Women & More God Has Us Covered September 12, 2013 One afternoon a man came home from work to find total mayhem in his house. His three children were outside, still in their pajamas, playing in the mud with empty food boxes and wrappers strewn all over the front yard. The door of his wife s car was open, as was the front door to the house. Proceeding into the entry, he found an even bigger mess. A lamp had been knocked over, and the throw rug was waded against one wall. In the front room a cartoon channel was loudly blaring on the TV, and the family room was strewn with toys and various items of clothing. In the kitchen, dishes filled the sink, breakfast food was spilled on the counter, dog food was on the floor, a broken glass lay under the table, and a small pile of sand was spread by the back door. He quickly headed up the stairs, stepping over toys and more piles of clothes, looking for his wife. He was worried she may be ill, or that something serious had happened. He found her lounging in the bedroom, still curled in the bed in her pajamas, reading a novel. She looked up at him, smiled, and asked how his day went. He looked at her bewildered and asked, What happened here today? She again smiled and answered, You know every day when you come home from work and ask me what in the world I did today? Yes was his incredulous reply. She answered, Well, today I didn t do it! This is a funny story, and oh how we can relate, can t we? The moral of this story, though, is not that we will finally get recognized for all the work that we do, or that we ll show him a thing or two. But that mayhem and disorder is discombobulating whenever and wherever it happens. It represents life out of joint! Disorder is not the order of the day for our God. He wants us to live orderly lives for our good, for our safety and for a witness to His sovereignty and control. And that will include operating under-the-influence of the authorities he has placed in our lives for a covering of protection. Henry van Dyke said, God is thy roof to shelter thee. How this truth steadies and confirms the soul! It is like a great rock in the midst of hurrying floods; and from this standing place we can look out serenely upon the mutabilities (changeableness) of life.
2 Jesus is our example of being under authority being covered! Jesus had just finished telling the crowd about the wise and foolish builders everyone who hears these words is like a wise builder challenging them to build a wise foundation on rock. Then Matthew 7:28-29 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law. In a few verses Matthew 8:8-10 Jesus meets a Centurion desiring healing for his paralyzed servant: The centurion replied, Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, Go, and he goes; and that one, Come, and he comes. I say to my servant, Do this, and he does it. 10 When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. The Centurion recognized authority one in authority and one under authority and the importance of it all. Notice that Jesus ascribes to this centurion great faith! It takes great faith to follow Christ s teaching about being under authority being in submission to the authorities placed over us. They are for our protection, for order and the carrying out of God s great plans. God s Word details His authority the authority of divinity! We don t want to miss God s best for our lives by rebelling against authority, or dismissing it. Since God is our supreme authority, rebellion against any authority he has placed over us is always against him first and foremost. Rebellion is defined as 1) resistance, advancing to 2) defiance 3) and culminating in disobedience against authority. If we are prone to resist authority, then we are rebellious. Scripture says that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft in the KJV 1 Samuel 15:23a and the NIV says: For rebellion is like the sin of divination. And it is not a stand-alone sin; rebellion is borne of our sinful nature and our specific sins of: 1. Doubt that God knows what is best! and imagining that we know better how things should be lined out and played out in our lives. The Architect stands to the side, while we tell him either out loud or from our hearts: Thanks for creating, saving, protecting us, and for guiding us when we ask, but God, we can take it from here! 2. Pride that we know what is better! 3. Bitterness and resentment over past situations, unresolved, may cause us to resist any authority. 4. Anger at the idea of submitting to authority. 5. Selfishness by wanting one s own way going one s own way. Isaiah 53:6b each of us has turned to his own way. Living in rebellion will cause us to break our fellowship with God, and we will miss his peace in our hearts and lose consciousness of his great love.
3 The idea that the authorities which God places over us have to be recognized authorities is false especially if we think that they have to be recognized by us. Even Jesus authority was challenged by the religious leaders of his day. Mark 11:27 (chief priests, teachers of the law and elders) By what authority are you doing these things? they asked. And who gave you authority to do this? And if Jesus authority was questioned, ours will be questioned. And we can be sure that if we harbor a rebellious bent, it will cause us to question the authority of those to whom God requires us to submit and to resist. Psalm 106:43 Many times he delivered them, but they were bent on rebellion and they wasted away in their sin. We need to nip rebellion in the resist bud, and not let it advance to defiance, because disobedience will follow. About submission: He brought us to it, so he ll bring us through it! God demands order in the home, in the church and in the world. Submission begins in the home with children to their parents authority, and wives to their husbands authority. If we can get it right at home; if our attitudes toward submission in the home are in line with God s word, then those attitudes are very likely to carry through in the church and in the world. When we think about Sarah, Abraham s wife, we agreeably think of a beautiful woman, so beautiful that when a famine caused them to flee to Egypt, her husband feared that the Pharoah would kill him to have his gorgeous wife. And he hatched a plan. Genesis 12:11-20 As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, I know what a beautiful woman you are. 12When the Egyptians see you, they will say, This is his wife. Then they will kill me but will let you live. 13Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you. 14 When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that she was a very beautiful woman. 15And when Pharaoh s officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace. 16He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, menservants and maidservants, and camels. 17 But the LORD inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram s wife Sarai. 18So Pharaoh summoned Abram. What have you done to me? he said. Why didn t you tell me she was your wife? 19Why did you say, She is my sister, so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go. The human authorities over us will not always use good judgment; their decisions may be wrong and their asks may be incredulous. Notice that Sarah s husband makes plans to fool the ruler to save his skin showing cowardice and a failure to trust God and asks her to help him, and Sarah obeys. She submits to Abram s authority, and though she doesn t end up having to say a lie, she clearly has to live a lie (that she was not his wife).
4 She must have been frightened when the Pharaoh brought her into the palace and prepared to take her as a wife, but because she stayed under the protective covering of her husband, God delivered her and her husband as well. Later God promises Abraham and Sarah a son Isaac and Sarah waits and waits and then decides to help God out. She hatches a plan and tells her husband what to do. In Genesis 16:1-3 Scripture recounts, Now Sarai, Abram s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; 2so she said to Abram, The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maid-servant; perhaps I can build a family through her. Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. 4He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. Well, some will remind us, Abram agreed to what Sarai said, and, of course, this was a cultural thing that happened regularly: a wife who was barren giving her maid to her husband to have children for her. But, God had implicitly said that the promised son would be Abraham and Sarai s son. So in full-blown disbelief, Sarai was going to do it what God had promised to do, but unfortunately was unable to do (in her view) her way. And the whole world is still reaping the consequences of Sarah s rebellion against God (and her husband)! Our rebellion of or dismissing of our husband s authority may never incur consequences of that magnitude but only God knows. Max Lucado: Sin will always take you further than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay. The Book of Judges talks about everyone doing what seemed right in their own eyes. Jeremiah 5:21, 23 KJV: O foolish people who have ears and hear not. This people has a defiant and rebellious heart. NIV: But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts; they have turned aside and gone away. Psalm 107:17 rebellion will result in God s judgment! A Daily Bread (12/7/00) article titled The Cost of Rebellion said: It is obvious that rebellion pays bad dividends. It inevitably results in a sense of emptiness that often leads to alcoholism, drug addiction, bizarre religious practices, flagrant immorality, broken homes, incurable diseases and despair. Sadly, many experience the high cost of putting what they call my way above God s way. Moses spiritual authority is opposed by Miriam and Aaron they question God s authority on him Numbers 12:1-2: Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses Has the Lord spoken only through Moses? they asked. Hasn t he also spoken through us? And the Lord heard this. Remember that the Lord called Moses, Aaron and Miriam all three out to the Tent of Meeting and when the meeting was over and God had left, Miriam was covered with leprosy.
5 Romans 13:1-6 clears up any doubts about where God stands on our submission to the governing authorities: Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. 4For he is God s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience. 6 This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God s servants, who give their full time to governing. 7Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor. What if the authority commands us to denounce God, or murder someone, or...we ask? First of all our attitude and bent should remain one of submission and obedience, but our allegiance would need to shift: boldly, quietly and firmly with a clear conscience (like Daniel). In Matthew 23:2-3 Jesus says to the crowd and to his disciples: The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses seat. 3So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. If we find ourselves anxious to resist authority, or jumping to defy it, then we d better check our attitude toward God s command to submit, remembering soberly that for the believer: 1) Our rebellion is always against God, so our bent should be to submit. We seek wisdom hard if and when we would ever need to move against an authority because they demand we do something that would oppose a higher authority. 2) Our rebellion is not an unfortunate slip or a regrettable act. It is a posture of defiance against a holy God defiant of his truth, resistant to his call and disobedient to his commands. 3) Our rebellion will not take care of itself. It needs to yield to the authority of Jesus as a. Savior from all sin (including rebellion) and b. yield to Him as Sovereign Lord in our lives He rules! Satan desires to take advantage of our human nature to get our hackles up, resist authority and rebel against submission, and thereby strip and rob us of the protective coverings which God has placed over us for our good. Proverbs 28:9, 14 and 29:1 If anyone turns a deaf ear to the law, even his prayers are detestable. 14 Blessed is the man who always fears the Lord, but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble. And 29:1 A man who remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed without remedy. Submit remain under cover and live!