When We Listen – November 7, 2022

Read with Me

1 Peter 3:1-6 (HCSB)
In the same way, wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, even if some disobey the Christian message, they may be won over without a message by the way their wives live when they observe your pure, reverent lives. Your beauty should not consist of outward things like elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold ornaments or fine clothes. Instead, it should consist of what is inside the heart with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very valuable in God’s eyes. For in the past, the holy women who put their hope in God also beautified themselves in this way, submitting to their own husbands, just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. You have become her children when you do what is good and are not frightened by anything alarming.

Listen with Me

These days, passages such as this one bring on cries of sexism from many women. But two things must be remembered. First is that the whole concept of sexism is very modern. And the most recent incarnation, not just a belief that women should not be confined to traditional roles but the belief that there is no difference between men and women at all, being of even more recent vintage.

And the second is the simple biological fact that there are significant differences between men and women – not just the physical differences that are discernible to the naked eye, but physical differences all the way down to the cellular level, as well as significant emotional differences. That is not to say that women are in any way inferior to men as beings (and the Bible doesn’t ever call women inferior). But when God created the first male and female, he made them complimentary: strong in different ways, able to think differently, and even to perceive and respond to the world and the things in it differently.

Those differences result not only in differing strengths, but differing weaknesses as well. And, make no mistake, men have as many intrinsic weaknesses as women do, but those weaknesses tend to be in different areas, and they tend to manifest themselves differently.

As unfair as it is sometimes portrayed to be these days, God recognized that the fall of Adam and Eve forever changed the dynamic between men and women, with there being potential for a continual battle for authority and control between the two, colored by the self-interest that was now part of their fallen nature. Therefore, God instituted roles within the family unit, laying the heavy responsibility of providing for the family and leading them primarily on the man (Genesis 3:16-19). He was from that moment, not only responsible before his family, but responsible before God for how well he carried out those responsibilities.

But in order for the man to be an effective leader and provider requires that his wife respect that responsibility and not work at cross purposes. Hence the command here for the wives to submit to their husband’s authority.

This, however, does not give the husband license to be abusive or controlling. As Peter points out in the next section, and as Paul points out in Ephesians 5:25-33, husbands are to sacrificially love their wives and always do everything with their best interests at heart, following the model of Jesus’ sacrificial love for the Church. And they will ultimately be judged on how well they do that.

That being said, as Peter points out here, a woman has a lot of power in the marriage relationship, if she uses it wisely. As Tevye’s wife explained to their daughter in Fiddler on the Roof, “The man is the head of the household. But the wife is the neck. And the neck can turn the head anyway it wants to.” That is a powerful truth. But that incredible influence that wives have over their husbands should be used wisely, to help them to grow spiritually, and even to find salvation, which benefits the whole family. Keep in mind that even Sarah, who is listed here as a model of proper submission, sometimes used her powerful influence to lead Abraham out of God’s way!

Pray with Me

Father, our ways of seeing the roles of men and women are often clouded by emotion, tradition, and popular culture. But the guidance in Your word is so clear and, unfortunately, not often employed these days, but only criticized. Help us all, Lord, both men and women, to more readily conform to Your patterns and plans for us, so that we be powerful and effective witnesses to the world around us, and so that we can live in Your blessing in every area of our lives. Amen.

Today’s Scripture – February 20, 2018

Luke 16:18 (NIV) “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”

To many these days, these words of Jesus seems unnecessarily strict and harsh. After all, there is so much divorce and remarriage these days that many figure that God simply needs to get with the times. But, like everything else Jesus said and taught, His words and guidance are timeless, based solidly on the character of the godhead.

Divorce was nearly as common in Jesus’ day as it is today. Since the law contained procedures for divorcing a wife, some of the leading rabbis taught that divorce was fine with God, as long as you made sure to dot all of the i’s and cross all of the t’s.

But divorce, then as now, had far-reaching social consequences, especially for the woman involved. In those days, there were few legitimate jobs for women, so a divorced woman could frequently find herself without any means of support (alimony and child support did not exist back then), and would be forced into illicit work to support herself. God knew that, because the hearts of His people were hard (Matthew 19:8), they would have a hard time being faithful in marriage, and so divorce would happen. So He set in place safeguards and procedures designed to slow the process down and allow for sober reconsideration.

But still, these leaders and their disciples would divorce their wives for any and every reason, including burning a meal, and quickly marry someone that they found more desirable. In doing this, as Jesus pointed out on several occasions, they were missing the point of what marriage was designed by God to be, and what it did. As Jesus pointed out in Mark 10:5-9, drawing on the history contained in Genesis 2:21-24, God created marriage right along with the creation of the first man, and the first woman, who was actually created out of the first man. What was one, God recreated to be two distinct persons, and in marriage He joins those two back into one flesh.

That is the basis of marriage, and the basis of the heinousness of divorce. Divorce results in the tearing apart of the one-flesh union created in the marriage covenant, causing powerful damage to both parties, as well as to any children brought into being through that union. So to divorce someone in order to marry another breaks a union that God has blessed, and illegitimately tries to make that same kind of union with someone else.

Today, as then, divorce has been normalized, regulated, and is widely accepted as tragic, but as something that inevitably happens. But God does not accept divorce as readily as people do. Jesus laid out the standard for divorce in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:31-32), with marital unfaithfulness, not requiring divorce, but being the only legitimate grounds for divorce, since the adulterer has already broken the marriage covenant by being unfaithful. This standard seems unreasonable to some, but it is the only standard that takes into account what God actually designed marriage to do and to be. That is also a key reason why marriage should be entered into solemnly, and with clear eyes toward the intended spouse. Many, if they knew that they would absolutely have to stay married to that persons for life, would look at any prospective spouse very differently, and would perhaps end up choosing differently.

Father, You are right on the money when You point out that we, like the society of Jesus’ day, have lost track of what You designed marriage to do and to be. And from that faulty worldview, we have constructed our own standards for divorce, often far removed from what Your word says. Help us, Lord, to see all of this clearly, so that we can live by Your word, instead of by the norms of our secularized society. Amen.

Today’s Scripture – December 15, 2013

John 5:46-47 (NIV):  If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.  But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”

There are many today, even among the churched, who do not believe Moses, and therefore will not, cannot, believe Jesus.  Many of them are not primarily to blame for their disbelief, because they have been taught from a very young age that the historical events depicted in Genesis through Deuteronomy (and even beyond) are not actual historical events.  The first 11 chapters of Genesis are especially pointed out as being non-historical – merely poetry written to convey some theological truths.

But the fact is, today as in Jesus’ day, if you do not believe what Moses write, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to believe what Jesus said, because Jesus taught the same things, and repeatedly taught that the events in Genesis were actual historical events, accurately recorded.  For example, in dealing with the divorce issue, Jesus pointed out that at the beginning (NOT billions of years later) God made people.  He made them male and female, and they became one flesh – the model for marriage from the One who designed it.  (cf., Matthew 19:1-6)  When talking about the suddenness and unexpectedness of His return and the end of the world, Jesus refers back to the same kind of suddenness and unexpectedness when the flood was released in the days of Noah.  (Matthew 24:36-41)  He gave not the slightest signal that the flood was anything other than the literal, world-wide event that Moses proclaims it to be.  By the way, Jesus also repeatedly supports the idea of Moses being the author of the Pentateuch.

To those who say that Jesus was merely a product of His time and only believed those things because He didn’t have access to the information that we do, they have merely proven Jesus’ statement to be true:  since they don’t believe what Moses wrote, they have a significant block in their hearts against what Jesus taught.  This includes the fact that Jesus was no mere man, no “product of His time;” He was and is the eternal God in the flesh – One who was not only present as an eyewitness to all of the events recorded in those early chapters of the Bible, but the cause that lay behind them and directed them.  He was not a mere man educated in the Scriptures, but the very author of them, who breathed His words through the human authors, including Moses.

God is always trustworthy.  He never lies, or ever shades the truth.  He never tells us something false or non-historical as history.  If He tells a story that didn’t really happen in order to illustrate a point, He clearly flags it as a parable.  Therefore, we can know with all good assurance from God Himself, that we can believe that what Moses wrote is true and historically accurate.  And that, of course, will open the door of our hearts to fully believe all that Jesus said, and to fully receive Him as our Savior.

Father, thank You for always telling us the truth, no matter what.  Thank You for giving us clear information, not out of the often mistaken minds of men, but from Your own holy heart.  Thank You that, as surely as the world of the past was lost to a worldwide flood, so our home with You in heaven will last forever.  Amen.