“Getting Back to Basics”

Attack on the Family

Jeremiah 29:4-6

⁴ “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, ⁵ ‘Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce. ⁶ Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease. 

In Jeremiah 29, God instructed His people to marry and to reproduce while in captivity.  He also instructed them to find wives for their sons and to give their daughters away in marriage.  He gave this instruction to ensure that their numbers would not diminish while in captivity.  God wanted to make certain that there would be people to recoup when He came to set them free from their captors.  Marriage and reproduction would be the main component to ensure Israel’s success.  Today, however, the value of marriage and producing children has been devalued by many. 

As our nation continues to lower its standards, people increasingly place more value on careers, positions, wealth, and possessions rather than creating a family.  We are warned in 1 Timothy 4 that in the last days, many would be deceived and discourage others from getting married.  Unfortunately, as society is abandoning the institution of marriage, the church is slowly being indoctrinated to adopt this mindset as well.  However, God is still looking for His people to marry and create families because He does not expect our numbers to diminish.

God’s expectation for fathers is to be a tangible representation of God in the home.  When fathers discipline their children, it develops structure in them and provides an understanding that God has also created a standard for us to live by.  When fathers provide for the family, it illustrates that God is not only able to provide but He WILL provide for His children.  As a father protects his family, it establishes the foundation for the trust that is needed to rely on God to protect his own.

When the family is in order, the church will return to order.  When the church returns to order, it has enough power and influence to cause society to function in an orderly manner.  The devil has attacked the family relentlessly because he understands that if the structure of the family is unstable, everything else will become unstable.  God has created husbands, wives and children as a symbol of strength and in order to create destruction in society, the enemy of humanity must destroy the family.  Getting back to basics is essential to restoring order to society.   

 

“Getting Back to Basics”

Wives

Genesis 3:16

¹⁶ To the woman He said:

“I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception;
In pain you shall bring forth children;
Your desire shall be for your husband,
And he shall rule over you.”

1 Peter 3:1-4

In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, ² as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior. ³ Your adornment must not be merely external—braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; ⁴ but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God.

God created man to bring Him glory and as a gift to man, God created woman.  Satan, however, has desired from the beginning, to sever the unification between husbands and wives and one ideology that was used to disrupt their union is feminism. 

Many women were unable to discern the hidden trap that feminism was setting for them.  The system of feminism is so strong that even some of the women who rejected the movement, unknowingly accepted the tenets of feminism.  God has placed an innate desire within women to marry and bear children.  Feminism contests this desire by encouraging independence in women.  Unfortunately for some, by the time they realize that they have been deceived, their window for marriage and conception has closed. 

Women, who have been fortunate enough to marry, were given a blueprint for obtaining success in their marriages.  The Bible has instructed wives to be submissive to their OWN husbands.  It is their submissiveness that provides the atmosphere for a husband who has veered away from the right path, to find his way back. 

Submission is a benefit to the subordinate in any relationship.  The responsibility for oversight belongs to the head.  Duties can be delegated but the leader is ultimately obliged to accept blame or for anything that goes wrong.  Society has presented such a negative image of submission that many wives and single women reject the idea of submission.  As a result, the number of weddings has declined to the degree that some wedding boutiques have gone out of business. 

As time progresses, more women are growing older alone and are becoming responsible for providing the care for themselves that a husband was previously responsible for providing.  The further we stray from abiding by biblical teaching and instruction; the worse the outcome will be.  In order to avoid some of the negative consequences in life, it is necessary for us to get back to the basics.