Commitment to the Lord knows no gender. However, as the following thoughts were delivered at a sister’s retreat a few years ago, the focus is naturally towards sisters.
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Commitment is defined by Webster’s Dictionary as “the state of intellectual and emotional adherence to some political, social or religious theory; a promise or a pledge”. The Oxford Dictionary offers “an engagement or involvement that restricts freedom of action”. A discerning brother added his suggestion: “a promise to follow through to the best of your ability with a decision which was thoughtfully made”.
Combining these thoughts and applying them to ourselves, we see that exposure to God’s plan and purpose through the Scriptures caused us to think deeply and eventually led us to baptism. We left the old way of life, with its unbridled instincts of human nature, and pledged to adhere to the ways of the Lord. The consequence of this commitment is that we are morally bound, dedicated to God and His purpose, and no longer free to indulge selfish inclinations or desires. To put it succinctly, we entered into a covenant relationship with the Lord and thereby committed our lives to following His will.
The experience of Israel
Israel made their commitment, after exposure to the will and purpose of God, through the dispensation of angels. God had clearly stated the premise upon which the relationship must be based: “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” They gave their pledge: “All that the LORD has said we will do” (Exod. 19:6,8). Sadly, the commitment was too fragile to be sustained; the nation rebelled and failed to keep the covenant, thereby forfeiting the blessing of ‘rest’ in the Promised Land.
The writer to the Hebrews identified the problem: “So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief” (Heb. 3:19). We gain even more insight if we follow the writer’s rationale as he quotes liberally from Psalm 95 (which he attributes to David in Hebrews 4:7):
“Wherefore as the Holy Spirit saith, Today if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter my rest” (Heb. 3:7-11).
Not only were the Israelites unbelieving and disobedient, they caused the Lord God grief, because in the deep regions of their minds, they didn’t really know Him!
Ignorant to the ways of God
Here is a great paradox. When Moses enquired about God’s name and later asked to see His glory, that glory was revealed in the declaration of His character:
“And the LORD passed before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty” (Exod. 34:6,7).
And so the very name of God — Yahweh — declared Him to be the merciful Savior whose purpose was to bring many sons and daughters to glory through the forgiveness of sins. At Sinai, the people heard the voice of God and received His laws. An angel who was a manifestation of Yahweh led the tribes, guiding and protecting them on the continuation of their journey. One is compelled to ask: how could they have been in ignorance of His ways?
Ignorance of the true purpose and will of God is a dilemma to be found throughout the Scriptures. Eli would have meticulously schooled his sons in the rites and rituals of the law, and yet the divine assessment is chilling: “They knew not the LORD” (1 Sam. 2:12). The young men failed to see that the law in the aggregate revealed that the merciful and gracious God would one day provide a perfect sacrifice for sin. Paul astutely summarized the many facets of the Law of Moses: “The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ…” (Gal. 3:24).
The scribes and Pharisees were self-proclaimed experts of the law; nevertheless, their knowledge did not lead them to a recognition of their Messiah. Paul again with great insight identified the problem: “Well spake the Holy Spirit by Isaiah the prophet unto our fathers, saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive: for the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed…” (Acts 28:25-27).
It behoves us to pay close attention to the reasoning of the inspired apostle here, because he answers one of the tantalizing anomalies in the book of Isaiah. The actual quote from the prophet is:
“Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed” (Isa. 6:9,10).
Now, why would the merciful God instruct Isaiah to shut the eyes and ears of the Israelites in order to prevent them receiving the saving message? The enigma is solved by Paul adding three words to the Isaiah quote: “…have they closed”! This was not a supernatural blocking of God’s words; the very action of Isaiah’s preaching caused a counter-reaction, whereby the people deliberately chose to close their ears and eyes, refusing to integrate the message. (Hardening the heart is another way this phenomenon is described.)
What about us?
Now comes the crunch: do we, who think of ourselves as spiritual Israel, really know God? An affirmative answer is vital because, in his poignant prayer, the Lord Jesus stated:
“This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3).
Interestingly, the Greek word translated “know” here (“ginosko”) is also used in the Septuagint Greek translation of Genesis 4:1: “Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived.” To quote Bro. Mansfield in The Cherubim:
“In both cases, the word signifies a union between two parties that brings forth a new life. The natural union produces a child. The spiritual is the union between the human mind and the word, which is the living, active seed of God that can produce a child of God.”
Nicodemus, one of the Jewish rulers, had trouble grasping this concept when the Lord Jesus said to him: “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Whereas Peter (who probably overheard the conversation) fully understood: “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (1 Pet. 1:23).
For us the lesson is clear; having been born again spiritually through the Spirit-Word and baptism, we await the wondrous day when we will, in God’s mercy, be physically reborn to immortality. We must nurture the precious seed of the word and allow it to develop from an embryo to the maturity of true daughters of God.
Difficulties in preaching
Part of our responsibility as sisters in Christ is a commitment to preaching. After 45 years in the truth, however, my experience is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to introduce the subject of the role of women, as defined in the Bible, to female friends.
I had trouble coming to terms with the issue 45 years ago. So I can imagine how it must be for those living in the society of today, where political correctness insists upon equality for women in every sphere. To them, the following Scriptural quotations are anathema:
“The head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God… the man is the image and the glory of God, but the woman is the glory of man. For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man” (1 Cor. 11:3,7,8,9).
We understand and accept the implications of:
“Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression” (1 Tim. 2:14).
The woman was made to be a suitable and supportive companion for the male. Eve was deceived by the incorrect reasoning of the serpent and was the cause of her husband deliberately choosing to disobey the Lord’s command. The consequence was that God in His wisdom decreed that, in the future, man must take the lead role and woman be in subjection.
Unfortunately, due to a lack of understanding, men have considered this situation a license to dominate and bully the female, leading to much abuse. On the other hand, the husband is required to pattern his behavior on Christ, who as head of the church gave his life for her. The husband must nurture, love and care for his wife as if she was his own body (Eph. 5:28). Only when both partners understand their different roles in love and respect can true harmony and happiness exist.
A quote from the past
A Bible student recently said, “That is all very well in the marriage state, but what about the inequality of women in the Law of Moses? I could not accept being a second-class citizen!”
Certainly the lady had a point, for clearly under the Law, women had a secondary role to the men:
- The numbering of Israel applied to males only (Num. 1:2).
- The Law of the firstborn: “Every male shall be the Lord’s” (Exod. 13:12).
- “Three times a year shall all your males appear before the Lord” (Exod. 23:17).
- The seal of the covenant was imprinted in the flesh of the male (Gen. 17:10).
- In cases of a vow, the female was assessed at a smaller value than the male (Lev. 27:2-7).
- Purification time was longer after the birth of a daughter than of a son (Lev. 12:2-5).
- Except in the case of the peace offering and the sin offering of the common people, the sacrificial offerings had to be male (Lev. 3:1-6; 4:28,32; 5:6).
The writer to the Hebrews states that the law foreshadowed things to come in relation to Christ. Thus, the truth being taught in the apparent elevation of the male is not to denigrate the woman; no, it simply emphasizes the wonderful fact that it would be “the man” the Lord Jesus Christ who would bring about salvation for both sexes.
Now for an interesting quotation:
“Of course, the modern school, with their ‘new woman’racing hither and thither and posing in attitudes and relations for which she is unfitted by nature, will rebel against these divine appointments.”
“The modern school” and “new woman” have a familiar modern ring about them. However, the passage was written by Bro. Robert Roberts in 1898, 109 years ago! Whatever would he think of the society in the twenty-first century?
Doubtless we live in a very different age from that of our sisters in the late nineteenth century, where the male was the breadwinner and, without question, the head of the family. Today, political correctness insists upon absolute equality of the sexes in every aspect of life. Irrespective of cultural changes, for us the Bible principle of headship remains constant: God, Christ, man, woman.
All one in Christ Jesus
In regard to salvation, however, everyone is equal and personally answerable to the Lord: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28).
Most of us have been privileged to receive quality education. Let us resolve to search out the ways of the LORD in the quest to really know Him. Then using our skills, we can explain these things to women who will listen. May the LORD bless us in our commitment to honor His will and purpose and bring glory to His Name.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One