The beauty of the converted family

“The word of the LORD came also unto me, saying, Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place.” (Jer. 16:1,2).

There were no more holy women in Israel to be faithful helpmeets and holy mothers.

“For thus saith the LORD concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land;

They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.

For thus saith the LORD, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan them: for I have taken away My peace from this people, saith the LORD, even lovingkindness and mercies.” (Jer. 16:3-5).

“Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing [childrearing], if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.” (1Tim. 2:15).

“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.” (1Tim. 2:12-14).

Usurping authority over the man is exactly what Satan loves to do. Destroying the creation that most fully represents God is Satan’s plan, “forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.” (1Cor. 11:7).

Man came from the earth; woman came from man. The intelligence gene may equally be distributed between both genders, but the emotion hormones are not. Women have a wider range of emotional expression than men. Therefore they have less self-control. Their minds are by nature under the control of their bodies more so than men because estrogen is greater in women than in men and testosterone is greater in men than in women. That inescapable, unalterable physical reality leaves men in authority over women.

“If a man vow a vow unto the LORD, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.

If a woman also vow a vow unto the LORD, and bind herself by a bond, 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 hath bound her soul shall stand.

But if her father disallow her in the day that he heareth; not any of her vows, or of her bonds wherewith she hath bound her soul, shall stand: and the LORD shall forgive her, because her father disallowed her.

And if she had at all an husband, when she vowed, or uttered ought out of her lips, wherewith she bound her soul;

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 wherewith she bound her soul shall stand.

But if her husband disallowed her on the day that he heard it; then he shall make her vow which she vowed, and that which she uttered with her lips, wherewith she bound her soul, of none effect: and the LORD shall forgive her.

But every vow of a widow, and of her that is divorced, wherewith they have bound their souls, shall stand against her.

And if she vowed in her husband’s house, or bound her soul 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 wherewith she bound her soul shall stand.

But if her husband hath 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 hath made them void; and the LORD shall forgive her.

Every vow, and every binding oath to afflict the soul, her husband may establish it, or her husband may make it void.

But if her husband altogether hold his peace at her from day to day; then he establisheth all her vows, or all her bonds, which are upon her: he confirmeth 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 hath heard them; then he shall bear her iniquity.

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.” (Num. 30:2-16).

But the woman, with all of her unasked for and inescapable physical-mental makeup, is a precious creation. So what if she cannot be the final say in decisions, her gentle and diffident voice of counsel is the balance for her man’s decisions for the good outcome of every determination. Powerful influencers in husband’s mind, which she brings to the table with other perspectives and a second opinion and thus increased wisdom, are her looking up to him and submitting to him.

“Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor; if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity.” (Dan. 4:27).

Every tail needs a kite in order to get off the ground. But, every kite needs a tail; or it will crash and burn. Likewise, every man needs a converted wife to quicken him in his weighty duties. And every woman needs a converted husband to strengthen and stabilize her in childrearing. She deals primarily with the important issues inside the home; he deals primarily with the greater issues outside the home. Man was made to support and defend the family and nation. Woman was made to use his support for the raising up of the future generation.

“[Their] delight is in the law of the LORD; and in His law [do they] meditate day and night.

And [they] shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth [their] fruit in [their] season; [their] leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever [they do] shall prosper.” (Ps. 1:2,3).

Thus, “man” is in the whole image of the Godhead. “In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made He him; male and female created He them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.” (Gen. 5:1,2).

All that girls and women live for is the day they can have infants and children and husband to surround them with acceptance and joy. They dream of mutual love, which alone makes life worth living. Yet, this wonderful arrangement can fail and too often does fail to bring success.

“Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget.” (Isa. 49:15).

And men can lose love for their wife and close their ears to her counsel, which would offer so much prosperity.

“Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.” (Mal. 2:14).

Why does this happen? Why does the beautiful thing God created in Eden too often fail to bring the powerful joy that could lighten the earth with the glory of God?

I believe the marital troubles start with the lack of love for the Bible. There exists no other resource to uplift the conscience in every aspect of the human being. But, in order to receive a love of the Bible, with Satan’s influence surrounding this planet so pervasively, God’s appointed Saviour for fallen man must convert the conscience to trust the Bible as the word of God. Once receiving a new trust in the Bible, then the Spirit of God, the mind of God, the voice intoning His will and character, begins to persuade the conscience that the Bible’s guidelines are best. With the converted person—husband or wife (unless one hates God and His word)—who trusts in the Saviour as a friend puts forth the will and effort to keep the first precept of the Bible’s guidelines, then the automatic good result is realized. When both husband and wife are converted and both are realizing good effects from obedience to their Saviour’s guidelines, they both grow in grace and in a knowledge of the Saviour’s character. They both continue to naturally develop into the image of God and the design that they were made to satisfy, and God glorifies their Designer, the Lord God. Both husband and wife take their place in the beautiful arrangement that Jesus gave their first parents in Eden. The wife allows the word of the husband to stand in every decision for the family unit, and the wife’s godly wisdom is heeded by her husband. Both respect the other. Both love the other. The love is mutual between them, and their children with them who have grown up in only the knowledge of good. Father and mother and children are one in everything. They happily go everywhere together and do everything together. They live life joyfully. They imitate the greater Father and His submissive Son, and Their creation. The human reflects the divine in the fulfillment of the Godhead’s plan for the earthly family’s creation, “which things the angels desire to look into.” (1Pet. 1:12).

The human race becomes the text book for infinite illustrations of object lessons to the angelic hosts and unfallen worlds.