Wife's Duty, Husband's Judgment

Jesus came to give us all we need to be joined forever with Him - body, soul, and spirit. This was the plan from the beginning - for us to be married to Him. This was all mapped out from the beginning, when God gave His commandment to Moses to teach the children of Israel after delivering them from the bondage of Egypt. This is when God married Israel. Jesus fulfilled and is fulfilling all of God's commands and promises as Husband. Using Deuteronomy chapters 6, 7, & 8, let me show you how this is mapped out:

Jesus came to redeem our lives from the bondage of sin. When we believe in Him, accepting Him as Lord (Husband) of our lives, then we are given His Spirit which gives us eternal life. His Spirit also gives us His Wisdom and the knowledge we need to live a holy life like Him so that we stay in relationship with Him.

For you are a holy people to Jehovah your God. Jehovah your God has chosen you to be His own treasure out of all the people on the face of the earth. Jehovah did not set His love on you or choose you because you were more in number than any people, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But because Jehovah loved you, and because He kept the oath which He swore to your fathers, Jehovah has caused you to go out with a strong hand, and redeemed you from the house of slaves, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Because of this, know that Jehovah your God, He is God, the faithful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to those who love Him, and to those who keep His commands, to a thousand generations;
(Deu 7:6-9 LITV)

And Jehovah commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear Jehovah our God, for our good always, so that He might preserve us alive, as it is today. And if we are careful to do all this commandment before Jehovah our God, as He has commanded us, it shall be our righteousness.
(Deu 6:24-25 MKJV)

The death and resurrection of Jesus was to give us a new, incorruptible body like His, but it also made the way for all of us to become a part of His body, the Church, and to be included in His Kingdom - Israel. His Spirit gives us the understanding of who we are as His Wife and how we are to be united together in His city, Jerusalem. His Spirit also plants the seed of Jesus (God's Word) in our hearts to produce the fruit of His Soul in us. As we fear God the Father and obey His commandments, His love will be perfected in us and He will keep His promise to bless and mulitply us.

Then hear, O, Israel, and be careful to do it, so that it may be well with you, and that you may greatly multiply, as Jehovah, the God of our fathers has promised you, in the land that flows with milk and honey. Hear, O, Israel. Jehovah our God is one Jehovah. And you shall love Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words which I command you this day shall be in your heart. And you shall carefully teach them to your sons, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them upon the posts of your house, and on your gates. And it shall be when Jehovah your God has brought you into the land which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you great and good cities which you did not build, and houses full of every good thing which you did not fill, and wells which are dug, but which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you shall eat and be full, (Deu 6:3-11 MKJV)

And it shall be, because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them, Jehovah your God shall keep to you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers. And He will love you and bless you and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb, and the fruit of your land, your grain, and your wine, and your oil, the increase of your cattle, and the flocks of your sheep, in the land which He swore to your fathers to give you. You shall be blessed above all people. There shall not be male or female barren among you or among your cattle. (Deu 7:12-14 MKJV)

His Spirit gives the Church the power and protection to do His work (building His city) and to be His testimony on this earth.

You shall carefully keep the commandments of Jehovah your God, and His testimonies, and His statutes which He has commanded you. And you shall do the right and good in the sight of Jehovah, so that it may be well with you, and so that you may go in and possess the good land which Jehovah swore to your fathers, to cast out all your enemies from before you, as Jehovah has spoken. (Deu 6:17-19 MKJV)

And Jehovah will take away from you all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt which you know upon you. But He will lay them upon all who hate you. And you shall destroy all the people which Jehovah your God shall deliver you. Your eye shall have no pity upon them, neither shall you serve their gods, for they will be a snare to you.
(Deu 7:15-16 MKJV)

You shall not be afraid of them, for Jehovah your God is among you, a mighty and terrible God. And Jehovah your God will put out those nations before you by little and little. You may not destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon you. And Jehovah your God shall deliver them to you, and shall destroy them with a mighty ruin until they are destroyed. (Deu 7:21-23 MKJV)

Everything God gave to His wife, Israel, Jesus gives to His wife, the Church. Jesus forgives His wife's sins, He saves her life from eternal destruction, He heals her, He provides for all her needs, He protects her, and He makes her new and beautiful again. As long as the wife does her duty to fear her husband and keep his commandments, then she is blessed and fruitful. But, if she disobeys and forgets about her husband, then judgment comes upon her. In the end, her spiritual life might be the only thing saved, but all her work and building will be burned and destroyed, if she hasn't been following her husband's instructions (1 Cor. 3:11-15). God has given Jesus all the authority to bring judgment upon all people.

And these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which Jehovah our God commanded to teach you so that you might do them in the land where you go, to possess it, that you might fear Jehovah your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you, and your son, and your son's son, all the days of your life, and so that your days may be prolonged. (Deu 6:1-2 MKJV)

You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people all around you, for Jehovah your God is a jealous God among you, lest the anger of Jehovah your God be kindled against you and destroy you from off the face of the earth.
(Deu 6:14-15 MKJV)

You shall burn the graven images of their gods with fire. You shall not desire the silver or gold on them, nor take it for yourself, so that you may not be snared in it. For it is an abomination to Jehovah your God. And you shall not bring an abomination into your house, lest you be a cursed thing like it. You shall utterly hate it, and you shall utterly despise it. For it is a cursed thing. (Deu 7:25-26 MKJV)

Beware that you do not forget Jehovah your God, in not keeping His commandments, and His judgments, and His statutes, which I command you today, lest when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and lived in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart might be lifted up, and you might forget Jehovah your God who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slaves. He led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground, where there was no water, who brought you forth water out of the rock of flint, who fed you in the wilderness with manna which your fathers did not know, so that He might humble you and so that He might prove you, to do you good in your latter end, and so that you might not say in your heart, My power and the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth. But you shall remember Jehovah your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, so that He may confirm His covenant which He has sworn to your fathers, as it is today. And it shall be if you do at all forget Jehovah your God and walk after other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you today that you shall surely perish. As the nations whom Jehovah destroys before your face, so you shall perish because you would not listen to the voice of Jehovah your God. (Deu 8:11-20 MKJV)

As king of Israel, Solomon wisely summed up all of these things:

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God, and keep His commandments. For this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it is good, or whether evil.
(Ecc 12:13-14 MKJV)

If we truly believe that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and that He is God's Word made flesh, and that He and the Father are one, then we have to believe that judgment will come to the Church, just like it did to the children of Israel, if we disobey and forget to do what Jesus has instructed us to do.

So, what have we forgotten to do? Well, I believe the Church has failed in teaching the commandments to their children and grandchildren. Because of this, we have forgotten God and we have gone after other gods and idols to serve them and worship them. Our children do not know what is right and they are confusing evil for good. They do not know King Jesus and they do not know about His Kingdom. Judgment is coming upon us, not to utterly destroy us, but to humble us and bring us to repentence.

For Jehovah your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. When you father sons and sons of sons, and when you shall have remained long in the land and have dealt corruptly by making a graven image, the likeness of anything, and shall do evil in the sight of Jehovah your God, to provoke Him to anger, I call Heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you shall soon utterly perish from off the land which you are crossing over Jordan to possess. You shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed. And Jehovah shall scatter you among the nations, and you shall be left few in number among the nations where Jehovah shall drive you. And there you shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. But if you shall seek Jehovah your God from there, you shall find Him, if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in trouble and when all these things have found you in the latter days, then you shall return to Jehovah your God and shall be obedient to His voice. For Jehovah your God is a merciful God; He will not forsake you, nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them. (Deu 4:24-31 MKJV)

How long, O Jehovah? Will You be angry forever? Shall Your jealousy burn like fire? Pour out Your wrath on the nations who have not known You, and on the kingdoms who have not called on Your name. For they have eaten up Jacob, and wasted his dwelling-place. O do not remember against us our former sins; let Your tender mercies meet us quickly; for we are brought very low. (Psa 79:5-8 MKJV)

The Church is dying and unfruitful because of our disobedience. It is now time to repent! It is not too late for us to teach our children and grandchildren how to know and love Jesus! In the last days, there is a promised generation who will know and love their God and will "be strong and take action" (Daniel 11:32-33). Let's be the ones who understand and teach them how to fear God and to obey His commandments of love.

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