"Listen, O daughter, consider and give ear: Forget your people and your father’s house."
I was listening to Misty Edwards in the prayer room sing about the nature of love. She was giving a prophetic call to the Bride to die to herself, to give up her name, her fathers house and take upon herself the name and house of Jesus. To die to her old family and be grafted into His.
As I listened to this call I was struck by the stark contrast between the Word of God and the spirit of this present age. Among today's woman, even christian woman, we see a fight to retain their names, family association and former identities upon entering into the covenant of marriage. The world demands that she hold on to who she was, while heaven invites her to "forget your father's house".
The evidence of this shift can be seen throughout the Mennonite community that we live in where many younger woman have forsaken their husbands family name, reclaimed their maiden name or adopted a hyphenated variation of the two.
What a contrast to this culture 30 years ago. I remember growing up in a community where I often heard older woman referred to as "Mrs. Bill Reimer", or "Mrs. George Penner". It was not a degrading thing for them to be associated with your husbands name. In fact, I always perceived it as a thing of honor. Perhaps it was because these men were of notable character and reputation, but I think it had more to do with the humility of these Godly wives.
I can't imagine the offense that would be incurred today's "liberated" woman if they were to be associated merely by their husbands name! It would cause an absolute outrage, if not externally, most assuredly internally. And yet, as followers of Jesus, is this not the way that we have been shown? Is this not exactly how God intended to display His glory?
God created marriage to display His nature, His glory! He is relationship. He is submissive to Himself. He honors Himself. He is fruitful and is set on having many children. Each partner, both male and female, manifest various aspects of God's nature in the earth. This is the way God designed it, and it is Good!
The identity of a wife is more then just being legally bound to a husband; she is a shadow, a copy, a picture of the divine relationship that Jesus has planned for those who love Him. Wives have the distinct honor of displaying God's desire for us. She re-presents His Beloved to the earth in how she interacts with her earthly husband. This is the glory that she has been created to display - the glory of Christ, the humble King, who made Himself of no reputation and submitted Himself to the will of His Father.
But this is more then just for wives! This is the invitation to all humanity, the call to forsake your former life, dying to it, and uniting yourself to your Husband, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! Just as Christ died to Himself for our sake, He has now called His bride to die to herself, to leave her fathers house and unite herself to Him - taking on His identity, His leadership, His name and to forsake her former father and mother. Who are our father and mother? Adam and Eve, who bore us into sin and death.
This is the glory of which wives are to testify to! The glorious message of a Husband who gave up Himself to redeem her from Death. And so, when we see woman struggling to cling to their earthly father's name and their maiden identity, they are unknowingly prophesying a message of compromise and half-hearted commitment to Jesus. It is as though they have given themselves to Christ, but do not want to give up the benefits of their father's house.
This is what the nation of Israel has struggled with for thousands of years, being set apart and wholly devoted to the One True God. Is it any wonder that God started the Law with the commandment, you shall have no other God's besides Me! He was declaring that Israel was to have One Husband, One God - and in return, they would be His "one true love".
And then God goes on from there and declares, "Do not take My name in vain". Many of us have wrongly interpreted this as being about cursing, but it is so much more then that. God is declaring to His Beloved, "Do not say that you are going to be my wife (to take My name upon yourselves) and then not live as My wife." God wants a Bride who is going to be fully devoted to Him, forsaking all others and clinging to Him alone. When we take on the name of Christ, we are to be fully devoted to Him. In not doing so, the church has effectively mired the name of Christ in the earth, being largely known today as hypocrites. God is jealous for His name and does not want His bride to be dragging it through the mud, anymore then a husband wants to have his wife sleeping around as though she weren't married.
And so, we see in the first commandments, God's eternal commitment to us. In return, as part of the covenant, He asks that we commit ourselves to Him also; forsaking all other Gods, kingdoms and affections. We are to be satisfied by Him and Him alone. This is the testimony that wives have been commanded to declare! And it is the truth that Satan has desperately been trying to destroy from the very beginning! God's faithfulness to His Beloved made manifest by husband's and wives.
I believe that today's women are losing out on the divine blessing found in reflecting God's heart to the earth. Why? Because they have accepted a false teaching on what it means to be "equals". A teaching that robs them of the eternal blessing of manifesting God's nature through forsaking themselves and uniting themselves to their husband. A woman's decision to hold on to her former identity is about more then natural names, it is a prophetic picture of the church's struggle to become wholly surrendered to her Bridegroom.
Wives will always be a prophetic image of the Divine Love relationship between Christ and His Church. The question is, are we going to be the picture of obedience or rebellion? Are we going to forsake all others and enter into the promised inheritance, or drift back and forth between two houses, two Father's and two Kingdoms?
It is my earnest desire that Christ would restore to woman the joy of being a divine reflection of the Bride - a picture of His surrender, humility and glory. How can this happen? I believe it will begin when husband's encounter the revelation of Christ as a cherishing Husband, wholly devoted to the one He describes as "dark yet lovely" and "all together beautiful". When husbands love their wives as Christ loves us, then our wives will be freed from the fear of total surrender.
We have a long way to go, but God will be faithful to complete what He has started! And He started marriage right from the very beginning. Marriage is both the first and last picture of His nature manifested through humanity in this age, and I have great confidence that He will restore it to it's predetermined glory in the days to come.
If you are a wife; may God bless you with the joy of being fully surrendered.
If you are a husband; may God bless you with the grace to be a cherishing servant.
This is His glory in us.
"Listen, O daughter, consider and give ear: Forget your people and your father’s house.
The king is enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord."
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Jon
