In this chapter we will examine three
insight-filled passages related to marriage and warfare. The first passage gives
an especially dramatic picture of Satan’s war against marriage. In the Acts 10,
Peter fell into a trance and saw the following:
“…the sky opened
up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to
the ground, and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling
creatures of the earth and birds of the air. A voice came to him, ‘Get up,
Peter, kill and eat!’ But Peter said, ‘By no means, Lord, for I have never
eaten anything unholy and unclean.’ Again a voice came to him a second time,
‘What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.’” (Acts 10: 11-15)
We know from what
followed after the trance that God was restoring the biblical truth that His
salvation plan included the Gentiles, which the Jews had lost sight of (see
Acts 11:18). But what did this vision actually communicate? Let’s take a look
at the symbolism.
·
The sheet
here symbolized marital intimacy. Peter would have been familiar with a
sheet representing marital oneness since it was used for evidence of sexual
consummation in his culture (Deuteronomy 22:17). God was showing Peter that
Christ’s bride, the church, included gentiles even though gentiles were still
considered unclean by the Jews.
·
The unclean four-footed
animals, crawling creatures, and birds in the sheet
symbolized the demonic realm. Each of these types of animals in
different places of scripture represents the demonic (four-footed animals, ex.
Psalm 74:19; crawling creatures, ex. Luke 10:19; birds, ex. Matt 13: 4, 19)
·
God’s command
to kill and eat symbolized the Jewish church’s mandate to go into
the gentile world and attack the evil strongholds that were keeping them in
bondage. Another example of delivering people from bondage being compared to food
can be found in John 4:34.
This is a startling picture. Jesus longed for intimacy
with His bride, the gentile church, but standing in the way of that intimacy
were multitudes of demonic creatures that had to be killed first. Nevertheless,
Jesus was uncompromising in His resolve that Peter attack and kill them.
This picture applies to individual marriages as
well. There is no fiercer battleground
in all of humanity than marriage because there is none more foundational to
God’s purposes. Marriage is the primary picture God has given the world to
understand how Jesus relates to His people, which is why the enemy hates it so
vehemently. A single Christ-centered marriage has the power to touch countless
people around it and bear tremendous fruit that can only be fully accounted for
in eternity.
The second passage we’ll look at is 1
Corinthians 11:1-16. In a nutshell it says that, while praying or prophesying, a
woman’s head needs to be covered and a man’s head needs to be uncovered. This may
sound strange and legalistic, but when we dig deeper, the passage contains
profound spiritual wisdom. Let’s see if we can make sense of it.
Paul starts out the passage by saying this
is a “tradition” (vs. 2), not a doctrine or a law. Therefore, it should
be interpreted similarly to other passages in the Bible that describe symbolic
traditions. The important part is not the outward action, but the underlying
principle it points to.
Next, in verse 3, Paul gives the context
for the tradition, saying, “But
I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and
God is the head of Christ.” So
the context is marital responsibilities and authority structure.
Next let’s look at the symbol used in this
tradition – the head covering. What does it represent? This is explained in
verse 10: “Therefore the
woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the
angels.” The angels Paul mentions here are
not holy angels; they are fallen angels. Therefore, the head covering
represents the woman being under the authority of someone who is responsible for
protecting her against spiritual attack – her husband.
Paul wanted women to wear a symbol of
their husband’s authority to protect them while praying or prophesying because
praying and prophesying are acts of spiritual warfare. They are crossing over into
enemy territory and plundering his camp. The enemy takes this seriously and
sometimes attempts some form of backlash.
A woman wearing a head covering meant that
she was not alone. Her prayers and prophetic utterances were acts of marital
unity. She was under her husband’s covering who was in turn under Christ’s
covering (symbolized by his uncovered head being exposed to heaven
above). Therefore, they could go together into the enemy’s territory with
boldness because they were properly aligned and protected under God’s power.
This is part of why 1 Peter 3:7 says to husbands, “…show her honor as a
fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.”
When there is not a proper aligning of authority and protection, the enemy can
more easily oppose our prayers.
The passage says the man is the head of
the woman because the husband is the primary gatekeeper of his family. In our
culture, there is confusion about the proper roles of men and women in
marriage. However, when God, angels, and demons look at a family, they have no
confusion at all about who carries the lion’s share of the authority. They feel
it. They know without question the husband has preeminence over the spiritual
atmosphere of the home. His prayers, faith, and obedience invite the presence
of God into his home while his lack of these things lays a welcome mat for the
demonic realm.
Abraham’s greatest failure in marriage was twice telling
foreign kings that Sarah was his sister (Genesis 12 and 20). This was a
half-truth since she actually was his sister (Genesis 20:12), but he
neglected to mention she was also his wife because of fear. This is a picture
of how a husband can sometimes treat his wife as only a sister in Christ – as
an equal in their families’ battle against the enemy – rather than taking
responsibility to lead and protect her in the fight.
Women sometimes struggle with fear more than men. The enemy
knows this and tries to exploit it. He tries to paralyze women with fear for
their children’s safety, fear of letting people down, fear of not being
provided for, etc… Men are meant to cover and encourage their wives in this
battle. This is why a woman’s command to not be “frightened by any fear”
goes hand in hand with a husband’s command to live with his wife “in an
understanding way, as with someone weaker” (1 Peter 3:6-7).
Next, Paul says, “For a man… is the image and glory of God; but the woman
is the glory of man.” Notice it doesn’t say woman is
the image of man – Genesis 1:27 says both men and women bears God’s
image. It only says she is the glory of man. In other words, she is the
higher, more glorious part of mankind. This goes back to what we discussed
earlier about women being, in a sense, a higher order of creation because they
reflect the beauty and relational nature of God.
Who is usually considered more important,
the one who protects or the one who is protected? Who is more important, the
soldiers or the king they protect? Who is more important, the secret service
agents or the President they protect? Well then, who is more important, the
husband or the wife he protects?
Finally Paul says:
“For man does not originate from woman, but woman from man; for indeed man was not created for the woman’s sake, but woman for the man’s sake… However, in the Lord, neither is
woman independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For
as the woman originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman; and all things originate from God.” (vs. 7-9, 11-12)
Remember, men reflect the building,
protecting nature of God. However, building and protecting are not an end to
themselves. They are only valuable and meaningful if they are performed in
service of something greater. God created the “woman for the man’s sake”
because his masculine nature needed a purpose to serve other than himself. He
needed someone more valuable than himself to honor and protect. He needed
someone more important than himself to serve.
Women reflect the beautiful, relational
nature of God. Beauty and relationships are an end to themselves. However,
without protection, beauty and relationships are defenseless. When God created
Adam and Eve, the universe was divided. Satan and his angels hated God, hated His
creation, and wanted to destroy it. This is why the passage says, “…neither is woman independent of man,
nor is man independent of woman.” We need each
other to fully reflect the image of God. We need each other to build a kingdom
that has purpose and beauty. And we need each other to wage war and overcome
evil.
The last passage we’ll look at is about Elijah – a man
who probably wasn’t even married. However, one story from his life always
reminds me of the power of a spouse to bring encouragement and hope during a
time of heavy spiritual attack.
In 1 Kings 19, a three and a half year drought,
brought on by Elijah’s prayers, finally came to an end. Just before it ended,
Elijah called down fire from heaven in front of the entire nation of Israel and
oversaw the slaughter of 400 of Jezebel’s priests who had been leading Israel
into demon-worship.
Immediately after this great victory, Elijah fled into
the wilderness fearing for his life because Jezebel promised to kill him. On
the surface, this was not a rational response. Why would Elijah be afraid of
this woman after such a spectacular demonstration of God’s power? However, this
was not a normal kind of fear Elijah was feeling – it was satanic backlash.
Elijah came under such heavy spiritual oppression that he felt he couldn’t go
on. He asked God to take his life.
However, notice what happened next. When Elijah woke
up, an angel of the Lord was physically present with him, touching him. The
angel also prepared a meal of baked bread cakes and a jar of water for him. The
angel spoke to him, encouraging him to eat. Elijah ate, drank, and lay down to
sleep again. Then the same thing happened a second time. This time, while
touching him, the angel spoke what appeared to be words of empathy and
tenderness: “Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you.”
Did not this angel comfort Elijah exactly as a wife
would have? The angel touched him, cooked for him, and spoke
tenderly to him. The comfort and sustenance Elijah received from that encounter
sustained him for the next forty days.
I remember once feeling especially overwhelmed by the
enemy’s presence in my life. I wanted to curl up into a ball and escape.
Sometimes spending time alone with God can be of comfort in a situation like
this, but not every time. Sometimes it makes all the difference to have someone
physically present who can touch gently and speak softly. When my wife put her
arms around me and spoke encouraging words that day, I could never remember
feeling more comforted.
Perhaps Elijah was not called to be married, so God supernaturally
provided the comfort a wife might have added to him in his hour of darkness. But,
for me, this story resonates deeply of the power of a spouse to be a physical
vessel of God’s tenderness and compassion when we feel like permanently retreating
from a spiritual battle or come under heavy oppression.
Many Christians are familiar with the
metaphor of the church being Christ’s body. But less familiar is the metaphor
that a wife is her husband’s body. What does this metaphor mean and what does
it look like? We’ll find out in the next chapter.