Come to Understanding
They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding,
and they that murmured shall learn doctrine. — Isaiah 29:24
So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense,
and caused them to understand the reading. — Nehemiah 8:8
July 14, 2006 |
Volume 5 Number 14 |
Redeeming the Forsaken Woman
The first man and woman mentioned in the Bible sinned against Yahweh by disobeying His command. As a consequence for their sin, both were commissioned to lives of sorrow (see Genesis 3). In the physical sense, the woman in the Garden of Eden was the mother of all living. Therefore, she was called Eve, and her husband, the man, was called Adam. Through Adam and Eve, Yahweh uses the earthly example of the relationship between a man and a woman to show the relationship between Him and His people.
Yahweh told the woman that she would bear children in sorrow and have the desire toward her husband, who would rule over her:
16 To the woman he said, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in sorrow you shall bring forth children; and your desire shall be to your husband, and he shall rule over you. -Genesis 3
While we may think of her "husband" as Adam, we can come to a deeper understanding of the woman and the desire that she has for her husband when we realize that Adam was the "figure of him that was to come." Paul explains:
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the likeness of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. -Romans 5
Paul was referring to Yahshua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), who would come, bringing the gift of righteousness, to reconcile the fallen people back to God:
17 For if by one man’s offense death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Yahshua the Messiah.) -Romans 5
If Adam is the figure of Yahshua the Messiah, is Eve, as the woman, also the figure of something more? If so, then does her desire toward her husband mean more than her desire toward the man Adam?
Yahweh describes Israel as the "woman" and Himself as the "husband," who is the Redeemer and the Holy One of Israel:
5 For your Maker is your husband; Yahweh of hosts is his name; and your Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called. -Isaiah 54
He identifies Israel as a wife, although she has treacherously departed from Him:
20 Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so have you dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, says Yahweh. -Jeremiah 3
Therefore, Yahweh says He had forsaken her as a wife:
6 For Yahweh has called you as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when you were refused, says your God. -Isaiah 54
However, even though Israel departed from Yahweh and He, therefore, forsook her, He reminds her that He will show her great mercy. One day, as her Redeemer, He will bring her back to Himself:
7 For a small moment have I forsaken you; but with great mercies will I gather you.
8 In a little wrath I hid my face from you for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on you, says Yahweh your Redeemer. -Isaiah 54
In the Book of Revelation, a woman is described as a "great wonder in heaven," laboring to give birth to the child:
1 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
2 And she being with child cried, laboring in birth, and pained to be delivered. -Revelation 12
She is described as being "clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars." This description has a striking similarity to that which Joseph (the son of Jacob) dreamed:
9 And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brothers, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. -Genesis 37
After Joseph revealed the dream, Jacob understood it to represent his family, which is Israel:
10 And he told it to his father, and to his brothers: and his father rebuked him, and said to him, What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow down ourselves to you to the earth?
11 And his brothers envied him; but his father observed the saying. -Genesis 37
In the prophetic dream of Joseph, the sun, moon, and stars represented the family of Jacob. The eleven stars were seen as Joseph’s eleven brothers. Including Joseph among his brothers, increases the number of stars to twelve, which the woman in the Book of Revelation wore. These are the twelve tribes of Israel.
The seed of the woman would come forth through Abraham as a promised blessing not only to Israel, but also to all nations:
17 That in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and your seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
18 And in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because you have obeyed my voice.-Genesis 22
Because the people of all nations would be blessed, Yahweh told the woman, while she was still barren and not yet able to bear the child as her Redeemer, to enlarge her "tent." Make room, He told her, because her seed would also "inherit the Gentiles:"
1 Sing, O barren, you that did not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, you that did not labor with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, says Yahweh.
2 Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of your habitations: spare not, lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes;
3 For you shall break forth on the right hand and on the left; and your seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. -Isaiah 54
Therefore, this seed of blessing is described by Paul as the Messiah, which is Yahshua (Jesus), the Redeemer:
13 The Messiah has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangs on a tree:
14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Yahshua the Messiah; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
15 Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it is but a man’s covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no man annuls, or adds thereto.
16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He said not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to your seed, which is the Messiah. -Galatians 3
By faith in the blood of Yahshua the Messiah, who is called the Lamb of God, we are redeemed through His righteousness:
24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in the Messiah Yahshua:
25 Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believes in Yahshua. -Romans 3
Therefore, by faith the wife has made herself ready for the redeeming marriage:
7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife has made herself ready.
8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. -Revelation 19
Finally, John sees the vision of the wife of the Lamb of God. She is called the holy city Jerusalem:
9 And there came to me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come here, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.
10 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, -Revelation 21
Yahweh’s restored wife is identified as the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:
12 And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: -Revelation 21
Because her seed has also inherited the Gentiles, she is built on the foundation of the twelve apostles of the Lamb:
14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. -Revelation 21
The departed woman is returned to her husband. She is finally redeemed.
Come to Understanding
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