SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/12/2019 8:46 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-5 “The
Matter of Submission”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
5:22a
Message of the
verses: “Wives,
be subject to your own husbands,”
The following comes from what is
called “The Mishmash,” and this is an ancient codification of Jewish law and
tradition. This reflects what was
happening during the time when Jesus was on planet earth as John MacArthur
writes using the data from “The Mishmash.”
“It describes the wife’s duties as those of grinding flour, baking,
cooking, nursing her children, spinning wool, laundering, and other such
typical household chores. The husband’s
responsibility was to provide food, clothing, shoes, and such things. He often gave his wife a certain amount of
money each week for her personal expenses.
Many women worked with their husbands in the fields or in a trade—as did
Aquila and Priscilla (Acts 18:2-3). A
wife was allowed to work at crafts or horticulture at home and to sell the fruits
of her labor. Profits were used either
to supplement family income or to provide her with her own spending money. But if she worked apart from her husband in
the marketplace or at a trade she was considered a disgrace. Apart from her household chores and possible
work with her husband, a wife was also responsible for getting her sons ready
for school (often taking them personally to prevent truancy), caring for
guests, and doing charitable work. At
all times she was to adorn herself properly, for the sake of modesty as well as
nice appearance. The wife who faithfully
carried her responsibilities was held in high regard in her family, in the
synagogue, and in the community.” I have
mentioned in an earlier SD that when my mother was offered a job taking care of
a neighbor boy so that his mom could work outside the home, my father would not
allow it because it was his view that the mother should not work outside the
home when she had children. I think that
this was pretty much the normal growing up in the 1950’s in the United States
of America. Things have certainly
changed since then and although most families have more funds to spend in this
day and age, the spiritual condition of our country has dropped off a great
deal. Take for instance a young college
student asking a democratic man running for President and she asked him how
many genders we have. His answer was
three, but stated he was not sure, and then told the young woman to get away
from him. It upset her a great deal as
she latter said, but to ask how many genders there are just shows how far the
spirituality of our country has fallen in close to 70 years.
Paul writes about the women in
Corinth not wearing veils on their heads, which was probably something that
happened in Corinth. Some were not
wearing them because of early influential feminists of the city and began going
out in public without a veil. MacArthur
writes “The New Testament does not prescribe the wearing of veils for all
women. Though it appears to have been
the norm in Corinth (cf. 1 Cor. 11:4-6), there is no reason to assume that
Christian women in all the rest of the early churches wore veils. Apparently in Corinth the only women who
traditionally did not wear veils were prostitutes or feminists, both of which
groups had no regard for God or for the home.
In that culture veils were a sign of moral propriety and submission, and
failure to wear them a sign of immorality and rebelliousness. In that cultural circumstance Paul advised
women to cover their heads ‘while praying or prophesying’ (1 Cor. 11:5), lest
they be considered to be rebelling against God’s ordained principle of
submissiveness. Paul did not here
establish a permanent or universal mode of dress for Christian women, but
reinforced the principle that they should never give to their society even the
suggestion of rebelliousness or immorality.”
I am thankful to get a better understanding of what in the past has been
a problem in my understanding this section of Scripture. I thought it was a culture thing, but now am
convinced it was.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I am
thankful for better understanding different areas of submission, not just in
the case of wives, but also in the case of everyone as Paul talks about in
Ephesians.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I am
thankful that in the near future that I will have the opportunity of talking
with my Pastor about humility, and also the filling of the Holy Spirit as when
I began this quest to understand humility I have had some rocky times in my walk
with the Lord as I believe that this was all from the Lord to learn more about
humility and He is the One who has allowed me to have some tough times in my
walk with Him so that I will be better off after learning what it is that He
wants me to learn. For this I am
thankful.
Today’s verse
that goes along with the quote from David Nicholas comes from 2 Corinthians
1:20 “For all the promises of God in Him are yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory
of God through us.”
8/12/2019 9:19
AM
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