Henry's Heart and the value of a good wife.

If you have ever heard a old southern preacher speak you may have heard him quote a even older minister by the name of Matthew Henry. As a preacher’s kid I’ve heard my share of Henry quotes. Yet most do not know the person behind the quotes. Matthew Henry was Presbyterian preacher from the days before Ipods and streaming video, when the printing press was still a new thing and writing was a laborious task. Henry was known to work like a mad man —both in the pulpit and in his study. Throughout his life he maintained this intensive preaching and pastoral ministry.

His legacy is communicated through his commentary on the whole Bible, a task that took him his whole life to complete. Henry completed Genesis through Acts and after his death; His ministerial colleagues completed Romans to Revelation based on his notes and sermons. It is known for its poetic beauty, striking insights and puritanical sensibility. While he is most know for His commentary, it is his little book on spiritual communion called “How to spend a day with God,” that touched my mind and opened me to a God–soaked vision of reality, where God plays in ten thousand places. [1]

It is perhaps significant to note that Henry was not removed from suffering and tragedy. His first wife Katherine died in child-birth in 1689 after only two years of marriage. Although he later remarried he and his second wife, Mary, lost three children in infancy in the following seven years. It was during his time with Mary that he wrote many works, ministered all over England and began his famous commentary.

After the death of his first wife, Matthew Henry was overcome with grief. He would later say, "I know nothing that could support me under such a loss as this, but the good hope that she is gone to heaven." He was a broken man but now a father for though his wife was gone their daughter survived. Matthew named her Katharine in honor of her mother. The two, father and daughter, began their journey from the hills of sorrow.

Matthew met his second wife Mary two years after his first wife died. The hurt and loss of his first wife had begun to heal but he was still a broken man. Mary came as a healing balm, soothing the unsteadiness of Matthew and renewing his vision for the future. By all accounts, Mary was a good and Godly wife. She was one who complimented Matthew in many ways, able to endure hardship with grace and find worship in freeing Matthew to minister. She created space for Matthew so he could devote time to what he felt God was asking of him. In His commentary on the creation of Eve he highlights her dignity and status. You can almost see Mary in the background of his words. Amidst contemporary confusion over human identity and marital relations, Henry’s counsel deserves careful consideration.

Yet man being made last of the creatures, as the best and most excellent of all, Eve's being made after Adam, and out of him, puts an honour upon that sex, as the glory of the man, (1 Co. 11:7). If man is the head, she is the crown, a crown to her husband, the crown of the visible creation. The man was dust refined, but the woman was dust double-refined, one remove further from the earth.

That Adam slept while his wife was in making, that no room might be left to imagine that he had herein directed the Spirit of the Lord, or been his counsellor, (Isa 40:13). He had been made sensible of his want of a meet help; but, God having undertaken to provide him one, he does not afflict himself with any care about it, but lies down and sleeps sweetly, as one that had cast all his care on God, with a cheerful resignation of himself and all his affairs to his Maker's will and wisdom. Jehovah-jireh, let the Lord provide when and whom he pleases. If we graciously rest in God, God will graciously work for us and work all for good . . .

That the woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved [2.]

Matthew Henry reminds us all to look at all things from this higher set of values. Henry reminds married men, your personal Eve is not a footstool or doormat so be about leading by serving. Nor did you know what you really needed but God knew and gave you what you needed. God’s will and wisdom is found in the wife you have not the wife you think she should be. Respond to the wife you have like Christ and so fill your days with love (Eph 5:22-32). Henry reminds women they are the crown of creation and should thus shine with godly virtue and wisdom. Like all crowns in scripture they are to be laded at Christ feet in humility. So receive your husband as you would receive Christ and in so honor him.

Proverbs 18:22 reads, “He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD.” Elsewhere in Proverbs it is written, “a prudent wife is from the LORD.” (Pr 19:14b). Matthew Henry understood this not just as a biblical truth but as reality. He understood the value of a good wife because he knew loss and love. Mary was to him a gift of grace. In a day of cheep things - value is lost. Our enjoyment has become connected with the pleasure of this world that most no longer appreciate those institutions of higher value like marriage and a virtuous wife. May we all see marriage and our respective spouse through Henry's heart.

Notes
(1.) God plays in ten thousand places are the title of a book by Eugene Peterson that explains a God centered vision of the world.
(2.) Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1991), 10.