Taking Responsibility

November 25, 2010 in Bible - NT - 1 Corinthians, Ecclesiology, Meditations, Responsibility

1 Corinthians 4:14-16 (NKJV)
14 I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I warn you. 15 For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. 16 Therefore I urge you, imitate me.

For the last several weeks we have insisted that one of the lessons which the men in the congregation have been given to teach the Church is stability. As the fathers of Israel, they are to be a source of consistency from one generation to the next, not blown about emotionally or doctrinally but holding fast to the traditions just as they have been taught in the Word of God.

Today Paul identifies another dimension of fatherhood – he was the father of the Corinthian congregation, the one who had started this congregation in Gentile territory. Consequently, he had a unique relationship with them. Because he was their father, not merely their teacher, he takes responsibility for them in a particular way. Consequently, we have two letters – both of considerable length – which Paul sent to this congregation, endeavoring to help them to grow in Christ.

So what principle of manhood is revealed here? What do fathers do? Quite simply, they take responsibility for those under their charge. While boys make excuses, men take responsibility. And this is precisely what Paul does for the Corinthians. He writes these extensive letters to them to warn them, to instruct them, to correct them because he bore responsibility for them.

So, men, how are we doing taking responsibility for those under our charge? Have we taken responsibility for the problems in our marriage? While not all the sins in the marriage may be ours, the responsibility for the state of the marriage is – and so we need to take responsibility and, like Paul, move our marriage toward greater Christ likeness. Have we taken responsibility for the problems in our children? While their sins are not our own, their growth in the grace and knowledge of Christ is our responsibility – we are to be shepherding them, directing them, correcting them, warning them, counseling them – the very thing that Paul is doing in our text, “as my beloved children, I warn you.”

And what of you others? Have you considered the weight that is upon the shoulders of your husband or your parents? And have you made that weight a joy or a burden? Wives, are you a crown of glory or a ball and chain?
• Better to dwell in the wilderness, Than with a contentious and angry woman. (Pr 21:19)
• Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies. The heart of her husband safely trusts her; So he will have no lack of gain. (Pr 31:10-11)

Children, are you a joy and delight, or are you a heartbreak and sorrow?
• He who begets a scoffer does so to his sorrow, And the father of a fool has no joy. (Pr 17:21)
• The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, And he who begets a wise child will delight in him. (Pr 23:24)

Reminded of the call that is upon us as men to take responsibility and as wives and children to make that responsibility a delight, let us kneel and confess that we have failed in our callings.

Let them ask their Husbands at home

November 15, 2010 in Bible - NT - 1 Corinthians, Ecclesiology, Meditations

1 Corinthians 14:34-35 (NKJV)
34 Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. 35 And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church.

For the last two weeks we have observed that one of the lessons men teach the body of Christ is stability. Men provide a sense of continuity from one generation to the next, enable families, churches and communities to weather storms by holding to what is most important, and provide others with a firm sense of identity.

Our text today, in a way, emphasizes this same point and so I want to touch upon it for just a moment. While its message about the women in the congregation is one we will consider in the future, for now I would like you to note what this passage requires of the men in the congregation. In the context of delivering prophetic oracles and judging the oracles that are delivered, Paul urges the women to keep silent in the churches. They were not to exercise judgment over the other prophets since that would be exercising teaching authority over men in the Church – a thing that was contrary to God’s law. So what were these women to do? First, they were to keep silent – since the spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets, they were to control their tongues and wait to speak. Second, when they got back home, they were to ask their husbands about the matter – or, presumably, if they were unmarried or widowed, to ask one of the elders outside the church assembly.

And what were their husbands to do? Their husbands were to teach them. And this, of course, assumes what? That their husbands were able to teach them – that they either knew the answer or were capable of getting the answer by asking someone who would know. Notice, therefore, the calling that Paul is placing upon the men in the congregation: we men need to be prepared to teach our families the Word of God. While we may not be the best theologian in town, we are called to be the resident theologian in our home. So we need to learn as best as we are able.

In last week’s sermon we read Ephesians 4 where Paul describes the function of leaders in the Church. Jesus has given leaders to the Church “for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ…that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting…” (Eph 4:11,13). For an analogous purpose, our text today reveals that God has given men to families – men to provide a sense of stability and ballast not only emotionally but doctrinally as well. Our goal as men is that our families not be blown about by every wind of doctrine but stable, able to hold fast to Christ in the midst of the storm.

So, men, what of us? Are we prepared? If not, then what do we need to do to get there? The high and holy calling of manhood is set here before us today. What a privilege to be entrusted with such a calling! Let us rise to it by the grace of God.

And the rest of us, have we given honor and respect to the men in our homes by listening to them, learning from them, and seeking their wisdom? Wives, in particular, have you sought your husband’s counsel? Few things will motivate him to grow more than a wife who loves, trusts, and honors him.

Knowing that we all have failed in this regard – we men have failed to be the resident theologians in our home, we have been lazy with the Word of God; we others have failed to respect the men in our homes and have instead nagged them, or bullied them, or ignored them; let us kneel and confess our sins to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Men and Stability

November 12, 2010 in Bible - NT - 1 John, Ecclesiology, Meditations

1 John 2:13 (NKJV)
13 I write to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning.

What is it that separates the men from the boys? This was the question we began to answer last week. What are the lessons that the men in the congregation have to teach us as the people of God?

Last week I remarked on the stability that men provide for family, for church, and for society at large. Men are to be the source of ballast so that come what may – come trials, come hardship, come joy, come sorrow – men provide a clear sense of direction, identity, being.

Today I would like to expand upon this by noting the title that John uses to identify men – “fathers.” The men in the congregation are the “fathers” of the Church. And note that this is not a new designation for the men among God’s people. After all, throughout the Old Testament God was in the business of fulfilling the promises He made to whom? To the “fathers” – to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And it is on the basis of the covenants that God made with “the fathers” – the covenants with Abraham, with our fathers under Moses, and with David – that our Lord Jesus Christ took on human flesh for us. And so notice that throughout the many genealogical registers in Scripture – both Old Testament and New – the lists include successive generations of “fathers” who paved the way for the coming of Christ. While including special women here and there, the individuals that provide the sense of stability and continuity with the past are the men.

In other words, as important and indispensible as mothers are, it is through fathers that the history of Israel passed; it was to the fathers that God was faithful; and it is men whom God now calls “fathers” in the Church – fathers whom we are to respect and honor as the source of stability and strength for the Church.

So men have you reckoned with your high calling? Whether or not you are an earthly father, you are a father in Israel. God has called you to be a source of stability and strength in Israel and by means of you is going to pass the faith on to future generations who will look back and number you among “their fathers.” And so, as any good father, our obligation is to lead the way in devotion to the Lord and to His bride, the Church. We should be enthusiastic for worship, zealous for singing the psalms, eager to hear the Word of God, hungry to come to the Supper each week. But if your experience growing up was like mine then it was just the opposite. The women were the spiritual ones; the men abdicated. This ought not to be. We have an obligation to exemplify before the congregation what truly matters, what is worthy of all acceptance. We are to be examples to the flock, to so exemplify the love of Christ for His bride, the Church, that all God’s people be zealous for Her glory and growth to the praise of Christ Himself.

Others – including children, young men, young women, older women – have you shown the fathers in the faith due honor and respect? Our God calls us to “honor our father and our mother” and this includes respecting the men in the congregation generally by expecting of them all that God does. Remind them of God’s calling on them and be encouraged by them to pass the faith on to future generations.

Reminded that we have often despised our fathers in the faith, that we have considered their wisdom passé, that we have rejected their counsel in favor of our own, that we have scorned the gift God has given us in men, let us kneel and confess our sins to the Lord.

Separating the Men from the Boys

November 5, 2010 in Bible - NT - 1 John, Ecclesiology, Meditations

1 John 2:12-14 (NKJV)
12 I write to you, little children, Because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake. 13 I write to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, Because you have overcome the wicked one. I write to you, little children, Because you have known the Father. 14 I have written to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, And you have overcome the wicked one.

What is it that separates the men from the boys? This is the question my Omnibus IV students recently had to consider. And their consideration of that question prompted me to return to my series of exhortations on the lessons which we learn from the different groups of people in the church – infants, children, young men, young women, and now men – not young men, not older men, but just plain men – so what is it that separates the men from the boys?

We realize at the outset, of course, that in some senses this is no longer a question of simple age. Many boys become men when in their teens. And many “grown-up” men continue to be boys when they should have left boyhood behind long ago. Manhood is more a matter of character than it is a biological state. So the words we speak will help us identify what it means to be a man and the lessons men can teach the body of Christ.

Among the answers that the students gave there were a few that repeatedly appeared. The first was stability. Men are stable. Having left behind the rashness of youth; frequently having assumed the responsibility for a family; men are called upon to be a rock of steadiness in a stormy sea.

Steadiness is the subject of John’s commendation in our text today. Note that John writes to three distinct groups in the congregation – little children, young men, and fathers. He gives two exhortations to each of these groups. While his exhortations to little children and to young men vary each time, his exhortations to the fathers are identical both times. “I write to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning.” The consistency of the exhortation reveals that John too saw the men in the congregation as the source of stability and strength for the congregation.

What is it that has troubled Christendom in the West for over a hundred years? Is it not the absence of men? And so, lacking a clear sense of spiritual stability and identity, each new generation has pined for some new fad, some new experience, some new source of strength. This same thing has been happening in our families. While mom typically provides the warmth and color for the home, dad provides a clear sense of stability and identity. Dad identifies, “This is who we are. This is what it means to be a member of this family.” But just as men have been absent from church, dads have been AWOL from the family.

So what is it that enables a man to be stable? Here we must note what John writes. “I write to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning.” The source of a man’s stability is not to lie in anything in himself; it is not to lie in his “macho-ness”; it is not to lie in his personal strength – for all these things can change in a moment. Rather, the source of a man’s stability lies in God Himself – the One who is truly stable, who does not change, shift, or move – and it is for this reason that men are privileged to share the name father with the First Person of the Godhead.

So, brothers and sisters, are we learning from the men in our midst the importance of entrusting ourselves whole and entire to the loving arms of our Heavenly Father who is our Rock, our Fortress, the One who grants stability to our lives in the most trying times? Have we learned from them to have a clear sense of center, a clear sense of identity that is rooted in Christ Himself and that does not change when trials come. I am a Christian. I am a servant of Jesus. This will never change. I fear that we have neglected to learn this lesson. How often we are unstable, unsure, and driven about by the wind and the waves. So let us kneel and let us confess our sin to the Lord.

Woe to the Prophets

October 21, 2010 in Bible - OT - Micah, Ecclesiology, Meditations

“Thus says Yahweh concerning the prophets
Who lead my people astray;
When they have something to bite with their teeth,
They cry, ‘Peace,’
But against him who puts nothing in their mouths
They declare holy war.
Therefore it will be night for you—without vision,
And darkness for you—without divination,
The sun will go down on the prophets,
And the day will become dark over them.
The seers will be ashamed
And the diviners will be embarrassed.
Indeed, they will all cover their mouths
Because there is no answer from God.”
Micah 3:5-7

The passage before us today is a stinging condemnation of the prophets in Israel. Entrusted with the sacred office of the ministry, these men had spurned God’s law and invented their own maxims and sayings. For the sake of a meal, they were willing to sell their goods to interested shoppers. But for those who failed to offer the required payment, judgment was severe. Jihad was nothing compared to the wrath of these offended prophets.

The prophetic office in Israel was, in many respects, similar to the office of the ministry in the church today. There were schools of prophets—seminaries—where these folks were trained in their duties. They were to be schooled in the Word of God; equipped to lead the people in righteousness; enabled to counsel God’s people when in trouble; rebuke them when in sin; chastise them when impenitent. They were to be prepared to apply the Word of God to all of life.

Alas, not all good intentions manifest themselves in actual performance. The schools had become corrupt. Many of the prophets were charlatans. They pretended to speak for God but they really spoke for themselves. These schools equipped them not to minister the Word but to undermine it. They comforted when they should have condemned; they compromised when they should have stood fast; they remained immovable when they should have bowed in repentance. They were prophets of the worst kind.

So what of today? What would Micah say to our prophets? What is it that pours forth from many of the pulpits in America? Is it the rich milk of the Word of God? Rarely. Frequently it is the curdled remains of week-old, luke-warm milk. The Word of God is set aside in favor of the traditions of men. “What? Those old-fashioned ideas? No one believes them any more. We are too sophisticated.” So we sanction vice; we distort the Word of God to suit our fancies; and we do it all for a buck.

And so God comes—God who is not mocked, the same God Micah served—and He steals their wisdom, undermines their influence, depletes their churches, robs their treasuries. The very thing that is happening in historic churches that have abandoned the truth. And they ask, what has happened? Micah tells us. The day has become dark over them; they shall be ashamed and embarrassed; they shall be destroyed.

“Amen!” we say to all this. Praise God our pulpit is different. Aye, do praise God but also fear. The churches whose prophets now spew forth such filth once drank from the clear and living stream of the Word of God; they once were filled with loathing at those churches which in their day had drifted from Scripture. And so what is to keep us from drifting down the same course?

First, we must give ear to the Word of God. The word of God is our life, our salvation, our hope. Whatever you must do, get to the Word of God. Demand that the preaching cling to the Word; devote time to personal study of the Word; saturate your families with the Word. If we are faithful to receive His Word—all of it, all the time—then He shall bless us for it.

Second, plead with God on behalf of this church. Only He can avert the shift to ungodliness and keep us in His paths. Only he can prevent our prophets from giving ear to idle tales. Only He can grant us wisdom to press into the future. And so pray.

This reminds us that we often fail to listen to the Word of God and to beseech Him to protect and defend His Church. Our ears are often closed; our mouths fail to speak. Let us then draw near to God and ask Him to cleanse us of our sins and forgive us for the sake of Christ.

Young Women, Beware Vanity

October 21, 2010 in Bible - OT - Isaiah, Ecclesiology, Meditations

Isaiah 3:16-17 (NKJV)
16 Moreover the Lord says: “Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, And walk with outstretched necks And wanton eyes, Walking and mincing as they go, Making a jingling with their feet, 17 Therefore the Lord will strike with a scab The crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, And the Lord will uncover their secret parts.”

Today we come back and close out the series of exhortations on the lessons taught to us by the young women in our midst. Tragically, as we see in our text, not all the lessons which young women teach are positive. There are particular sins to which young women are prone – and these sins which show up so strongly in young women are sins by which all of us to a greater or lesser degree are tempted.

As we observed a few weeks ago, young women are lovers of beauty – and this love of beauty is a good thing. God has placed in young women an appreciation of fine clothes and jewelry. Accentuating beauty is a good thing.

However, a young woman’s love for beauty can frequently degenerate into the idolization of beauty, into vanity, and it is this sin which our Lord so vividly condemns in the passage before us, a sin which permeates our broader culture – a culture whose women are loose and immodest, vain and self-centered. So listen again:

“Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, And walk with outstretched necks And wanton eyes, Walking and mincing as they go, Making a jingling with their feet, 17 Therefore the Lord will strike with a scab The crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, And the Lord will uncover their secret parts.”

As one reads Isaiah one’s mind can’t help but be filled with visions of Hollywood celebrities, Cosmopolitan models, and the beaches of Coeur d’Alene. And note that God’s judgment on this vanity is harsh. To those women who made their beauty their idol and were were intent to show off their goods to the men around them God declares, “I will give you scabs in place of beauty and I will cause you to reveal everything to the passers by.” God’s judgments are always proportionate.

But note that the true tragedy of the prophet’s words is that he is not exhorting the daughters of Canaan but the daughters of Zion. The culture of the Canaanites had become the culture of the Kingdom of God. Rather than be a light to the world, the daughters of Zion had become a mere reflection of the world, mimicking the vanity of the world. Tragically, it is often the same today.

So, young women, beware vanity. It is a sin which our Lord hates and for which we as a people can only expect judgment. Don’t be like the daughters of Canaan – proud, strutting, immodest, offensive, catty, self-centered; rather be daughters of Sarah – chaste, discreet, modest, wise, shrewd, joyful, thankful, humble.

Likewise, all of us must beware the lure of vanity. In our culture, image is everything. We must keep up with the Joneses. We must have the newest, the greatest, the best. We must appear important. God hates this vanity and will judge it.

Reminded of this, let us kneel and confess that we are a vain people, concerned more for image than for substance of character.

Women of Beauty

October 21, 2010 in Ecclesiology, Marriage, Meditations

Ezekiel 16:9-14 (NKJV)
9 “Then I [the Lord] washed you [O Israel] in water … and I anointed you with oil. 10 I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of badger skin; I clothed you with fine linen and covered you with silk. 11 I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your wrists, and a chain on your neck. 12 And I put a jewel in your nose, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. 13 Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate pastry of fine flour, honey, and oil. You were exceedingly beautiful, and succeeded to royalty. 14 Your fame went out among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through My splendor which I had bestowed on you,” says the Lord God.

The passage before us today describes the significance of God’s redemption of Israel. Though he found her helpless and unclean, He rescued her, protected her, drew her to Himself, washed her, and decked her with beauty. Following the Exodus from Egypt, He gradually raised Israel up to glory. He brought her through the period of the Judges; He gave her the Davidic and Solomonic ages; He gave her wealth, splendor, beauty – for she was His beloved, His bride.

A couple weeks ago we remarked that one of the lessons we as the people of God learn from the young women in our midst is the manner in which we are to long for the wedding day – the day when Christ shall return in glory to be admired among His saints. Today we learn a related lesson. For it is as a girl is transformed by God into a woman that her beauty begins to shine – and this beauty, God tells us today, is something He put there to teach us about the Church.

While the typical spectacle presented before our eyes in the animal kingdom is that the male species is endowed with color and beauty and awe, in humanity it is the beauty of the female that is routinely praised in Scripture. Men are strong; men are courageous; men are wise. But women are beauteous and fair. And this beauty that young women begin to manifest serves to picture for us what God is doing with His bride, the Church.

After all, the picture of God’s work among Israel is reframed by the apostle Paul in his admonition to the Ephesians, an admonition we have already considered. The Lord Jesus is sanctifying and purifying His bride, the Church, intending gradually to raise her up to greatness and glory – why? “that he might present her to Himself a glorious [radiant, beautiful] church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.” In other words, the beauty which young women possess and which they endeavor to accentuate with perfumes, jewelry, special diet, and clothes is to remind us of the beauty of the Church for which we are to be laboring.

As we have seen in the book of Nehemiah, our calling as the people of God is to remove the reproach of Jerusalem, to make her more lovely and glorious, beautiful, as a bride adorned for her husband. Reminded that we have failed to do so, let us kneel and let us confess our sins to God.

Bewailing her Virginity

May 11, 2010 in Bible - OT - Judges, Children, Ecclesiology, Meditations, Sexuality

“So [Jephthah’s daughter] said to him, “My father, if you have given your word to the Lord, do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, because the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the people of Ammon.” Then she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me: let me alone for two months, that I may go and wander on the mountains and bewail my virginity, my friends and I.” So he said, “Go.” And he sent her away for two months; and she went with her friends, and bewailed her virginity on the mountains. And it was so at the end of two months that she returned to her father, and he carried out his vow with her which he had vowed. She knew no man. And it became a custom in Israel that the daughters of Israel went four days each year to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.” Jdg 11:36-40

For the last several weeks I have been writing an essay for the Omnibus V curriculum on a medieval English historian by the name of William of Malmesbury. William was a monk who lived in Malmesbury Abbey for most of his life, serving as the librarian there. He wrote a history of England in an attempt to continue the Venerable Bede’s story up to William’s own day – the middle of the 12th century and the reign of Henry I.

As always in reading an old book there is a refreshing breeze which blows through one’s thinking. William is decidedly un-modern. For example, he thinks the First Crusade was a grand endeavor and explains at length the benefits that it brought to the Christians. Another area where William reveals his un-modern stance is in his approach to the topic we discussed last week – virginity. He routinely praises women who preserved their virginity and in this honors the principles we discussed last week.

But one of the things that William reveals is a distortion that entered into the Church regarding this topic of virginity. Paul had written that it was good for a man or a woman to remain single so that he or she may be able to serve Christ more effectively. The medieval church took this and insisted that Paul’s words meant that perpetual virginity was the ideal state. One’s virginity was intended to be preserved entire for the Lord. Monasticism, of which William was a part, was the result.

Of course, as with any misuse of the biblical text, there is an element of truth in this medieval distortion. Paul’s comments continue to have application even now – there are ways that single people, who remain perpetually celibate, can serve Jesus that married people cannot. And praise God for those to whom He gives this gift. We need men and women who are able to devote themselves wholeheartedly to the advancement of the kingdom. However, this acknowledgement is a far cry from the medieval exaltation of virginity into the most blessed state. For men and women to marry and have children was, by and large, viewed as a compromise, a forfeiture of God’s ideal.

And this brings us back to our text today. Jephthah, you may recall, made a rash vow, swearing that if God granted him victory over the Ammonites, he would sacrifice the first thing that came out of his house upon his return. God granted him the victory. Unfortunately, however, Jephthah’s daughter was the first to exit the home upon his arrival.

Whatever happened to Jephthah’s daughter – whether she was actually offered up as a human sacrifice (which would have been an abominable thing) or whether she was dedicated to the Lord’s service in the tabernacle – I want you to notice the way his daughter responded to his oath. She insisted that Jephthah must fulfill his vow but requested that she be given a period of two months to go out to the hills with her friends. Why? So that she might bewail her virginity. Now why would she do this? Because she understood that virginity, in Scripture, is not normally a gift to be kept to oneself for a lifetime but is normally intended to be given to a man as a gift. And when a young woman gives this gift, that God has given her, to a man, God frequently gives back to her in the form of children and a family. Jephthah’s daughter, in other words, wanted to be a wife and a mother, and this was a good thing. Indeed, so good, that from this day forth, all the virgins of Israel would go into the wilderness for four days each year in remembrance that Jephthah’s daughter was unable to give her virginity as a gift.

Today is Mother’s Day – a day in which we celebrate that many virgins of the past gave the gift of their virginity to a man so that they might have children and raise a family. Let us praise God for this. And, praising Him, let us be reminded of our tendency to distort the Word of God and fail to remember that our mothers gave a gift to conceive us and that when we give away that which God gives to us, He gives us even more in return. So let us kneel and confess our sins to the Lord.

Virgins in Israel

May 11, 2010 in Bible - OT - Deuteronomy, Children, Ecclesiology, Meditations, Sexuality

Deuteronomy 22:13-19 (NKJV)
13 “If any man takes a wife, and goes in to her, and detests her, 14 and charges her with shameful conduct, and brings a bad name on her, and says, ‘I took this woman, and when I came to her I found she was not a virgin,’ 15 then the father and mother of the young woman shall take and bring out the evidence of the young woman’s virginity to the elders of the city at the gate. 16 And the young woman’s father shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man as wife, and he detests her. 17 Now he has charged her with shameful conduct, saying, “I found your daughter was not a virgin,” and yet these are the evidences of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. 18 Then the elders of that city shall take that man and punish him; 19 and they shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has brought a bad name on a virgin of Israel. And she shall be his wife; he cannot divorce her all his days.

This morning we continue our series of lessons taught by young women. As members of the body of Christ, young women have important lessons to teach the rest of us and it is prudent for us to learn these lessons that we might honor our Lord more fully. We have seen that one of the titles by which God’s people are called is the “daughter of Zion” revealing God’s affection, protection, and provision for us.

The text today reveals another title by which young women in Israel were called, the “virgins of Israel.” A virgin, as most of you know, is a woman who has never been sexually intimate with a man. And, in ancient Israel, one of the titles by which young women were called, in addition to the title “daughters of Jerusalem” and “maidens” (which we saw last week), was the Virgins of Israel. None of this innocuous “teenager” language. When God began developing a young man or young woman, He took note of his or her respective treasures. And one of the greatest treasures that a young woman possesses, which she can give only once to one man, is her virginity.

God takes this virginity, this sexual purity, seriously and so he honors young women in Israel by protecting their good name. For example, in our text today, if a man were to marry a virgin, have intercourse with her on their wedding night, and then charge her falsely the next day with failing to be a virgin, he was to be punished by the elders of the city – likely beaten with a rod – fined an enormous sum of money that would be given to the father lest his daughter have to return home, and forbidden by law from divorcing his wife ever for any cause. Why? Notice the rationale: “Because he has brought a bad name on a virgin of Israel” and that’s something you just don’t do.

The seriousness with which God takes this sexual purity is likewise evident in the way that young women who pretended to be virgins and were not were treated. The text goes on to describe what should happen if the charge were true. If a young woman were to contract a marriage on the assumption that she was a virgin and were to deceive her parents and fiancé into thinking she was still a virgin, only to be discovered the day after the wedding night that she wasn’t a virgin, then she was to be stoned to death with stones. Why? “Because she has done a disgraceful thing in Israel, to play the harlot in her father’s house.”

Young women, God takes your virginity seriously and acts to protect it in His law. So treasure and guard it well. Beware young men who would seduce you. Beware older men who would seduce you. Beware the pressure that will be put upon you to be sexually active by our current culture. You may be told that you haven’t fully experienced life if you haven’t had sex. You may be told that you are prude, naïve, silly. You may be mocked and scorned by the Hollywood crowd. But this is where the Word of God comes to our rescue by speaking very bluntly. What is a harlot? A harlot is a whore, a prostitute, a woman who gets paid to perform sexual favors. If we despise a harlot – which the Word of God says we ought – then how much more ought we to despise a woman who gives her sexual favors away for nothing? Who spreads her legs under every green tree and only demands “love” in return? Such a woman is both a harlot and a fool.

Young women, this is your charge. You are the Virgins of Israel, so be a Virgin of Israel – pure, unsullied, glorious, beautiful. Men, particularly young men, your task is to protect the purity of the Virgins of Israel. In relation to women, there are two types of men in the world: protectors and predators. To our shame, many, if not most, are predators – looking for yet another young woman they can defile, and, when they do, chalking up another victory on their achievement board. But your job is to be their protectors. Defend them and honor them even as Your God does.

And all of us should be reminded by these things the extent to which God values purity and chastity – both outside of marriage and inside. Reminded of this, reminded that we have been impure in our thoughts and often impure in our actions, let us kneel and confess our sins to God.