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Mishpachah Yeshua Newsletter A Newsletter To The Family Of Jesus From Restoration Ministries The Hebraic family is not simply an individual or private matter. [click here for a printable copy] September 2003 Topic: You Will
Rule Dear Friends,
When have you last stopped to consider how
Adam and Eve’s decision to sin has devastated billions
since? Most of us, to our own detriment, ignore that tragic
reality. Yet, our fuzzy understanding of Eden’s
consequences is destroying many households today.
People talk about “The Fall”
and the subsequent curses from God, but do you really know what
the curses are? Do you know how to counter the effects of the
curses in your own life? Before we explore these issues, anchor
this one fact:
If you were Adam or Eve, you would have done the same thing.
Where There is Judgment
There is Also Hope
Most Bible versions entitle Genesis 3
“The Fall of Man.” It’s a hard chapter to
read because none of Adam and Eve’s children ever got to
experience God’s intimate companionship in the Garden.
Yet out of His great mercy, and despite the severity of their
willful disobedience, our Father didn’t curse the ones He’d made in
His image.
In Genesis 3:14-19 God spells out the
painful impact of the first family’s sin. To the
disguised serpent Satan He proclaims a dusty, ground-bound
existence, adding a curse and prophetic outcome of destruction:
Because you have done this, ‘Cursed are you above
all the livestock and all the wild animals! ...And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.
The crushing blow came, of course, in
Jesus’ victory at Calvary!
Eve was tempted by the beauty of the
forbidden fruit, but the issue that pushed her to sin was this:
She wanted to be like God.
[Satan speaking] For God knows that when
you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,
knowing good and evil.’ When the woman saw that the fruit
of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also
desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She
also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it (Gen. 3:5,6).
Because of her decision to sin, God
pronounced against the wo-man not a curse but an introduction
to suffering in the otherwise blessed circumstance of giving
birth: "I will greatly
increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to
children."
Because Adam chose to listen to his wife
rather than obey his Creator, a second curse proceeded from
God, not against the man but upon His creation. Man’s
labor would be changed from the joyful occupation of tending a
willing and productive Garden to an ongoing battle with the
earth to provide his needs — and ultimately finding his
demise under the same dust on which the serpent must crawl. Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.
“He will rule over you.”
Look at the second half of Gen. 3:16: “To the woman he said, "...Your
desire will be for your husband and he will rule over
you.”
• Is a husband’s rule over
his wife the consequence of their sin?
• Or, is this a declarative
statement that affirms the authority that had been given to
Adam earlier in Genesis 1:28?
Let me explain why I believe the latter to
be true. “And he will rule over you” is supported in the Newer
Testament as Christian wives are reminded to “submit to your husbands as to the Lord” (Eph. 5:22). Paul further instructs, “Now I want you to realize that the head
of every man is Christ, and the head
of the woman is man, and the head
of Christ is God” (1
Cor. 11:3).
While a wife will desire her husband in
loving relationship, she’ll also desire the position of authority that God has given him! As we have seen earlier, she
wanted to be like God.
That covetous longing for the role God has
given to her husband will be a source of unending contention
over his position in the family unless a wife lives with a
repentant heart and within the Spirit-empowered plan for wives
that permeates the Bible.
The issue of the “husband’s
rule” has been watered-down in contemporary literature on
marriage. So many deceived writers emphasize marriage as a
democracy rather than the responsible rule of a husband in his
family.
Yet, Godly rule is exactly what our Lord
commands a husband. To the degree that he fails to carry out
this directive is the extent that apprehension and chaos
saturates his marriage and family for generations to come.
“Rule” is God’s means
for a man to exercise the authority entrusted to him. There is
no curse in this. God requires this leadership of a man in
order to hold him ultimately responsible for peace and
well-being in his home.
I truly believe that if Adam had asked God
forgiveness for his disobedience instead of blaming his wife
(Gen. 3:12), a merciful Father would have never burdened us
with generation after generation of blame-foisting,
excuse-making men, and deception-vulnerable women bent on
usurping the role God gave husbands.
“You Belong to Me”
Many have responded with positive comments
about our July 2003 Mishpachah
Yeshua, “You Belong To Me”, in which Sue addressed wives and their loving
responsibility to submit to their husbands. Sue, and other
Godly women who read her article, admit that women are
“mavericks” at heart. They desire to avoid the rule
of men. But men must rise up to loving obedience in Jesus and
walk in the role God calls them for the sake of the next
generation.
Sue is writing our October 2003
newsletter, “So You Want To
Be Like God?” We trust
that this extension of her July 2003 newsletter will give
further insights for women to consider before they destroy
their homes through control, manipulation, and divorce.
Fellas, no matter what Sue writes to the
women, you have the ultimate responsibility to conform your
marriage to what our Father requires. He will help you, but you
must be determined out of love for Him and for the sake of
your wife and family.
Godly Marriages During
A Time of Judgment
A wife desires to rule because she thinks
that she’s the one who can best serve her family by
controlling and overseeing them. But every man who marries is
faced with the task of undoing the consequence of Eve’s
sin. You have the responsibility to cooperate with the Holy
Spirit in obeying God’s Word and guiding your marriage
into the Covenant union He intended it to be.
If you don’t take the required
biblical steps to transform the relationship between you and
your wife into Covenant union, you’ll see your marriage,
your family, and generations that follow imprisoned by marital
tension. You need to be victorious in determining to rule
justly with love and reliance on Jesus!
I praise God for the man who finds a wife
who has been raised in a Bible-based home and has a submissive
rather than contentious spirit. If you are a single man waiting
to find such a woman, you’ll most likely die single.
There are far too few fathers who carried out their
responsibility to prepare their daughters to be Godly wives.
Many husbands today find themselves in a
position of needing to complete what their wife’s father
never finished. Sadly, so many husbands and wives flounder in
unreadiness for the responsibilities and loving cooperation
that marriage calls for. They’re clueless about their
distinct, God-given roles as husband and wife. Paternal neglect
in raising Godly daughters has contributed to why over 85% of
divorces in the US are initiated by women. Rather than
being taught (and role-modeled by their mothers) a submissive
spirit, too many women leave home with a contentious spirit and
false expectations of an “egalitarian” marriage.
In Restoring
the Early Church we paraphrased
Carle Zimmerman’s classic, Family
and Civilization, to illustrate
that this nation is in the Atomistic Stage of destruction:
A civilization in the throes of the
Atomistic period resembles a swarm of antagonistic insects
engaged in mortal combat. Individuals become obsessed with
their own desires and concerns, disregarding the needs or
suffering of others. Commitments and responsibilities are
looked on as infringements on personal freedom.
The characteristics of an atomistic
society.
• Marriage loses its sanctity as a stable, committed institution. The inviolability of marriage as a covenant is
lost. The relationship is often broken by relatively easy,
“no-fault” divorce.
• Feminist movements abound as women lose their inclination for childbearing
and child nurturing. The birth rate
decreases. Daycare facilities
replace intimate parenting as
mothers are no longer motivated or encouraged to raise their
own children in the security of the home.
• Public
disrespect for parents, parenthood, and authority in general rises. Parent-hood
becomes more difficult for those
still trying to rear children with biblical values. The media denigrate time-honored
values and traditions.
• Young people are increasingly disrespectful of their parents and others in authority.
Juvenile delinquency escalates, as do promiscuity and
rebellion. Neither the legal system nor educational
institutions are able to deter such unrighteousness.
• Adultery is accepted and even promoted in
many circles. Alternatives to
marriage, such as cohabitation, are
increasingly accepted.
• Sexual
perversion of all kinds
(homosexuality, rape, incest, pedophilia) move from toleration
to proliferation.
No civilization has ever survived the
Atomistic Stage. We are in a time of chastisement and judgment
on this nation, but out of this will arise a remnant who will
live true to Jesus.
God’s Path for Husbands
In your quest to fulfill your God-given
rule as a husband, you must die to yourself and to any selfish
inclinations you have for why you married your wife. You need
ample humility if you’re going to not only love your wife
as our Lord commands, but also do whatever it takes to help her
live in Covenant union with you. As your suitable-for-you
helper, she is the other half of the union that physically
represents your Covenant with our Father through Jesus.
You must lead her into living out a
Covenant with you that bespeaks Jesus. Only as you fully uphold
your role can you ever expect her to yield and walk in her
Biblical role as your helper and intimate companion. The man
who blames his wife for the failures in their marriage gets
himself into the same predicament Adam found himself. As you
lovingly do whatever is necessary to guide your wife in the
Covenant union God desires, remember what she must overcome: her generationally inherited nature will be to
usurp your rule.
You young married husbands, we realize
that there are few role models who can or will guide you. The
uninvolved senior generation that seeks heaven-on-earth
leisurely retirement are heading for destruction. Don’t
esteem their goals and motives! The seniors of today birthed
the Atomistic society that is now wallowing in its own
disintegration. Prepare yourself now while you’re young
to be light both during and after the Dark Days of Chastisement
that are coming on the US.
Yes, your task is difficult, but not impossible.
A woman who has been raised in even the most difficult of
families can be transformed into conformity to the union God
prescribes. For us husbands, it takes love and guts to serve
our God and lovingly lead our wives, even confronting them when
necessary to maintain peace in our homes.
Your role as husband and father has many
things working against it: a lawless society,
independent-spirited women, and church and education systems
that nullify God’s ways and commands. But look at the
Ethi-opian Eunuch. After he was baptized by Philip (Acts 8:
26-40), he went on his way with God, His Word, and the Holy
Spirit. These powerful realities are still available to you as a husband and
father! [This Ethiopian brother in Jesus has special
significance for me. The only opportunity in which I publicly
shared during our stay in Israel was with a group of believing
Ethiopian Jews living in Ashkelon. They are spiritual
descendants of the eunuch who brought the faith to Ethiopia.]
As a husband and father, don’t
underestimate your ability to raise children who will do more
than you can imagine for God. If a eunuch can impact
generations to come, so can you!
Remember, every child who is born to you
has been given life because our Father wills it. Because of
Adam and Eve’s decision to disobey, our Father also knows
that every person born is destined for hell unless they embrace
the Covenant Gospel that ultimately brings them to salvation at
the Judgment Throne.
Men, bringing them into the world
isn’t your foremost responsibility to your children.
It’s preparing them to spend
eternity with their heavenly Father
that really counts. The prophet Malachi offers God’s
perspective on the family: “Has
not the LORD made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his.
And why one? Because he was seeking
godly offspring. So guard yourself
in your spirit, and do not break
faith [fail in your
responsibilities] with the wife of your youth” (Mal. 2:15).
Abraham was chosen by God to be the father
of all who put their trust in Jesus because “he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will
bring about for Abraham what he has promised him” (Gen. 18:19). The child(ren) God gives you are
given to you for the same purpose: “Fathers,
do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4).
Abraham kept before him God and His Word. He trusted His Lord. All you need is
what Abraham had. Don’t squander it!
• What are your goals for your
children after they leave home?
• How are you preparing them for
lives of obedient trust?
• Given your current involvement,
will they be prepared before they leave?
• How will you determine when they
are fully responsible?
Common Hindrances to the Hebraic
Restoration
Sue and I are approaching 10 years of
sharing the facets of the Hebraic Restoration. We’ve
become aware of several common hindrances that keep people from
life choices that made the early Church so spiritually powerful
and relationally intimate. Here are a few:
• The vast majority of husbands lack
the humility to love their wives as God requires. Ego
gratification, both within Nicolaitanism and outside it,
hinders his ability to lovingly and sacrificially lead his
wife.
• Ego gratification hinders the
hearts of fathers from fully turning to their children. They
relegate their God-given responsibility to their wives,
daycare, schools, and church programs.
• So many men have pet sins,
“safe sins” which they refuse to give up before
God. Their failure to repent not only hinders their own prayers
from being answered, but indulges unrighteousness in their
homes. Thus they lose regard for the importance of
righteousness in their family’s fellowship with other
families.
Redemptive Support to Help Married Couples
Sue and I are very aware that the facets
of the Hebraic Restoration are being sent forth by our Father
into a nation that is already under His judgment. Yet, our Lord
longs to be merciful to those who will turn to Him in trust and
keep His commands. It’s is a matter of your level of
determination! No one else can carry out your responsibility
but you. As our Lord says, “Anyone
who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he
rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Heb. 11:6b).
Few of you reading this letter were raised
in a God-fearing home in which the type of marriage God calls
for was fully lived out. You were probably raised in the
Nicolaitan system, which has less than a 23% success rate in
raising children who keep the faith of their parents. Think
about it: Less than one-in-four follow in the faith of their
parents. Can you risk this type of marginal success?
Our Father knows the responsive ones with
whom Sue and I are sharing the Hebraic foundations. You may
have been raised in a home that did not honor God or His Word.
You may be divorced or the child of divorce, more familiar with
how to fracture a marriage than maintain one. Or you may have a
marriage that has little spiritually going for it.
But take hope! Your concerned heavenly
Father sees your condition. That’s why He has sent
building blocks to help you restore the spiritual power and
relational intimacy that the early Church once experienced. We
call this the “Hebraic
Restor-ation”, the name God
gave us for it in Israel.
Our Father knows you need these truths if
He’s going to be glorified in your life during this
difficult time. Nicolaitanism frowns on your spiritual and
moral failure, but the Hebraic perspective sees the future
glory our Father receives when you wholeheartedly
turn to Him in repentance and begin
to put into practice the responsibilities He requires. With
your obedient trust comes His grace and His empowerment to
fulfill His purposes.
Men, take seriously the priorities shared
on the next page. God is holding you responsible to live these
out. He understands the woman you married and is well-aware of
her father’s failure to adequately prepare her for
marriage to you. Now it’s between you and your Lord to
bring into conformity the Covenant union of your marriage. If
you have access to older men whose marriages you esteem, great!
But even if you don’t, you still have no excuse. God
knows the miracles He can accomplish through willing vessels. Be one!
Your brother who seeks to glorify our
Father with you,
Mike
A Personal Note
Since we came West 3 years ago to work
with Native Americans, we’ve become aware of subtle
discrimination in Christiandom. Some of you who haven’t
fully understood why we came to help have had the courage to
tell us of your prejudice.
The Hebraic Restoration is first of all a
re-establishment of relationship, both with God and
others. Nicolaitanism is based on
religious form and activity, and most of us were raised this
way. Sue and I have learned much from the Native American about
relating. This has subsequently helped us to assist non-Natives
in understanding how to have non-activity based relationships. We recognize how
the Native American will be used to restore the Hebraic facets
in the Dark Days to come. Through James and Joyce Skeet we are
helping the the Navajo appreciate the relational advantage they
have going for themselves.
We’ve also learned how the truths we
share are trans-cultural, equipping us to help others effectively
share God’s truths without the entrapments of European
Hellenist religion.
Important, non-optional criteria for
walking as God’s Man
A Matter of Determination
Your Relationship With God
• How important is God in your life?
[Matt. 22:37]
• Does your family see your life bent
on making Jesus foremost? Yes/No [Rom. 10:9,10]
• Ask your wife, family, and others
who know you personally to appraise your devotion to God.
• Do you make extra time in the
morning to pray and talk over your day with your Lord? Yes/No
[Mark 1:35]
• Do you spend time during the day
getting direction and guidance from the Holy Spirit? Yes/No
[Eph 5:25,26]
• Do you eagerly spend time in the
Bible? Yes/No [Heb. 4:12]
• Do you have a repentant heart?
Yes/No [Psa. 51:17]
A Note to Husbands
If you don’t fulfill your
responsibilities to God on behalf of your family, you are
failing them. Without our Lord Jesus being foremost, without
reliance on His Holy Spirit, without letting His Word penetrate
your soul, and without your intercession for your family, you
fail both God and them. So many wives look to other sources of
spiritual nurture because their husbands have neglected their
spiritual responsibilities. Don’t let your position as
“head of your household” be a sham. Don’t be
a mere figurehead who is leading your wife and family down the
broad path of destruction.
Leadership in Your Family
• Are you helping your wife learn to
fulfill her God-given role as your God-given helper? Yes/No
[Gen. 2:20]
• Does your marriage reveal an
increased sense of Covenant union that others are attracted to
emulate? Yes/No [Gen. 2:20]
• Do you fulfill your Biblical
authority in a Godly manner as Jesus would? Is your home a
sanctuary of peace, or is there apprehension and disorder?
• You have the responsibility to
include or exclude, commend or correct elements that affect
your home. How diligent are you in confronting those things
that rob your home of peace and holiness?
• Is your marriage aligned with
you as the head as God requires, or is there ongoing contention
with your wife? Is your children’s obedience divided
between you and your wife because of emotional or decisional
seams? If you have ongoing,
unresolved tension in your
home, have you taken your wife and/or children to the elders of
your faith community to review your inability to maintain peace
in your home? Don’t go to Christian counselors about this
— they only deal with interpersonal problems. Elders are
the only ones permitted by God to deal with authority issues.
Elders have the biblical prerogative to excommunicate, and, if
need be, turn unrepentant family members over to Satan for the
destruction of their sin nature so they can come to repentance
and find forgiveness and reconciliation.
• Are you preparing your children for
their adult roles? Will they leave your home before they are
fully prepared? Are your son(s) prepared to be responsible to
God not only for themselves but for the wife and family God
will give them? Have you raised them to live in deep reliance
on God?
• Have your daughters(s) learned a
submissive spirit? Do they trust you, or do they contend
against your authority? Do they display peace and joy, or are
they full of fear or worry?
A Note to Husbands
Often we find ourselves acquiring new
convictions to live by even as our children are growing or have
already left home. Ask God, and your children, if appropriate,
for their forgiveness for not knowing before, and begin to live
by your new conviction. Don’t let your fear for having
not known in the past hinder your quest to live God’s
truth now and in the future.
Your Family’s Fellowship With Others
• What are the criteria you use
to determine your family’s fellowship with others?
• Is upholding righteousness a
primary concern in your fellowship with other households?
Yes/No
• Have you established Biblical
criteria for your faith community interaction, or is your
fellowship based on reasoned preferences such as
“good” youth group, lively worship, convenient
child-care, entertaining programs, nonconfrontive sermons?
• Does your family have a chance to
see you spiritually cooperate in meaningful ways with other
men? Do they see you put your faith into action by serving
others?
A Note to Husbands
If your fellowship with others is not
based on upholding mutual righteousness, then you are leading
your family to entertain unrighteousness in their own lives by your example. They
will have no fear of God nor any fear of violating of His Word.
You’ll be following a ‘god’ of your own
making, a permissive deity of lesser standards and lower ways
than the only God of the Bible.
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