Holy Scriptures and Israel

Gideon Levytam: `Shabbat Shalom`. Let us open our Bibles, please, to Ephesians chapter 5. Today, we are going to read the last verses of chapter 5. In verse 22, the Apostle Paul wrote in connection with the submissiveness that we, as believers, ought to have as husbands and wives to each other in order to help the family unit, the relationship between husbands and wives.

And look how the Apostle Paul is presenting what he has to the brothers and sisters of the Ephesians. He says in verse 22, and I am reading, "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself, and the wife see that she reverence her husband."

I am going to stop in verse 33 here for this ministry meeting for today. If you remember, brothers and sisters, in our previous meeting, we talked about the importance of not being drunk with wine, but being filled with the Spirit of God. In other words, don't be influenced by alcoholic beverage. Don't be influenced with wine, but be influenced by the Spirit of God. Be controlled by the Spirit of God.

If a believer has been controlled by the Spirit of God, obviously, there will be changes in his and her lives. We have learned in our previous meeting that there were three results which resulted in a person's life being controlled by Ruach HaKodesh. What were those three results? Number one, joy in verse 19. Number two, giving thanks in verse 20. And number three, submissiveness.

It is so beautiful to see a believer that is being controlled by the Holy Spirit of God, which is evident in his life because there is joy, there is thanksgiving, and there is also submissiveness, which is very important. And you remember we read verse 21 in our last ministry meeting, "submitting yourself one to another in the fear of God."

From here on, into those verses 22 to verse 33, including chapter 6, verses 1 to 9, the Apostle Paul is really dealing with the importance of submissiveness. Notice that it says in verse 21, "submitting yourself one to the other in the fear of God." Giving reverence to God will produce in the life of the believer a desire to be submissive in every area of our walk here with the Lord.

You notice that in this world, there are so many things that will draw us away from being submissive to the Lord, which is a proof, when we allow this to happen in our life, that we are not being led or controlled and being filled by Ruach Elohim, the Holy Spirit of God.

So now I want to build up from verse 21 on in connection with the relationship as husbands and wives. Now, let me say right at the beginning, the Lord had provided for us a marriage relationship, but really, we know that not everyone today has been called to be married. For example, let me just read you a verse in Matthew chapter 19. You will notice what Yeshua said to His disciples. He said in verses 11 and 12, "But He saith unto them," this is Yeshua speaking, "All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given."

And then He said, "For there are some eunuchs which were so born from their mother's womb. And there are some eunuchs which were made eunuchs of men." And then He said, "And there be eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it."

In other words, you know, the Hebrew word for eunuch is `saris`, is a person that has no relationship with an opposite sex, you may say with a wife or a husband. And a person who is a eunuch is a person that is either unable to have physical relationship with the opposite sex as a husband or wife, or he made or she made themselves so much devoted to the Lord that one said, "I'm committing my life to the Lord."

And as it says here in verse 12 B, "there are some eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake." In other words, there are those individuals that are called to be serving the Lord, serving God, even though they are not going to get married, whether it is a man or whether it is a woman. There are those that made themselves for the kingdom of God, eunuchs on behalf of their desire to serve God in this world and they simply did not get married.

So, the Lord Yeshua the Messiah is very clear about that because there are some individuals that were not called to be married. But in general, marriage is an ordinance that God had instituted already long ago in the Garden of Eden. And it is so beautiful to see that when God gave the institution of marriage, He gave it for the benefit of the human race.

Marriage is an honorable thing to enjoy and to have in life. God had blessed the human race with the institution of marriage. And it is important to understand that there are various needs that we, as human beings, have and that God met those needs by institution of the marriage union. The first thing that I want to mention before we are going to go into these verses, that the first thing that God wanted to meet is the emotional need of man.

Marriage really meets the emotional needs of man. Look at the verse in Genesis chapter 2 and verse 18. We read these words. It says, "And the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him an help meet for him." He created Adam from the ground, from the dust of this earth, and God saw that Adam is on his own. He didn't have any help meet. So God said, in Hebrew it says, `Lo tov heyot haadam levado`. It is not good for man to be alone. So what God said? "I will make for him a help meet."

The wife, the woman that God had created for Adam, was a person that was created to be a help meet for Adam, to meet his emotional needs. And by bringing Chava, Eve to Adam, God sought to meet the emotional need of Adam. And those of us who are married know very well how our wives have been such a help meet to us to meet the emotional needs that we have.

Therefore, the marriage was instituted by God in the Garden of Eden in order to meet the emotional need that Adam had. And lo and behold, as you know very well, He created Eve, Chava, from the rib that was part of Adam, and He brought this Chava, this woman unto Adam to meet his emotional need. Beautiful the way God had presented for us the marriage union in the scripture.

Secondly, not only that God sought to meet human race need emotionally, but also even the social need. How do we bring children into this world? Well, it is through the marriage union that the social need is being met. I'm reading again in the book of Genesis. In Genesis chapter 1, this time in verse 28, when God said to Adam and Eve, and I'm reading this verse, God blessed them, this is Adam and Eve. And God said unto them, Adam and Eve, `Adam V'Chava`, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."

The second thing we learn from the Bible, that God had intended not only to meet the emotional need of Adam and Eve, but also to meet the social need. The social need has to do with the multiplication of family, bringing children. Be fruitful and multiply and replenish this earth. The society in which you and I live in today is the result of the fact that God have blessed men and women, husbands and wives with the ability to bring children to this world. So their social need is going to be met.

How thankful to the Lord for what He have done for us in providing for us a wife and husband for the purpose of emotional need and social need. And thank God for this in His provision. Thirdly, the reason that God had provided the marriage union is to provide for the physical need. The physical need that we all have as males and females, husbands and wives. And I want to quote a verse that Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians chapter 7 and verses 3 and 4, and listen to what Paul said, "Let the husband render unto his wife due benevolence. And likewise also the wife unto her husband. For the wife has not power over her own body, but the husband. And likewise also the husband has not power over his own body, but the wife."

The third reason that we have the marriage union for, it is really another need that God have met, is the physical need that men and women have. Therefore, the marriage union, which the physical relationship between husband and wife, met the physical union of the husbands and the wives. God's concern for the emotional, for the social and for the physical need of the husbands and wives.

And here's fourthly, there's another reason in which that is where we are here today in Ephesians chapter 5. The fourth reason that God gave the marriage union is to meet the spiritual need of the husband and wife. Husbands and wives ought to enjoy each other, not only physically, but also spiritually. You know, it is so sad when many marriages are being broken because the husbands and wives oftentimes fail in enjoying the spiritual need that we all have.

And that is exactly what the Apostle Paul is doing here in chapter 5 and verses 22 to 33. He is now dealing with the spiritual needs of the husbands and wives. The emotional, the physical, and the social, we already talked about it, but in these verses, we are going to talk about the spiritual needs of the husbands and wives. Now, in the case of this text in Ephesians chapter 5, he is assuming that both the husbands and wives are believers in our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.

In other passages, like 1 Peter chapter 3, he is speaking about wives and husbands. There, the husbands or one of the partners are not believers. How to relate to them, we have in 1 Peter chapter 3. But here, beloved brothers and sisters, the Apostle present before us a husband and wife, and how are we to treat each other as the husbands and wives? So he began, you notice in verses 22 to 24, he began with the wives. Then verse 25 to verse 33, he continued with admonishing the husbands.

He began with the wives and listen how important here in this chapter here, it says in verse 22, "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as the Messiah is the head of the church, and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, unto the Messiah, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything."

Now, he began by speaking to the wives first of all. And you notice to the wives, we only have three verses allotted to the wives here. And to the husband, it's a bit longer because there's much more to say apparently to the husbands in the context in which we have here in Ephesians chapter 5. But it is very important, brothers and sisters, and I'm speaking now to those of us who are wives here, to realize that submissiveness to the husband, according to verse 22, is really submissiveness to the Lord Yeshua the Messiah.

You see, sometimes we don't realize this, and we think that if I'm going to submit myself unto my husband, because my husband is not always an easy person to submit, because he's not always doing things in the right way and treating me in the right way. Therefore, I have the liberty not to submit because he's really not doing everything right, the way I would like him to do. Nevertheless, the Bible is very clear when he says, "Wives, submit yourself unto your own husbands," and he is adding these last clause where he says, "as unto the Lord."

Yeshua is Lord. And Yeshua is the one that is in charge and He delegate to the body of Christ, to the believers, what He has in mind as a Lord, `Adon`, as we say it in Hebrew, who is the one who is in charge. He is responsible over the affairs of the church. And therefore, the church is to be subjected to the Lordship of Yeshua, and therefore, the wife as a type of the church is to submit to the Lordship of Yeshua the Messiah and to the Lordship of her husband.

You know, you notice he used the word submit, and somebody asked me, "What if my husband asks me to do things that are not right?" Well, we know very well that he does not say submit unto your husband when he asked you to do bad or wrong things. No, but to recognize that the husband is still, according to this verse, he is the picture of the Lordship of Yeshua the Messiah. When I subject myself to the Lord or to my husband, I really subject myself to the person of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.

You know, when we became believers in Yeshua, we confessed Him to be Lord. The Hebrew word `Lord` means `Adon`, master. He's the one that he is responsible. He's the one who is in charge. The husband is not doing always the right things, but the husband is nevertheless been placed in a home setting as the one that is in headship, in leadership.

And therefore, by submitting to the husband, we're submitting to Yeshua the Messiah in His Lordship over the church of the Lord Jesus the Messiah. Now, again I want to say, submissiveness to the husband is not in everything because many times the husband is not doing the right things, and therefore we have to be really sensitive here, but nevertheless, the wife, according to verse 22, is to submit, to adjust themselves, to recognize who the husband is, and to adjust their mind and their hearts in that setting will allow them to please the Lord in being submissive to the husband.

He's continuing here in verse 23, and he's explaining the headship in a home. Again, he assuming here that he's talking to a believing husband and wife, "He said, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as the Messiah is the head of the church. And He is the savior of the body." The husband is the head of that home setting.

Therefore, he is responsible. In many ways, he is also not only have a privilege of headship, but he has also the responsibility in headship. And therefore, the wife is to recognize the headship of the Lord. Let me give you just a couple of verses in connection with the headship of the husband or the man. Notice in 1 Corinthians in connection with verse 23, the wife is to understand the headship of her husband.

1 Corinthians chapter 11, it says in verse 3, "But I would have you know that the head of every man is the Messiah, is Christ. And the head of the woman is the man." Here is again, Paul is saying, "The head of the woman is the man." "The head of Christ is God." And therefore, it's very clear that God positionally have placed the man in headship, in responsibility.

Even all of us who are today have these bodies of us, we have that head. And with the head is the thought pattern. From the head, we get direction for all the members of the body. Headship is natural. And therefore, when God had created Adam first, placed him to be the head over his wife, not in controlling and treating her in a wrong way, but the headship in giving direction and nourishment and help and so on. This is the responsibility that God had given to the headship.

What we're really doing by submitting to our husbands, we are really submitting ourselves to the Lordship of Yeshua the Messiah. "Wives be subject to your own husbands even as it is unto the Lord, because the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church." Now imagine, brothers and sisters, if the church, this is the believers, will start to tell the Lord Jesus what to do. Imagine if we, as the body of Messiah, will give instruction and correction, and not being subject to the Lordship of Yeshua.

This is exactly the problem that happened with Israel, our people of old. And this is exactly what happened in the present-day church age, where we have violated the clear instruction of the Lord and instead of submitting ourselves to Yeshua, we end up doing our own thing and end up at the end losing out with the enjoyment of the relationship with Christ, with the Messiah.

Israel, you remember what God said, we just read today in Hosea chapter 3 and in Jeremiah chapter 31, God had this relationship with the nation of Israel, but Israel, the nation needed to submit to their husband, to Jehovah. Just the same like we, the church, ought to submit to the Lord Yeshua the Messiah. And the marriage union is merely a picture of Christ, the Messiah and the church. So the husband is the head, is not the dictator, is not called to be a dictator. He's called to be the head that give direction and nourishment and assistant in the governing of the home and the family, and the wife is to recognize that and to allow him by submitting to his authority, to his headship.

Now, what if the husband is not doing so? What if the husband is not always doing the right thing? Does that give justification for the wife not to submit because the husband is not always the way he should be? You never find this in the Bible, that it says, "Wife, be subject to your husband only when he does everything right." You don't have this in the Bible. But what we do have in the Bible, that the wife is to subject herself to the husband, as subjecting unto the Lord.

Praying for him, assisting him, seeking to see him doing the right thing in leading her in a right way, because the wife is a picture of the church who is to be submissive to the Lord Yeshua the Messiah. Notice how he's saying in verse 24, "The wife is a picture of the church in submissiveness." It says in verse 24, "Therefore, as the church is to be subject to Christ, to the Messiah, so let the wife be to their own husband," and he adds the word again, "in everything."

Again, I mention, there are certain things that one cannot subject to the husband when the husband said to do something wrong. But if the husband doesn't make always the best decision, it doesn't give a wife the right not to subject herself unto her own husband. And submitting here, it's simply adjusting the wife's heart and mind to the leadership of the husband.

Let me just read a couple more verses in connection with this. Colossians chapter 3 and verse 18. He's writing to the brethren there, and he says, "Wives, submit yourself to your own husband." And then he continued. He says, "As it is fit in the Lord." It is fit, it is meet, it is suitable, it is the right thing to do in the Lord, is when the wives are being submissive to her husband. This is so beautiful to see.