(…continued from the last post…)

*8*        The woman should never even imagine herself changing the husband to suit her own dream. It is an atypicality of God’s protocol -the Bible. One could as well picture the Church trying to change Jesus to suit a personal whim! Any possibility? Nothing but sheer hallucinatory venture. Wives, guard strongly against this Satanism. Two kings of Israel failed in their divine mandate to ‘dress and to keep’ the theocratic kingdom entrusted to them respectively. Solomon’s heart was drawn away from the LORD God, by his many idolatrous wives.

The Bible: God’s protocol.

With the sole aim of an establishment of Baalism, Princess Jezebel, her priestess, plunged King Ahab’s Judaism into total idolatry. The wives, who should be found in biblical submission, forced the husbands into marital subjugation thereby causing their failure to implement husbands’ mandatory ‘to dress and to keep’ of Genesis 2:15. The word ‘dress’ is‛âbad (aw-bad’): ‘to labour, work, serve another by labour.’ They failed to be conscientious workers in the Lord’s vineyard. They used the wrong sacerdotal personnel in worship of the Creator. This led to their irresponsibility in carrying out Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” ‘To guard, observe, give heed,’ defines the verb ‘keep,’ which is shâmar (shaw-mar’), in Hebrew.

Those kings left their kingdoms unprotected from alien plots. When a wife subtly attaches her own design, which does not complement her husband’s, she actually engenders her husband’s abdication of his spiritual responsibility.

The wife is the builder of the marital home. “Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands” [Proverbs 14:1]. The word ‘wise’ is the Hebraic chokmôth or chakmôth (khok-moth’) ‘wisdom in all its collateral forms: prudence (in ethical & religious affairs), skill (in war & in administration), and shrewdness.’ Impoverishment: spiritually, mentally, economically or otherwise of the marriage is what to expect the foolish ‘ishshâh (wife) to bring onto her husband, for failing to be a good help meet for him.

“Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God” (Ruth 1:16).

Three types of ‘woman’ appears in Hebraic Bible: neqêbâh, na‛ărâh and ‘ishshâh. Na‛ărâh (nah-ar-aw’) is: ‘a girl (from infancy to adolescence), a female servant.’ Neqêbâh (nek-ay-baw’) means ‘female (from the sexual form);’ while ‘every woman,’‘ishshâh nâshı̂ym (Often unexpressed in English), meaning ‘woman [is the only form of woman expressive of adulter(ess)], therefore, wife.’ The woman of this verse,‘ishshâh (ish-shaw’), is the feminine of husband.

‘Buildeth,’ bânâh (baw-naw’) means ‘to build, rebuild, establish, cause to continue.’ It must be understood that the woman’s role of building is participatory, hence, must conform to the man’s specification. Remember that the husband is the ‘head’ which the Greek calls kephalē (kef-al-ay’) by definition, makes the man ‘the source or origin’ of that family. I am not being chauvinistic in my assertion that, “It’s a man’s world.” Every entity of the Homo sapiens emanates from a family, whose headship must be the male of the conjugal relationship, whether responsible or totally irresponsible. At his death, the woman takes over. ‘House,’ bayith (bah’-yith) is a masculine noun, meaning ‘a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family, home etc.’ Remember also that the wife, ‘ishshâh, speaks of a circle that protects the husband, ‘ı̂ysh?

Jesus built the Church and took care of her

Now we come to the last definition, ‘plucketh it down,’ in this verse. It is hâras (haw-ras’) ‘to pull down or in pieces, break, destroy, utterly.’ This was exactly what Jezebel did. A good husband, who has the mind of Christ, should have made Jezebel to understand these things. The truth is that God knew that the destruction of His institution would be the objective of heathen nations married into Israel. In the 7th chapter of Deuteronomy in the 3rd verse, God told Moses to give this commandment, “Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.” Compare this with 1Corinthians 6:15.

  Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church

The man just cannot afford, as far as God’s protocol is concerned, not to love his wife. If you do not know how to forgive, use your wife to learn the act and art of forgiving. You cannot, spiritually speaking, afford to think ill of your wife; especially, as my Pastor will say, if she has given birth to your child. The shower of your love is all the assurance she needs to perform optimally in the conjugal venture. Give her the love tonic day and night.

It is an evil deed not to be able to provide for the family. “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel” [1Timothy 5:8]. What aggravates the severity of your worse state is the spiritual illumination available to you as a Christian.

Failure on the part of either couple to heed God’s marital injunction is a rebellious and stubborn act. 1Samuel 15:23 “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.” Praise the Lord!

You can be part of the conjugal gist by being born again. Say this prayer from your heart, believing every word. Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe in my heart that Jesus died for my sins and You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord, and I receive Him as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory, Amen. (Conclusion)

Read the 7th part here

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