Holy Scriptures and Israel

Guest (Female): Shalom. Holy Scriptures and Israel is a ministry designed to share with the Jewish people the good news of the Lord Jesus, Yeshua the Messiah, and to instruct Christians on the Jewish roots of their faith. And now, teaching God's Word from a Hebrew Messianic perspective, here is Gideon Levytam.

Gideon Levytam: The study of Ephesians chapter five. Imagine how terrible it looks like when we do not act in such a way. Now, of course, we know we fail oftentimes in this, but nevertheless, the exhortation is: husbands, love your wives sacrificially, even as the Messiah loved the church, the assembly, and he was willing to give his life for her. It was a sacrificial love that Yeshua had done in order to bring us to become part of the family of God.

You remember the story of Jacob? Jacob left his father's house, went to Mesopotamia, and there he arrived to the family of Laban. In Genesis chapter 29, in verse 18, Jacob loved Rachel. And he said, "I will serve thee," he was speaking to Laban, her father, "for seven years for Rachel, your younger daughter." Laban said, "It is better for me that I will give her to you than that I should give her to another man. Abide with me." So Jacob served sacrificially for seven years for Rachel.

Now, how many years have you worked to gain your wife? Can you imagine seven years to labor and labor and labor just to get this wife that he loved so much? Well, you know what happened? It says Jacob served for seven years and they seemed unto him as a few days for the love that he had for her. You remember when we first met our future wives to be? We loved them so much and the days pass so quick, and we wanted so much to be with them and to serve them and to minister to them. Whatever the Lord would give us because we love them so much.

Jacob's seven years of working so hard to gain Rachel seemed to him, according to verse 20, they seemed to him as only a few days. Well, you know what happened in the story there? That when the time came for the marriage union to consummate, well, he got up in the morning and lo and behold, he found out that it was not Rachel with him. It was Leah. So you might say, "I'm just giving up, I'm tired, I'm not going to carry on." But Jacob loved Rachel so much that again, look at the text in Genesis 29, now verse 26.

Laban said unto him, "It must not be so in our country to give the younger before the firstborn." And then he says, "Fulfill her week, her seven years, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou wilt serve with me," and he says, "serve me seven other years." So Jacob did so, and he fulfilled her week. In other words, her seven years, and he gave to him Rachel his daughter to be his wife. Now we find out that Jacob ended up to work for 14 years just to get this wife by the name of Rachel.

What is the lesson? The lesson is: true love is sacrificial. It costs. And if we are to be that picture of the love of Yeshua the Messiah for us, for the body of Christ, we are to in a small measure, and I'm using the word "small measure" because we fail as men often to appropriately love our wives sacrificially. But nevertheless, it does say husbands, verse 25, love your wives even as the Messiah loved the church, the assembly, and gave himself for the church, for the assembly.

And this is very important for us as men to realize, as husbands to realize, the importance of loving our wives unconditionally, even at a time when there's not necessarily submissiveness and not necessarily the perfection that we expect from those that belong to us. Nevertheless, there is a command by the Lord for the husband is to love their own wife even as the Lord Yeshua loved his bride, his church.

In the same manner, I just want to say that when we read Hosea chapter three, and God said to Hosea, "Go love a wife," and he was speaking about the unfaithful wife of Hosea that's gone astray from him, and God said to Hosea, "You go and love her just the same like I love the people of Israel." The love of God towards the people of Israel is unconditional. A love that is not limited by anything, that is the kind of love that God loved us, that God loved Israel, and the Lord loved the church. And he was willing to give himself for the assembly.

By the way, in the Bible, we have four times that we have about the love of God. For example, John 3:16, God so loved the world that he gave himself for the world. Jeremiah chapter 31, God says that I have loved you, namely Israel, with an unconditional, unlimited love, with an everlasting love, Jeremiah chapter 31, verses two and three. Here we see the love of the Messiah for the assembly. Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.

And in Galatians 2 and verse 20, Paul said that the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So we have God's love for the world, God's love for Israel, Messiah's love for the church, Messiah's love for individuals like you and I. It is found in scripture, the sacrificial love that God have proven in loving his own people. So verse 25, he gave himself in the past. Verse 26, now he's dealing with the present.

How does Christ, the Messiah, love now his wife presently, his bride? And you and I as husbands are to do so towards our wife? That he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of the water by the word. You see what happened? The purpose of the husband in loving his wife is to wash her and cleanse her. You might say to set her apart, to have her in such a way that she is so refreshed and so encouraged.

It is terrible when we don't treat our wives in a right way, when we put them down and treat them in a way that is not pleasing to the Lord. How can she be refreshed and encouraged? How can she feel the sense of fulfillment spiritually when there is that treatment that is not correct? And look what the Lord is saying through the Apostle Paul, what he does presently. He says that he might set her apart and cleanse her with the washing of the water by the word.

The Word of God has an element of cleansing us spiritually. And so when the husband is treating his wife in a right way, it refreshes her. It gives her a sense of being important, in a sense that she is a helpmeet to her husband. But if he puts her always down and treats her in an unkind way, well, the wife is not being refreshed and spiritually encouraged. And that's why Paul is clear. He says the husbands are to know how to treat their wife, to set them apart.

Sanctifying love, enriching the purpose of the wife in how they live their life, building them up. It is godly treatment that is very important in our relationship with our wives. And Paul is very clear about it. Imagine how the Lord set us apart as the bride, as the wife. He ministered to us through his Word. He encourages us. He builds us up so we can be a good testimony for him here in this world. Imagine if he will put us down all the time and will not love us and not treat us in a right way. We will not be able to be lifted up and be used by him.

This is important to see that. So in the past, he gave himself for us. In the present, he set us apart, sanctify, cleanse us with the washing of the water by the Word of God. And through the scripture, we can treat our wife in such a way that we can refresh them and be a blessing to them. And it is unfortunate that we are not always doing so as husbands, nevertheless, the exhortation is given to us here in verse 26.

Now, here's the future in verse 27. You see, you remember what we say that when God instituted the marriage union, it was to meet emotional need, social need, physical need, and spiritual need. Well, here is the spiritual need. The spiritual need is being met by the way that we treat each other. The submissiveness of the wife, the love of the husband, build each other up spiritually. And boy, to see a good relationship between husband and wife, what a beautiful picture it is, a type of Christ and the church.

Look at the future, verse 27: in order that he might present to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. So you see now, Paul is saying that Yeshua is now wanting one day to present unto himself a glorious church, a glorious wife, a glorious bride, not having spot, nor wrinkle, or any such thing. Now, think with me about these two expressions: the spot and the wrinkle.

Physically speaking, wherever we have wrinkles, it's come from within, right? Wherever we have spots here and there on our body, that comes from without. It shows us that there is imperfection here in this world. The church is not without spots or without wrinkle, just the same like as we get older, husbands or wives, we're not remaining all the time the way we used to be when we were 18, right? And therefore, it really looks to the future.

When we build our wives and be a blessing to them and love them sacrificially, what really happened, it's actually provide spiritual health in the life of the marriage. And it's such a blessing because wrinkles and spots represent frictions and divisions and separations and all that which caused problems within the marriage. But the moment that we are treating each other, the husband loves his wife sacrificially, the wife submit to her husband as unto the Lord, then those wrinkles and spots because of sin that exist in our life will be removed aside.

And we can have an enjoyable relationship as a husband and wife this time, not necessarily emotionally, not necessarily socially, not necessarily physically, but spiritually. A healthy spiritual marriage, what a beautiful thing it is to see when a husband and wife treating each other in a right way. Submissiveness on the part of the wife, love on the part of the husband, which produce that healthy spiritual relationship in the marriage union, which ultimately is representing the marriage that we have, the relationship that we have with our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.

Look at some other verses that I want to connect. Look at the Song of Solomon, in Hebrew we call it Shir Hashirim, Song of Songs, Song of Solomon, chapter four, just to make an illustration here. The Tanakh, the Old Testament, the Hebrew scripture, all the illustrations there illustrate spiritual relationship that you and I even have today. All what was written aforetime was written for our learning, that we today will learn from these relationships.

Look at this in Song of Solomon chapter four, verses one to seven. Here's the bridegroom speaking to his bride. He says, "Behold, thou art fair, my love. Behold, thou art fair. Thou hast doves' eyes within thy locks. Thy hair is as flock of goats that appears from Mount Gilead. Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which came up from the washing, whereof every one bear twins, and none is barren among them. Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy teeth is comely. Thy temples are like a piece of the pomegranate within thy locks. Thy neck is like a tower of David building for an armory, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men. Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies, until the day break and the shadows flee away, I will get me the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense."

And then he ends it with verse seven: "Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee." Here's the bridegroom looking at his bride and he describes many members of her body, and as far as he is concerned, thou art all fair, my love, there is no spot in thee. And so we read in Ephesians chapter five, where we just read right now in verse 27, that he might present to himself a glorious church, having no spots or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.

And so the husband is to love his wife to the extent that he will sacrificially serve and minister to her and be a blessing to her in order that he will have an enjoyable spiritual life together with his wife, as the Lord intend to have in the future day, that the church will have no spot and no wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. Now, have we always were successful in loving our wives in such a way? The honest truth is no. Have the wife always been successful in being submissive to her husband as unto the Lord? The honest answer is no. But the call is to do so in the relationship of marriage.

And now in conclusion, the last verses, verses 28 to 33, we have the conclusion to what Paul was saying to the husband and wife. Beginning with verse 28 where he says that the husband and a wife are really one. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loves actually himself. Because the marriage union brought these two people to become one. And whenever one is taking care of his wife, he's really taking care of himself. He that loveth his wife really loves himself, he says, just the same like we have in Genesis chapter two.

He continues and he says in verse 29, he says, "For no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord cherisheth the church, the assembly." We always take care of ourselves, right? We make sure that when we look at the mirror, we get dressed well, we put our ties straight, we make sure that we are combed correctly, that our face are been washed, that our teeth are being taken care of. We never hate ourselves, we take care of ourselves.

And oftentimes, I'm sorry to say, we as husbands don't realize that when we take care of our wives, we're really taking care of ourselves. We don't hate ourselves, we love ourselves. We are so selfish to say that that is, that we take care of ourselves. Well, it is expressed by taking care of our wives, we're really taking care of ourselves. No man yet hated his own flesh. He nourisheth his flesh, he cherisheth his flesh, even so the Lord himself taking care of the church. So we are to love our wives because when we love our wives, we are actually taking care of our very own self.

That is really the wisdom that the apostle gives us here in verse 29. And notice he says now in verse 30, for we are members of his body and of his flesh and of his bones. When Adam was created and then he was put to sleep, and out of the rib of his side a woman was made, Eve was made. And then we find out that really this is a bone that belonged to him. That's why he said, "This is now bone of my bone," in Genesis chapter two, "flesh of my flesh. She shall be called Ishah," a woman. She came out of the Ish, out of the man. She's really mine.

That's what he is saying. For this cause, as it says in verse 30 and now he's quoting Genesis chapter two and verse 24, "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall join unto his wife and the two shall be one flesh." The Hebrew word for join is the Hebrew word for glue. Dabaq, Devek. So for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and glue, be glued unto his own wife and the two shall be one flesh. Really, in a marriage union, when we love our wives, we really taking care of ourselves. If we only realize that, what a lesson for us to learn in these verses that Paul is teaching.

So husband and wife have been joined together and the two become one flesh. Therefore let a man leave his father and mother and join and be glued unto his own wife and the two shall be one flesh. And now he conclude by saying, you know brothers and sisters of the Ephesians, this is the great mystery. The relationship between a husband and a wife, the marriage union, is really a great mystery. But I speak concerning Christ and the church.

In other words, the marriage union is really a picture of the assembly, the church, and the head, the Messiah, who is in heaven. And every time we see a healthy relationship between husband and wife, every time we see a good relationship between a husband and a wife, it is really meeting the spiritual need of the husband and wife. And that's really a blessing, a testimony of the truth that the husband and wife are a picture of the marriage that existing between the Lord from heaven and the church, the assembly of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.

This is a great mystery. Imagine already from the Garden of Eden, when God brought Eve to Adam, he was really teaching a lesson. He says, "Listen, this is the relationship that I will have with my people." Whether it is with Israel as the wife of Jehovah, or whether it is with the church as the bride of Christ, the bride of the Messiah. These are the relationship that God had shown by instituting the marriage union, a husband and wife.

Nevertheless, he closing the chapter in verse 33, let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself, and the wife see that she reverence her husband. Now what do we do just in closing, when there are issues that rise up in marriage union? There are issues that rise up, they're so sad today, there are so many broken relationship, broken marriages. Well, how to handle that? What to do?

Well, I believe and I understand from this text, that's why he says in particular, nevertheless let every one of you, don't look to the right, don't look to the left, don't look for human opinion. What he is really concluding here, let every one of you in particular make a decision to do the right thing. Don't look at the majority rule, don't look at the opinion of the human race, don't look at the opinion of anybody else, but you yourself in particular. I myself, he's speaking to the brothers and sisters in the city of Ephesus: let every one of you in particular, husband, you love your wife. Even as you love yourself, you make sure that you love your wife sacrificially.

And then wife, you make sure that you honor, you respect your husband. Because by doing so, you really submissive to the lordship of Yeshua in your life. And that's how we can have, brothers and sisters, the enjoyment, the need to be met, the spiritual need in our relationship between husband and wife. The spiritual need that God have intended for us to have when he instituted in the Garden of Eden the marriage union.

Can you imagine what went on in the city of Ephesus? There was so much immorality, there was so much idol worship. The marriage union was not at all held. And it is only through the scripture, through the Word of God, that the marriage union have been brought into and been elevated into a right relationship and a right healthy situation. Well, imagine Paul is saying to the brothers and sisters in a pagan city: you be different. You have a change in your life. You behave in such a way that it will honor the Lord Yeshua the Messiah and will bring you spiritual blessing among yourself because you are a picture of the relationship that Yeshua Jesus have towards his own people, the church, the Ecclesia.

And so verses 22 to verse 33 present before us the importance of submissiveness to the Lord, submissiveness to each other, specifically in the relationship of the marriage union. May the Lord help us today, because we fail so much in this, and we have to confess it before the Lord. May the Lord help us to have restored marriages, strong marriages, and that spiritually we will enjoy the things of the Lord together as husband and wife.