“Son of man, with one blow I will take away your dearest treasure…” Ezekiel 24:16

God called the prophets to undergo experiences that were designed to incarnate the prophetic message He was bringing to His people.  Ezekiel was faithful to do what God had asked, but the asks were not easy.  The most painful for Ezekiel had to be the death of his wife, coming with the charge that he was not to mourn.  It was to be a parable to the people of God to give them insight into God’s pending action to take away the Temple, what they greatly treasured.  In that just judgment for their hard hearts, the people of God would not have time to mourn, but only to recognize in what followed the action of a righteous God to get their attention.  O, how Adam’s children get distracted!

But, we gain some insight into Ezekiel in the opening line.  What he greatly valued was on display when God told him that his wife would die.  God, who knew his heart and ours today, noted that his wife was his “dearest treasure.”  Ezekiel was an exemplary husband.  Long before the apostle Paul’s clear call in Christian marriage to love your wife as Christ loved the church and nourish and cherish her as you do your own body, Ezekiel was way out in front.  His wife was his dearest treasure…full stop.  Married men, how does that line sit with our conscience?  Forty-four years in, my fear is that Andi has not always felt like she was my greatest treasure. 

The prophet Ezekiel’s great treasure was his wife.  Why does that phrase stick out to us?  It is jarring because it is so rare.  Why is Ezekiel the exception and not the rule?  How many wives feel as if they are down on the list in the rankings of their husband’s great treasures in life? 

We need the Ezekiels to remind us and point out to us what it means to treasure our wives.  Well lived, Christian marriage holds out a glory that shines.  There is something winsome and glorious for both the husband and the wife when the husband treasures his wife. 

Early in our dating life, my wife Andi and I got to know a couple whom we appreciated for their marital health and vitality.  To be with them was to be convinced that they loved each other and the husband was always pursuing his wife.  Lyle always had his arm around Connie.  Connie was always receiving his gentle and affectionate touch in public.  It was as if their first date was three days ago and a joyful infatuation was breaking out.  If you did not know them, you might even conclude they were fake or play acting for show in public.  It would be only later that you would realize that it was real and authentic.

Recently, I had the privilege to go to this couple’s retirement reception at Cedarville University, after 56 years of faithfulness-the obvious habit of the family.  In being together once again, I can vouch for the fact that the zest is still going.  It was again evident to me that Connie is Lyle’s great treasure.  It was not fake or forced.  It was just the overflow of the treasure-habit that he has long had in the disciplines of his faithfulness to Christ…in marriage. 

May Ezekiel and Lyle’s tribe increase!  Our wives need it to be so.  A healthy marriage is designed to feature the husband treasuring his wife and the wife respecting her husband (Ephesians 5:33).  Our children need it.  A watching world seeing the life of Jesus Christ lived out in a selfless gospel marriage needs it as well.

Faithfulness and the pursuit of each other pays such rich dividends in marriage.  A faithful wife is an expression of favor from God (Proverbs 18:22).  I am still learning about the treasuring.  I have treasured pouring into our children.  I have treasured the glories of pastoral ministry.  I have treasured some incredible opportunities for ministry.  And O, the treasure of being a grandfather.  But all the way through heretofore, have I made Andi feel like she was my greatest treasure?  That is the call of the godly husband.  Hence, I must immediately close this blog post and…engage in a fresh initiative of treasuring my wife…in obedience to God and to the glory of Jesus Christ, who loves His bride (the church) and considers her His greatest treasure (Ephesians 5:25)!