TRUTH or TRADITION
A
Closer
Look
At
The
Plural Wives Question
Contents
1 2
3 4
5 6
7 8
9 10
11
Chapter
3 - The
Covering
“But
I suffer not a woman to teach,[1]
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.”
(1 Timothy 2:12)
This was a mysterious passage to me when I was a young believer.
I thought if the woman was deceived and the man was not then certainly he
was more responsible than she was. Nevertheless
the Scriptures indicate that she was in the transgression because she was
deceived. That means she didn’t
have to be deceived. She should
have gone to her husband before making a decision.
As they are being removed from the Garden of Eden God says to the woman
“. . . and he shall rule over thee.” When the angel appeared to Samson’s mother and told her
about her son which was yet to be born, she went and told Manoah, her husband.
Manoah said if he appears to you again, you come and get me.
When the angel appeared again she went and got Manoah, who came and tried
the spirit. He asked to offer a
kid. The angel responded that his
offerings must be unto the Lord.
Manoah then asked the angel for his name, saying that he would give him
honor. The angel refused to give
his name. Verse 21 states “Then
Manoah knew that he was an angel of the LORD.”
The man is to serve as a protective covering for his wife (or wives).
Genesis 20:16: “And
unto Sarah he said . . . behold, he [Abraham]
is to thee a covering of the eyes.”
In Revelation 5:6 we read “. . .
and seven eyes which are the seven Spirits . . .”
The covering is spiritual and it covers spirits (souls are spirits in the
sense that they are spiritual and not tangible).
Samson was giving a natural covering, which was his hair.
It was a type of the Spiritual covering, which is the Holy Spirit.
As long as his hair was long he had great strength and easily vanquished
his enemies. He could do so because
he remained under the covering. When
we are properly (that is, obediently) functioning under our God given coverings,
we have strength and we gain victories against our enemies.
When we refuse to be covered, or allow our covering to be removed (even
as Samson’s hair was cut off), then we lose strength and we are defeated by
the enemy. When Samson’s hair was removed (cut off) he was weakened,
he was captured, and his eyes were put out (symbolizing that the Spirit was
taken away).
The man today is to be covered by the anointed one (Christ) and his
anointing (the Holy Spirit).
In 1 Samuel 16:13 we read “Then
Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and
the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day
forward.”
Today when we anoint with oil, we
usually just use a drop or two on a
person’s forehead. After all, we
think, we wouldn’t want to mess up the person’s hair or their clothes with a
lot of oil. So we lose
understanding of what it means to be covered by the anointing.
Some must now wish to ask “if women are filled with or anointed with
the Holy Ghost just like men and they confess Jesus Christ as Lord just like men,
why do they need a man to be head over them?”
Again the answers are in 1 Peter 3 and I Corinthians 11:10.
They are weaker vessels and to protect them from fallen angels.
Although some may have a desire to rebel against this, we must see things
from God’s perspective and be obedient to Him.
[1] The Greek word here is didasko (1321 Strong’s #) which is related to the word didaskalos (1320) which is an instructor, doctor, master, teacher. This shows that the meaning here is the woman is not to be the master of the man.
