what a nice break it was going to be driving our flatbed truck to town and back; plus, it had a good radio. This was the late seventies – the golden years of rock, R & B and all genres of pop music.
That was about forty-five years ago, so I don’t remember many details of the errand. What I do remember is the heart-panic I felt half-way back home as I realized I had run all the small item errands but forgot to get the load of fertilizer. My dad would be furious, I thought, when I get home a half hour or so after I should have.
I turned the truck around, went and got the fertilizer and got back home. I don’t remember being in trouble, so it must not have been as terrible a mistake as I feared.
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I have a real soft spot in my heart for Jewish people. They’re uniquely special in the eyes of God, but have gone through as great a persecution historically as any people have. There was Egypt, then Assyria, then Babylon, then Persia, then Greece, then Rome. Then fast forward to the twentieth century to the unmentionable treatment they endured at the hands of Nazi Germany. And I haven’t even mentioned the social discrimination all cultures, historic and modern alike.
What hurts my heart most about so many Jewish people is what they, themselves, have missed out on.
The main reason – The Main Thing – why God chose Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’s seed as the descendants of promise, gave them the Law of Moses and established David as the father of an eternal throne is so they could receive the gift of eternal life through the greatest Jew of all, the Son of God, the Jewish Messiah, Jesus Christ.
Keeping the Law, honoring the patriarchs and venerating David, as weighty acts as they all are, are not the main thing. The Main Thing – the reason for the lineage, the Law and the nation – is Jesus!
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God created the earth, the heavens and all things on the earth, everything that lives on land, in water and in the sky. Then He said “Let us make mankind in Our image. He made the man but said it wasn’t good enough, so He made a woman.
So, the trinity – three that make one – beheld what was almost their image. Then when God went over and became the third person in the marriage relationship, God had, in a sense, replicated Himself.
A married couple, as long as they make Jesus the center of their marriage and family, is the most accurate image of God possible.
But they have to keep Jesus in the center, make Him The Main Thing. That’s the way He intended marriage to be from its inception.
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So, what do marriage, the Jews and a run to town for fertilizer have in common?
All three show the importance of keeping the main thing the main thing.
For Jews, for married couples and even for a farm boy on a run to town, what’s the main thing?
It’s Jesus!
My main point is to current and future married couples: Keep Jesus – The Main Thing – The Main Thing!
