Ecclesiastes 7:26-29, "I found more bitter than death the woman, who is snares and nets at heart, and whose hands are like chains: he who pleases God will escape her; but the sinner will be ensnared by her. Behold, this is what have I found, says the preacher, step by step I searched for the conclusion. What my heart sought continually, I did not find: one man among a thousand I have found; but a woman among all these I have not found. Only this have I found, that God made man straightforward; but they have sought out many means to follow their own downward path." As the Prophet said, "the woman is made so she can deceive and be deceived." He also said, "A good woman is a jewel in a man's crown. She should be honored. One of the best things that God could give a man was a wife. Besides salvation, a wife is the best thing if she is a good wife".
The wisdom of man is foolishness to God. We think we are an enlightened people since we have given women the vote and legislated gender equality but did you know that this is spiritual wickedness contrary to God's Word? Men and women are not equal, and marriage is not 50:50, it is 100:0. Let us see what God says.
Genesis 2:18-25: "And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a suitable helper completing him." [A counterpart, image or reflection – I Corinthians 11 tells us all about it. Woman is a by-product of man, neither inferior nor superior, but in all things like and initially co-equal with himself in the covenant when He "blessed them" before they were formed (Genesis 1:27-28); however after the "Fall" they were placed on separate covenants and she is no longer a ruler with him (Genesis 3:16; Ephesians 5:24). Now if we are born-again sons and daughters of God we are co-equal in His Presence (Romans 8:17)].
Genesis 2:19-20: "And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle and to the fowl of the air and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found a suitable helper for him".
(If we understand the Bible correctly, Adam spent over a hundred years naming the creatures as God formed them out of the ground. And the names (Heb. "shem" or reputation) given to the different animals in Scripture always express some essential feature or prominent characteristic of the creatures to which they are applied. Adam's infinite observation of the nature and characteristics of each creature mirrored the omniscience of his Creator in whose image he was made. However, no animal which Adam described was suitable for his companion).
Genesis 2:21-22: "And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh at that place; and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, he fashioned into a woman, and brought her to the man".
As God formed woman out of a part of the man himself, and not a distinct being from the dust; he saw she was of the same nature, identical flesh and blood of the same constitution in all respects, and consequently having equal faculties and rights. This at once insured his affection and excited his esteem).
Genesis 2:23: "And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man".
(Or "This creature which now appears before me is flesh of my flesh, etc." Whereas the creatures that had passed before him previously were not suitable, when the woman came, formed out of himself, Adam felt all that attraction which kinship can produce, and at the same time he saw that she was in her person and in her mind, every way suitable to be his companion. As when the Lord Jesus sees His finished Bride, made up of the Holy Spirit taken from His side, He will find Her altogether lovely.
Our English word "woman", means she-man, or female man and is a contraction from the Anglo-Saxon "wombman," which means "the man with a womb".
Under the original covenant, the man and his wife were co-equal. But she broke that covenant with God and was no longer co-equal. Because she broke that covenant, God then established a new covenant and made man to be a ruler over her (Genesis 3:16). And, Sisters, you serve God as you obey your own husband).
Two people are called one body, and there can only be one head over that marriage-body, and that is the husband. Read Ephesians 5:21-33, it demonstrates how the natural types the Spiritual. As the Church obeys her Husband the Word in everything, the natural woman obeys her husband in everything, and should reverence her husband for he is her head.
Numbers 30:1-15 further illustrates the different covenant responsibilities of men and women. The man is answerable to God who is his head, the woman to her husband who is her head, as also expounded in I Corinthians 11:1-16).
Numbers 30:2: "If a man makes a vow to the Lord, or takes an oath to bind him with an obligation; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth".
A man is bound unconditionally to his oath. Not only is he responsible for his own commitments, he is responsible for any commitments made by daughters under twelve years of age and for the words of his wife. The most earnest pledge and promise of his womenfolk may be instantly annulled by him. They are under his headship.
Numbers 30:3-8: "If a woman also makes a vow to the Lord, and bind herself by an obligation, being in her father's house in her youth; and her father hear her vow, and her bond wherewith she hath bound her soul, and her father shall hold his peace at her: then all her vows shall stand, and every bond wherewith she has bound herself shall stand.
But if her father disallow her in the day that he hears; none of her vows, or obligations by which she has bound herself, shall stand: and the Lord shall forgive her because her father disallowed her.
And if she had a husband, when she vowed, or uttered ought out of her lips, wherewith she bound herself; and her husband heard it, and held his peace at her in the day that he heard it: then her vows shall stand, and her bonds by which she bound herself shall stand.
But if her husband disallowed her on the day that he heard it; then he shall annul her vow which she vowed, and the rash statement of her lips, by which she bound herself, of none effect: and the Lord shall forgive her".
Now, Brethren it should be clear to us that God has placed man and women under two separate and distinct covenants since Genesis 3. And if we have an ounce of God about us we will know His Word can only bless us as we submit to His way. If you doubt the separate covenants are in effect today then consider: does the serpent still go about on his belly, or is he back on his legs as in the beginning? Do women still conceive in pain and sorrow? And must man still toil to provide for his family? If the answers are "yes", then men and women are still under separate covenants with God and are no longer co-equal.
Woman is not original creation but a by-product of man who was original creation, a spoken Word of God. Satan knew Adam was made in the image of God and could not be deceived. But the by-product, made in the image of man is the weaker vessel that can deceive and be deceived. She is made that way. This is how Satan caused the Fall. That she now demands equality, or in most cases greater than equality with man, proves she is made so she can be deceived, and is still deceived. And we know there is no greater deceiver than a woman.
Solomon said ". . . one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found." There is difference between men and women. He also said a good "A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband: but she that makes ashamed is as rottenness in his bones".
More blessed is the woman who is under headship than the modern Ms.! The widow or divorced woman is accountable for her own actions whereas the husband of the married woman bears her responsibilities upon his own shoulders. God gives the decision of the man precedence over that of the woman. Her decisions are established or made void by her husband who can veto what she has said.
Numbers 30:9-15: "But the vow of a widow of or a divorced woman, everything by which she has bound herself, shall stand against her.
And if she vowed in her husband's house, or bound herself by a bond with an oath; and her husband heard it, and held his peace at her, and disallowed her not: then all her vows shall stand, and every bond with which she bound her soul shall stand.
But if her husband has utterly made them void on the day he heard them; then whatsoever proceeded out of her lips concerning her vows, or concerning the bond of her soul, shall not stand: her husband has made them void; and the Lord shall forgive her.
Every vow, and every binding oath to afflict the soul, her husband may establish, or her husband may make it void. But if her husband altogether hold his peace at her from day to day; then he establishes all her vows, or all her bonds, which are upon her: he confirms them, because he held his peace at her in the day that he heard them. But if he shall any ways make them void after that he has heard them; then he shall bear her iniquity".
This is the provision whereby the Lord remits sin from your unregenerate soul on to Satan who is the first husband or master of your soul because you were born in sin and came into the world, which is presently under Satan's domain, with his worldly nature ruling your soul. And as the husband of your soul he is ultimately accountable for your sinful actions because by not disallowing you, he authorized them and he shall bear your iniquity.
Men, you are made in the image of God to rule your own house in love. If you choose to reverse the roles God has set forth in His Word, you have perverted that image and are responsible none-the-less. Women who usurp the authority of their husband, and men in general, are withstanding God by challenging His Word. The uncut hair of Christian women signifies their separation to the Word, testifying they are under submission to God and man and under the authority of their husband. In the case of single women of unmarriageable age, to their father.
In Matthew 19:3-9, the Pharisees asked Jesus two questions
Matthew 19:3-6: "The Pharisees also came to Him, tempting Him, and saying, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?" (Seeking to divide Him between two Jewish schools of theology). That was their first question.
"And He answered, Have you not read, that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, for this cause (procreation) shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they two shall be one flesh?"
Genesis 2:24-25: "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed".
Ephesians 5:28-33 says the same thing. By Divine command, there shall be a more intimate connection between the man and the woman than can exist even between parents and their children.
The two shall be considered one body, having no separate and independent rights, privileges, cares, or concerns, each living equally interested in all things that concern the marriage state. And these two shall be for the reproduction of one flesh as exactly resembling themselves as they resemble one another.
Matthew 19:6: "Wherefore they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder".
In the Spiritual Marriage Union or new birth, God and the soul that is joined together with God is one Spirit—Word of His Word (I Corinthians 6:17), and sealed to the day of redemption. Paul said "Don't be unequally yoked together with unbelievers"; and Jesus said, "What God has joined together," not some half-drunk magistrate or backslidden preacher, "let not man put asunder".
Their second question is found in Matthew 19:7-8: "They say to him, Why then did Moses command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He said them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts allowed you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so".
At the beginning the baptism of the Holy Ghost or new birth was not required. There was no sin, and no hard hearts. But we do not live "in the beginning" today. Moses did not command men to give their wives a writing of divorcement; he "suffered or permitted it".
Matthew 19:9: "And I say, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, commits adultery: [because he has pledged himself to her] and whoso marries her who is put away commits adultery". [Because she will remarry, and having a living husband will become an adulteress, and he an adulterer].
But if a man has been married ever so many years and learns his wife was in fornication prior to their union and failed to confess it, her vows are annulled. She was never his wife, but the wife of those Toms, Dicks, and Harry's. Fornication is unclean living before marriage.
Holiness is very important to God. The Law taught Israel to discern the clean from the profane.
Although not so common in this wicked and adulterous generation the banns of marriage are a public proclamation that a certain marriage is about to take place and should be announced on three successive Sundays in the services of the Church or churches where the couple live to those who are most likely to know if such impediments exist, the minister announcing the names of the couple and asking: "If any of you know cause, or just impediment, why these two persons should not be joined together in Holy Matrimony, you are to declare it." And again in the marriage ceremony before they take their public vows, "If any man can show any just cause, why they may not lawfully be joined together, let him now speak, or else hereafter forever hold his peace." The purpose is to guard against the possibility of marriages taking place between those who cannot be married; by reason of kinship, unequal union with unbelievers, and intermarriage with Cain's race. Then there is virginity which is a matter of righteous honour for both men and women. Like truth and faith it is a precious confidence between intimates unobserved by the world but known to the Lord. A deflowered woman has given to another the one sacred possession she alone can give her husband, and before she accepts his proposal of marriage she must confess her unclean living. Should she neglect to do so he can put her away in divorcement for breach of contract when he discovers her shameful deceit.
Deuteronomy 22:13-30 and 24:1-4 show the seriousness of sexual promiscuity. So when Joseph found his wife pregnant before they had known each other, he planned to give her a writing of divorcement (Matthew 1:19).
Matthew 5:31-32: "It has been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement: but I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causes her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced commits adultery".
So a man can put away his wife at any time should he discover she was in fornication and did not confess it before marriage. In the spiritual, Christ has put away the false church in each Age when he found they had not truly confessed their false service to creeds and man-made fables.
After the beginning, God brought is a new law: polygamy. The polygamy law demonstrates clearly that the original sin was sex; an adultery between Eve and the Serpent before his form was changed into that of a snake. Thereafter, God placed man and woman under separate covenants. They are not co-equal. One man could have many wives, one buck many does; one rooster a yard full of hens, but a woman could not have more than one living husband.
In Romans 7:1-4, Paul says: "Know you not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the Law), that the Law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?
For the woman which has a husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he lives; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
So then if, while her husband lives, she is married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she is married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the Law by the body of Christ; that you should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God".
Now of course Paul was typing the natural with the spiritual, showing his Jewish converts that their old husband, the Law, is dead, and has no more dominion over them so they must rise to serve their new Husband, Christ, in newness of Life. The same can be said of the denominations of successive Church Ages through the Christian Dispensation.
Likewise also, the man is released on the grounds of adultery.
I Corinthians 7:10-11, 39: "And to the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband: but and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife . . . The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband lives; but if her husband is dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord".
Romans and Corinthians speak of adultery. When a woman commits adultery against her husband he can remarry, for she is dead to him. Deuteronomy 22:13-21 teaches us that a woman found in adultery was stoned to death. Though we do not stone adulterers in the West nowadays, a woman who is an adulteress is as if she were dead through stoning. She has put away her husband, and he can remarry another. She cannot put away her husband and remarry, no matter how unfaithful he has been. It all points back to the original sin in the Garden of Eden and the separate covenants which include the polygamy law.
Since Pentecost, there is no need for a man who is a Christian to have more than one wife. The new birth brings his mortal spirit and passions under pre-eminence to the Word in His Soul, and that spirit brings his flesh under subjection. However we still have the vestige of the polygamy law in that he can remarry and she cannot remarry, so long as she has a living husband.
I Timothy 2:11-15: "Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety".
Circumcision was the sign of the Old Covenant, but a woman cannot be circumcised, so the only way into that Covenant was by marriage, for the two are one. (Not speaking of the elect of course, but) she shall be saved if she continues in her estate, because she becomes a part of her Man. Under the New Covenant, and being circumcised in heart and ears, we are spiritually cut-off from the world, and a part of the Man, Jesus, through the spiritual Marriage or new birth.
So a man could put away his wife for:
- Unconfessed fornication;
- Adultery/dishonor—whereby she has put him away (I Corinthians 11:5);
A wife's refusal to play the part of a wife and consummate the union or refuse him his conjugal rights. We have such an example in the Book of Esther where Ahasuerus put away Queen Vashti.
The Lord Jesus Christ did likewise through the Gentile Dispensation to those who claimed to be His Wife but refused to receive another line, another Word, another precept when it was revealed in the next Church Age and thus refused Him. We must walk in the Light of the present truth for God is only making written epistles of the Word predestinated to be fulfilled in this day. The saints of Luther's Age did run well, but when God revealed a greater portion of the Spirit through Wesley's Message, the churches which had denominated refused it and He put them away because they had refused to receive His Life and produce Spirit babes to Him. Then when the Laodicean or Pentecostal revelation shone forth those who had denominated after the Philadelphian revival refused that further Light and refused Christ. And at the end of Laodicea, when the Fullness of the Word was revealed, the Pentecostals and all the others fulfilled Revelation 3:20 and now Christ is calling to His Own to come to Him without the camp (Revelation 18:1-4).
I Corinthians 7:25-28: "Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my judgment, as one who has obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful. I suppose therefore that this is good for the present distress, I say, that it is good for a man so to be. Are you bound to a wife? Seek not to be loosed. Are you loosed from a wife? Seek not a wife.
But and if you marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh: but I spare you".
He can remarry, but she cannot remarry so long as her husband lives.
Numbers 30:16: "These are the statutes, which the Lord commanded Moses, between a man and his wife, between the father and his daughter, being yet in her youth in her father's house".
Ever since the "Fall" God has had one covenant for men and another for women. One for Christ, and one for the Church. Witnesses to a marriage ceremony are questioned whether they know aught why the union should not be blessed of God, and to declare it immediately, or forever hold their peace. Once the man has taken a wife, he has accepted her, (knowing her faults if any), and he has taken her responsibility upon himself.
The term "And the Government shall be upon his shoulder" (Isaiah 9:6) comes from the wedding ceremony of the East. When the bride has been committed to the groom she takes off her veil and places it over the groom's shoulders, signifying that not only is she under his dominion—that she has transferred her rights to him—that he is the head—but also that he bears the responsibility and the care and that he and he alone—no one else—no other man—no other power—has any right and responsibility. She belongs to him and to him alone.
Another day we may enlarge upon the Spiritual and natural aspects of marriage and divorce and the different relationship and responsibilities of men and women, Christ and the Church, and Satan who bears responsibility for sin and will be annihilated in the Lake of Fire and together with past history and all sin, will never return to God's remembrance. Think on these things, and as God reveals them to you out of His Word, pass this sermon on to another, for the hour is late. Jesus will have a Bride, but she will be very few. bb940724.htm
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