Insights Into The Covid-19 Church Era –Part XXXVII
“God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27)
Old wineskins have been cruel to women. Adam and Eve were always meant to be one, to be equal peers. Eve did not come from Adam’s head nor feet, but his side. God’s divine will is to establish horizontal, peer relationships, not hierarchal controlling ones. God came to earth in the flesh through His Son, Jesus, divine, yet human, to be Adam and Eve’s peer. He would walk, talk, and breath like every other human. Jesus would “lay down His life for the brethren” (I John 3:16) not dominate over them.
As a result of sin, Eve would birth children through pain and Adam would toil to earn anything. By Abraham’s time, Sarah’s wineskin was reduced to being a baby factory. Being barren was a disgrace. Finding herself barren, Sarah talks Abraham into having a child to Hagar, her handmaid, which produced Ismael. The fruit of that wineskin is not good: centuries of Arab/Israeli conflicts. Did Sarah believe this oppressive wineskin could ever be changed? No! She laughed when strangers, angels, suggested she would be with child in her elderly age. Sex and age mean nothing to God. If God promised Abraham children, old wineskin would not stop him. Through two childless, elderly people he provides a new wineskin that would produce the linage and heritage of Jesus, God’s only begotten Son.
The old wine of judgment against women caught in adultery or having a child out-of-wedlock was severe producing a wineskin of prejudicial judgment leading to stoning one to death as we have seen in the previous blog. God’s new wineskin was to impregnate a virgin with His Holy Spirit to produce a Son, a divine human. He also supplied a “righteous” man, Joseph, to stand by her side through tough times. Again, I emphasize, Joseph did not dominate or stomp on her by dissolving their relationship. He stood beside her. The fruit of this wineskin was good: the birth of a Savior for mankind.
Women are still placed in bondage by old wineskins. Today’s Pharisees proof text I Corinthians 14:34-35, “Women should keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission as the Law (old wineskins) also says. If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home.” Why would a woman go to a Christian Bible College unless she is looking for a future husband? Often forbidden to be an elder or a pastor, she is encouraged to be in children’s or youth ministry. Old wineskins demand that she “submit” to higher church authorities or her husband. They have dethroned her from being by Adam’s side as his equal peer.
We are not to have a relationship with God through another human like a priest, pastor, or husband. The Levitical priesthood, an old wineskin, no longer exists. Every man and woman has direct access to the Father through the Son, Jesus, and through “the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name. He will teach you all things.” (John 14:26) “When the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak, and He will declare to you the things that are to come.” (John 16:13)
A woman may be forbidden to speak under an old wineskin format, but the Father wants to be heard by all of His creation, “male and female”, so he created a new wineskin through the wine of His Holy Spirit whose role is to teach “male and female” as their “Helper.” Helpers stand beside you, not over you. They walk with you, wear your shoes, and identify with you.
This Covid-19 church era demands change if it expects revival; the discarding of old wineskins and the creation of new ones. The wine of His Holy Spirit will fill new wineskins by “teaching you all things.” A new wineskin is reinstating our sisters in the Lord, our Eves, beside our brothers in the Lord, Adams, as equal peers who listen to the Holy Spirit for themselves.
“He who has ears; let them hear!”