That’s an Order
Deuteronomy 24:5
“When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be liable for any other public duty. He shall be free at home one year to be happy with his wife whom he has taken.”
Before there was a global empire, there was a nation. Before there was a nation, there was a state. Before there was a state, there was a city. Before there was a city, there was a town. Before there was a town, there was a tribe. Before there was a tribe, there was a clan. Before there was a clan, there was a family. Before there was a family, there was a holy matrimony. Before there was a holy matrimony, there was a man. And before there was a man, there was God.
That anthropological progression from marriage to family to tribe to nation is not merely a chronological order but an essential one. That is, when God instituted the covenant of marriage in Genesis 2, it was the very first sacred ordinance He brought forth in the world, even before Communion and Baptism and the Passover and sacrificial offerings. That means that what came preeminently in time is also preeminent in position. The mystery of the image of God in humanity is not reflected most by a king with his subjects or by a general with his army or by a congressman with his constituency or by a father with his sons, but by the masterful mystery of a husband with his wife.
Even constitutional Republics with seemingly fail-safe power structures inevitably collapse when they demean man’s fundamental responsibility to God, and then destroy holy matrimony between a man and a woman, and then praise and profit from the extermination of offspring. Yet, God will have none of that in His commonwealth. There’s nothing humanistic about Deuteronomy 24:5. Moses effectively tells newly-weds here in Deuteronomy 24:5, “Go back to Eden for a year. Leave the nation and the state and the clan and the tribe behind! Walk in the Garden together again, in the cool of the day, with your Creator, enjoying the fruits of marriage! Remember: when it comes to civic duty, marriage comes first.”
Friend, as much as you’re able, spend quality time with the LORD today, and spend quality time with your family, too—in that order.